- WASHINGTON -- The urgent
call crackled over the radio as the unmarked police car cruised down the
street. Gunfire had been reported a few blocks away: precisely where a
gang-related killing had taken place the day before. Was this payback time?
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- Officer Carol Sullivan placed a flashing siren on the
car roof and sped off to answer the call.
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- It was just another night on gang patrol. In the heart
of Washington DC, two miles from the White House, Latino gangs are on the
rise, ruling their neighbourhoods through fear and the gun. They have brought
the problems of gang-ridden cities such as Los Angeles to the heart of
America's capital.
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- But as Sullivan and her partner, Officer Andre Marcucci,
weave through the traffic and peer down dark alleys, they are diverted
by another gang incident. A 15-year-old girl has been badly beaten at a
school. When they arrive, she is lying on a classroom floor. She was attacked
by female gang members. She already has a bullet wound in her leg, from
being hit in a drive-by shooting a month ago.
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- It has been a summer of gang violence in Washington's
Latino community. At least five people have been shot dead in the feuding.
Some of the attacks, including one in which a five-year-old girl was wounded,
have occurred in daylight in suburbs just north of the capital's city centre.
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- Last week, a shoot-out between gangs took place on one
of the city's most prominent shopping avenues, Mount Pleasant Street. One
man was killed and a bus driver injured as more than 15 shots were fired,
sending shoppers and pedestrians diving for cover. The attacks have sent
a wave of concern through the city's political elite, who usually ignore
the poor, inner-city neighbourhoods.
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- Latino gangs are a new phenomenon in Washington. They
spring from the capital's growing immigrant population, which is replacing
older black neighbourhoods. But, unlike the casual 'crews' that dominated
crime in poor black areas, Latino gangs use extreme violence and are keen
to expand their criminal operations. That leads to battles over turf, drugs
and 'street respect', with the gunfire echoing almost within earshot of
Capitol Hill.
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- There are four main gangs - Mara Salvatrucha, also known
as MS-13, the Street Criminals, Vatos Locos and Mara R - and many 'sub-gangs'
that have splintered from the main groups. MS-13, the largest gang, began
life in the slums of El Salvador and is made up of ex-guerrilla fighters.
It has a terrible reputation for brutality and violence.
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- Gang graffiti covers the walls, pavements and roadsigns
of many Latino areas. It marks out territory and can signal a shift in
borders and allegiances. Police and community leaders follow it closely,
tracking the movements of the gangs.
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- But the most valuable police work is done through contact
with the gangs themselves. And that is where Marcucci comes in. The former
Marine has spent two years getting to know Latino gang members in Washington.
He spends hours talking to them every day, sharing a drink or just sitting
on their porches.
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- He walks a tightrope. 'I have to get to know them, but
at the same time, they have to know that if they do something wrong it
is going to be me coming after them,' he said.
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- Driving through the streets of Columbia Heights, a Latino
community riven by gang activity, Marcucci monitors the gang members on
the streets. He waves and smiles as he drives by. They are easily spotted
by the colours they wear - a scarf or shirt that denotes which gang they
belong to. He knows hundreds by name, and sometimes stops and talks to
them in Spanish.
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- The key, Marcucci says, is respect. 'I respect them,
I respect their colours and, as a result, they show respect to me,' he
said. Part of his job is to try and dissuade young Latinos from joining
gangs. He tries to help them get jobs, gives advice and warns them of the
perils of life inside a gang. 'I try and find out if they have kids. I
tell them what good will they do their kid when they are in jail, or when
they are dead,' he said.
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- But some gang members cannot leave. They have too many
enemies, and to step outside the protection of their gang would be a virtual
death sentence.
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- Luis Cardona, a former gang member turned youth counsellor,
also tries to help young Latinos move away from violence. He acts as a
mediator in gang disputes, arranging truces on the streets. He spent years
as a gang member, and his body still carries the bullet wounds. 'I have
been left for dead,' he said.
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- Cardona says gangs will always exist and what needs to
be tackled is the underlying poverty, unemployment and discrimination.
'Gangs are as American as apple pie. The reality is we will not stop the
violence without involving gang members themselves, bringing them to the
table too,' he said.
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- The gangs target local schools in search of members and
often hold parties where people are initiated into the gangs. Some of the
rites can be brutal: men are beaten by their new comrades, while new women
members can be gang-raped.
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- At the moment, the summer feud that ripped across Washington
is over and an uneasy peace is in place. But few believe that more violence
won't break out.
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- Sitting on his porch in Columbia Road, Ramon, 17, is
a typical gang member. He wears his colours proudly. 'This is not just
a gang, this is my family,' he said.
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- For Marcucci such attitudes are no surprise. 'Some of
them don't care,' he said 'They die, but they die as a gang member - and
that's what matters to them.'
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2003
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- http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1061140,00.html
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