It looks like this will be Muslim refugee crime day at RRW. First, we had new information about the Burmese Muslim murder suspect in Salt Lake City and I have yet to get to the North Dakota Somali murderer and here comes news from the Kurdish capital of the United States—Nashville—about efforts by police to get the Kurdish criminal gangs under control.
Here is Holly Johnson of Catholic Charities in Nashville in that 2010 “Little Kurdistan” article that we see has now been removed (it’s a good thing I was able to post some of it!):
Kurds have struggled to build a new haven in Nashville, and director of refugee and immigration services at Catholic Charities of Tennessee Holly Johnson says “they have changed Nashville.”
She got that right!
Below is this morning’s story from the Tennessean (thanks to one of our many friends in TN):
Metro police on Tuesday filed a civil lawsuit to wrest control of an area in South Nashville from the clutches of the Kurdish Pride gang by banning members from congregating in a 1.47-mile “safety zone.”
The department is targeting 24 of what they call the “worst of the worst” members of the gang, hoping a judge will ban them from publicly gathering in a zone that encompasses part of an area known as Little Kurdistan and includes Paragon Mills and Providence Park. The injunction lawsuit is the fruit of a three-year effort to combat gangs for detectives to build their case and attorneys to try and bullet-proof it from legal challenges. The injunction is the first of its kind ever filed in Tennessee, but a tactic used successfully for years in other states like California.
“Our police department will not sit idly by when a street gang threatens the peace of our community,” said Metro Police Chief Steve Anderson at a news conference held in Paragon Mills, the site detectives say hosted Kurdish Pride gang meetings. “We want to give this park back to the citizens.”
Police say Kurdish Pride members were involved in at least one murder, multiple beatings and shootings, drug dealing, illegal weapons and vandalism. Incidents include the 2006 attempted murder of a Metro Parks Police officer and multiple graffiti messages threatening a Metro Police Gang Unit detective.
The police will surely be stymied by civil rights activists who will charge that they are violating the gangs’ first amendment right to assemble. LOL! Look out for Maryland’s gift to the Obama Justice Department—Thomas Perez—to ride in and protect the immigrant gangs’ civil rights. Here is just one of dozens of posts on Perez (former board member of CASA de Maryland) and now civil rights division head honcho under Eric Holder.
For more on little Kurdistan and a history of how Nashville got so lucky (not!), check this out. There is a 26 minute film here too which I look forward to watching later. Farm chores beckon….