Tony Rafael

Tony Rafael is not the author's real name, but that's probably a given because he has a "greenlight" or contract out on him. I'd hide under an alias as well.

The reason I read this book is because I have been following the "Gangland" series on the History Channel, and also the "Gang Nation" series on Discovery ID and also because I lived near and worked in Los Angeles (in a very poor, largely Hispanic neighborhood where gang rivalry caused a middle school to be closed) where everyone knows about gangs. I've been fascinated with gangs ever since -- their power, their ability to draw people, especially kids.

This book is a bit misleading -- the core thrust of the book is supposedly about the Mexican Mafia, but centers on connected court cases all prosecuted by Anthony Manzella, a now-retired deputy DA in Los Angeles County. The cases involved gang members from the Avenues who were in some ways involved with the Mexican Mafia, but I thought I was getting a history or a good organizational description of the Mexican Mafia in this book. Turns out that what I was looking for is rather complicated, so you'll be hard pressed to find it anywhere.

Rafael discusses what he feels is "ethnic cleansing," which he says is ordered by La Eme in LA neighborhoods, citing examples of Latino killings of African-Americans. I'm not so sure I believe that, because he also notes how gangs are all about turf and the control of the money from drugs, etc., in their neighborhoods, and makes the point that the Mexican Mafia is all about business, trying to keep under the radar so that they can conduct business. In reality, Latino gang members kill other Latino gang members as well as African-Americans. African-American gang members kill other African-American gang members. Also, he blames the buildup of gangs on lax immigration policies -- but I never figured out how he proved that one. Another issue I had with this book is that Manzella (really, the central figure in this book) said that a stable family is what it takes to keep young kids out of gangs ... but there's no discussion about the lack of jobs, or other contributing factors. Perhaps this points out the bit of liberal in me, but while a stable family is a good thing, there are other factors involved no matter what ethnic background you have. You also have to look at the money being made via the illegal and international drugs trade, and I suppose then you have to examine who's buying the drugs and keeping people in business selling them, and so on and so forth. And that's just one aspect of the whole situation. And finally, there are little to no citations anywhere, so the historian in me got a bit frustrated trying to figure out where he got his information.

The court cases are interesting to read, as were the descriptions of life in prison for some of these people, and the book does give you a bit of info re the Mexican Mafia (especially in the prisons and the jails), but largely it doesn't deliver what it promises. It's already a given that some gangs and gang members are affiliated with La Eme, so this isn't news. You can tell that the author put a lot of work into the book, but he's clearly got an agenda here that is biased. I would recommend it actually if you want to learn more about the Avenues gang rather than the Mexican Mafia.… (altro)