Memphis Mayor Paul Young revealed on Wednesday that met with a number of gang leaders with the goal of brokering a ceasefire between them to lower crime in the city in early February.
The meeting occurred months after Young promised to unveil a sophisticated crime plan within 100 days after taking office that would address the surge in criminality the Tennessee city experienced last year.
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Coinciding with an uptick in gang violence in the state and mass shootings nationwide, state lawmakers are likely to consider gun legislation during this year’s General Assembly session.
Last year, Kemp signed Senate Bill 319, a “constitutional carry” measure allowing Georgians to carry guns without needing a state-issued license. State Democrats derided the move, saying it would lead to more shootings in the state.
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A dozen individuals have been charged in a gun-running conspiracy that funneled firearms from Tennessee and Kentucky to Chicago, according to a release from the Department of Justice (DOJ).
In total, the 12 individuals are facing a 21-count indictment with charges for dealing in firearms without a license, transporting and receiving firearms into another state, making false statements to a federally licensed firearm dealer, and multiple other offenses.
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Wednesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed retired LA Sheriff Department Sergeant Richard Valdemar to the microphones to discuss the effects of illegal immigration and their involvement with cartels and gangs.
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Nine suspected members of the Mara Salvatrucha (or MS-13) Salavadoran criminal gang received a 60-count indictment from a federal grand jury in Nashville, TN, the U.S. Department of Justice announced on Wednesday.
The alleged gangsters face charges of seven murders and other racketeering-related offenses, including kidnappings, thefts, assaults and drug purveyance.
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Police departments in several major cities would not say if gang violence in the region has increased in the last year, despite an overall increase in reports of violent crime.
Some police departments said the motive behind crimes isn’t always known while multiple others said they would not be able to provide any information unless a formal records request was submitted.
Over 1,600 violent crimes were recorded in 2021 and reported homicides were up 13% from last year in Washington, D.C., according to the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD). The MPD does not publicly report instances of gang-related activity or offenses.
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A spokesperson for the Portland Police Bureau told the Daily Caller News Foundation Thursday that the department doesn’t track gang activity despite reports detailing an increase in gang violence in the city.
Police officials estimate half of the 470 shootings that have injured more than 140 people in Portland, Oregon, this year were gang-related, the Associated Press reported June 10. Law enforcement officials have been investigating multiple shooting incidents a week where between 50 and 70 shots were fired as gang attacks increase.
“In Portland, ‘gang violence’ is not a category of crime,” a department spokesperson told the DCNF Wednesday.
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by Neetu Chandak Twenty-four alleged MS-13 gang members are facing federal indictment for several crimes, according to a press release by the Department of Justice on Friday. The gang members and their apprentices were allegedly involved with five murders, drug trafficking, kidnapping, extortion, and also allegedly planned to murder eight people between 2015 to 2017, according to a report by the Justice Department. Currently, 21 of the 24 members are known while the other six names, both members and associates, have not been revealed. The DOJ is heavily cracking down on MS-13, known as one of the “most notorious street gangs in the Western Hemisphere,” according to Insight Crime. The gang is primarily composed of El Savadorian immigrants that dominate Frederick, Anne Arundel, Prince George, and Montgomery counties in Maryland. The gang recruits kids to, “their murderous ranks, destroying families, and leaving behind countless victims,” said acting assistant Attorney General Cronan. The indictment was given on June 27 and opened on June 28. The members were scheduled to appear in the U.S. District Court of Baltimore starting on June 28. – – – Neetu Chandak is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation. Follow Neetu on Twitter. …
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By Natalia Castro Since the 2016 election, President Donald Trump has waged war on gangs within the U.S., most notably, the violent MS-13. For nearly 40 years, MS-13 has grown across the United States and Central American to become one of the deadliest gangs in the world. To understand the best method of combatting their continued rise, we must first understand who these people are and how they have grown to take over American cities. What began in the 1970s as a group of low-level drug users in Los Angeles emerged into a violent and satanic group in the early 1980s. Dara Lind of Vox Media explains, the LAPD’s first reference to the group was of the “Mara Salvatrucha Stoners,” but as Civil War in El Salvador and conflict with Nicaragua intensified it brought waves of illegal immigrants hardened from escaping violence in their home country. Immigrants from El Salvador flooded areas dominated by Mexican-American gangs and used brutal tactics, such as machete killings, to take control over the area and expand. The BBC of April 2017 reported that U.S. intelligence data suggested the gang has spread to 46 states and maintains an international presence of at least 60,000 members. The group operates…
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by Will Racke More than 100 suspected members of MS-13 and other gangs were released last year by sanctuary jurisdictions even though federal authorities had formally requested that they be held, according to newly released data from the Department of Homeland Security. Between October 2016 and June 2017, local law enforcement agencies released 142 gang members that immigration authorities were seeking to deport instead of transferring them to federal custody. The prisoners were subjects of active immigration detainers, which are formal requests made by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to local authorities to hold criminal aliens until federal agents can pick them up. The releases occurred in 37 separate jurisdictions, according to a Center for Immigration Studies report on the data, which was compiled in response to a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the rise of MS-13. With the exception of Maricopa County, Arizona, all are considered sanctuary jurisdictions because they refuse to honor ICE detainers that aren’t backed by a criminal warrant or, in some cases, notify immigration authorities of a criminal alien’s release date. About two-thirds of the releases occurred in California, which has a statewide sanctuary law that limits cooperation between local officials and immigration authorities. Santa Clara County led the…
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Threats of gang violence led to the cancellation of Fourth of July fireworks in Hamlet, North Carolina. Hamlet City Manager Jonathan Blanton said officials did not rush into their decision, calling it “very devastating,” WSOC-TV Channel 9 reports. People normally crowd the streets of downtown Hamlet, 80 miles southeast of Charlotte, for the annual Independence Day celebration. Investigators said the threats were about gang-retaliation for the murder last week of Tierrell Martin outside a Hamlet convenience store. The threats were not directed at police or spectators, but officials wanted to be as safe as possible. Some were angered by the decision and lashed out at officials on the city’s Facebook page, calling the decision cowardly and insisting that the event should have gone ahead with enhanced security. Some critics contrasted the city’s decision with the bravery and determination of those who fought for America’s freedom, the reason for the Fourth of July holiday. Martin, 20, was fatally shot around 12:15 a.m. last Wednesday in the parking lot of a Circle B convenience store in an area that is “rife with shootings and robberies” believed to be gang-related, according to the Richmond County Daily Journal. Martin had a criminal past and had spent time…
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