By: Roberto Lovato
Alex Sanchez is one of the most respected gang intervention leaders in the country. LA Police Chief Richard Bratton has been jealous and been targeting Sanchez for years.
Today’s FBI arrest of Alex Sanchez, one of the most respected gang intervention leaders in the country, has raised major concerns in Los Angeles and around the country. As his wife and children watched, Sanchez, who leads Homies Unidos, a violence prevention and gang intervention organization with offices in Los Angeles and El Salvador, was arrested and taken away by FBI agents this morning at his home in Bellflower. The federal charges- being a “shotcaller (someone who manages narcotics operations) for Mara Salvatrucha (MS) and conspiring to kill Walter Lacinos, an MS member shot and killed in El Salvador in 2006- have raised fears and great concerns among the many who’ve known and worked with Sanchez over the years, including myself.
First and foremost among the concerns in the community are concerns for Alex’s immediate safety. As a former gang member who works to help others leave gang life, Alex faces great danger in whatever LA County facility he’s held in-even if he’s put under Protective Custody (PC). Law enforcement authorities have an axe of historic proportions (see Rampart scandal) to grind against Alex and some have demonstrated a lethal propensity towards retribution. Known as “Pecetas”, those held under PC are considered by many gang members to be informants and, therefore, legitimate targets for direct retribution from gang members -and direct and indirect retribution from police.
For more reasons than I have time to enumerate here, I for one do not believe the charges. Rather, I think that these recent accusations are but the most recent in the long, rotten chain of attempts by law enforcement officials to frame Alex, who was regularly beaten, framed, falsely arrested, deported and harassed by the Los Angeles Police Department since founding Homies Unidos in 1998. First and foremost, I spent the evening calling those who know and have worked most closely with him, and they ALL share that sense that, as one of his best friends told me, “He really is a good person.” I’ve known him for years and will be sending a strongly worded support letter like the many I’ve sent over the course of the many years and many frame-ups law enforcement has ravenously pursued. Those close to Homies and Alex know and are again feeling that cloud of anger and concern that comes with being harassed by authorities abusing the power delegated to them.
Also, Alex is alleged to have conspired to kill Walter Lacinos, who sources in the Salvadoran and gang communities tell me had, in the words of one gang expert interviewed, “many, many enemies in the U.S.-and El Salvador.” While most of charges levelled against most of the the 24 other plaintiffs point to physical acts and evidence, the one and most serious indictment (see full indictment here) naming Alex alleges that he participated in “a series of phone conversations” in which the possibility of killing Lacinos is discussed. No proof is offered to corroborate the charges relating to managing narcotics operations for MS.
Lastly, the sensationalistic judgements of many media and some law enforcement officials raises serious concerns, as well. Close scrutiny of the media coverage reveals an definite disposition to judge and convict Alex even before his trial begins. For example, almost all of the coverage follows uncritically the logic laid out in the indictment. No attempt is made to notice that, for example, Alex is not named in most of the 66-page indicment. Other plaintiff’s names appear throughout. Those reading reporting in the LA Times and other outlets might come away believing that Alex might be involved in the murder of seven people or in conspiring to kill another 8. Consider this note from today’s LA Times:
The arrests cap a three-year investigation into the gang and its cliques, which operated in the Lafayette Park area, west of downtown. Among the most serious allegations contained in a 16-count federal indictment unsealed today was the claim gang members conspired to murder veteran LAPD gang officer Frank Flores.
Those named in the indictment include Alex Sanchez, a nationally recognized anti-gang leader and executive director of Homies Unidos.
Notice how there’s zero attempt to clarify or give greater context to Alex’s story, even though he headlines most of these stories. Even worse is the way that law enforcement authorities like L.A. Police Chief Bill Bratton, who the Times tells us has a big “I told you so” for the city, use Alex’s case to build the case for punitive-and failed-anti-gang policies,
LAPD Chief William J. Bratton said the Sanchez case reinforces the thinking behind the city’s efforts to consolidate and more strongly regulate anti-gang funding.
