29007: Hermantin(News)Haitian gang rivalry leads to bloodshed (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

PALM BEACH COUNTY
Haitian gang rivalry leads to bloodshed
A battle between two Haitian gangs has spawned a series of shootings that have 
left reputed gang members and an innocent man dead.

BY STEPHANIE SLATER AND DIANNA SMITH
Palm Beach Post

Their feud stems from a San Castle Soldiers rap video on the Internet -- lyrics 
that send a pounding, ominous threat: 'You cross that line boy then I'm takin' 
your life.''

Add to the volatile mix a dispute over a woman and a leadership vacuum and 
you're left with a full-blown power struggle that's putting the public at risk.

``It all goes back to mack [sex], murder and money. It's however and wherever I 
can make my money and have respect,''Boynton Beach police investigator Troy 
Raines said. ``That's their way of life. There is no tomorrow. That's their 
mindset.''

In the aftermath of the San Castle's Eastside, Westside video, there have been 
nearly two dozen violent, drive-by shootings this year that have killed two 
reputed gang members. A third died in a high-speed crash after reportedly 
shooting another gang member.

Last week, authorities say, the violence spread to the innocent, when a 
50-year-old father of three daughters was gunned down.

It was the latest, but authorities believe not the last, eruption in a feud 
that pits two predominately Haitian or Haitian-American gangs -- the San Castle 
Soldiers and the B-Town Boys -- against each other.

These gangs, and at least four others, are part of a larger organization called 
Top 6 Records, a purported Lake Worth label that authorities say the B-Town 
Boys want to leave.

MYSPACE PROFILE

Today's gangs promote themselves on the Internet, rapping threats, flashing 
guns and drugs, all under the guise of entertainment. On their Myspace.com 
profile, Top 6 Records touts four original songs and promotes the music videos 
of other artists who fall under their record label.

Top 6 reportedly oversees six smaller, predominately Haitian or 
Haitian-American neighborhood-based groups in the Boynton Beach, Lantana and 
Lake Worth areas, authorities say. There are more than 100 members.

San Castle's Myspace.com profile says the group consists of about '19 group 
members, about 7 artists, the rest just the background. We have R&B singers, 
life rappers and `get crunk' rappers.'' It's influenced by the streets and 
their ''real life hood music'' is about ``what's really going down in the life 
of the young savages.''

But the music angle is a cover for criminality -- particularly drugs, dealing 
in stolen property, robberies and burglaries, authorities say.

One of the earliest reported shootings stemmed from two rival gang members' 
attraction to the same woman. An argument that started inside a suburban Boca 
Raton nightclub and spilled out into the parking lot Feb. 19 ended with a 
B-Town Boys member being shot in the back, possibly by a San Castle Soldiers 
member, according to a sheriff's office report.

The latest shooting occurred Aug. 15 when gang members emptied 15 to 30 rounds 
on a man outside a house in the 1700 block of Northeast First Street in Boynton 
Beach. Franck Joseph, 50, a landscaper who had gone to the house to collect 
money for yardwork, was slain. Investigators say he was merely at the wrong 
place at the wrong time.

Described by coworkers as quiet and hardworking, Joseph left three daughters, 
ages 22, 21 and 15. His widow, Vilcenise Cenelus, is trying to get here from 
Haiti for his Sept. 9 funeral at Emmanuel Funeral Home in Lake Worth.

In between, there were retaliatory shootings at a Top 6 leader's Lake Worth 
home, a B-Town Boys leader's suburban West Palm Beach home and a nightclub on 
Lake Worth Road.

HIGH-SPEED CHASE

Reputed Top 6 leader Maken Delva was killed in a high-speed crash after fleeing 
the scene of a shooting. San Castle Soldier members Kevin Blackshear and Obed 
Belleus were fatally shot in the head on Hypoluxo Road. And three San Castle 
Soldiers took aim at a B-Town Boys member as he worked on a car in his driveway 
on Northeast 16th Court in Boynton Beach.

''These gangs are so far spreading and a lot of it is a power thing,'' said Lt. 
Mike Wallace of the Palm Beach County Violent Crimes Task Force, which is 
investigating the shootings along with the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, 
and the Lake Worth, Lantana and Boynton Beach police departments. ``We fully 
expect to make arrests.''

State records show that the alleged Top 6 leaders have been arrested 64 times 
on charges that include armed robbery, grand theft auto, aggravated assault 
with a weapon, firing a weapon into a car or building and drug possession and 
sales.

Four of the six leaders have spent at least a year in prison. And one of the 
leaders was 11 years old at the time of his first arrest.

Authorities say the gang members don't care about going to jail or dying.

''They live the gang lifestyle ... here today, gone tomorrow,'' Raines said.

Some Haitians come to America jobless, uneducated and penniless. Some come from 
broken homes.

Parents aren't always around, so they gravitate toward friends, and, in some 
cases, the glamour of gangs. It becomes a loyalty thing. Others are living here 
illegally, and because some feel they have nowhere else to turn, they turn to 
gangs.

''They come to this country and try to adapt to this culture, not knowing what 
the consequences are,'' said Haitian community activist Jean Lexima.

STUDYING BEHAVIOR

Lexima took it upon himself four years ago to learn more about Haitian gangs.

He tried to educate listeners of local Haitian radio stations and he warned 
parents about members who prey upon teens.

Lexima, who owns a private investigative agency in West Palm Beach and is a 
member of the state's Juvenile Justice Foundation, found that many Haitians 
were joining gangs to retaliate against those who have hurt them in the past.

''They have been bullied because of their accent or because they cannot speak 
English,'' Lexima said. ``They've gotten together and picked on the guy who 
used to bully them. Then they bully everybody else. They want power.''

Joe Bernadel, co-founder of Toussaint L'Ouverture high school in Delray Beach, 
a predominately Haitian school, said almost 72 percent of Haitian children who 
enter the ninth grade do not graduate high school.

One reason is because many Haitians come to America and enter school too late 
in the game, some 18 or 19 years old. Some speak little English, have 
difficulty in school, so they quit and become day laborers or find minimum wage 
jobs. But others become criminals.

''Every time I have kids drop out, I always worry criminal activity is 
something they'll get into,'' Bernadel said. ``We tell them you need to get an 
education to learn something, so they don't become victims.''