Post by SoulTrainOz on Jun 19, 2006 0:57:44 GMT -5
but its life-or-death motto extends reach to streets in form of ex-convicts
In light of the recent arrest of 10 Aryan Brotherhood members and associates in connection with a burglary and murder, police throughout South and Southeast Texas say they are keeping close tabs on members of the gang.
3 Aryan Brotherhood members from Baytown were arrested and charged this month with capital murder in the random killing of a 49-year-old Baytown man who was abducted from a Wal-Mart parking lot, taken to a remote location in Liberty County and stabbed to death. The killers wanted his 1988 Chevy pickup truck for parts, police said.
A Beaumont man is among several more gang members arrested in the criminal events surrounding that killing.
Although the recent crime spree landed almost a dozen people linked to the Aryan Brotherhood in jail, officials say the gang still has a strong presence in the Golden Triangle and throughout Texas.
"They have huge numbers," said Detective S. Latta of Baytown's special operations division. "There is absolutely no way I could give you a guesstimate, but they are a large group."
Vidor Police Chief Steve Conroy said there are a number of people in Vidor that police believe to be affiliated with the Aryan Brotherhood, a white supremacist prison gang sometimes referred to as AB by police.
Conroy said Aryan Brotherhood members are routinely being arrested in Vidor, usually for drug offenses and not for gang-related crime. But the danger the members pose to the community is real, he said.
"There is always a threat related to these people," Conroy said, adding that "police are trying to stay on top of all these issues."
Those accused of involvement in the Baytown-based events, including Beaumont resident Stacy Johnson, were charged with conspiracy to commit organized crime.
Conroy said most of the people the department believes are affiliated with the group are ex-convicts who likely joined when they were in prison.
Mark Potok, who monitors and investigates hate groups for the Southern Poverty Law Center, said the Aryan Brotherhood's motto is "Kill to get in, die to get out."
He said the group's members are racist, but their primary focus is
criminal enterprise.
AB is very active in the production and distribution of drugs, especially methamphetamine, he said. But members commit other types of crime, too, he said, including theft, assault and murder.
"They are incredibly violent," he said. "Some of them will just as soon kill you as look at you."
The Aryan Brotherhood began to form in the late 1950s in a California prison in San Quentin when white inmates decided that they needed a powerful gang to protect them from the black and Mexican prison gangs, according to FBI documents.
In 1967, the name Aryan Brotherhood was adopted. While the Aryan Brotherhood thrives in prisons around the country, experts say members remain active once they are released.
"It is a hard fact that most of the AB will be paroled or discharged at some future date, and in view of members' lifelong commitments, it would be nave to think he would not remain in contact with his brothers," according to a 1982 FBI report released to the public through a Freedom of Information Request.
The FBI declined to be interviewed for the story.
"The rule of thumb is that once on the streets, one must take care of his brothers that are still inside. The penalty for failure to do so is death upon the members' return to the prison system," the FBI report states.
These duties include supplying jailed members with drugs and making hits on the street as commanded by members.
Baytown police believe that Aryan Brotherhood members preyed on Robert McCartney because they thought the parts from his truck could restore the good standing of a member who fell out of favor with one of the gang's local leaders.
Aryan Brotherhood members have been tied to numerous crimes in Texas over the years, including the 1998 murder of James Byrd Jr., who was tied to the back of a pickup truck with a logging chain and dragged to death on the country roads outside of Jasper.
The crimes that are reported are just the tip of the iceberg, said Dena Marks, associate director of the Southwest regional office of the Anti-Defamation League.
"Most criminal incidents involving Texas AB never make it into the news because they take place behind prison walls and don't get reported," Marks said.
Aryan Brotherhood membership accounts for less than 1/10 of 1 % of the nation's prison population, Potok said. But it is responsible for 18 percent of all prison murders, he said.
Getting more specific, as in assigning a particular crime to a particular gang, can be tricky.
One man was killed earlier this month during gang violence at a prison in New Boston, said Michelle Lyons, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. But she said that murder was not associated with the AB.
3 prisoners were slain while in prison in 2005, Lyons said. She did not comment on what gangs were involved in the deaths.
Of the 151,730 inmates in Texas prisons in April, about six percent - 9,347 - were documented members of prison gangs, she said. Many more are likely members.
In Beaumont- and Houston-area prison units, there are 838 confirmed gang members. Lyons would not comment on the size of each individual gang, but said gangs break down on racial lines. She said of the known prison gang population in Texas, 20 % are white, 24 % are black and 56 are Hispanic.
Lyons said the population of gang members is decreasing in Texas prisons because of measures such as solitary confinement for all gang members.
She said the prisons are working to inform prisoners that joining gangs puts their lives in danger.
"The biggest misconception is that joining a prison gang will provide some protection," Lyons said.
Certain tattoos, such as swastikas and shamrocks, tip off correctional officers that a prisoner is a gang member.
The same is true outside the prison walls, Latta said. Once members are released from prison, they often go back to the lifestyle that got them sent there in the first place, he said, which in turn gets them sent back.
"Doing prison time isn't an issue," Latta said. "Some find it an easier life."
