bloody gang war between bikers and youths of immigrant origin has shattered Copenhagen's customary calm

bloody gang war between bikers and youths of immigrant origin has shattered Copenhagen's customary calm, prompting officials into threatening draconian legislation.

The latest street violence was sparked in August 2008 when a young Turkish man was killed, supposedly by a member of the Hells Angels group.

Since then, the conflict has left dozens dead or wounded - some innocent bystanders.
In DEPTH

undercover agent who infiltrated the Hells Angels motorcycle club from 2001 to 2003.

Jay Anthony Dobyns (born 1961), alias Jaybird, is a United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) undercover agent who infiltrated the Hells Angels motorcycle club from 2001 to 2003. He was offered membership into the gang after faking the murder of a rival Mongols Motorcycle Club member and providing ‘evidence’ of the staged murder to Hells Angels leaders. Dobyns’ exploits during Operation Black Biscuit are memorialized in the novels Angels of Death, written by authors Julian Sher and William Marsden, Running With The Devil written by author Kerrie Droban

former member of the Red Scorpions was sentenced by a BC Supreme court judge

Life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years, times two.
That sentence handed down today to a gangster who killed two men.

Anton Hooites-Meursing has pleaded guilty to the first-degree murders of Randy McLeod in 2001 and Gurpreet Rehal in 2003.

The 39-year old former member of the Red Scorpions was sentenced by a BC Supreme court judge in New Westminster.

The 22-year old McLeod was killed in Surrey and his body was then dumped in Langley.

The 19-year old Rehal was gunned down at his home in Abbotsford, and died later in hospital.

Another charge in the October 2003 murder of 24-year old crime boss, John Lahn, has been stayed.

He was shot and killed in Burnaby

city reeling from its worst financial crisis in decades, the LAPD has stopped paying officers overtime wages, except in rare situations.

One of the LAPD's most productive homicide investigators sat idle for six weeks, unable to follow any leads on old cases or pick up new ones. Kouri was not being punished for misconduct or for botching an investigation. He was benched for working too hard -- and he is not the only one.

With the city reeling from its worst financial crisis in decades, the LAPD has stopped paying officers overtime wages, except in rare situations. In lieu of cash, officials have implemented a strict policy of forcing cops to take time off when they accrue large amounts of overtime hours. Because of demanding work schedules that routinely require them to investigate a case into the night or through the weekend, homicide detectives have been among the first officers to be sent home in significant numbers.

The drain on homicide squads has hampered investigations, several detectives and top department officials said in interviews. Detectives said their investigations are frequently put on hold while they take days off, delaying witness interviews and other potentially important leads. And, in the crucial first hours after a killing, several supervisors said they now dispatch fewer detectives to the crime scene.

A rash of homicides in recent weeks has compounded the problem, placing increased strain on detectives already running up against overtime limits and leaving homicide supervisors to worry that a prolonged surge in killings will quickly overwhelm the stop-gap measures they are currently using to get by.

LAPD Chief Charlie Beck has used the rise in killings to underscore his frequent warnings to city lawmakers that further cuts to the department's budget would continue to compromise its ability to fight crime.

"The hours have to come from someplace," Beck said last week at a meeting with the Los Angeles Police Commission, which oversees the department. "It has a serious impact on our ability to respond to some of the large, violent incidents we've been experiencing lately. That is especially true of homicide investigations because of the long hours they demand."

In past years, the LAPD typically spent about $100 million in overtime. The department is planning to set aside less than $10 million for the upcoming fiscal year to cover certain work scenarios mandated under federal labor laws.

Before the city's fiscal crisis, an agreement between the department and police union called for officers to build up a bank of about 100 hours of overtime and then be paid cash for hours worked beyond that. Late last year, the department renegotiated the agreement and now officers are not paid until they have accrued 400 hours of extra work. To make sure no officer reaches that trigger point, the department's new policy forbids them from banking more than 250 hours.

In the Southeast Division, where Kouri works, the 11-person homicide squad was ordered to take off 700 hours in February -- a month when they opened five new investigations. The same group responded to five killings last February, but worked 500 hours of overtime to solve them.

Nine of the 14 killings this year in the Southeast area remain unsolved.

escape of over 4,000 prisoners — including some of Port-au-Prince’s most notorious gang leaders — Haiti would soon see the return of the violence

escape of over 4,000 prisoners — including some of Port-au-Prince’s most notorious gang leaders — Haiti would soon see the return of the violence and criminality that had plagued the country in recent years. It was assumed, however, that as long as U.S. forces were present throughout the country, violence would be minimal; the real trouble would emerge once American troops began to withdraw. “Right now we’ve got (foreign) military crawling all over the island,” USIP’s Bob Perito explained at the time. “But they won’t be there forever.”

