Teen Gangs Find Voice on Web

Link
http://www.kvue.com/news/state/stories/060106kvuegangsonline-eh.4294c0b9.html

Summary:
This is an article from the Dallas Morning News, which focuses on the use of social networking web sites by gangs such as MS-13. The sites are often used by gang members or gang wannabees to communicate, brag, arrange meets, etc. Additionally, gang members sometimes comment on gang activities and post photographs. Obviously, local law enforcement officers have taken note of the use of these sites, and have begun to monitor the sites to gather intelligence on gangs and suspected gang members. Some of the sites mentioned by this article are, www.myspace.com, www.migente.com, and www.bebo.com.

Excerpt:
Irving and Dallas police say the sites help them keep tabs on gangs: which ones are active, details about recent incidents, new trends in dress and language. Some members even post photos of themselves creating graffiti. "Everybody wants to act like a thug or a gangster," said Sgt. Mark Langford of the Dallas police gang unit, which mostly monitors My Space.com. "But in the middle of all that, there are nuggets of truth."

Analysis:
Within MS-13 there are many different levels of involvement. It is pretty clear the same MS-13 members who are posting trash talk on www.myspace.com are probably not anywhere near the level of involvement or sophistication of those MS-13 members who assist the Mexican Gulf Cartel. The ones posting here are likely the lower level, younger members of a clique, maybe newer members, or just kids who are looking to project a tough guy image to their classmates. They are also the ones who can create quite a bit of havoc for local law enforcement and thus warrant attention. Hence, local law enforcement monitoring of these sites could provide valuable information on gang related incidents in the area.

For example, the site www.bebo.com provides middle school and high school networking groups, which in the case of the police in this article, provides valuable information to gang investigators and school resources officers. A quick registration and search bebo.com yielded a dearth of personal WebPages which referenced MS-13 and other Latino gangs. While it's unclear the involvement of these users in the gangs, it is clear that school resource officers and gang investigators should potentially bookmark and monitor these sites. They could provide an insiders view and situational awareness of teen social and gang networks that an adult would normally be locked out of.