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Murdered teen was just days from fleeing East Boston back to Guatemala
By adamg on Sun, 01/31/2016 - 8:59am
The Globe talks to relatives of Cristofer Perez de la Cruz, murdered in East Boston earlier this month, had bought a ticket to return to his native Guatemala, rather than get caught in the violence between MS-13 and the rival 18th Street gang.
Friday's sweep of alleged MS-13 members is beginning to provide the background for numerous murders and other acts of violence in East Boston and neighboring cities in recent years.
Kevin Cullen reports that Rogelio Alvarado, an MS-13 member, opened fire on a rival gang member on a Blue Line train at Maverick - hitting that guy and a bystander.
The Herald talks to City Councilor Annissa Essaibi-George about MS-13 recruiting at East Boston High School, where she taught until she was sworn in as a councilor this month, as well as City Councilor Sal LaMattina, who attended a community meeting on violence the night before the arrests.
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Comments
Finally
Some real publicity about the gang threat in not just Eastie High, but don't forget middle schools like the Umana and the American Legion playing fields. I've heard other parents complain about this and feel like their complaints and warnings are being ignored.
Well
This sort of crap will keep happening until all known violent street gangs are designated as domestic terrorist organizations and treated as such. The way things are now, the original gangbangers and the generation or two after them would already be dead and buried, along with a bunch of rival gangbangers and innocent bystanders, by the time cops finally build a case against them. And if on a rare occasion they do get arrested, most get to walk because profiling, illegal search, racism, waaah! I guarantee at most five of those 56 will get locked up for a reasonable amount of time - heck, most are probably already out on (laughably low) bail.
This sort of crap will keep happening until
... the tide of dangerous illegal immigrants are kept out by our government. Oh, but Trump was wrong - they are all nice people, no rapists or murderers among them!
It would also serve the local victims to move to communities without such high Central American populations.
You mean like Wellesley and
You mean like Wellesley and Newton? Yes it's very feasible to come to a new land and immediately buy a house in those Neighborhoohs. You can do it, immigrants!
I'm pretty sure someone from
I'm pretty sure someone from Arlington did something illegal once, so how soon until we can put Markkk in a camp?
Whoosh
I'm also pretty sure Arlington isn't an ethnic ghetto where language barriers and a critical mass of cultural baggage makes for a ripe crop of victimizable people on whom these gangs can prey.
Immigration is fine, so long as you're careful about whom you let in and there's follow-through in the form of integration and assimilation. If both of those aren't true, you have a problem.
Examples of when it worked: white collar immigration from China, the eastern bloc, Cuba, and the trickle from everywhere else.
Examples of failure: the slave trade (duh), portions of the influx from Italy (linguistic isolation, cultural baggage, Mafia), aforementioned flood of illegals who fear the police.
LOL. Whoosh indeed.
LOL. Whoosh indeed.
Umm, I think the Italians
Umm, I think the Italians have assimilated to Massachusetts and the rest of the US pretty nicely, thanks.
Well, they have now
Substitute La Cosa Nostra for Mara Salvatrucha-13 and change 2016 to 1916, though, and things might seem a bit different. And, yes, I realize the vast majority of Italian immigrants in the early 20th century were peaceful people just trying for a better life and to demean them for the actions of a few is unfair.
Oh, hey, just like the majority of Central American immigrants these days.
Every situation is unique
and so is every person. Maybe in a hundred years we'll have more perspective to make an honest evaluation, but sitting where I am now, it looks like the folks from central america are coming from a place that's more violent and more poor than southern Italy was a hundred years ago and going to a place where they don't have the incentive to blend and assimilate the way the Italians did.
The biggest difference was that there wasn't the kind of immigration laws on the books back then that there are now, which when combined with its lack of enforcement makes for a much scarier situation in terms of putting up barriers and enforcing ghettos-in-the-head.
Maybe the Great Wall of Trump is a better answer, maybe full open borders are the answer, but it's awful hard to make the case for half-enforced laws or executive orders that ignore or contradict statutes.
Yeah
Let's go ahead and not call East Boston an ethnic ghetto, thanks.
My apologies
to the folks to whom my statement doesn't apply. Believe it or not I'm not trying to put down individual people from Central America or immigrants in general.
I'm talking about the mental construct of an ethnic ghetto. These days it needn't be physical.
If you don't speak English in the home AND you don't speak English at work AND you don't ever read English-language news, then congratulations, you're isolated from the mainstream, whether you live in a stereotypical ethnic enclave or a mansion in Newton. And it ain't healthy no matter which way you slice it.
Oh Yeah, Right
We wouldn't have any problems with oxy addicts becoming heroin addicts if it weren't for those meddling immigrants!
Oh no, never. The market is completely driven by supply side pressures. Nothing about the criminalization of a disease or the lack of funding for treatment has anything to do with that mess. Nope. Nothing to do at all with the funding available to those who perpetuate the mess. All immigrants. Yup.
