Results tagged “gangs”

Earlier this week, according to SF Chron, 18-year-old Christopher Borgzinner, an actor who plays a "thug" in the up coming film La Mission , was brutally beaten while riding the 9-San Bruno to acting class. It seems Borgzinner was mugged and attacked because he was wearing the wrong kind of shoes.

Of the three men arrested in connection with Sunday's Papa Potrero's shooting death, San Francisco prosecutors charged a 19-year-old Andres Siordia with one count of murder. If you recall, the double shooting, which is alleged to have stemmed from friction between "separate factions of the Norteno street gang," claimed the lives of SF residents Francisco Pena, 41, and Francisco Cornejo, 26.

Over at Pit Boss Barbeque, a restaurant located in Richmond at 12889 San Pablo Ave., two people were shot and killed around 7:30 p.m. on Sunday night. The victims have been identified as Alvaro Garcia Jr., 23, and Intaz Ahmed, 32. While no motives have officially been determined, the shootings might have been gang-related. Four men are being questioned about what went down.

MS-13 sorority sisters Danilo Velasquez,, 28, and Luis Herrera, 18, were arrested yesterday in connection with the shooting death of Moises Frias Jr., a Daly City college student. It seems the two members of the notorious (and notoriously dimwitted) MS-13 gang mistook Frias for a rival gang member. Why? Because he was "wearing the wrong-colored baseball cap and sweater."

Yesterday, after SFist asked why the San Francisco murder rate in 2009 has been so low, the Examiner answered: Mayor Gavin Newsom.

A federal jury found former Page Street Gang member Dennis Cyrus guilty of drug racketeering and three counts of murder, including the killing of federal witness Ray Jimmerson in 2002. The Obama administration's Justice Department had recently taken over the case. which is being prosecuted by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who opposes the death penalty but said he would "enforce the law as this Congress gives it to us," refused to accept a plea deal with Cyrus' defense attorneys in exchange for a life sentence. Next week, the jury will decide whether to give Cyrus the death penalty. This would be the first time a federal jury has given the death penalty here since 1948, when two Alcatraz inmates got the gas chamber for a deadly 1946 escape attempt.

A total of five people were arrested after the FBI carried out a bust in San Francisco and Oakland this morning. According to the FBI, eight locations were targeted, including one in San Francisco’s Hayes Valley hood near the corner of Webster and Fell streets. While the raids are similar to gang busts that happened just last month -- wherein the FBI "netted about three dozen suspects on drug and weapon charges" in the city of Richmond -- there's no word yet if this most recent Bay Area sting is related.

Attorney General Jerry Brown will announce a major crackdown on street gangs today. Early this morning, agents presented more than 40 search warrants and 43 arrest warrants at Richmond locations -- e.g., One raid in the area of Eighth Street and Barrett Avenue in Richmond -- part of a gang enforcement operation.

Seven youths and one 18-year-old, Duc Truong, were arrested yesterday in connection with several assaults on other juveniles in the San Francisco's Richmond and Taraval hoods over the last few weeks. All of them are thought to be a part of some sort of "Chinese gang" gaily called the "True Brothers" gang. It seems "five attacks took place over the past two months and involved the suspects attacking the victims with baseball bats and knives." Do you know anything about this very real order of fraternity? Then please call SFPD's anonymous tip line at (415) 575-4444 now. Also, this brings up a critical question, who would win in a fight: True Brothers or Sureños? Our money is on the latter. (CBS 5)

Better dead than red? Some are saying it's one and the same -- that is, if you live in Mission.

The murder of Tony Bologna and his two sons (allegedly) at the hands of MS-13 hang member Edwin Ramos, 21, was initially reported as an incident of road rage. But? It tuns out it was, in fact, a case of mistaken identity. See, Ramos assumed the car was filled with rival gang members because "the people in the car were similar to Hispanic males." Scary. Also, MS-134 should consider an eye exam and IQ test to their murder/rape initiation process. Read more about it here.

Member of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) street gang -- considered "one of the most dangerous street gangs in San Francisco" -- Edwin Ramos, 21, of El Sobrante was arrested for last Sunday's road-rage shooting deaths of Tony Bologna and his two sons, Michael and Matthew.

The Mission District's shooting fad sees no signs of slowing down.

If that's the case, then the scarlet- and periwinkle-colored Mission district gangs continue their warring at a steady, gruesome pace.

In what's turning into a slapfight between city attorneys over civil gang injunctions, public defender Jeff Adachi recently sent a proposal over the Board of Supes that, according to the Examiner, "would give named alleged gang members priority when it comes to receiving city services, including, 'city funded economic development, employment, vocation, educational, housing, asset building, mental health, drug treatment and social service programs.' And Dennis Herrera is none too pleased.

There's been so many murders lately that it's hard to find a new twist on the stories, so here's one: a Pizza Hut pizza delivery man was shot and killed in the Richmond last night as he was trying to deliver a pizza. Apparently, he got lost and was wandering around trying to find the house he was supposed to deliver the pizza too and when he was stopped by several men trying to rob him. When he tried to run away, he was shot in the back, something that anyone who has ever seen a Western knows is the coward's way.

-- Gargantuan steroid sting nabs two Bay Area brothers. [SJ Merc]

You know we usually try to hoard up all the crime-type news for the Tuesday and Friday blotters, but there was enough vaguely unsettling news this weekend to warrant a post a little early, we thought. To wit:

Last week's winner, the East Bay Express. Dream cartoonist: Fascist zombies versus Marxist ones. So hard to tell the difference sometimes! The situation with the Oakland Trib union. Internal disputes at an East Bay lesbian bar. Cover article: should you store your baby's umbilical cord blood or donate it? Hand-churned ice cream in Fruitvale. Hey, we didn't know I Like Eating is a teacher! We would totally be in I Like Eating's homeroom class! Yoshi's on their new SF expansion. And the Crowded House reunion tour.

