Originally posted 8/30/2007....Activists slam NJ police MS-13 denial

Originally Posted by Miss Tam-Tam

http://www.amsterdamnews.com/News/ar...ID=81802&sID=4
Activists slam NJ police MS-13 denial
by NAYABA ARINDE
Amsterdam News
Originally posted 8/30/2007
“MS-13 is ruthless. They take no prisoners. They simply annihilate their opposition,” retired Detective Marquez Claxton told the AmNews. “The police in New Jersey don’t want to recognize publicly that the shooting deaths of the three Newark college students might have a MS-13 connection.”
Observers within and outside New Jersey have noted that fearing a “Black and Brown” confrontation, Newark officials are denying what many believe to be a terrible truism—MS-13 has landed and its members were involved in the brutal slayings of the three students murdered execution style on August 4 in an elementary schoolyard.
On that date, Iofemi Hightower, 20; Terrance Aeriel, 18; Natasha Ariel; and Dashon Harvey, 20, were told to kneel in front of a wall in the yard of an elementary school, and then they were shot in the back of the head. Natasha survived her injuries.
Six suspects have been arrested in the case that has shaken the nation and opened a furious debate about immigration in Newark. Jose Carranza, a 28-year-old immigrant from Peru; Nicaraguans Rodolfo Godinez, 24, and his 16-year-old half-brother, Alexander Alfaro; Honduran Melvin Jovel, 18; and two unnamed 15-year-old boys were arrested for the murders.
All the suspects have been charged with three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder, plus several lesser charges.
Forewarned is forearmed is a mantra retired Newark Police Sergeant DeLacy Davis seems to go by. He told the AmNews that the community has “every right to know and should know” the credible possibility that the notorious American-El Salvadorian gang MS-13 was responsible for the brutal slayings of the three college students.
“The Newark Police Dept.’s response to the murders has been inadequate,” said Claxton, co-founder of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement. “They have chosen to circle the wagons and leave the community in the dark and exposed. The fear that Police Director McCarthy and Mayor Booker have is acknowledging even the possibility of expanding gang terrorism because if you confirm its existence, you have to have a strategy to address it, and they don’t have a comprehensive anti-gang strategy.
“MS-13 is unlike any other gang in the country. They do not co-exist with other gangs and they believe in extremely violent and murderous land acquisitions. MS-13 believes in dominance by annihilation. I’m sure that at this point of the investigation, there is information to either confirm or fully reject the possible gang involvement.”
Multiple law enforcement agencies have been involved in the investigation so far, including with apprehending the suspects across the nation.
Since the killings, Newark Mayor Cory Booker has repeated in press conference after press conference that he will tackle this latest bout of deadly violence in Newark head on. He has even claimed personal responsibility for residents’ lack of safety.
At first, media pushed the theory that the killings were the work of a local gang initiation. But skeptics from the Black community dismissed the claim almost instantly.
“Black organizations traditionally do not have history of killing in this way. Lining people up against the wall and shooting them in the back of the head is not something the gangs do here, traditionally. This was particularly cold and callous and calculating. It is in the tradition of MS-13 and other Central American gangs. The CIA kills like that. Gangs in South America kill like that,” said Davis. “Any affiliation with our government through its front organizations that are controlled by the CIA connection should concern us.
“Garry McCarthy from the Newark Police Department said that his officers are trying to gather as much information on MS-13 as they can. It’s not hard. It’s a phone call. The government knows who and what they are.”
Denial is the white elephant in City Hall.
Davis, who retired last year as a sergeant in the New Jersey police force, spent seven years assigned to community services, which he said brought him into constant contact with the gangs. If MS-i3 is indeed involved in the student “executions,” he warned, “We must be made aware. It changes the conversation dramatically.”
Even the specter of MS-13 should be acknowledged, said Davis. “Absolutely the community should be concerned. The young people who were victims were not gang affiliated. But the people who [allegedly] committed this offense were at some level affiliated with MS-13, on some level as evidenced by some of the suspects celebrating the organization on their MySpace web pages.”
The founder of Black Cops Against Police Brutality added, “What concerns B-CAP and members of the community is that some in law enforcement circles do not want to share with the community that there may be a problem with MS-13 growing in Newark.
“I demand that if this is the case, we need to know. But very often in high-crime areas, there is a tendency by law enforcement to try and keep the community calm—especially when they are still seeking suspects and giving them just what they think they need to know. The general belief is that the less information you give is better, unless of course you need public help. It is all about maintaining control over the community.”
With regard to the possible MS-13 connection, the AmNews sought comments from Mayor Booker, Chief of Police Anthony Campos and Governor Jon Corzine, but received no response by press time Wednesday.
Booker has been quoted as saying that the killings had “overtones” of MS-13.
In response to the request from Newark Police Director Garry McCarthy regarding an MS-13 connection, Detective Todd McClendon forwarded this statement from McCarthy, stating, “As I have said since the beginning, we are investigating every angle of this crime in a thorough and deliberate fashion. Now that all of the suspects have been identified and apprehended, we can now begin our focus on some of the secondary nuances of this heinous act. At this time we have not definitively established whether or not any of the suspects in custody were actual gang members or that this crime was somehow gang motivated.
“Although it appears that at least on of the suspects may have gang ties or affiliations, that alone does not denote a gang-motivated crime.”
He continued, “Every crime committed by a gang member is not necessarily gang motivated. Most gang members are involved in some level of criminal activity before ever becoming a gang member or affiliate. We will continue to conduct our investigation and draw our conclusions from the evidence and facts developed through the investigatory process.”
With much aplomb, Booker has announced a multimillion dollar surveillance program, which includes gunshot detectors and a slew of cameras in what has been termed “high-crime areas.”
On Tuesday, students at Delaware State University paid tribute to the four shooting victims who attended the school. Natasha Ariel spoke by amplified cell phone and thanked all in attendance and asked for continued prayer.
On Wednesday, a coalition of grassroots organizations hosted what they hoped to be “Newark’s largest anti-street violence march and rally! A day of outrage against street violence!”
In the wake of the latest high-profile student slayings, but not forgetting the numerous murders that continue to plague the New Jersey city, activists, residents and concerned peoples of the tri-state area assembled at Newark City Hall and rallied on Malcolm X Blvd. to “Stop the killing!” and “Increase the peace!”
“The rally was excellent,” Larry Ham of the People’s Organization for Progress told the AmNews at press time Wednesday. “Several hundred people attended. The whole point of the rally was to send a message that we want the violence to stop. In fact, one of the chants was ‘Stop the violence, stop the shooting, stop the killing.’ We want peace in our streets. We want the Black on Black violence to stop. We have to take responsibility for the violence, and we have to stop being violent with each other. But we must also fight against the underlying causes of the violence which includes poverty, unemployment and the flow of drugs in our community.”
The rally was sponsored Black August Anti-Street Violence Coalition, which includes the New Black Panther Party, the Peoples Organization for Progress, Enough is Enough and Morticians That Care.
“The rally was awesome, but the work still needs to be done,” said Divine Allah, Youth Minister of the New Black Panther Party. “The community wants to live in peace. We continue to make progress. We’re determined and we are committed.”