Texas detective: gangs in the military pose problems

[unhappycamper]

Texas detective: gangs in the military pose problems
By Chris Vaughn | Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Posted on Friday, September 10, 2010

FORT WORTH -- It's not particularly palatable to think about, but there are gang members in the military, serving overseas and gaining valuable weapons and tactical training.

Not only does Killeen gang detective John Bowman know that firsthand, but he also said it shouldn't be that surprising.

"The military is a slice of life from the nation as a whole," Bowman said during a meeting of gang officers and experts gathered in Fort Worth this week for a Safe City Commission-sponsored conference.

Bowman, an Army veteran and 20-year police officer in the city adjoining Fort Hood in Central Texas, said the presence of gangs in the armed forces is not just a problem for people like him. He said it affects many of the nation's cities and counties, while the troops are in service and certainly when they get out.

"Don't let the fact that you don't have a base near you blind you to the problem," he said. "The gang members at Fort Hood get their dope from Fort Worth, Dallas and Houston. The Gangster Disciples at Fort Hood are directly linked to the Gangster Disciples in Houston."

[AnneD]

1. Went to an AFT Nursing conference ....

over 4 years ago. We had a guest speaker on gang awareness. The most shocking thing was when he mentioned gangs in the military. He said they were volunteering. Imagine gangs with heavy weapons training. The local law enforcement won't stand a chance. Don't believe it-he showed us some buddy military photos from Iraq and Afghanistan. These guys were throwing gang signs in the pics. These wars are a gift that will keep on giving.

[NNN0LHI]

2. Wonder why this good old boy doesn't mention the Neo-Nazis in the army?

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/06/15/neo_nazis_army

Neo-Nazis are in the Army now

Why the U.S. military is ignoring its own regulations and permitting white supremacists to join its ranks.

On a muggy Florida evening in 2008, I meet Iraq War veteran Forrest Fogarty in the Winghouse, a little bar-restaurant on the outskirts of Tampa, his favorite hangout. He told me on the phone I would recognize him by his skinhead. Sure enough, when I spot a white guy at a table by the door with a shaved head, white tank top and bulging muscles, I know it can only be him.

Over a plate of chicken wings, he tells me about his path into the white-power movement. "I was 14 when I decided I wanted to be a Nazi," he says. At his first high school, near Los Angeles, he was bullied by black and Latino kids. That's when he first heard Skrewdriver, a band he calls "the godfather of the white power movement." "I became obsessed," he says. He had an image from one of Skrewdriver's album covers — a Viking carrying a staff, an icon among white nationalists — tattooed on his left forearm. Soon after he had a Celtic cross, an Irish symbol appropriated by neo-Nazis, emblazoned on his stomach.

At 15, Fogarty moved with his dad to Tampa, where he started picking fights with groups of black kids at his new high school. "On the first day, this bunch of niggers, they thought I was a racist, so they asked, 'Are you in the KKK?'" he tells me. "I said, 'Yeah,' and it was on." Soon enough, he was expelled.



White supremacist James Douglas Ross was a military intelligence officer in Iraq.

[Scuba]

3. This is a symptom...

We have repeatedly lowered our recruiting standards in an attempt to fill the damand of the meatgrinder. I saw this when I served during the VietNam war. I can see where it could be even more of a problem today.

If there was a draft today, the outrage over the wars would be front page news every day.

[Loki]

4. As far back as 2006

the Southern Poverty Law Center had been tracking hate groups infiltrating the military. There was an article about Aryan Nations graffiti being seen in Baghdad. When you want your members to learn tactics, how to infiltrate groups, how to think and act like a military operation, what do you do? But no one was listening. Now when these killers are coming home to roost, they start paying attention? Too little, too late.