/sarcasm
No doubt
there's a very significant demand component, but even if it's drastically reduced with legalization, preventative mental health treatment, and increased funding for social safety nets, it's less than realistic to think that the gangs will suddenly pack up shop and stop recruiting in poor and immigrant neighborhoods.
If it's not drugs, it's going to be something else. There's always a black market for something, and segregated communities will always be subject to victimization from within.
I have 3 words
Racist, sociopath, asshole.
No, I haven't forgotten my pledge to you, you racist sociopath asshole.
Sorry, I wasn't paying attention
Remind me what threat you made.
To keep reminding you that you are
A racist, sociopathic asshole after you decided Friday morning that the memories Alvin Sealey has of his son just couldn't be right, so you decided to posit on the Internet that junior was some horrible gangbanger.
I got the picture from the facebook tribute page
His friends posted the picture. I just copied it and posted it here.
I made no claims about the picture's meaning. I let people draw their own conclusions.
Its you who thinks he looks like a gangbanger in the photo, not me.
Here's the difference
Between you and me. When I read the article, other than realizing I knew the dad, I felt bad that this guy has to bury his son. I mean, you spend 19 years worrying about your kid just to get a call in the middle of the night that your son is in the morgue.
When you read the article, you decided that the kid was no good and started researching him. you posted the results on the internet, where it will live forever.
I might not be the nicest of people, but you, sir, are a racist, sociopathic asshole.
Not there forever
Adamg seems to have quietly sanitized his site of the whole post.
I DID NOT decide the kid was no good. I decided nothing about him. I posted the more current photo to contrast with the naive, whitewash article and photo that Adamg posted. His article was like the airbrushed photos of models in magazines etc.. Real people don't look like that, especially without their makeup. I simply posted the equivalent of a no makeup photo.
I may not always be nice, but you got the other things wrong with nothing to support your claims.
Okay, back to my question from last week
Why?
Why did you decide that the version of Alvin Sealey Jr. that appeared in the left wing tabloid to which Adam linked was wrong? Why did you decide to search for an alternative version of his life than the one Alvin Sealey Sr. preferred to ponder as he was preparing for the funeral?
I think the claim that you are a racist, sociopathic asshole stands on its own, but pissing on Alvin Sealey Jr's grave is the thing that really frosts me.
Judge Judy says...
ahem
'scuse me...but I'm pretty sure that's Ruth Bader Guttenburg from the Supreem Court.
get with the program.
Clueless
"And if on a rare occasion they do get arrested, most get to walk because profiling, illegal search, racism, waaah!"
Yeah that pesky Constitution is always getting in the way, let's get rid of that ASAP.
"I guarantee at most five of those 56 will get locked up for a reasonable amount of time - heck, most are probably already out on (laughably low) bail."
I'm not sure you understand how the Federal govt works, the U.S. Attorney's office doesn't mess around. They will most likely be held without bail. Some were already being held prior to the indictments issuing. No one who is charged w/ murder is walking out the front door of the courthouse. The drug charges carry up to 40 years alone, RICO carries 20. Additionally, many have ICE detainers on top of the criminal holds.
This sort of crap will keep
Yeah, remember when they designated all those other terrorist organizations "terrorist organizations" and now there's no more terrorism?
It's really saying something
when a kid wants to leave the U.S. to go to Guatemala to escape violence. 99% it's the other way around.
Let's hope word gets back to Guatemala not to come here
and its not worth all the danger, expense, hardship, and law-breaking.
we will spread word
of your existence to them all.
hopefully it will work.
in the meantime, us foreign policy continues to depress central american economies to the point that fleeing the only home you've ever known is unfortunately the only option.
but yeah, it's totes an easy choice they make, just to piss you off.
Build the wall and make re-entry a 10 year felony
Ban all immigration while Trump builds the wall and make re-entry after deportation a 10 year felony. There's plenty of room in Wyoming and the surrounding states to build the prisons and detention centers. Deny all but humanitarian relief to illegal aliens caught and awaiting deportation, no public education, no public housing, no EBT, no catch and release. Deny all federal aid to sanctuary cities and to states where they receive state funding. Repeal Ted Kennedy's disastrous 1965 Immigration Reform Law and restore a requirement for a working US citizen to sponsor any new legal immigrant, regular check-ins with the local police, at least some marketable skills and basic English language ability.
The longer we remain the homeless shelter for the third world, the worse it will become. Representative Steve King of Iowa points out that 25 Americans, on average, are killed by illegal aliens every day (about evenly split between motor vehicle accidents and outright murder). That's an untenable situation that needs immediate action.
Ha ha
Heres a better idea - stop marginalizing people. Living wages, decent pay, health care, equal opportunity.
Here's another: instead of fancy ass copcars and tanks for billybob cops who wanna play rambom decriminalize drug use and put all the money into treatment and useful education (not that proven useless DARE nonsense).
Naw. That would solve the problem. Can't have that. More baby-killing sonic grenades for poorly trained swat teems, and fancy guns for executing family dogs, please!
