The trial of 4 Latino gang members opened in LA yesterday amid "extraordinary security," according to the LA Times.
A Latino street gang threatened, assaulted, terrorized and murdered black people in Highland Park for six years in an effort to keep them out of their territory, a federal prosecutor alleged Wednesday.
"Kenneth Wilson was killed because he was black, because he was in Highland Park and because the Avenues gang members had promised each other, had agreed that they would drive African Americans out of the neighborhood, by threats, by force, by murder," Assistant U.S. Atty. Alex Bustamante told jurors.
This trial is only the latest example of the simmering conflict between Blacks and Latinos in Los Angeles and throughout California. (See, for example, "... the underclass is at war".)
So far, the Black and Latino elites are working hard to maintain the semblance of a united front, motivated in particular by their common interest in the maintenance of the ethnic spoils system typified by affirmative action. However, as the Latino population steadily expands, it's alliance with Blacks becomes steadily less important. This is especially true at the local level, where Blacks and Latinos often come face-to-face in urban landscapes which Whites and Asians have largely abandoned.
Inter-minority conflicts are becoming more visible even among the liberal elites as well, however. According to Capitol Weekly, California's Democratic primaries in early June were marked by "ethnic tensions":
Political mailers bankrolled by the Latino Caucus, which linked [Armenian-American] Democratic Assembly candidate Paul Krekorian to a terrorist and played the race card against [Asian] Democratic contender Mike Eng, are being denounced by community leaders and Caucus members who say they want to know who approved the attacks.
Capitol sources said that the job of the vice chairman of the Latino Caucus, assemblyman Joe Coto, D-San Jose, may be on the line....
During the 2004 election cycle, it was the Latino Caucus blasting the
Republican Party and the Chamber of Commerce-backed JobsPAC for hit pieces they said had racist overtones....But now, those same charges are being levied against the very Latino Caucus...
All in all, this is a taste of the gloves-off racial politics we can increasingly expect to see in the Balkanized California of the all-to near future. In the meantime, don't worry, be happy, and celebrate diversity!