Gangs pandemic in small rural towns across America

[opsec]

I found this on another forum:

This is from a friend who substitutes and drives a school bus in northwest Arkansas. This area has seen a flood of illegals (courtesy Tyson Chicken, for the most part) and a marked increase in crime. I wasn't sure where to post this, so if this should be moved to the Gangland forum, please do.

Thomas Chittum's predictions hit home again?

Some pretty scary news----

Last week I attended the legally required bus driver annual safety meeting. It is an all day event and the entire afternoon was presented by a local gang suppression police officer specialist. His abbreviated 3 hour presentation was pretty scary.

He says gangs are now in small rural towns nationwide thanks to the feds. When a gang member in a federal prison finishes doing his time the feds don't want him to go back to his old gang, say in Kansas City, so they move him to rural America. To say, Forrest City, Arkansas.

But what happens is that where he was a lowly member of the old KC gang he now can start his own gang in this new town, a place where he is now at the top of the gang pecking order. He contacts lowly members of his old gang who move to Forrest City where they will be higher up in the new gang pecking order. So now we have big city Mexican Mafia gangs in little towns where they can overwhelm the local small town cops.

The "three strikes" rule helps create problems out here in the sticks too. Pedro has done time twice in California and is photographed robbing an LA 7-11. A warrant is issued for him. He knows if he is caught in California he goes in for life. So he gets out of California and runs to, say Kansas someplace where he sets up shop, gets a job, etc. At some point he gets stopped for speeding, they run his license, see that he has an outstanding California warrant and arrest him. They call California to report that they have their guy but California doesn't want him and refuses to accept him back. Too costly to bring him back, prosecute him and keep him locked up for life. Let Kansas (or Arkansas or Oklahoma) keep him. If California won't take him back the local cops can't hold him, have to release him - and he sticks around to build his gang.

Rogers schools are full of gang members, and the admin refuses to do anything to deal with it. Springdale, the cop says, is way beyond help and is overwhelmed by gangs. Fayetteville is close behind. Bentonville is just now awakening to the problem.

Gang population increases as gang men marry, have kids who grow up as a part of dad's gang. Of the several hundred photo slides, of local gang members, shown by our gang suppression cop, several were of area elementary school kids with gang logos, clothing, etc - sons of local gang men.

So, don't think that if you are living in some little town someplace that you are isolated from it. All of us drivers were stunned by what we saw. All the hand signs, logos, tattoos, clothing that identify them. Most of us have seen the stuff but didn't realize what it meant.

Cop says recent federal info is that there are in excess of 100,000 guns in schools across the country and for anyone to think there are none in his local school is total blindness. That apparently was the attitude of Rogers school admin. Cop recommended to them that either no backpacks be allowed in schools or that they be either transparent plastic or netting - all to expose any weapon being carried around. Admin said no, kids wouldn't like it because backpacks are stylish. Dying is much more fun if the killer was stylish.

I think we are going to metal detectors at school doors as soon as somebody finds a gun in there and possibly some teachers will be armed.

Thought you all might like to know.

[Atash Hagmahani]

So, don't think that if you are living in some little town someplace that you are isolated from it.

I've been saying this for decades. There's no gate between the "troubled inner-city neighborhoods" and the "delightful resort communities", where they stop you and ask you for references. 

In the late 1940s, Americans fled the cities, which were just barely starting to have social problems created by WW2 social engineering schemes, and thought that they had outsmarted the problem. What they really accomplished was to destroy much of their existing social connections. The gangs are groups of men who, even if individually are not terribly competitive, collectively are a force to be reckoned with.

People who are still "inside the system" can't organize into effective communities for mutual self-defense, because their thought patterns are limited to what they see on television.

[radioastro]

Those of us who see the system for what it is, avoid it at all costs, and live outside of it, still have difficulties in developing groups of mutual support. It has been one of the great challenges of the last few years for me. I try every day to identify people that I can speak to, encourage and grow. They are hard to find, harder to keep, and nearly impossible to grow, because of the pressures that surround everyone.

I have a gift of not giving a steaming pile of poo about what other people think of me. Unfortunately, that is a rare gift these days.

[Stump Rancher]

Not disagreeing with the claim that gangs are infiltrating small towns, but I just want to mention that the Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers-Bentonville MSA is rather large (~ 440,000 pop. and growing). I wouldn't exactly classify these as small towns. Maybe small cities. A lot of industry serving the WalMart logistics operation as well as Tyson, so a lot of people come looking for jobs, and no doubt that attracts the bad elements. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fayetteville%E2%80%93Springdale%E2%80%93Rogers_Metropolitan_Area

[Eddie]

I would think that in smaller towns gangs would stick out like sore thumbs, and since most of the people know each other would more then likely rally in support for one another if things got out of control. Hence, putting the gangs out of business.

[opsec]

Might be nice, but the people in these small towns are acutely aware that if they defended themselves in that fashion, the police and courts would turn against them.

[Eddie]

Might be nice, but the people in these small towns are acutely aware that if they defended themselves in that fashion, the police and courts would turn against them.

Not if the judges daughter is married to the sheriff and their sons are farmers and their cousins are war vetrans.

[opsec]

There's one sheriff to avoid pissing off.

[Dame]

Small towns???   300-1000 people is a small town and I doubt gangs are particularly interested.

[opsec]

Yes they are. Pressure from police pushes them out of their usual territory. It's like birds broadcasting seeds as they get squeezed out of the ass end of the legal system.

[The Future]

and why don't the ex-cons move back to their hometown or another big city?  Seems far fetched to restrict where one can live.

[opsec]

and why don't the ex-cons move back to their hometown or another big city?  Seems far fetched to restrict where one can live.

...thanks to the feds. When a gang member in a federal prison finishes doing his time the feds don't want him to go back to his old gang, say in Kansas City, so they move him to rural America. To say, Forrest City, Arkansas.

But what happens is that where he was a lowly member of the old KC gang he now can start his own gang in this new town, a place where he is now at the top of the gang pecking order. He contacts lowly members of his old gang who move to Forrest City where they will be higher up in the new gang pecking order. So now we have big city Mexican Mafia gangs in little towns where they can overwhelm the local small town cops.

The "three strikes" rule helps create problems out here in the sticks too. Pedro has done time twice in California and is photographed robbing an LA 7-11. A warrant is issued for him. He knows if he is caught in California he goes in for life. So he gets out of California and runs to, say Kansas someplace where he sets up shop, gets a job, etc. At some point he gets stopped for speeding, they run his license, see that he has an outstanding California warrant and arrest him. They call California to report that they have their guy but California doesn't want him and refuses to accept him back. Too costly to bring him back, prosecute him and keep him locked up for life. Let Kansas (or Arkansas or Oklahoma) keep him. If California won't take him back the local cops can't hold him, have to release him - and he sticks around to build his gang.

[The Future]

that is overly simplistic.  I would bet the vast majority leave rural america on the first thing smoking.

[Eddie]

that is overly simplistic.  I would bet the vast majority leave rural america on the first thing smoking.

Not quite. Just because you get out of prison doesn'r mean you can live where you want to. Ever hear of a thing called probation?

[The Future]

I have.  And I trying to see what mechanisims are being used to restrict these guys movements.  Is it probation?  Can probation legally restrict someone to live in one town?  Is there other mechanisms?  Just saying that were taken to the country and adding no further detail is overly simplistic.  If this is true, there must be more to the story.