ON THE CUTTING EDGE: Salinas Declares “War” On Gang Warfare
Salinas, CA, is arguably the epicenter of gang violence in CA and the city’s mayor, Dennis Donohue, has turned to the U.S. military to apply the same counterinsurgency tactics that have been used in Iraq and Afghanistan, reports The Washington Post:
"This is our surge," said Donohue, who solicited the assistance from the elite Naval Postgraduate School, 20 miles and a world away in Monterey. …
"It's a little laboratory," said retired Col. Hy Rothstein, the former Army career officer in Special Forces who heads the team of 15 faculty members and students, mostly naval officers taking time between deployments to pick up a master's degree. Their effort in Salinas counts as extracurricular and is necessarily voluntary, given the constitutional bar on the military operating within U.S. borders. …
Gangs and police compete in the aftermath of gang shootings - witnesses in a position to see everything share nothing with police. Their silence is so absolute that after a killing in August, a department spokesman told the local paper that police were "absolutely begging" for witnesses.
The distrust rises partly from differences of culture and language: Many Hispanics in the city have roots in nations where police are often viewed as predators. …
Going after insurgents, he said, involves "trying to capture the allegiance and control of the population. Gang members are trying to do the same."
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