After Gang Crackdown, Police Become Targets (Hemet, Ca.)

[alp227]

by Rebecca Cathcart
The New York Times
HEMET, Calif. — By the time four city trucks were set ablaze next to Hemet City Hall last week, the police here had become familiar with their new life under siege.

The arson was the most recent episode during four months of threats of violence and attempted attacks against peace officers in the city that officials say are reprisals for crackdowns on local motorcycle gangs.

Now this city of tract homes and trailer parks in Riverside County, about 80 miles east of Los Angeles, is on edge, with barricades and an iron fence going up around the Police Department downtown, “to prevent someone from lobbing a grenade or something in the window,” Police Chief Richard Dana said in an interview.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/29/us/29calif.html

Attorney General and Democratic Governor candidate Jerry Brown said about the attacks on the police: "These brazen attempts to kill police officers in the line of duty are an outrage, and even a form of urban terrorism. Our brave men and women in uniform put their lives on the line every day to keep our streets safe. We urge anyone with information on the attacks to come forward immediately."

[Greyhound]

1. Let's see if this gets any traction here. n/t

[madeline_con]

2. ew that pic

[Greyhound]

6. ?

[realisticphish]

8. what's wrong with Kucinich?

Well, quite a bit, IMHO, but it's just him and his wife

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[villager]

4. so bizarre for those of us familiar with the area.

My grandmother lived in San Jacinto (next to Hemet), and during my childhood, they were both sleepy little desert towns.

I've had cause to go through there -- and spend a night or two -- twice in the last three years, after being away for over twenty (when grandma, who's since passed, sold her place to retire to San Diego)...

You can see the effects a sandblasted economy has had on the area, the Exurban "meth culture," the desperation of fundamentalist religions, etc.

It's a place that doesn't quite know what it's become (or becoming), or where it's headed, actually.

Much like America itself, one supposes...

[Newest Reality]

5. Wow,

kinda' like a Green Zone in the Homeland. The landscape is changing.

We fought them over there so we could fight ourselves over here, or something like that.

Cops barricading themselves in seems like a big, red flag ... but watch the great Shiny Thing, it's exciting and new and improved.

[Garbo 2004]

7. I haven't been keeping track of the NYT, but I'm surprised if it only just now reported this.

This has been in CA news since this has been going on for weeks.

[Ozymanithrax]

9. In the 60's there were a number of movies that followed the plot...

Police crack down on outlaw bikers, who then lay seige to town and comence to rape all the women and kill and the police.

But, it does sound like this is domestic terrorism with criminals trying to destory the police who are crapping on their pure capitalistic enterprise.