Judging from reports in the Washington Post and the Associated Press within the last week, it appears that events in Haiti are unfolding very much along the lines predicted by Perito and others. U.S. troops have been drawing down steadily in the last two months; what remains is a force of roughly 2,000 engineers and logisticians tasked with rubble-clearing and reconstruction. Meanwhile, the escaped gang leaders have reconstituted their posses and are now competing for control of their old turf. Kidnappings have increased in recent weeks, forcing aid groups to impose curfews and implement increased security measures. The gangs regularly terrorize vulnerable Haitians in the settlement camps throughout Port-au-Prince.

Gang members have also grown increasingly brazen in confronting the Haitian National Police (HNP), a force which was badly damaged in the quake, but has since established a reasonable patrolling presence throughout the capital city. Postcorrespondent Manuel Roig-Franzia described an incident in which gang members assaulted an HNP checkpoint, slaughtering a veteran of the force; HNP officers, according to Roig-Franzia, are frequently outgunned by the well-armed criminals.

Needless to say, in the months ahead, MINUSTAH — the 9,000-strong, Brazilian-led UN peacekeeping force in Haiti — and the HNP will be put to the test. Not only is gang violence likely to increase, but the two forces will be expected to provide security and stability prior to the postponed parliamentary and presidential elections, which are likely to be held late this year. Adding to the challenge, national police chief Mario Adresol has cited concerns, according to the Post, that political parties may be sponsoring and supporting armed groups in order to threaten opponents and otherwise create disorder prior to the elections — a tactic not without precedent in Haiti’s recent history.

500 Los Angeles Hispanic gangs outnumbered the combined armies of all the Crips and Blood gangs by more than double

500 Los Angeles Hispanic gangs outnumbered the combined armies of all the Crips and Blood gangs by more than double; the Southern California Hispanic gangs are united under the umbrella "Sureños;" and that Sureños include the three biggest gangs—Florence 13, 18^th Street and rival Mara Salvatrucha 13—you might give that title to the Sureños.

In Southern California, the Sureño gangs are the most active criminally, and the most prolific in gang killings by far. The African-American gangs are normally the victims of Sureños in hate-crime incidents, and the Sureños are invading Northern California cities by the hundreds, not vice versa.

The Sureños serve their masters—the Mexican Mafia (known as La Eme, the letter "M" in Spanish) prison gang. This alliance is the most dangerous prison gang and disruptive group combination. They control the majority of the California Department of Corrections facilities. In and out of custody, if one Eme member or Sureño becomes involved in a fight with law enforcement, all Sureños are required to assist the gang member against the police. Any Sureño in the vicinity must assault any other cop or prison staff member in the area. This Eme-Sureño coalition is rapidly gaining footholds in the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

The American media and even law enforcement, unfamiliar with the dynamics of real prison gangs, often try to compare these apples to oranges. Prison gangs are a quantum leap from street gangs, no matter how big or how powerful the street gang may be. Only traditional organized crime and large drug cartels can compare.

The prison gang's power over street gangs was dramatically illustrated in an incident that occurred in November of 1995.

Two years earlier, the Mexican Mafia had issued three edicts to Southern California Hispanic street gangs: Take over drug areas formally controlled by African-American gangs; tax illegal-alien drug dealers operating in Sureño controlled areas; and stop drive-by shootings. This was publically advertised in the newspapers, on radio and on TV as a "Hispanic peace initiative."

It was actually an attempt to reduce collateral casualties in the gang wars that drew unfriendly public attention and heavy police response that was interfering with their lucrative drug business. The gangs were encouraged to continue killing in face-to-face "walk-ups."

But the drive-by tactic was a bad habit that was hard to break for old school Latino cholo gangs. Some young unsophisticated gang members failed to take the Mexican Mafia's edicts seriously. These gangsters became human pin cushions in jail after being arrested by the cops.

The Florence 13 (F-13) gang dates back to the early '50s and dominates a wide geographic area in South Los Angeles. This major Hispanic gang had expanded from its traditional Florence District to the southeastern suburbs of Cudahy, Bell Gardens, Maywood, Bell and Huntington Park. It had become an international, or "transnational," gang that spread across the country (a restaurant in New York bears the gang name) and into Europe, and South America. Florence drug dealers sold multiple kilos and had connections to major drug trafficking organizations in Mexico. But they are also Sureños loyal to the Mexican Mafia.

In October of 1995, Florence gang members Ricardo Perez, 21, Cesar Merino, 21, and Jose Munguia, 20, drove up to a Huntington Park residence. Jose Munguia opened up on the residence with an AK-47 from the vehicle. On the front porch, 11-year-old Erica Izquierdo was swinging on a hammock with her father when she was fatally hit in the head by the AK round. Luis Lopez, 15, and Adrian Garcia, 14, were also struck by the F-13's bullets, but they survived.

Ten days later, Perez and Merino got a visit from a Mexican Mafia member. The Eme member demanded to know just who had fired the fatal shots. Unlike in the American legal system, the two gang members did not have the right to remain silent, or not to incriminate themselves. They quickly ratted out their homeboy Munguia to their demon master.