Irregular Army: The rise of gangs in the US military
Gang-bangers know a lot about war – it’s their raison d’être. But until the ‘war on terror’ that expertise had never wholesale shifted from the inner city to the U.S. military, from South Central to Baghdad
By Matt Kennard on Friday, July 17th, 2009 - 726 words.
Gang-bangers know a lot about war – it’s their raison d’être. But until the ‘war on terror’ that expertise had never wholesale shifted from the inner city to the U.S. military, from South Central to Baghdad.
According to the FBI’s own National Gang Intelligence report, released in January 2006, “Gang-related activity in the military is increasing and poses a threat to law enforcement officials and national security.”
FBI gang investigator Jennifer Simon told Stars and Stripes, “It’s no secret that gang members are
prevalent in the armed forces, including internationally.” She said gang member had been documented on or near U.S. military bases in Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea and Iraq.
In Iraq it’s not uncommon to see armored vehicles, concrete barricades and bathroom walls serving as canvasses for gang graffiti. Signs like “GDN” for Gangster Disciple along with the gang’s six-pointed star.
The U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command reported 61 gang investigations and incidents in 2006, compared to just 9 in 2004. Some experts say that up to 2 percent of soldiers on active duty – that’s 20,000 – are members of a gang.
Scott Barfield is a former Defense Department gang detective. He told the Chicago Sun-Times that he had identified more than 300 soldiers at the base (what base?) as gang members. “I think that’s the tip of the iceberg,” he said. “It’s often in the military’s best interest to keep these incidents quiet, given low recruitment numbers and recent negative publicity. The relaxation of recruiting standards, recruiter misconduct and the military’s lack of enforcement (gang membership is not prohibited in the Army) have compounded the problem and allowed gang member presence in the military to proliferate.”
One infamous case of gang-related crimes in the U.S. Army took place in Germany on the night of July 3 2005 when Sgt. Juwan Johnson was battered to death by eight other soldiers as part of the initiation rights in the ‘Gangster Disciples’.
“I feel like I didn’t prepare him enough to deal with this and I should have,” his mother said. “But how would I have known there were gangs in the military? I could have had that talk with him.”
A report in 2006 surfaced that a Marine reservist and Maniac Latin Disciple gang member who had been in Iraq was being charged with attempted murder in the shooting of three teenagers in Aurora, Ill.
The FBI report explicitly warns of this future saying that while allowing gang members to service in the military may temporarily help meet recruitment goals, U.S. communities will be faced with violence and disruption as the soldiers return home to the inner-city streets. Even while serving, a Milwaukee police detective tells the San Francisco Chronicle, “Gang members are going over to Iraq and sending weapons back.”
The military itself recognizes it should have more of a handle on it. “If we weren’t in the middle of fighting a war, yes, I think the military would have a lot control over this issue,” said Hunter Glass, a retired police detective in Fayetteville, North Caroline, the home of Ft. Bragg and the 82nd Airborne. “But with a war going on, I think it’s very difficult to do.”
The situation had got so bad in 2008 that when the military planned to transfer 10,000 troops to Fort Bliss, Texas, the FBI feared a turf war between “members of the FolkNation gang… [and] a criminal group that is already well-established in the area, Barrio Azteca.” The New York Sun quoted an FBI agent as saying, “FolkNation, which was founded in Chicago and includes several branches using the name Gangster Disciples, has gained a foothold in the Army.”
There have also been numerous reports of recruiters trying to cover up the history of gang-members. In 2005 a Latin King member was allegedly recruited into the Army at a Brooklyn, NY, courthouse, while awaiting trial for assaulting a police officer. He was allegedly told to conceal his gang affiliation, according to journalist Rod Powers.
The reasons for gangs joining up are according to the FBI twofold; first, some may enlist to escape their gang lifestyle. But more plausibly members enlist to receive weapons, combat and convoy support training; to get access to weapons and explosives, or as an alternative to incarceration (gang-members have been offered clemency in exchange for service). The ‘moral waivers’ being granted to felons and other criminals undoubtedly compound the problem.
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Matt Kennard
26London
Matt Kennard graduated from the Journalism School at Columbia University as a Toni Stabile Investigative scholar in 2008. He now works for the Financial Times in London. He has written for the Guardian, Salon, The Comment Factory and the Chicago Tribune, amongst others. In 2006 he won the Guardian Student Feature Writer of the Year Award
mattkennard@thecommentfactory.com
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