Gangs Spreading In The Military
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Gangs Spreading In The Military
(CBS) U.S. Army Sgt. Juwan Johnson got a hero's welcome while home on leave in June of 2004.
"Not only did I love my son - but my god - I liked the man he was becoming," his mother, Stephanie Cockrell, remembers.
But that trip home was the last time his family saw him alive.
When Johnson died, he wasn't in a war zone, he was in Germany.
"He had finished his term in Iraq," his mother said. "I talked to him the day before his death. He said, 'Mom, I'm in the process of discharging out. I'll be out in two weeks'."
On July 3, 2005, Sgt. Johnson went to a park not far from his base in Germany to be initiated into the 'Gangster Disciples,' a notorious Chicago-based street gang. He was beaten by eight other soldiers in a "jump-in" - an initiation rite common to many gangs.
"My son never spoke of joining a gang," Cockrell told CBS News correspondent Thalia Assuras.
Johnson died that night from his injuries. His son, Juwan Jr., was born five months later.
"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."
Evidence of gang culture and gang activity in the military is increasing so much an FBI report calls it "a threat to law enforcement and national security." The signs are chilling: Marines in gang attire on Parris Island; paratroopers flashing gang hand signs at a nightclub near Ft. Bragg; infantrymen showing-off gang tattoos at Ft. Hood.
"It's obvious that many of these people do not give up their gang affiliations," said Hunter Glass, a retired police detective in Fayetteville, North Carolina, the home of Ft. Bragg and the 82nd Airborne. He monitors gang activity at the base and across the military.
"If we weren't in the middle of fighting a war, yes, I think the military would have a lot more control over this issue," Glass said. "But with a war going on, I think it's very difficult to do."
Gang activity clues are appearing in Iraq and Afghanistan, too. Gang graffiti is sprayed on blast walls – even on Humvees. Kilroy – the doodle made famous by U.S. soldiers in World War II – is here, but so is the star emblem of the Gangster Disciples.
The soldier who took photos if the graffiti told CBS News that he's been warned he's as good as dead if he ever returns to Iraq.
"We represent America – our demographics are the same – so the same problems that America contends with we often times contend with," said Colonel Gene Smith of the Army's Office of the Provost Marshal.
The U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command reported 61 gang investigations and incidents last year, compared to just 9 in 2004. But army officials point out less than 1 percent of all its criminal investigations are gang related.
"We must remember that there are a million people in the army community," Smith said, "And these small numbers are not reflective of a tremendous, pervasive, rampant problem."
The rise in gang activity coincides with the increase in recruits with records. Since 2003, 125,000 recruits with criminal histories have been granted what are known as "moral waivers" for felonies including robbery and assault.
A hidden-camera investigation by CBS Denver station KCNC found one military recruiter was quick to offer the waiver option even when asked, "Does it matter that i was in a gang or anything?" That is well within military regulations.
"You may have had some gang activity in your past and everything ... OK ... but that in itself does not disqualify...," the recruiter said.
Military regulations disqualify members of hate groups from enlisting, but there is no specific ban on members of street gangs. Sgt. Juwan Johnson's family says such a prohibition is long overdue.
"Just maybe we can save someone else's child ... somebody else's husband ... somebody else's father," his mother said. "I would have loved to have seen him with his child, I really would have -- that part is hard, that part is hard."
This month a military court sentenced two of Juwan Johnson's attackers to prison.
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"Not only did I love my son - but my god - I liked the man he was becoming," his mother, Stephanie Cockrell, remembers.
But that trip home was the last time his family saw him alive.
When Johnson died, he wasn't in a war zone, he was in Germany.
"He had finished his term in Iraq," his mother said. "I talked to him the day before his death. He said, 'Mom, I'm in the process of discharging out. I'll be out in two weeks'."
On July 3, 2005, Sgt. Johnson went to a park not far from his base in Germany to be initiated into the 'Gangster Disciples,' a notorious Chicago-based street gang. He was beaten by eight other soldiers in a "jump-in" - an initiation rite common to many gangs.
"My son never spoke of joining a gang," Cockrell told CBS News correspondent Thalia Assuras.
Johnson died that night from his injuries. His son, Juwan Jr., was born five months later.
"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."
Evidence of gang culture and gang activity in the military is increasing so much an FBI report calls it "a threat to law enforcement and national security." The signs are chilling: Marines in gang attire on Parris Island; paratroopers flashing gang hand signs at a nightclub near Ft. Bragg; infantrymen showing-off gang tattoos at Ft. Hood.
"It's obvious that many of these people do not give up their gang affiliations," said Hunter Glass, a retired police detective in Fayetteville, North Carolina, the home of Ft. Bragg and the 82nd Airborne. He monitors gang activity at the base and across the military.
"If we weren't in the middle of fighting a war, yes, I think the military would have a lot more control over this issue," Glass said. "But with a war going on, I think it's very difficult to do."