(source: The Beaumont Enterprise)
In light of the recent arrest of 10 Aryan Brotherhood members and associates in connection with a burglary and murder, police throughout South and Southeast Texas say they are keeping close tabs on members of the gang.
3 Aryan Brotherhood members from Baytown were arrested and charged this month with capital murder in the random killing of a 49-year-old Baytown man who was abducted from a Wal-Mart parking lot, taken to a remote location in Liberty County and stabbed to death. The killers wanted his 1988 Chevy pickup truck for parts, police said.
A Beaumont man is among several more gang members arrested in the criminal events surrounding that killing.
Although the recent crime spree landed almost a dozen people linked to the Aryan Brotherhood in jail, officials say the gang still has a strong presence in the Golden Triangle and throughout Texas.
"They have huge numbers," said Detective S. Latta of Baytown's special operations division. "There is absolutely no way I could give you a guesstimate, but they are a large group."
Vidor Police Chief Steve Conroy said there are a number of people in Vidor that police believe to be affiliated with the Aryan Brotherhood, a white supremacist prison gang sometimes referred to as AB by police.
Conroy said Aryan Brotherhood members are routinely being arrested in Vidor, usually for drug offenses and not for gang-related crime. But the danger the members pose to the community is real, he said.
"There is always a threat related to these people," Conroy said, adding that "police are trying to stay on top of all these issues."
Those accused of involvement in the Baytown-based events, including Beaumont resident Stacy Johnson, were charged with conspiracy to commit organized crime.
Conroy said most of the people the department believes are affiliated with the group are ex-convicts who likely joined when they were in prison.
Mark Potok, who monitors and investigates hate groups for the Southern Poverty Law Center, said the Aryan Brotherhood's motto is "Kill to get in, die to get out."
He said the group's members are racist, but their primary focus is
criminal enterprise.
AB is very active in the production and distribution of drugs, especially methamphetamine, he said. But members commit other types of crime, too, he said, including theft, assault and murder.
"They are incredibly violent," he said. "Some of them will just as soon kill you as look at you."
The Aryan Brotherhood began to form in the late 1950s in a California prison in San Quentin when white inmates decided that they needed a powerful gang to protect them from the black and Mexican prison gangs, according to FBI documents.
In 1967, the name Aryan Brotherhood was adopted. While the Aryan Brotherhood thrives in prisons around the country, experts say members remain active once they are released.
"It is a hard fact that most of the AB will be paroled or discharged at some future date, and in view of members' lifelong commitments, it would be nave to think he would not remain in contact with his brothers," according to a 1982 FBI report released to the public through a Freedom of Information Request.
The FBI declined to be interviewed for the story.
"The rule of thumb is that once on the streets, one must take care of his brothers that are still inside. The penalty for failure to do so is death upon the members' return to the prison system," the FBI report states.
These duties include supplying jailed members with drugs and making hits on the street as commanded by members.
Baytown police believe that Aryan Brotherhood members preyed on Robert McCartney because they thought the parts from his truck could restore the good standing of a member who fell out of favor with one of the gang's local leaders.
Aryan Brotherhood members have been tied to numerous crimes in Texas over the years, including the 1998 murder of James Byrd Jr., who was tied to the back of a pickup truck with a logging chain and dragged to death on the country roads outside of Jasper.
The crimes that are reported are just the tip of the iceberg, said Dena Marks, associate director of the Southwest regional office of the Anti-Defamation League.
"Most criminal incidents involving Texas AB never make it into the news because they take place behind prison walls and don't get reported," Marks said.
Aryan Brotherhood membership accounts for less than 1/10 of 1 % of the nation's prison population, Potok said. But it is responsible for 18 percent of all prison murders, he said.
Getting more specific, as in assigning a particular crime to a particular gang, can be tricky.
One man was killed earlier this month during gang violence at a prison in New Boston, said Michelle Lyons, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. But she said that murder was not associated with the AB.
3 prisoners were slain while in prison in 2005, Lyons said. She did not comment on what gangs were involved in the deaths.
Of the 151,730 inmates in Texas prisons in April, about six percent - 9,347 - were documented members of prison gangs, she said. Many more are likely members.
In Beaumont- and Houston-area prison units, there are 838 confirmed gang members. Lyons would not comment on the size of each individual gang, but said gangs break down on racial lines. She said of the known prison gang population in Texas, 20 % are white, 24 % are black and 56 are Hispanic.
Lyons said the population of gang members is decreasing in Texas prisons because of measures such as solitary confinement for all gang members.
She said the prisons are working to inform prisoners that joining gangs puts their lives in danger.
"The biggest misconception is that joining a prison gang will provide some protection," Lyons said.
Certain tattoos, such as swastikas and shamrocks, tip off correctional officers that a prisoner is a gang member.
The same is true outside the prison walls, Latta said. Once members are released from prison, they often go back to the lifestyle that got them sent there in the first place, he said, which in turn gets them sent back.
"Doing prison time isn't an issue," Latta said. "Some find it an easier life."
(source: The Beaumont Enterprise)