Update from the Invasion Front
UPI
U.S. population nears 298 million
The population of the United States will be slightly less than 298 million as the country heads into the new year. -- The U.S. Census Bureau, in a release Friday, projected the U.S. population will be 297,821,175 on New Year's Day, an increase of 2,713,518 -- about 0.9 percent -- from Jan. 1, 2005...
KSAT-TV -- San Antonio
Sex Offender Arrested Re-Entering U.S.
A convicted sex offender was arrested in San Antonio Wednesday after he illegally sneaked back into the country, police said. -- Angel Ruiz Bernal was taken into custody following a routine traffic stop in the 1600 block of Harness Lane. -- He was arrested eight years ago and served a five-year sentence for rape...
Louis G. Dominguez -- Gainesville Times
Illegal immigration is all about money
The nation's newspapers and magazines are full of it and TV networks can't let a day go by without reporting about new proposals from the federal government to deal with what has become a national emergency: what to do about the illegal invasion of America. -- With more than 20 million illegal entrants in the U.S
Chester County 'new market' for gangs
On a spring afternoon inside the downtown office of a West Chester attorney, a medium-built man wearing a black hood over his head emerged from a back room and fumbled his way to a seat behind a large wooden desk.
Advertisement
He identified himself only as "Hector," refusing to take off the mask.
Hector claimed to be part of a growing number of gang members living and working in the Chester County -- and by "working" he mostly means selling drugs.
In between bragging about gun battles with authorities in South America and Mexico -- one of which crippled his left hand -- and gangland murders, also overseas, the 42-year-old Colombia native touted Chester County as fertile ground for gang activity.
Gangs have claimed territories, Hector said, in places like Kennett Square, West Chester, Oxford and Phoenixville.
The "new market," as he called it, is ripe with money and youth to recruit as new members.
It may come as a surprise to some that in a county known for its wealth, pastoral beauty and conservative traditions, criminal organizations as notorious as street gangs could find ground to plant their roots.
But gang activity was among the topics of a 2003/2004 survey that included more than 16,000 students. Among those surveyed, 4.7 percent of sixth-graders, 7 percent of eighth-graders, 6.3 percent of high school sophomores and 5.3 percent of high school seniors said they had ever belonged to a gang.
News accounts show an increase in violent activity associated with gangs: a stabbing death in Kennett in March 2004 in which the alleged killer sported a gang-related tattoo that read, "Smile Now, Cry Later"; a knife fight between rival gangs at a Kennett Square mushroom house that left one man stabbed several times; a half dozen men from the county caught in amassive nation wide crackdown by the U.S. Justice Department on street gangs involved in the drug trade; and a late-night drive-by shooting in October that saw five men arrested and charged -- all members of a street gang, according to authorities.
Most chillingly, an FBI agent who specializes in gang activity told a Common Pleas Court judge during a hearing in a murder trial this year that, while monitoring organized criminal activity in Chester County, he had spoken with gang members on the street and at local high schools in New Garden, Avondale, Kennett Square and Oxford, among others.
Across the United States, gangs come in every race and ethnicity, and the same is true for Pennsylvania. However, in Chester County, during the past two years, Hispanic or Latino gangs have garnered the most attention.
With the county’s Latino population growing over the past decades, street gang organizers from Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore are finding places to start making their marks in the southern Chester County area.
(A RISE IN HISPANIC GANGS? MANY MEMBERS ARE NOT CITIZENS BUT ILLEGALS. HMM ...NOT A PROBLEM? A BIG PROBLEM WITH AN UNPROTECTED OPEN BOARDER. HOW CAN THOSE WHO DO WANT TO BE ACTIVE CONTRIBUTING MEMBERS TO AMERICAN SOCIETY MAKE IT WITH THESE THUGS AND PUNKS RUNNING LOOSE?)
U.S. population nears 298 million
The population of the United States will be slightly less than 298 million as the country heads into the new year. -- The U.S. Census Bureau, in a release Friday, projected the U.S. population will be 297,821,175 on New Year's Day, an increase of 2,713,518 -- about 0.9 percent -- from Jan. 1, 2005...
KSAT-TV -- San Antonio
Sex Offender Arrested Re-Entering U.S.
A convicted sex offender was arrested in San Antonio Wednesday after he illegally sneaked back into the country, police said. -- Angel Ruiz Bernal was taken into custody following a routine traffic stop in the 1600 block of Harness Lane. -- He was arrested eight years ago and served a five-year sentence for rape...
Louis G. Dominguez -- Gainesville Times
Illegal immigration is all about money
The nation's newspapers and magazines are full of it and TV networks can't let a day go by without reporting about new proposals from the federal government to deal with what has become a national emergency: what to do about the illegal invasion of America. -- With more than 20 million illegal entrants in the U.S
Chester County 'new market' for gangs
On a spring afternoon inside the downtown office of a West Chester attorney, a medium-built man wearing a black hood over his head emerged from a back room and fumbled his way to a seat behind a large wooden desk.
Advertisement
He identified himself only as "Hector," refusing to take off the mask.
Hector claimed to be part of a growing number of gang members living and working in the Chester County -- and by "working" he mostly means selling drugs.
In between bragging about gun battles with authorities in South America and Mexico -- one of which crippled his left hand -- and gangland murders, also overseas, the 42-year-old Colombia native touted Chester County as fertile ground for gang activity.
Gangs have claimed territories, Hector said, in places like Kennett Square, West Chester, Oxford and Phoenixville.
The "new market," as he called it, is ripe with money and youth to recruit as new members.
It may come as a surprise to some that in a county known for its wealth, pastoral beauty and conservative traditions, criminal organizations as notorious as street gangs could find ground to plant their roots.
But gang activity was among the topics of a 2003/2004 survey that included more than 16,000 students. Among those surveyed, 4.7 percent of sixth-graders, 7 percent of eighth-graders, 6.3 percent of high school sophomores and 5.3 percent of high school seniors said they had ever belonged to a gang.
News accounts show an increase in violent activity associated with gangs: a stabbing death in Kennett in March 2004 in which the alleged killer sported a gang-related tattoo that read, "Smile Now, Cry Later"; a knife fight between rival gangs at a Kennett Square mushroom house that left one man stabbed several times; a half dozen men from the county caught in amassive nation wide crackdown by the U.S. Justice Department on street gangs involved in the drug trade; and a late-night drive-by shooting in October that saw five men arrested and charged -- all members of a street gang, according to authorities.
Most chillingly, an FBI agent who specializes in gang activity told a Common Pleas Court judge during a hearing in a murder trial this year that, while monitoring organized criminal activity in Chester County, he had spoken with gang members on the street and at local high schools in New Garden, Avondale, Kennett Square and Oxford, among others.
Across the United States, gangs come in every race and ethnicity, and the same is true for Pennsylvania. However, in Chester County, during the past two years, Hispanic or Latino gangs have garnered the most attention.
With the county’s Latino population growing over the past decades, street gang organizers from Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore are finding places to start making their marks in the southern Chester County area.
(A RISE IN HISPANIC GANGS? MANY MEMBERS ARE NOT CITIZENS BUT ILLEGALS. HMM ...NOT A PROBLEM? A BIG PROBLEM WITH AN UNPROTECTED OPEN BOARDER. HOW CAN THOSE WHO DO WANT TO BE ACTIVE CONTRIBUTING MEMBERS TO AMERICAN SOCIETY MAKE IT WITH THESE THUGS AND PUNKS RUNNING LOOSE?)
