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topicnews · October 6, 2024

The arrest of a white supremacist drug-smuggling gang makes Trump’s lies about crime clearer

The arrest of a white supremacist drug-smuggling gang makes Trump’s lies about crime clearer

The federal indictment of 68 defendants accused of being members of (or associated with) a criminal gang driven by racist hatred followed an investigation that led to the seizure of Nazi paraphernalia, including Adolf Hitler posters, and 97 pounds Fentanyl led, federal court officials said Wednesday. U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada, who announced the indictment, called it one of the “largest raids in Justice Department history against a neo-Nazi, white supremacist and violent extremist organization.” This announcement, landing in the final weeks of a presidential election, prompts us to compare the facts of our crime problem with the fiction that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his running mate, Senator JD Vance, would have us believe.

The indictment causes us to compare the facts of our crime problem with the fiction that Donald Trump and JD Vance would have us believe.

The dismantling of the group that called itself the Peckerwoods, an offshoot of the notorious white supremacy organization Aryan Brotherhood in the San Fernando Valley, came in the form of indictments for alleged extortion, firearms trafficking, drug trafficking and financial fraud. If convicted as charged, some members who adorn themselves with swastika and other hate symbol tattoos could face life imprisonment. The group was so heavily armed and so violent that the FBI dispatched its elite hostage rescue team from Quantico, Virginia, to assist in the arrests. According to the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, the Peckerwoods, a derogatory name historically used against white people, are “on a mission to plan attacks against racial, ethnic and religious minorities.”

According to police officials, officers seized an arsenal of illegal weapons, “bomb components” and dozens of kilograms of fentanyl, methamphetamine and heroin.

The details of this multifaceted investigation reveal a significant part of America’s crime problem: hardened, American-born criminals who traffic in the drugs, guns and violence that plague our country. This is in contrast to the fact-free, fear-mongering fabrications sold to MAGA believers. It’s not that minorities don’t commit crimes; Nor does it mean that migrants never murder or rape. But Trump and Vance want voters to believe that our gun, drug and violence problems are caused by migrants, even though the opposite is true.

Take Trump’s claim that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua took over an entire apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado. It’s a scary story, but it’s not true. Just ask the Aurora Police Chief. Fuck the facts, Texas Governor Greg Abbott joined Trump and claimed an El Paso hotel was taken over by Tren de Aragua, which he declared a foreign terrorist organization. Again, this is a frightening scenario, but one for which there is no evidence.

During the vice presidential debate, Vance claimed that the vast majority of illegal weapons used in crimes here come from Mexican cartels. The truth is quite different; It is the US that is arming Mexican cartels. We have detailed data showing the extent to which American weapons are fueling violence in Mexico, right down to the make and model of weapons found at crime scenes across the border.

Trump and Vance want voters to believe that our gun, drug and violence problems are caused by migrants, even though the opposite is true.

Continuing their “migrants are criminals” mantra, Trump and Vance repeatedly make false claims that Haitian migrants are eating pets and bringing disease to Springfield, Ohio – lies that officials, including the local police chief and the governor of Ohio, have strenuously refuted have. There is no evidence that Haitians are harming the people of Springfield, but there is evidence that the US is exporting violence to Haiti in the form of black market weapons found in the hands of gang members working in Port-au -Prince wreaked havoc. The US spends millions to help Haiti combat gang violence, while most of these gangs’ weapons come from the US

In Tuesday’s debate, Vance suggested that undocumented migrants were responsible for smuggling fentanyl into the U.S., a problem he attributed to what he said was the Biden-Harris administration’s weak approach to border security. The truth is that nearly 90% of fentanyl enters the United States through legal ports of entry and is transported by people who have legal residency rights. Almost half of them are Americans. Importantly, current indicators point to a shortage of fentanyl supplies in the U.S., an encouraging sign that Biden’s efforts to counter the flow of drugs from Mexico and pressure China to curb manufacturing of precursor components may be working.

There is no clear evidence that immigrants commit crimes at higher rates than U.S.-born citizens. In fact, it would be difficult for us to prove that undocumented immigrants pose a greater crime threat than the 68 white supremacist gang members who, according to this week’s indictment, were part of a major criminal enterprise in California.

Trump and Vance’s falsehoods about crime are a cornerstone of their strategy to win votes through fear. The reality is that crime in the United States has continued to decline over the past six months. The latest FBI crime report shows that murders fell 23% in the January-June period compared to the same period in 2023, while violent crime fell 10% and reported rapes fell 18%. According to the data, during that period, aggravated assaults fell 8% year-over-year, while robberies fell 14% and reported property crimes fell 13%. The murder rate fell the most last year, and it shows no signs of stopping.

At a recent campaign rally in the Detroit area, Trump said of the majority-black city: “You can’t walk across the street to get a loaf of bread. You get shot, you get mugged, you get raped.” The Detroit police chief disagreed and invited Trump to walk the streets with him. Of course, Trump won’t do that because the sight of people walking around Detroit without fear wouldn’t fit his narrative. Unfortunately, you probably won’t hear Trump or Vance talking about taking down a white supremacist criminal enterprise in California or denouncing what this gang stands for. That’s why it’s up to us to separate fact from fiction and reality from their ticket’s reckless disregard for the truth.

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