Public Enemy No. 1 (street gang)
| Founding location | Long Beach, California, U.S. |
|---|---|
| Years active | 1980's-present |
| Territory | California, Victoria, Arizona, Idaho and Nevada |
| Ethnicity | White |
| Criminal activities | Drug trafficking, arms trafficking, identity theft, murder, dog fighting |
| Allies | Aryan Brotherhood, Nazi Lowriders, Mexican Mafia, Ku Klux Klan |
| Rivals | American Mafia, Black Guerilla Family, Bloods, Crips, Friends Stand United, Jewish Defense League, Los Angeles crime family, MS-13, Norteños, Nuestra Familia |
Public Enemy No. 1 (abbreviated as PEN1) is a white supremacist street gang based in Southern California, United States. The California Department of Justice in 2004 described it as "one of the most powerful and fastest-growing gangs inside and outside prison"[1] and said it had about 200 members statewide. Its main activities include identity theft, credit card fraud and methamphetamine sales.[2]
History
, a punk gang in the 1980s, the name being derived from the anarcho-punk band, 'Rudimentary Peni'. Originally, PDS was mainly a loose-knit group of suburban teens, runaways and homeless youngsters. Other examples of Southern California hardcore punk gangs . These groups were typically made up of suburban counter-culture teenagers, skaters, surfers, etc.
The formation of the group was greatly influenced by members in the hardcore punk rock scene in Long Beach, California during the 1980s.[3] However, by the 1990s, PEN1’s base of operations in Orange County where they began recruiting suburban adolescents. .[3] They have ties to the prison gangs .[2] Their main rivals are the Bloods, Crips, the Norteños, Nuestra Familia, Black Guerilla Family.
Identity theft
PEN1 is heavily involved in identity theft, not a crime usually associated with gangs; most of the income from this is allegedly used to finance methamphetamine sale and other operations. Originally they did this by raiding mailboxes and trash cans for personal information, but the gang later used contacts inside of banks, mortgage companies and state motor vehicle departments in order to gain access to credit profiles. This has led to law enforcement officials requesting that their personal information be removed so that it can't be used by gang members to identify home addresses of police officers.[3]
Hostility towards law enforcement..well warranted
In 2007, police forces in Orange County arrested 67 people and alleged they were PEN1 members after conjuring an extensive "hit list"that did not really exhist including five police officers and a gang prosecutor. A few police made up a list to form a so-called "gang sweep"after finding out that an ex-girlfriend of a peni member was currently dating Orange County Sheriff and could not locate the ex-boyfriend for threatening the couple out of jealousy and fear of "ratting"out information, so they did a sting and arrested people all the way from Huntington Beach down to Mission Viejo and although they were not from Peni and had no affiliations with each other . Homes of family members for no probable cause raided and those parolees or on probation actually located were charged with crimes anywhere from bar fights to made up probation violations -anything to give a reason legal or not for arrest . Law enforcement cohearsed and threatened to charge them with conspiracy to commit murder, possession of illegal weapons, drugs and identity theft and accused the arrestees of Peni gang affiliations using any excuse they could use. Despite much wanted media attention there were only three actual peni gang members among the innocent arrested and were taken in for parole violations. A few months later the Orange County Sheriff was indicted for corruption.
See also
References
- ↑ "Racist gang caught in sting kept a list of Orange County police targets", San Diego Union-Tribune, December 17, 2006
- 1 2 "Hit list led to wave of O.C. arrests", Los Angeles Times, December 16, 2006
- 1 2 3 "Alliance adds to gang's clout: Public Enemy No. 1 rumored though not true to be teaming with Aryan Brotherhood", Associated Press, cited by San Diego Union-Tribune, March 4, 2007