Black And Hispanic Gangs Are Battling For Turf In U.S. Cities

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Los Angeles, California is having a major problem with gang violence. It isn't just blacks attacking blacks and Hispanics preying on fellow Hispanics. Over the last several years, the violence has become racially motivated where blacks are increasingly killing Hispanics because many of them are illegal immigrants.

The explosion of illegal Hispanic immigrants is a threat to the blacks in Compton, California. In the Harbor Gateway community of Los Angeles, 206th Street is where the forces meet, so to speak. ''Blacks understand it is not safe to cross over to the Hispanic side and Hispanics know it is not safe to cross over to the black side.''

The Florence-Firestone neighborhood in L.A. County has been particularly violent where 20 homicides have occurred in the last several years. Federal prosecutors have charged members of a Latino gang with trying to drive blacks out of this neighborhood.

L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca wrote in a newspaper editorial that the gangs aren't really ''gangs'' at all in the technical sense of the word but just random black and Hispanic youths roaming the streets looking to kill someone of another color.

A homicide that garnered quite a bit of attention was the shooting death of Jamiel Shaw II in March of this year. He was killed near his Los Angeles home. Shaw II was a football player who had talent. A 19 year-old illegal immigrant gang member by the name of Pedro Espinoza is accused of the crime. He is a member of the 18th Street gang. He has a large ''18'' tattooed on his back and a smaller 18 tattooed near his left eye. He also has the letters BK tattooed behind his left ear. ''Gang experts say BK stands for ''Blood Killer.'' Espinoza has pleaded not guilty to the charge but a witness quotes him days after the shooting saying that he is going to wipe all the Bloods out.

In May, a race riot between black and Hispanic high school students broke out at Dominguez High School in Compton, California. One student was suspended and eight others were arrested.

Murder is the leading cause of death for blacks that are 10-24 years of age in the United States and it's the second leading cause of death for Hispanics in this age group.

Tension is running high in Coatesville, Pennsylvania which is near Philadelphia. Blacks are attacking Hispanics by assaulting, robbing and raping them. Police Chief William Matthews warns if the violence isn't contained quickly, rival Hispanic gangs will form and violence could uncontrollably ensue.

Matthews believes that African-Americans are targeting Hispanics because they don't speak English and know that they probably won't report the crimes to police for fear of having their citizenship status exposed. Many of the Hispanics are illegal immigrants. Many of the Hispanics regard the police as criminal gangs because this is how they experienced the police in their native countries.

MS-13 is a violent Latin gang similar to the Latin Kings. However, Jorge Cornell, who is the head of the Latin Kings gang, held a news conference in North Carolina last week asking that all the gangs put their weapons down across the country and try to work for peace. ''What I'm asking these leaders to do is if you've got one that's going to start trouble with the other, don't let those two, you know, let it get physical. And if it does, don't let it cause a war. Let's bring it to the attention of those leaders and let those leaders deal with their own.''