ACCORDING TO THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, LOS ANGELES IS THE MEXICAN GANG CAPITAL OF AMERICA. ACCORDING TO THE FBI, MEXICAN GANGS HAVE NOW ESTABLISHED THEMSELVES IN 233 AMERICAN CITIES. ACCORDING TO CNN THE MEXICAN DRUG CARTEL IS TAKING IN $5 BILLION IN DRUG PROFITS FROM OUR OPEN AND UNDEFENDED BORDERS.
WHILE WE SQUANDER $12 BILLION A MONTH IN IRAQ, OBAMA CLAIMS HE'S MAYBE GONNA SPEND $30 MILLION TO MAYBE GONNA DEFEND OUR BORDERS AGAINST NARCOMEX.
HOWEVER HIS LA RAZA SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY, JANET NAPOLITANO, MEET WITH A LARGE GROUP OF OPEN BORDERS ADVOCATES IN THE WHITE HOUSE THIS LAST WEEK, WHERE THE PRESS WAS NOT PERMITTED. OBAMA'S NOTION OF "TRANSPARENCY" IS LIKE IS NOTION OF "CHANGE" IT'S ALL ONE MORE STUPID GRINGO JOKE!
A NEW WAY TO HELP TEENS AVOID GANGS???????
A new way to help teens avoid gangs
By Jessie Mangaliman
Mercury News
08/14/2008 01:31:55
Mountain View Police Officer Katherine Comesana spoke about the... (MARIA J. AVILA /
Mountain View police officer Katherine Comesana held up a picture of a drug-damaged brain to a classroom of 33 seventh-graders.
"This is a picture of a brain on meth," she said. "My sister was a meth addict."
It was the last day of a two-week gang-prevention program at Mountain View High School, and Comesana's startling personal preamble certainly grabbed the attention of the restless middle-schoolers.
The other adults in the room - officer Ronald Cooper, youth counselor Nicole Gwire - nodded approvingly as Comesana described the ills and dangers of drug use.
The officers have something else to celebrate: the city's first Youth Services Unit, a permanent part of the Mountain View Police Department dedicated, in police parlance, to "gang prevention and suppression."
Comesana is assigned full time to the new unit and she will visit high schools year-round, conducting similar gang-prevention programs.
Worried by the recent spate of assaults between rival gangs, the Mountain View City Council approved the new unit in May. Unlike previous anti-gang efforts, it will be a permanent part of the police department, with partial state funding.
"We need to work at this consistently," Vice Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga said. "Now it will be concentrated and continuous."
In the past, gang "prevention and suppression" was a kind of seasonal work. "It ebbed and flowed," said Sgt. Michael Ecdao, the city's first anti-gang officer, appointed in 1995, and recently named to lead the new unit.
When gang-related violence rose, the city upped the ante. Eight officers spent part of their time going on high-profile patrols, visiting gang members and their families.
Police and youth outreach workers have known for some time that prevention programs like "Dreams and Futures" at Mountain View High work. Gangs are recruiting younger and younger members, so programs for those as young as fourth grade will be an important part of the new unit's work, police and city officials said.
"Creating a permanent unit on this work says the city cares," said Cooper. "These are the kids we might end up dealing with on the streets five or six years from now."
On a recent Wednesday morning at the high school's football field, Cooper and Comesana played a vigorous soccer game with the boys. The girls were nearby, gathered in a circle "girl talking" with Gwire, a counselor with the local non-profit social services agency, Community Health Awareness Council, or CHAC.
For Gwire, the new partnership between CHAC and the police department is the best change yet in outreach to youth. Counseling is now paired up with police work.
"It's a wonderful change," said Monique Kane, executive director of CHAC. "It gives us a lot of positive feeling of hope."
Sharing her personal story about an addicted sister, Comesana said, "helps kids see us as having life experiences like theirs."
"That's when they break down their walls and learn to share things," she said. "They can open up. They can reach their goals and dreams."
Fourteen-year-old Nicky Gutierrez, who will be an eighth-grader at Crittenden Middle School, has attended "Dreams and Futures" for the past four summers.
"It's pretty cool," he said, still huffing from the soccer game. "I've learned about respecting others and not to get involved in gangs and drugs. And I've made friends here."
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80% of meth smuggled into the US comes from MEX (well, at least we export stolen cars to MEX...... unfortunately they’re our cars stolen from us!)
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