Sure
because nothing stops criminals in their tracks like laissez faire law enforcement and subsidies. And nothing stops the influx of low-skill, low-education migrants like guaranteed benefits and an open door policy. And I can see no problems with an open door to a place with no law.
Here's a parting thought: "marginalize" isn't something "we" do to "them". They come in with the disadvantage of low education, low English fluency, and the cultural baggage of having grown up with violence, corruption, and poverty. Relative to "us" they *are* on the margin by virtue of coming from where they come from.
Cultural barriers are real things, and maybe for a small number of people who are willing, it's possible to break down those barriers with government programs, but you've got no hope if you don't control the input stream. In Germany they're relearning these fundamental lessons right now.
Statistics please
Prove it.
We do marginalize people. You are a buffoon.
'Fraid you've got it backwards
The burden of proof is on those advocating a change to current policy. You say we are actively doing something bad and must change. You need to prove 1) that it's true, 2) that your proposed change solves the problem and 3) that it doesn't create a worse one, specifically addressing the concerns I brought up. Learn to logic.
Learn to logic.
Learn to die in a house fire. The sooner the better.
You need to learn to be an American
You are a special kind of fool, aren't you. If policies don't work, they should just continue?
And here you whine and whine and whine about any taxes not going to your special defense contracting firm. Special!
Special indeed
Find one post where I wanted more spending on my company.
Find one post where I said we shouldn't have taxes for, you know, paying for civilization.
Also: if policies don't work, we should change them. But it generally pays to be sure that 1) they don't work and 2) the change will help instead of just being an exercise in patting ourselves on the back and wasting other people's time and money. Learn to read.
Ever hear of Ron Unz?
Conservative Libertarian.
Here's his take on the best way to curb illegal immigration:
Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/01/califor...
Linked through from: http://www.ronunz.org/2014/01/22/the-minimum-wage-and-illegal-immigration/
I respectfully disagree
that minimum wage has anything to do with *illegal* immigration and black markets for drugs/whatever.
I obviously have no argument with the assertion that minimum wage jobs draw recent immigrants, and I guess I buy that if more Americans want the newly higher-paying minimum wage jobs there'll be fewer of them to go around for recent immigrants, but I'm having a hard time translating that into a lower flow of illegal immigration and a drying up black market.
I don't have the link now, but about a year ago there was a NYT piece about nail salons in NYC and their *ahem* employment practices that often amounted to near slavery conditions. I'm not sure how a min wage hike in the formal economy fixes that. And my fear would be that it actually would increase it.
No fucking way
That's crap. Prove it!
Yeah, that seems far too high
Yeah, that seems far too high, considering (UN #'s on a Wikipedia list of homicide rates internationally) say there were 33.5 intentional homicides in the US every day in 2013 (average), that would mean that based on this 25 number, a majority (nearly 75%), in the US are committed by illegal immigrants. Surely this would be a major talking point if it were true.
Guns are not illegal aliens
Oh, wait, guns kill about 75 people a day.
More Americans are killed by Toddlers with guns than by terrorists! So screw that wall - time to childproof your house and keep them from getting in!
Steve King makes these things up all the time
So, these Fishy numbers are only true ONLY IF every murder was committed by someone in federal prison and ONLY IF every single federal prisoner who was an immigrant was not a legal immigrant AND ONLY IF none of those people were there for other reasons (and we know that they are).
Complete and utter bullshit from a known font of making up lots of bullshit.
I'd rather keep the immigrants and deport you
but fortunately established legal precedent doesn't allow exiling US citizens.
Anti-Immigrant Jerks all around
Enough is fucking enough! Markk, who are you to discuss immigration? Immigration is only good when whites do it, right? Let's totally go after the hardworking denizens of the Polish areas of Dot or the hardworking Brazilians in Allston/Brighton. Dude, with your cynical attitude I'd be surprised if you have any kids....
You know so little
I've co-sponsored a green card for an immigrant so he could stay here with his immigrant wife who became a citizen and their infant child. I am legally liable financially for any costs to the government for public assistance he might get. The two of them came here legally after much paperwork, verification of documents, lack of criminal records, interviews, and the fees for those checks. I welcome immigrants who follow the law, don't lie in applications, and come here legally.
All you have are cheap words.
How many of you bigots have actually sponsored an immigrant with INS and put money on the line?
Time to end Sanctuary City bull
Police and immigration needs to look out for gang members wearing colors or tattoos, detain them, check papers, and deport them back to El Salvador, Cape Verde', the Dominican Republic, or wherever. Don't wait until they are caught doing their crimes, a trial and more waste of taxpayer money. If they are here illegally, just deport them.
They are making life hell for the legal immigrants from those countries.
If Salvadorans want to be safer from MS-13, they need to learn English before coming here, and then move someplace like Lowell, Lawrence, or other affordable places and not in a Central American ghetto community here.
..there you go again...
What makes you think that Lowell or Lawrence
don't have the same sort of problems with gangs?