Gangs in the United States and worldwide have been associated with vices that degrade a country’s human life and social development. The result of cartels in the United States is described separately for each state. In the United States alone, well over 33,000 aggressive criminal organizations and prison gangs operate unlawfully in United States (Bleakley, 2019, p. 106). Many are intelligent and well-coordinated; they all employ terror to maintain control of communities and promote unlawful money-making practices, including burglary, drug, firearm smuggling, sex, human trafficking, and extortion. Numerous gang criminals continue to conduct atrocities after being imprisoned. The Latin Kings are not an exceptional gang since their activities and practices are similar to those of other units. This paper aims at discussing the evolution, relationship to criminal activities, and the effects of the gang’s illegal activities on the communities in which they operate, among other activities of the Latin Kings.
History, Origin, and Estimated Number of the Gang
The Latin Kings street crime syndicate is one of the most notorious gangs in the United States. It was founded in the 1960s in Chicago and was primarily composed of Mexican and Puerto Rican individuals (Bleakley, 2019). Founded to conquer racial discrimination and establish a kingly organization, the Latin Kings grew into a violent operation in the United States under two umbrella splinter groups (Bleakley, 2019). The two groups were Motherland, also called King Motherland Chicago, and Bloodline, New York (Bleakley, 2019). Latin Kings affiliated with the parent group is known as the Almighty Latin King Nation (ALKN), consists of over 160 organized units functioning in 158 localities across 31 states (Berardi & Bucerius, 2020, p. 145). The current Latin Kings’ affiliation in the KMC is between 20,000 and 35,000 (Berardi & Bucerius, 2020, p. 145). They are spread wholly throughout America, from Chicago, Connecticut, New York, California, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Florida, and Illinois. While Bloodline Latin Kings have a shared culture and work system with KMC and regard them as the parental, no units report to the Chicago management hierarchy.
The Gang Relationship to Crime, Violence, and Source of Income
The group’s principal source of income comes from violence and criminal activities such as the trafficking of powder cocaine, crack cocaine, morphine, and marijuana on the street. Latin Kings maintain their image as a nonprofit group while indulging in violent crimes, including vandalism, assassination, impersonation, and financial fraud (Leverso & Hsiao, 2020). Numerous investigations have established that followers of the Latin kings’ organization utilize social media to taunt and intimidate one another in the setting of criminal engagement, simulating gangbanging on the geographical street. For example, Leverso and Hsiao (2020) discovered that the internet street corner provides the gang adherents with a platform to exhibit heightened aggressive behaviors in their gang identities.
The Impact of the Gang on Adolescents and in the Communities Gang Operates
The gang has had a significant effect on people’s lives, including recreation in the respective cities they operate in. Women, especially those who live in places like Chicago and New York, have acquired anxieties about venturing outside alone, resulting in less physical exercise and increased physical and psychological stress (Bichler et al., 2019). As a response, some women have abandoned recreational pursuits, partnered up, left details about their whereabouts, brought a whistle, spray, or handgun, exercised in self-protection, or donned attire that drew little attention (Bichler et al., 2019). Bichler et al. (2019) discovered that most women living in areas occupied by the Latin Kings expressed dread of returning from recreational pursuits alone after dusk and using mass transit.
Furthermore, there have been incidences of theft and burglaries in regions occupied by the Latin Kings. Due to their aggressive nature and owning deadly weapons such as guns, it has been easy to organize robberies within their environments. Gangs contribute to a rise in crime in neighborhoods and provide a poor example for adolescents. They project an image of strength and dignity while dropping out of school, struggling with unemployment, abusing alcohol or drugs, or end up behind bars. Latin Kings commit a disproportionately high number of violent crimes. In Los Angeles and Chicago, possibly the most gang-infested in the United States, the Latin Kings were responsible for more than half of the almost 1,000 deaths documented in 2004 (Howell, 2019, p. 630). With the increased crime rates in neighborhoods occupied by the Latin Kings, people have opted to move to other cities they consider safe for themselves and their families.
Law Enforcement Interaction, and Interdiction of the Gang Illegal Operations
The United States has put in place and enacted criminal laws to help combat the illegal activities of the Latin Kings. Outside the criminal justice, such as underground nonprofit groups elevated in high crime regions, are an information source about the gangs’ activities. However, in communities with a high proportion of immigrant groups, citizens’ preconceptions about the judicial system may need to be resolved before they come forward with intelligence. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) manages databases that contain intelligence on Latin Kings, Bloods, Crips, and gang initiations (Wintemute, 2021). Police agencies have access to ATF’s criminal data and are expected to respond by supplying ATF with gang intelligence.
