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Gangs in armor
September 6, 2003
BY FRANK MAIN Crime Reporter
Alarmed that dozens of gangbangers have been caught wearing bulletproof vests in the past year, Cook County prosecutors say they need a new law to crack down on criminals using body armor. Yes, a new law will fix everything that the old ones haven't.
A 1997 Los Angeles shootout between cops and robbers demonstrated the danger of bad guys having access to such equipment. The bandits wore full-body armor and fired thousands of bullets from their automatic weapons at the officers, who watched in frustration as the rounds from their 9mm pistols bounced off the robbers. Ten officers and six bystanders were wounded before the cops fatally shot the two assailants.
Michael Smith, a supervisor in the Cook County state's attorney's office, said he did not worry about criminals donning bulletproof vests six years ago.
"But I would say we've seen dozens of cases over a year and a half where criminals are wearing them," he said. "It comes up while we are reviewing felony gun cases. But there's nothing we can do legally about it. Imagine what would have happened if [Salvador] Tapia [who shot six people in a South Side warehouse before police killed him last month] could have done with a vest?" The body armor would have reloaded for him? Drove the getaway car? Covered his exit?
Smith said he plans to approach law enforcement organizations across Illinois to pitch new legislation to target criminals using vests or other body armor.As opposed to targeting just plain criminals
He's proposing a boost in a person's sentence range when he is found to have used such equipment in a felony. For instance, armed robbery carries a sentence of six to 30 years, but under the proposal would land the defendant in prison for 10 to 40 years. Which can be cut down when the gang member rats on another gang member
Smith said he is hearing from officers in high-crime zones on the West Side that they're seeing more bulletproof vests on gang-bangers.
"Some gang members wear them when they are sent out to do a 'hit,' " he said. "Or when they're retaliating against another gang."
Smith did not know of a case of a Chicago police officer getting into a shootout with a criminal wearing a vest.
"But you have the potential for astronomical numbers of innocent people and police officers getting killed," he said. Ok
As prosecutors prepare legislation for the spring session, they will research where the body armor is coming from, Smith said. "The Internet? Gun shops? Military surplus stores? We'll see," he said. and block the source
A captain in the Harrison District on the West Side -- the district that traditionally posts the highest number of homicides in the city -- said she knows her officers have come across suspects' bulletproof vests.
"We've found the apparatus during search warrants," she said. "But we must leave it there because it is not illegal contraband." Along with, I presume, kitchen knives, flammable liquids, etc. Pesky existing laws! Of course, if they found anything that was contraband, wouldn't the criminal be locked up for it? Or would the body armor stage a jailbreak for them?
Other jurisdictions already have moved to outlaw the use of bulletproof vests by criminals.
California enacted a law shortly after the 1997 shootout to ban violent felons from possessing body armor. Congress also passed a law making it a federal crime to possess body armor after having been convicted of a violent felony.
Smith said he did not want to consider an outright ban on citizens owning body armor because store owners and security guards might have a legitimate interest in buying it to protect themselves. Gee, thanks. Of course, citizens might have a legitimate interest in owning firearms too - never mind.
The push to keep body armor out of criminals' hands is the latest step Cook County prosecutors are taking in an anti-gun violence initiative they have launched with Chicago police and federal authorities. "anti-gun violence initiative" is doublespeak for new laws that won't work any better than the old laws, but hey, they're trying, right?
This year, a special unit of one Cook County prosecutor and two investigators began focusing on weapons that juveniles possess or are shot with. In one case last month, Ray Moore, 24, was charged with shooting four teens in a South Side park after his younger brother complained someone stole his bike. None of the victims was in the park when the theft took place, prosecutors say.
They were surprised to learn Moore, an admitted gang member, legally held a state firearm owner's identification card and bought the .22-caliber semiautomatic handgun in April from a suburban gun shop. Authorities said they are trying to track down two other guns he bought this year. I'm surprised a gang member actually applied for a FOID. Obviously he checked out with IL State Police - gang membership itself isn't illegal, idiot prosecutors!
Charise Kazaglis, the prosecutor in the new unit, said she's already opened 45 gun-possession investigations, interviewed 25 people and executed 15 search warrants. So far, one suspect has been charged with illegally transferring a gun. 1-for-45, I guess the other 44 had valid FOIDs and did a legal transaction. Or the "new unit" is staffed by idiots who can't do a proper, legal investigation that withstands a grand jury
"We're finding they're usually buying them off the street," Kazaglis said. "Sometimes we get the name of the person they bought the gun from. Others say something like, 'Look for the guy in the red car at such and such corner.' " How do these idiots get to be in charge? Where do I sign up ?
Her office works closely with federal prosecutors, who have been cracking down on out-of-state shipments of guns to Chicago from Mississippi, Indiana and other places they say have lax gun-sales laws. EVERYWHERE one can buy a gun has "lax laws" according to IL/Cook/Chicago, unless you're CPD selling out of your trunk
This year, a Chicago gang member, Charles Yarbor, and a Mississippi gun dealer, James Wren, were each sentenced to five years in prison in a gun-running business that imported dozens of assault weapons into Chicago.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Eureka! Murder, armed robbery, gunrunning, etc. are already illegal felonies, but obviously the solution to theses crimes is to ban body armor.
