Los Angeles Gangs Get Wise to Twitter, Facebook

Los Angeles - Los Angeles street thugs are forming "cybergangs" on the Internet to recruit new members, broaden their appeal, boast of their exploits and make threats, according to a published report.

Law enforcement officials told the Daily News that two of the Valley's fiercest gangs -- Barrio Van Nuys and Canoga Park Alabama -- have used social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to get around court injunctions secured by the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office that forbids members from meeting in public.

Postings by gang members include pictures of assault weapons and bulletproof vests over a white T-shirt, with the impression "Pacoima 818."

San Fernando gangbangers are pictured wearing San Francisco Giants garb, and have adopted the famous interlocked SF logo as their own.Van Nuys gangbangers have snipped the tails off the New York Yankee's "NY" logo as their Internet brand, police told the Daily News.

And it's not just on popular sites like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter that parents should be concerned about, Douglas Semark, executive director of the Gang Alternatives in San Pedro, told the Daily News.

"You can go into special area of AOL, special areas of Yahoo or special areas of some of the other large Internet presences, where (gang members) will go in and they'll target specific topics and specific groups," Semark said. "And kids may be in those areas with their parents' blessing because the parents think they're safe.

"Someone who is looking to victimize a specific individual will track them to those places and create false identities and false accounts," he said. Also, law enforcement officials and youth counselors told the Daily News that young people who visit social networking sites to download music and pictures glorifying criminal streets gangs can unwittingly set themselves up to be recruited by gangs.

Young people can sometimes be influenced by the secret handshakes, clothing and slang of gang cultures that are found on Web sites created by or heavily used by gangs, the Daily News reported.

George W. Knox, director of the National Gang Crime Research, told the newspaper that proving gang affiliation through cyberspace can be an arduous task. That is one reason he trains law enforcement officials how to cull intelligence on gang membership, rivalries, territory and lingo from Internet posts.

Officials say gangs' use of the Internet has forced authorities to learn to read between the lines of gang postings, looking for clues and hidden meanings of words and symbols.

"To understand any subculture -- al-Qaida, cults, devil worshippers or gangs -- you have to be able to know their own language and what they are saying," Knox told the Daily News. "It takes time to study gang (Web) sites and blogs and pick up on subtle word choices, but that's important. These are the holy words to these gangs."