-- The 2007 Bay Area Rhythm Exchange: Stepology (which we can only hope is very much like "Vibeology") presents tap stars Channing Cook-Holmes (Riverdance, Gangs of New York, Bojangles), John Kloss (Tap Heat), Deborah Mitchell (The Cotton Club, Black and Blue), Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards (Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk, Bamboozled), Sam Weber (Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood). 8 p.m., Herbst Theatre (SF War Memorial and Performing Arts Center), 401 Van Ness; $19-$22.

Remember that couple we told you about that was stealing stuff from open houses? They got busted by the OnStar in their rental Hummer. Police won't reveal where they were, except to say they were "out of state."

City Attorney Dennis Herrera took a break from harassing that nice Ed Jew today, introducing a lawsuit against three gangs. Our knowledge of streetgang etiquette is pretty much zero, but we can't imagine the "Knock Out Posse" will be giving him the courtesy of an RSVP. At any rate, the plan is to use an injunction to impose stiffer penalties for gang activity in certain areas. In the past, this technique worked against the Oakdale Mob, Dennis' office says, so hopefully it'll work again now. Now all's we need is some spiffy police work to back the injunction up.

Anyone who's ridden Muni in the middle of a weekday is quite familiar with this scenario. As your bus pulls up to it's stop, you see a dozen or two school kids anxiously waiting to step up and embark Muni. You and your fellow passengers groan and brace yourselves for the ensuing chaos. (Mind you, we enjoy the company of kids but not groups of them in enclosed spaces.) Last Friday morning was our most recent encounter of this kind, and we were inspired to compile all of our of "gangs of kids" on Muni memories. Feel free to share your kid/Muni invasion experiences in the comments! Friday's ride played out like this: We were riding the 49 along Van Ness, when we were soon invaded by about ten to fifteen 10/11-year-olds. Although we were at the back of the double-bus with no vantage point of the stop, we had a bit of a warning about this invasion when the bus, in the process of pulling up to the stop, was met by the collective, high-pitched screams of several young girls. We were like, oh no, did one of them get run over? Luckily not—they were just excited about the novelty of riding Muni. And maybe the driver looked like Justin Timberlake or Usher? (We can't exactly remember what our driver looked like, but we think he probably looked more like Pat Morita. And by the way, who are the tweens loving these days, anyway?) About six of these said young girls decided to all congregate in the middle, bendy part of the bus, so that they could scream every time they lost their balance, while at the same time blocking the railings for passengers attempting to get past them. We're not sure which was worse—the prepubescents' ear-piercing screams or the ear-piercing yells of their teenaged chaperones behind us who were telling them to quit screaming. One of the "chaperones" also loudly said, "I'm sure these people didn't pay to hear you scream." And we thought to ourselves, "We didn't pay to hear you scream about their screaming either," but we all know it's more than likely futile to try to communicate with power-hungry teenagers on Muni. Luckily, we soon found ourselved getting off at City Hall to buy our Fast Pass with our first commuter check at Room 140. (Until we remembered that security checks your bags at City Hall, and we had two-days worth of dirty yoga clothes stuffed in ours. Yuck.) More kids invade Muni after the jump!

We are giddy with glee to welcome Richard, author of the Sparkletack blog and podcast, to the SFist family. Richard's encyclopedic knowledge of San Francisco's past makes his history podcast mandatory listening for anyone who cares about the city -- where we came from, how we got here, and why we're so bizarre. His expertise stretches back hundreds of years, and we're totally hooked on his ability to link modern-day San Franciscoisms to their old-timey roots.

The Hell's Angels are throwing themselves a three day celebration in Oakland this weekend in honor of it being their 50th anniversary and it's going to be fabulous. There'll be a Tupperware party and a Sandra Bullock film festival plus such classes as "Fixing Your Hog," "How to Rekindle Romance with Your Old Lady While on the Road" and "The Semiotics of Tattoos."

Since this story is now the #1 most read story on SFGate, we feel we would be remiss in not covering it. Give the people what they want and all that. So anyways, a 7th grader in a school in Napa got in trouble at school for wearing socks with Winnie the Pooh's BFF Tigger on it. And now the ACLU wants in.

-The Chron plays "I Love the Radical '70s" -As Ron Dellums isn't in Davos, he'll be at the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Boing Boing tips us off to this awesome short 1961 film about juvenile delinquency, and how gangs can help curb the trend towards teenage lawlessness. And by "gangs" we mean "clubs," as that's what they're called here. The most awesome thing about this video? It's all in San Francisco. And you'll probably need a jive dictionary to translate the narration.

After the supposed success in levying an injunction against the Oakdale mob, City Attorney Dennis Herrera is thinking about seeking an injunction against two notorious Mission Street gangs, the Sureños and Norteños.

Almost exactly a year ago, we reviewed "Less Than Hero," by local artists Jason McNamara and Tony Talbert. They've got a new book out now, and it's called "Continuity," possibly because it seems to continue and continue and continue. Why oh why is this book an estimated five thousand pages long? Brevity, people. We'll have a few more words to say about it in a minute, but first we want to get in some sentences about "The Pirates of Coney Island," by Rick Spears and Vasilis Lolos.