On The Shelf
In case you missed it, Tony Rafael’s debut book, The Mexican Mafia, went on sale last Wednesday. Many Mayor Sam readers already know Rafael as Wally Fay, editor of In The Hat, a popular, long-running expert narrative on Los Angeles gangs, crime, cops, and politics.Described as the first book ever published on the subject, The Mexican Mafia documents the inner workings of the largely mysterious prison gang that controls a “40,000-strong street army” responsible for 100 homicides each year in Los Angeles alone.
In a radio appearance Saturday, Rafael described how La Eme is now expanding its system of “protection” levying beyond street corner drug dealers. Suffices to say, you’ll never see the weathered face of the lady selling churros at the corner of Beverly and Vermont the same again.
Rafael’s nonpartisan tone at In The Hat regularly evokes dozens of interesting and insightful comments. If his blog is any indicator, The Mexican Mafia promises to be a fascinating read that hits very close to home.
Available at Powells, Borders, and Amazon.
Labels: bloggers, crime, gangs, tony rafael
Posted by solomon @ 8/01/2007 12:24:00 PM
28 Comments:
I'm a fan of this blog, but this and the Alaskan hottie governor are completely disinteresting.
Note: this is the only comment, and it's a thumbs down. Please stick to city, council, scumbag weiss or liar & scumbag Mayor Nacho Cheese Villaritos.
3:26 - I am in complete agreement with you.
I understand; depending where you live, this may seem inconsequential. However, if you live east of Wilton, south of Venice, and/or north of Magnolia, this issue has far greater quality of life implications than the Mayor's philandering.
The interface looks good AW.
Re: Mexican mafia scourge, the inevitable byproduct when the politically correct powers-that-be allow millions of peasant illegals to invade the city and state.
Repeal Special Order 40, end sanctuary city policies, and deport all violent illegals to start. It'll never happen in this dying city though.
"The interface looks good AW."
Thank you! Much appreciated.
One of the most fascinating facts I took from the KFI interview, is that most of the top-tier members are U.S.-born, but unchecked illegal immigration has created a huge pool of victims for the group to prey upon, allowing it to grow its influence and bottom line.
I hate to sound cruel, but this is the price one pays for coming here illegally, not playing by our society's rules, and then demanding that the U.S. changes its rule to accomodate the illegals. When you do that, you expose yourselves to this scourge.
AW, I am the 3:26 poster, and your counterpoint is well-taken. I agree it must be a major problem in many parts of this city, but with all of the problems we have, it's almost like I can't handle yet another AV failure.
I'd like to see the victims of these crimes hold a rally at city hall and demand that AV start protecting them. We'll see how long their loyalty to him lasts.
4:56, your point isn't cruel at all -- it's just the reality of the situation. Obviously, dealing with these groups isn't enough of a deterrent to entering the U.S. illegally.
Apparently, paying a little protection money is still small beans compared to life in the home country.
For all of Villaraigosa's pandering, President Bush is ultimately responsible for creating this mess, the side effects of which, WE have to live with, not him.
326, 426 pm
When you talk about some city councils throughout L.A. you should be open to where they are really getting their money from.
Some of the most notorious people that are behind the politicians have movies and songs written about them.
4:16 - The interface looks good AW.
Agree, much better than before.
But can we make the threads dynamic?
We don't necessarily want the thread that was originated most recently to remain on the top.
Instead, we want the thread with the latest response (comment) to get to the top.
That way, new but boring thread that generates very few comments will get pushed down to the bottom. Interesting threads with lots of comments will remain on the top longer.
You will have much better blogging flow that way.
7:02, good point.
7:10, definitely cannot do that with Blogger, but WordPress can probably be hacked to function that way.
That's forum behavior -- I've never seen a blog operate that way -- have you?
Excellent two articles today AW
For Christ sake this blog can't be just who the Mayor is banging, who's getting eminent domained or what latest stupid thing Bitter Bernie/ Greig Smith/Bill Rosendahl/Dennis Zine did.
We're going to expand to cover other topics of interest that usually will key back into local politics. A book or article review of such is perfect there.
And we will continue national or state politics when its interesting.
If you don't like an article, don't read it. But we are trying to provide you guys with as much variety as possible.
I don't like the idea by the way about the most recent commented post being moved to the top. AW is right, that's bulletin board operations not blogs.
So go play on the freeway dum, dum.
Ok if Laura Chick needs a consultant to advise her on how to do her job she needs to get booted out. This is BS. Marcus is an Antonio lapdog and if she's going to audit the gang programs you can bet he will make her cover up the corruption pointing in his direction. Marcus is also a lobbysist for city hall so how the hell can Chick hire him. More corruption.
.....Los Angeles City Controller Laura Chick said Wednesday she has hired a former aide to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa as a $250-per-hour management consultant to advise her on policies, audits and news releases.
Carlsbad resident Marcus Allen, who spent two years as Villaraigosa's No. 2 policy advisor, will receive up to $85,000 per year as a consultant on such issues as the effectiveness of the city's anti-gang programs.
City Councilman Dennis Zine, chairman of the council committee that oversees personnel issues, questioned whether the job will pose a conflict, because Allen is also a consultant to City Hall lobbyists Harvey Englander and Arnie Berghoff.
If you believe this I have some property for you to buy and a lotto ticket that is a sure win.
......Zine pointed out that frequent targets of Chick's audits are city contractors who retain lobbyists to defend themselves against her findings. "How do you serve two masters?" he asked. "How do you serve under contract [to the controller] at the same time you're serving a lobbyist?"
Chick said she vetted such questions with Allen, whose contract requires him to divulge if he has a potential conflict of interest. Englander "won't know anything about what Marcus is doing with me," Chick said. "This is a man who understands firewalls."
