The visible rise of particularly brutal Central American ethnic gangs in the United States has not contributed much to the general celebration of diversity. This is a matter of considerable concern to our betters in the media/academic/therapeutic establishment. The elite need a bit of intellectual jiu—jitsu in order to tutor the masses in the finer points of the new moral order of multiculturalism. America always must be at fault.

PBS (surprise!) has a documentary tonight that apparently will preach the party line. At least this is what one would conclude from an op—ed written by the director and producer of a documentary running tonight in Los Angeles and elsewhere. Here is the plot line of at least part of the program, as revealed in a piece published in the Los Angeles Times:

Duke was 30, handsome and charismatic, with a couple of lovely kids. He spoke his English straight out of the streets of Latino L.A.; he loved to rap, and he talked sentimentally about his homeboys, part of the Hollywood Locos section of the 18th Street gang. Except Duke didn't live in L.A. anymore but in downtown San Salvador, El Salvador.

Like hundreds of other gang members in this small Central American nation, Duke was deported from the U.S. after being convicted of a criminal offense — in his case, robbery. Although he had lived most of his life in Los Angeles, he was never a citizen. As soon as he got into trouble with the law, he was deported to the country where he was born but that he hardly knew. Together with other deported gang members from cities such as L.A. and Houston, Duke helped set up 18th Street in El Salvador, a country awash in weapons from a decades—old civil war but without the means to deal with U.S.—trained gang members. In a few years, the deported gangsters helped give El Salvador one of the world's highest homicide rates.

Of course! Until the evil Yankees contaminated the innocent Salvaorans, and then cruelly deprived them of futher contamination by deporting them, El Salvador was well—known as a paradise of human comity.

I got to know a group of teenage members of the 18th Street gang from a housing project in the heart of the city. Unlike Duke, most of these boys had never been near the U.S., but they had adopted the behavior of their U.S.—trained mentors.

But beneath the ugliness imposed by the United States lies a sad little boy.

Watching a 17—year—old gang member phone his mother in the U.S. — who he hasn't seen in 10 years — telling her over and over again how much he misses her and wants to be with her, is heartbreaking.

Apparantly our tax dollars are at work again, promoting loathing of America by her own citizens.

Hat tip: Ed Lasky

Thomas Lifson   7 12 06