Gang activity clues are appearing in Iraq and Afghanistan, too. Gang graffiti is sprayed on blast walls – even on Humvees. Kilroy – the doodle made famous by U.S. soldiers in World War II – is here, but so is the star emblem of the Gangster Disciples.
The soldier who took photos if the graffiti told CBS News that he's been warned he's as good as dead if he ever returns to Iraq.
"We represent America – our demographics are the same – so the same problems that America contends with we often times contend with," said Colonel Gene Smith of the Army's Office of the Provost Marshal.
The U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command reported 61 gang investigations and incidents last year, compared to just 9 in 2004. But army officials point out less than 1 percent of all its criminal investigations are gang related.
"We must remember that there are a million people in the army community," Smith said, "And these small numbers are not reflective of a tremendous, pervasive, rampant problem."
The rise in gang activity coincides with the increase in recruits with records. Since 2003, 125,000 recruits with criminal histories have been granted what are known as "moral waivers" for felonies including robbery and assault.
A hidden-camera investigation by CBS Denver station KCNC found one military recruiter was quick to offer the waiver option even when asked, "Does it matter that i was in a gang or anything?" That is well within military regulations.
"You may have had some gang activity in your past and everything ... OK ... but that in itself does not disqualify...," the recruiter said.
Military regulations disqualify members of hate groups from enlisting, but there is no specific ban on members of street gangs. Sgt. Juwan Johnson's family says such a prohibition is long overdue.
"Just maybe we can save someone else's child ... somebody else's husband ... somebody else's father," his mother said. "I would have loved to have seen him with his child, I really would have -- that part is hard, that part is hard."
This month a military court sentenced two of Juwan Johnson's attackers to prison.
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I'm reminded of the General who was watching special forces practicing for a raid on a German radar station on a cliff top in France. In capturing the station and making off with its vital parts and manuals they needed to kill the sentries swiftly and silently, break into the building without tripping the alarms, blow a safe and kidnap two operators. The General turned to their C.O. and said "We're teaching thousands of our chaps advanced burglary, murder, safe cracking and kidnapping, Lord help us when the war is over and they return to civilian life!"
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1 in 6 at Waterloo were sprung from jail to fight.
I don't have an issue with cons fighting for us, most infanteers have always been drawn from dissadvantaged backgrounds. Its how they're treated once they're in thats the important thing. That moulds them and changes them. Many young lads joining up nowadays don't have male role models and they need it.. they need to be able to give and receive respect, to work damned hard for the first time and to feel a sense of genuine accomplishment. I wonder if the military gives them that anymore?
We train them so hard that they want to be in our gang, thats the idea anyway. It could be that these kids for whatever reason, they just don't feel that sense of affinity and they look elsewhere. Idle minds devils work etc.
I don't have an issue with cons fighting for us, most infanteers have always been drawn from dissadvantaged backgrounds. Its how they're treated once they're in thats the important thing. That moulds them and changes them. Many young lads joining up nowadays don't have male role models and they need it.. they need to be able to give and receive respect, to work damned hard for the first time and to feel a sense of genuine accomplishment. I wonder if the military gives them that anymore?
We train them so hard that they want to be in our gang, thats the idea anyway. It could be that these kids for whatever reason, they just don't feel that sense of affinity and they look elsewhere. Idle minds devils work etc.
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I'm reminded of the General who was watching special forces practicing for a raid on a German radar station on a cliff top in France. In capturing the station and making off with its vital parts and manuals they needed to kill the sentries swiftly and silently, break into the building without tripping the alarms, blow a safe and kidnap two operators. The General turned to their C.O. and said "We're teaching thousands of our chaps advanced burglary, murder, safe cracking and kidnapping, Lord help us when the war is over and they return to civilian life!"
More recently we had a presentation by a little old chap who brought some of the misappropriated kit with him - a Fairbairn dagger, a spring cosh similar to the modern police truncheon, knuckle dusters etc. He said he just hoped he was not stopped by the police on the way home.
Knuckledusters were a regular feature of London's East End gangland in the 50s.
We are also good friends of an ex-RM Commando who was in Naval Party 22. He rose to become a Chief Inspector of Police. A kinder man you could never hope to meet.
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It's not the training the veterans received in the service that is a threat to society, its the attitudes they have when they re-enter civilian life.
Most of these attitudes are the same ones they entered the military with, but which have not been "reprogrammed" by the military.
A great part of this comes from the changes in the allowed training culture and methods... which have been greatly altered in the last 20 years.
When I experienced USMC basic training in 1981, a great deal of effort was expended to change our attitudes toward each other and society... we were "broken down, then built up" to respect "God (as each individual viewed the Divine), then Country, then the society and people we are tasked to protect, then each other, and lastly ourselves".
I saw a documentary 3-4 years ago on USMC basic training that had been filmed in ~2000.
Immediately obvious were the emphasis on doing nothing that "might damage the individual's self-esteem and sense of self-worth"... and the almost total elimination of any form of negative reinforcement outside of additional exercise.
