CCPOAIronwood.com - Internet Bulletin Board for Members of ISP Chapter CCPOA

Growing White Supremacist Gang Threatens Police

BUENA PARK, California (AP) — The white supremacist gang Public Enemy No. 1 began two decades ago as a group of teenage punk-rock fans from upper-middle class bedroom communities in Southern California.

Now, the violent gang that deals in drugs, guns and identity theft is gaining clout across the West after forging an alliance with the notorious Aryan Brotherhood, authorities say.

Police say the gang has compiled a “hit list” targeting five officers and a gang prosecutor — a sign of just how brazen Public Enemy has become.

“They make police officers very, very nervous,” said Cpl. Nate Booth, a gang detective with the Buena Park Police Department in Orange County.

Law enforcement officials trace the gang’s rise to shifts in the power structure inside prisons.

The Aryan Brotherhood has long been the dominant white supremacist gang behind bars, with the Nazi Low Riders acting as its foot soldiers on the outside for drug dealing and identity theft.

In 2000, officials reclassified the Low Riders as a prison-based gang and began sending its members to solitary confinement as soon as they were imprisoned.

The crackdown hurt the gang’s ability to interact with the Aryan Brotherhood, which turned to Public Enemy, authorities say. The alliance was cemented in 2005 when Donald Reed “Popeye” Mazza, an alleged leader of Public Enemy, was inducted into the Aryan Brotherhood.

The pact has increased Public Enemy’s wealth and recruiting power, said Steve Slaten, a special agent for the California Department of Corrections.

In the past three years, its ranks have doubled to at least 400, but authorities suspect there could be hundreds of other members operating under the radar. They said heavy recruiting is taking place throughout California and Arizona, and members have been picked up by police in Nevada and Idaho.

You can read the FULL ARTICLE online in the CNN Archives at:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/03/04/white.supremacist.gang.ap/index.html

CCPOA Ironwood has obtained a copy of this important memo for BU6 employees who are also military reservists. The text of the memo is below in this post, but to view the full memo in its original form via Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format click here.

FROM: CHARLOTTE MARTINEZ
STAFF LEGAL COUNSEL
DATE: March 22, 2007
RE: MILITARY RESERVISTS
The California Correctional Peace Officers’ Association (CCPOA) continues to work on
protecting the rights of our members who are both state employees and military reservists. In
order to do this, we need help from you.
We need to know how many members at your institution are reservists. (Army, Marine, Navy,
Air Force, Coast Guard or National Guard.)
We also need names and contact numbers for any employees who were activated at any time
after September 11, 2001, and returned from activation in 2006 who had any pay, other than their
basic pay, excluded from their State pay differential. Please inform these employees that if they
provide their name and contact information they will be contacted by a firm that is supporting
legislation regarding the pay differential.
Please respond by Friday, April 6, 2007, via facsimile (Attn: Charlotte Martinez (916) 372-9805)
or e-mail charlotte.martinez@ccpoa.org.
If you have any questions please feel free to call me at (916) 372-6060 extension 277 or (800)
821-6443 extension 277.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.

California Privatization Issues
March 21 - Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia expressed her opposition to reopening a private prison at Eagle Mountain. The 500-bed facility closed in 2003 shortly after a riot that killed two inmates and injured dozens. This week, Senate Republicans proposed reopening the prison as part of their plan to reduce prison overcrowding. Garcia, whose district includes Eagle Mountain, said she will only support using the prison as a minimum-security facility staffed by state correctional officers.