Police agencies have erected barriers to alleviate congestion problems caused by the Latin Kings street drugs operations. These checkpoints entail driver’s license and car registration inspections and may culminate in detention for traffic offenses and drug-related charges. If drugs are discovered, checkpoints may be viewed as a type of interdiction (Wintemute, 2021). Roadblocks are frequently used in concert with other methods such as intensive professional enforcement, incognito purchase, counter traps, and seizure of property to suppress gang activities in the communities they operate in (Wintemute, 2021). Interdiction squads have seized the gang’s drug substances and currency at transit ports (Wintemute, 2021). These teams have conducted routine patrols of terminals, utilizing drug smuggler descriptions, or acted on leads from central intelligence or contacts within the location’s security guards.
How the Gang Recruits New Members
According to reports, the most prevalent indoctrination strategy includes being tormented by other gang adherents. Nevertheless, some assert that the Kings have a more terrible method of recruiting new members, that is, surrendering up your girlfriend and letting four or more current members gang-rape her. Nonetheless, Latin Kings are aggressively promoting themselves via social media channels. They connect and spread the Gang via SnapChat, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, among other social media platforms (Leverso & Hsiao, 2021). For instance, their gang members may publish images of their firearms, narcotics, and cash. They upload recordings of their adventures, sing about them, and even take on rival gang members (Leverso & Hsiao, 2021). These online habits can lead to gangs bringing violence to the streets (Leverso & Hsiao, 2021). Therefore, the media provides an alternative to the gang to recruiting new youths who may consider joining the group.
The Race and Ethnicity of the Gang Members
Gang adherents are not exclusively minorities; whites are more heavily involved than previously believed. The Latin Kings street crime syndicate was founded in Chicago and is primarily composed of Mexican and Puerto Rican individuals (Bleakley, 2019). The Latin Kings were increasingly multiracial or multiethnic. Instead of confrontation between minority groups and whites, the evolving ethnic mix of gangs may be predisposing factors of intra-racial or ethnic tensions.
Projected Future Impact of the Gang
Despite the numerous effort by the federal government to cease the operations of the Latin Kings, the gang still operates in numbers in Motherland Chicago and other parts of the United States. The government has managed to arrest its core leaders and prosecute them. However, some of them are still managing the gang from within the prison. Through the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF), their income-generating activities have been cut short, reducing funds to finance their activities, thus becoming inactive late (Wintemute, 2021). The government projects a negligible impact of the gang on the lives of citizens that dwell in the cities they operate from.
Conclusion
In conclusion, gang-related activities have adverse effects on the lives of individuals and gang members. However, various states have come up with numerous state legislation and policies to help curb the influence of these gangs on adolescents who may be prompted to join them. Despite the unending efforts by the government through the law enforcement agencies, the Latino Kings continue to grow through social media platforms such as Facebook. Therefore, the government should not relent in its efforts to see this criminal gang entirely suppressed for the benefit of the societies they operate from.
References
Berardi, L., & Bucerius, S. (2020). Organizational turning points: The transformation of the Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation in New York City.Canadian Journal of Sociology, 45(2), 143-168. Web.
Bichler, G., Norris, A., Dmello, J. R., & Randle, J. (2019). The impact of civil gang injunctions on networked violence between the bloods and the crips.Crime & Delinquency, 65(7), 875-915. Web.
Bleakley, P. (2019). Thine is the kingdom: Reconceptualising the Latin Kings street gang through the prism of revolutionary vanguardism.International Journal of Contemporary Sociology, 56(2), 105-122. Web.
Howell, J. C. (2019). Youth gangs: nationwide impacts of research on public policy.American Journal of Criminal Justice, 44(4), 628-644. Web.
Leverso, J., & Hsiao, Y. (2021). Gangbangin on the [Face] book: Understanding online interactions of Chicago Latina/o gangs.Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 58(3), 239-268. Web.
Wintemute, G. J. (2021). Ghost guns: Spookier than you think they are.Injury Epidemiology, 8(1), 1-3. Web.