They were provided with little reason to STOP thinking and acting like they did "in the hood", and not much more reason to start thinking "like Marines".
Most of these attitudes are the same ones they entered the military with, but which have not been "reprogrammed" by the military.
A great part of this comes from the changes in the allowed training culture and methods... which have been greatly altered in the last 20 years.
When I experienced USMC basic training in 1981, a great deal of effort was expended to change our attitudes toward each other and society... we were "broken down, then built up" to respect "God (as each individual viewed the Divine), then Country, then the society and people we are tasked to protect, then each other, and lastly ourselves".
I saw a documentary 3-4 years ago on USMC basic training that had been filmed in ~2000.
Immediately obvious were the emphasis on doing nothing that "might damage the individual's self-esteem and sense of self-worth"... and the almost total elimination of any form of negative reinforcement outside of additional exercise.
They were provided with little reason to STOP thinking and acting like they did "in the hood", and not much more reason to start thinking "like Marines".
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However, Greenknight121, crime rates both in the US and many Western countries has fallen dramatically since the 1980s - though there are many supposed reasons, might one of those be that ex-mil people are no longer "beaten down" then "built back up", in such a manner that they are no longer able to deal with any non-institutionalised life?
I doubt the current gang problem is any different from any other gang problem experienced by the mil in the last 100 years: the pertinent point is that they have neglected to tackle the problem as they are too busy bogged down in too many frontline battles...
I doubt the current gang problem is any different from any other gang problem experienced by the mil in the last 100 years: the pertinent point is that they have neglected to tackle the problem as they are too busy bogged down in too many frontline battles...
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If you would bother to research facts, you would find that the vast majority of ex-servicemen have NEVER been a part of the "crime wave"... and that there has been NO reduction in "crime by veterans" either.
The decrease in crime has been driven primarily by factors that are unrelated to the military, or military service, or military veterans in any way.
The decrease in crime has been driven primarily by factors that are unrelated to the military, or military service, or military veterans in any way.
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Agree with GreenKnight. Surveys in the US have strongly suggested that the bulk of the reduction in crime during the nineties was down to a combination of improved law enforcement, as pioneered by Bratten in NY - and lately LA - and rampant job creation. The increased risk of detection and several years in the soap-on-a-rope club made even menial work more lucrative in all senses to the non-hardened crim. If you have access to The Economist's online edit the reports will be archived in there.
crime rates both in the US and many Western countries has fallen dramatically since the 1980s
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The Bruneval Raid
"I'm reminded of the General who was watching special forces practicing for a raid on a German radar station on a cliff top in France".
That would have been the Bruneval raid, and believe it or not, I have an old mate here in NZ, Tom,ex-Seaforth Highlander, who was one of those parachuted in. They had an RAF Radar guy with them, a Flt Sgt Cox, and Tom confirmed when I asked him that they did indeed have orders to shoot Cox rather than let him be captured!
Tom subsequently returned to his regiment and went ashore on D-day, and carried on all the way to Germany. He is a wonderful man, now in his 80s of course, and the only hooliganism he shows today is when he gets into my Single Malt on Anzac Day!
That would have been the Bruneval raid, and believe it or not, I have an old mate here in NZ, Tom,ex-Seaforth Highlander, who was one of those parachuted in. They had an RAF Radar guy with them, a Flt Sgt Cox, and Tom confirmed when I asked him that they did indeed have orders to shoot Cox rather than let him be captured!
Tom subsequently returned to his regiment and went ashore on D-day, and carried on all the way to Germany. He is a wonderful man, now in his 80s of course, and the only hooliganism he shows today is when he gets into my Single Malt on Anzac Day!
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crime rates both in the US and many Western countries has fallen dramatically since the 1980s
Crime rates have fallen in the US because they started putting more people in jail. When they run out of space, they simply build more jails.
Crime rates in the UK have soared because we have stopped putting people in jail; instead we give them ASBOs or 'supervision' orders or community 'service' (but only after their 20th offence). And when we run out of jail spaces, we let them out early!!!!!
Surely this kind of thing cannot be tolerated in a military organisation? At the first sign of 'gang affiliation', no matter how small, the individual concerned should be immediately dismissed! What if a certain gang decided that they didn't want to follow a particular order? That is the next step we are looking at here. Under the UCMJ, the Federal Govt can pretty much do what it likes with it's servicemen, or so an American friend told me. I cannot accept that their hands are tied!
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The irony of the first post (unless I misunderstood it) is not that he was killed by a gang in the way we know it, ie "give us your wallet. oh we might as well kill you anyway" rather he was killed by a gang he was trying to join.
"Crime rates have in fact collapsed in the UK as well, despite us locking up fewer people" That's because it's against human rights to charge someone with a crime or it's too expensive, simple no charge, nothing on the stats sheet, no/low crime rate
"thirty years back all the SWOs had their own gang" yeah at Brawdy when the RAF took it over it was called his wife!
"thirty years back all the SWOs had their own gang" yeah at Brawdy when the RAF took it over it was called his wife!