Bratton is no stranger to racially charged policing policies in New York or in Los Angeles (ie; Bratton was roundly repudiated when he first tried to apply the “terrorist” frame to L.A. gangs). Neither he nor any other L.A. official has accepted responsibility for helping create Mara Salvatrucha in L.A. and El Salvador, a country with no previous history of gangs before LAPD collaborated with immigration authorities to deport Mara members. Adding fuel to the fire burning to replace the anti-gang work of Homies Unidos with more punitive, law enforcement-centered approaches favored by Bratton and his, boss, L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, are reports like this one which have begun a non-profit and politico witch hunt even before Alex has seen a single day in court. Rather than look more deeply into the charges, media, political and police personalities appear bent on assuming Alex’s guilt and then waving this alleged guilt as if it’s a flag at the front of the contemporary equivalent of a witch hunt.
Although the story of Alex Sanchex touches upon people and issues-immigrants, gangs, Salvadorans- that are explained-and dealt with- simplistically, dangerously, the leadership of Los Angeles must speak out in defense not just of Alex, but of a fundamental principal of a just society: that you are innocent until proven otherwise.
Much more on this important issue in weeks and days to come.
written by Roberto Lovato | Of América | June 25, 2009
Added note here’s an excellent assesment of things.. it was in the comment section of LA Times
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Due in large to the “Gang Peace” movement and activist like Alex Sanchez ( Sanchez using his influence to stop many, many killing and retaliation), Los Angeles is not even on the most violent city list after 20 years! Do you know how much the City allocate toward high risk Intervention program like Homies Unidoes annually? about $3.5 million…..and that’s for the entire City! (Check it for yourself). I bet you thought it was $24 million, the bogus number that you here in the media. Compare that to what “WE”, the tax payers paid in lawsuits for LAPD last year….. I say “we” because for some reason some of you who commented of this story speak as if you are the only one paying taxes! There is no comparison when you analyze $3.5 million to $60 million (these are lawsuit, im not mentioning the Billion dollar budget that LAPD has)! Rather you are Liberal or Conservative…..we are all being taken advantage of because we fail to do our research. So what’s the real issue? Over paying Law Enforcement for a job they cant do? or under-investing in PEOPLE in communities to resolve their own problems? you choose.
Im not trying to find someone to blame, im only laying out the facts. I, like Alex and many other Fathers in our community are seeking to find balance and alternative solutions to the conflicts that have raged out of control for decades in our neighborhoods. Yes, we take responsibility for the role we played in our own wounding. And Yes, we are equally prepared and skilled to provide the solutions to our own healing. Why is this not exceptable? who is more qualified to provide healing and solution to urban street gang wars then those who have healed from their childhood truama that had them gang banging in the streets? Oh, you think that gang violence is the problem? Sorry, Gang violence is only the symptom of the real problem which is rooted in the sexual, physical and psychological abuse we have ALL suffered, in many cases at HOME first. You think your different because you grew up on the “West Side” or Signal Hills? In South Central the Sexual, Physical and Psychological abuse expresses itself as HOMICIDE, in affluent communities SUICIDE. Just opposite sides of the same coin. WE ARE THE SAME! You know why, because sexual, physical and psychological abuse are all tools of COLONIZATION…..The U.S. was built on violence, starting with the Manifest Destiny (massacre of Natives, enslavement of people of Africa Descent and the spoon feeding of the lie of “supremecy” to people of European Descent) and still is the most violent country on the planet. Have we forgotten? I consider gang culture the “shadow” of our great nation:-)…..neither perpetration of violent acts are right, however to blame is to sustain the ignorance that duality has created.
We are still playing out the slave masters games on each other. Whether Alex is here illegally or not ( We are a country of immigrants!), he is a good man, a GREAT Father and a TAX PAYER! He deserves the right to have his day in court to prove himself innocent against these allegation. I admire him for the sacrifices he’s made in his community to stop the killing against all odds. and the message of peace he has taken back to his mother country(El Salvador) under death treats…For those who have something to say negative about this man and dont know him…Your feet would dangle in his shoes!
He is Innocent until proven guilty……That’s American!