White T-Shirt Revenge

Claim:   The Mexican Mafia is retaliating for a drug theft by killing 400 to 1,000 black men wearing white T-shirts.

UNDETERMINED

Example:   [Collected on the Internet, 2005]

Origins:   This heads-up about potential danger to those in the Los Angeles area given

to wearing white T-shirts surfaced on the Internet in early May 2005. It appears to be in part fueled by the spate of freeway shootings that began on 12 March 2005 in that city and which have so far left four men dead and three wounded. Those random assaults (law enforcement officials have repeatedly said there does not appear to be a pattern to them) have left those who live and work in the City of the Angels and who are therefore fated to commute between same feeling anxious and at risk.

Yet while the freeway shootings are likely contributing to the spread of this rumor, there appears to be more at work than just a generalized feeling of anxiety finding voice through a wild tale about potential violence visited upon those who fatally make the mistake of wearing the wrong color shirt in the wrong place and at the wrong time.

Rumors of possible racial unrest tied to Cinco de Mayo have been surfacing in the Los Angeles area, causing parents in some parts of the city to want to keep their kids home from school. In response to those whispers, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has announced it is going to beef up patrols at some campuses. Some schools' principals have sent home letters with students informing them of the rumors and outlining the precautions being taken.

Officials at the LAUSD have been in early May 2005 hearing the rumors of possible violence between black and Latino students but can find nothing to give them credence. "No one has an idea where any of this started," said LAUSD Police Chief Alan Kerstein. "Parents can be sure that there is no substance anyone can find." The e-mailed warning quoted above that makes reference to intelligence gathered by a probation officer appears to have touched off the belief that a violent confrontation is imminent.

The rumors come after a series of racial brawls at several high schools across Southern California, including two outbreaks of Latino-versus-black violence at Jefferson High School in South Los Angeles in April 2005.

As to the content of the e-mailed rumor itself and the gangs it mentions, says the FBI about the Mexican Mafia (aka La Eme or The M.):

The Rolling 60's are a division of the Crips, a primarily black gang that originated in Los Angeles in the 1960s and which now has chapters in major cities across the nation. The Rolling 60's are, according to former Las Vegas police gang detective Billy James Nolen, big time drug dealers, smuggling cocaine and meth across the Mexican border at El Centro, CA. "You could have anywhere from 15-20-30 pounds of cocaine that comes across the border each time and this can happen

10-15 times a day." (The 60's bring part of their shipments to Las Vegas to sell.)

Yet racial unrest and Cinco de Mayo-related rumors aside, the fears that bloodthirsty LA gang members are randomly targeting white-clad non-gang members appears baseless. Nothing has surfaced in the news to suggest that members of the Rolling 60's have made off with a drug shipment that belonged to the Mexican Mafia, nor have gang-related homicides in Los Angeles taken a sudden jump upwards, which would have been the case if any street gang suddenly took it upon itself to murder 400 to 1000 males of what it perceived to be the wrong skin color or sartorial display.

Also, given that the Crips' signature color is blue (that of their avowed enemies, The Bloods, is red), it would not make sense that a retribution aimed at one of its chapters would target not only non-Crips, but ones dressed in white rather than in the Crip-associated hue.

Barbara "color me skeptical" Mikkelson

Last updated:   12 July 2011

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