Oh yeah, bold is mine
Gangs in armor
September 6, 2003
BY FRANK MAIN Crime Reporter
Alarmed that dozens of gangbangers have been caught wearing bulletproof vests in the past year, Cook County prosecutors say they need a new law to crack down on criminals using body armor. Yes, a new law will fix everything that the old ones haven't.
A 1997 Los Angeles shootout between cops and robbers demonstrated the danger of bad guys having access to such equipment. The bandits wore full-body armor and fired thousands of bullets from their automatic weapons at the officers, who watched in frustration as the rounds from their 9mm pistols bounced off the robbers. Ten officers and six bystanders were wounded before the cops fatally shot the two assailants.
Michael Smith, a supervisor in the Cook County state's attorney's office, said he did not worry about criminals donning bulletproof vests six years ago.
"But I would say we've seen dozens of cases over a year and a half where criminals are wearing them," he said. "It comes up while we are reviewing felony gun cases. But there's nothing we can do legally about it. Imagine what would have happened if [Salvador] Tapia [who shot six people in a South Side warehouse before police killed him last month] could have done with a vest?" The body armor would have reloaded for him? Drove the getaway car? Covered his exit?
Smith said he plans to approach law enforcement organizations across Illinois to pitch new legislation to target criminals using vests or other body armor.As opposed to targeting just plain criminals
He's proposing a boost in a person's sentence range when he is found to have used such equipment in a felony. For instance, armed robbery carries a sentence of six to 30 years, but under the proposal would land the defendant in prison for 10 to 40 years. Which can be cut down when the gang member rats on another gang member
Smith said he is hearing from officers in high-crime zones on the West Side that they're seeing more bulletproof vests on gang-bangers.
"Some gang members wear them when they are sent out to do a 'hit,' " he said. "Or when they're retaliating against another gang."
Smith did not know of a case of a Chicago police officer getting into a shootout with a criminal wearing a vest.
"But you have the potential for astronomical numbers of innocent people and police officers getting killed," he said. Ok
As prosecutors prepare legislation for the spring session, they will research where the body armor is coming from, Smith said. "The Internet? Gun shops? Military surplus stores? We'll see," he said. and block the source
A captain in the Harrison District on the West Side -- the district that traditionally posts the highest number of homicides in the city -- said she knows her officers have come across suspects' bulletproof vests.
"We've found the apparatus during search warrants," she said. "But we must leave it there because it is not illegal contraband." Along with, I presume, kitchen knives, flammable liquids, etc. Pesky existing laws! Of course, if they found anything that was contraband, wouldn't the criminal be locked up for it? Or would the body armor stage a jailbreak for them?
Other jurisdictions already have moved to outlaw the use of bulletproof vests by criminals.
California enacted a law shortly after the 1997 shootout to ban violent felons from possessing body armor. Congress also passed a law making it a federal crime to possess body armor after having been convicted of a violent felony.
Smith said he did not want to consider an outright ban on citizens owning body armor because store owners and security guards might have a legitimate interest in buying it to protect themselves. Gee, thanks. Of course, citizens might have a legitimate interest in owning firearms too - never mind.
The push to keep body armor out of criminals' hands is the latest step Cook County prosecutors are taking in an anti-gun violence initiative they have launched with Chicago police and federal authorities. "anti-gun violence initiative" is doublespeak for new laws that won't work any better than the old laws, but hey, they're trying, right?
This year, a special unit of one Cook County prosecutor and two investigators began focusing on weapons that juveniles possess or are shot with. In one case last month, Ray Moore, 24, was charged with shooting four teens in a South Side park after his younger brother complained someone stole his bike. None of the victims was in the park when the theft took place, prosecutors say.
They were surprised to learn Moore, an admitted gang member, legally held a state firearm owner's identification card and bought the .22-caliber semiautomatic handgun in April from a suburban gun shop. Authorities said they are trying to track down two other guns he bought this year. I'm surprised a gang member actually applied for a FOID. Obviously he checked out with IL State Police - gang membership itself isn't illegal, idiot prosecutors!
Charise Kazaglis, the prosecutor in the new unit, said she's already opened 45 gun-possession investigations, interviewed 25 people and executed 15 search warrants. So far, one suspect has been charged with illegally transferring a gun. 1-for-45, I guess the other 44 had valid FOIDs and did a legal transaction. Or the "new unit" is staffed by idiots who can't do a proper, legal investigation that withstands a grand jury
"We're finding they're usually buying them off the street," Kazaglis said. "Sometimes we get the name of the person they bought the gun from. Others say something like, 'Look for the guy in the red car at such and such corner.' " How do these idiots get to be in charge? Where do I sign up ?
Her office works closely with federal prosecutors, who have been cracking down on out-of-state shipments of guns to Chicago from Mississippi, Indiana and other places they say have lax gun-sales laws. EVERYWHERE one can buy a gun has "lax laws" according to IL/Cook/Chicago, unless you're CPD selling out of your trunk
This year, a Chicago gang member, Charles Yarbor, and a Mississippi gun dealer, James Wren, were each sentenced to five years in prison in a gun-running business that imported dozens of assault weapons into Chicago.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Eureka! Murder, armed robbery, gunrunning, etc. are already illegal felonies, but obviously the solution to theses crimes is to ban body armor.
Oh yeah, bold is mine
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