The controller also promised to sever Allen's contract if she learns that Englander or Berghoff has retained the subject of an ongoing audit as a client. "If there's any perception of a conflict," Allen's contract "is over. End of story," she said.
Marcus Allen, what a joke. First he's pushed out of the mayor's office by Villaraigosa's top advisors, who ask Harvey & Arnie to take him as a favor, then comes back to terrorize us some more.
I wish Marcus would put as much energy into making things better as he did trying to get people fired.
AW, 8/1, 4:13 PM:
Maybe, but the time and city resources the Mayor uses to facilitate his philandering, and the time and city resources the Mayor uses for the resulting damage control operations, are all time and city resources not available for dealing with all of these other issues.
Plus, his incredibly bad judgment, and total loss of credibility, do not bode well for successful conclusions to complex problems of governance.
8/1, 4:16 PM:
"It'll never happen in this dying city though"
Alas too true, in my opinion.
One of Mexico's most elusive is supposed to live in Europe.
Disinteresting? You mean, uninteresting? People like you are trained to scream for sex and blood: maybe if the hottie modeled that Victoria's secret stuff, and got it on in an igloo with an Eskimo...
4:13: Antonio watch, you redeem yourself and rise about the pathetic level your associate zuma dogg has brought to this blog.
Actually, the author is VERY brave to write this book, given how revengeful EME can be.
It's very timely, too, with the CM's from the West Valley leading an attack on Bratton for putting more cops in charge of trying to control this lethal gangs where they are doing the most damage, and on protecting us from the Al Qaeda cells already here in L. A., vs. worrying about burglaries in the West Valley.
Yes, they should have cops, too, but given limited resources, we can appreciate a little better what Bratton's cops are up against.
8:41 a.m.: Did it ever occur to you that if braindead idiots like you could figure out that newspaper and worthy blogs are supposed to be about NEWS, i.e., something NEW and worthy of note, rather than rehashing the Mayor's personal life, he wouldn't have to spend his time doing "damnge control," but get on with what he's been trying to do. But to sell papers and air time to please the lowest-common denominator like you and zuma's minions, every time the Mayor shows up to talk about an issue, he's pestered with this stupid stuff.
When there is something NEW on that front, like a decision about Salinas or the Universal plans, you will hear about it. Until then, keep your knickers on top of your head.
Burke is just the tip of the iceberg as far as the impunity with which the Supes have acted imperiously, sitting behind their desks like little tyrants, with billions at their disposal, and no one overseeing them.
They've made some noises about MLK which had been a deathtrap for years, but yielded to Burke, Maxine Waters and others who tried to turn it into a civil rights issue. When "affirmative action" is applied to hospitals, it's not just unfair, it's deadly. -- Of course, since Burke wouldn't even sleep in the tonier parts of her district, she'd never be caught dead at MLK.
Supes pick the County CEO, Fujioka, who's beholden to THEM. When Chick tries to hold anything accountable, Zev bursts out of his barn like a crazy person, braying about leading some "take back our city" revolution, when he's actually afraid of what she might uncover.
He started the big building trends with Beverly Center and the Westside Pavilion, very heatedly controversial at the time. While nixing any development or even planning for mass transit anywhere in his district, because of one methane explosion in Fairfax area.
20 years ago, subways/rails would have been a fraction of the price, there was more open space for them and they'd be finished by now, so we'd have begun to get a handle on real "smart growth," planning mass transit/ traffic issues/ residential and commercial development, to intertwine.
Lately, he's been busy paving our jewel Marina del Rey over with concrete, turning it into highly dense developments, kicking out boat owners, marinas -- gee, those aren't supposed to be at a place called Marina del Rey, are they?
He's got so much baggage, makes Posh's porter look like he's pulling a light load. It's time the Times shed some light on these crooks.
Rumor is he never got over losing for Mayor, so like Bitter Bernie, wants to revisit the past. Figures that with the Catholic Inquisition having returned to L A in the wake of the Mayor's divorce, his having the same ugly old wife all along is enough to fool the people into thinking he's a solid average Joe.
Well, we're a world-class city, with all our faults exposed as well as the glamour and wealth, and Zev and Bloblady are an embarrassment.
a p/o to a mayor in s.e. 4 a n/c.
^ huh?
a pay off to a mayor?
s.e........ I have no clue.
for a neighborhood council?
no comprende
The Mexican Mafia Means What?
If the Mexican Mafia really meant Business they would run the Casino, Entertainment, Banking, Construction, Sports and the Politicians. Then they would really mean something.
Unfortunately all they do is kill our own people and operate small barrio shit.
Luis Flores, Ray Cedena and Joe Morgan should of thought this out when they created La EME. Our barrios and our people would have a say so when it comes to playing in the big field with the big boys. Not like our current uneducated tatto small boys.
If you read this Mr. Author send this message and get the soldiers from La Eme to think outside the box.
A payoff to a Mayor in the South East for a nightclub?
^ That's SOP in the southeast. Why the cryptic code?
915pm, your kidding right?
Who do you think they are working for or with?
This book is got to be one of the biggest loads of horeshit I've ever seen and this know nothing punk so-called journalist that wrote is an even bigger load too. This guy has some kind of sick fetish for these sodomy loving crack heads he refers to as 'the mafia'.. LOL.. What a joke! He clearly knows absolutley nothing about the real LCN, La Cosa Nostra and his audacious claims about how many killings these guy's have done in comparison to the real Mafia is so totally laughable that the Feds would have to be pissing thier pants laughing at this guy Rafeal's ridiculous ravings. He's a complete clown & this book is not even worth using as bedding for my dog to poop on. He needs to get off this prison gangs dick and stop making up bullshit lies about real organized crime groups like LCN just to glorify this gang's image. Trust me on this, this guy has no clue to what he's talking about.
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