Are Gang Members Using Military Training?-link to video of CBS news clip

[fed-up]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/07/29/eveningnews/main3108597.shtml

Are Gang Members Using Military Training?
Military Police Have Briefed Local Police That Troops Could Be Sharing Their Skills

July 28, 2007

(CBS) Like most American cities, Columbia, South Carolina, has its share of problems, but nothing prepared the Sheriff Leon Lott for what his department discovered last August.

Four U.S. Marines – who proudly snapped pictures of each other – were recruiting local kids, some as young as 13, into the Crips street gang. The leader was a lance corporal.

"We have enough problems with local kids and what they are doing," Lott, the Richland County Sheriff, said. "But to have the Marines – someone who is trained – to come up here and recruit and give them the training they've had in the military, it scares me to death cause it tells me we're at war with these gangs."

It's a concern also raised by the FBI. In a recent report the agency warned: "Military training could ultimately result in more sophisticated and deadly gangs ... as well deadly assaults on law enforcement officers."


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