Lucinda F. Boyd's Blog – April 2010 Archive (30)

Amongst the more than 3000 inmates who escaped from Haiti's main prison when the earthquake struck were untold numbers of gang members, including gangsters who once ruled the country's largest slum with violence and intimidation.

One particularly notorious escapee was the warlord known only by his street name "Blade".

These gangs stole guns from officers at the National Penitentiary and went straight to the collapsed…

The Flocc street gang had an unusual mix of members. It formed out of an alliance, law enforcement officials said, between two groups that have traditionally been rivals: the Crips and the Bloods.

As the gang muscled its way into the drug trade in Far Rockaway and South Jamaica, Queens, and police officers on foot patrols started proving a nuisance to their business, at least one of their members hatched a plan to shoot them from a rooftop, the…

BAGRAM, Afghanistan -- Just outside the main gate to Bagram airfield, a U.S. military installation in Afghanistan, sits a series of small makeshift shops known by locals as the Bagram Bazaar. For Afghans, it is the place to buy American goods, but the stalls that make up the heart of the bazaar are also well known for what they provide American soldiers stationed at Bagram. Walking through the bazaar it takes less than 10 minutes for a vendor in his early 20s to step out and ask, "You want…

Here's the latest smack on taxpayers.

The city spent $32,000 on 70,000 fliers that tell you how to shoot heroin, complete with detailed tips on prepping the dope and injecting it into your arm.

The Health Department handout has outraged New York's top drug prosecutors and abuse experts.

"It's basically step-by- step instruction on how to inject a poison," said John Gilbride, who heads the Drug Enforcement Administration's New York office.

"It's sick," said City…

As he ranted about his religious beliefs, a 32-year-old Wisconsin man went room to room with a 9mm pistol early Wednesday -- killing his pregnant teenage wife, his baby son and two nieces in a brick home on the Southwest Side, according to his family and Chicago Police.

Wounded in the rampage were the suspect's mother and a teenage nephew, police and family said.

A 12-year-old girl in the house managed to escape and ran to a gas station, where she called 911. The gunman shot at…

WILKINSBURG, Pa. -- An 8-year-old Pennsylvania boy took more than 60 small bags of heroin to school and was passing some of them out to other third-graders before a teacher caught him, police said.

Police and school officials in Wilkinsburg, near Pittsburgh, said Wednesday a teacher at the boy's elementary school saw him fumbling in his pockets during class Tuesday and asked him about it, according to the Pittsburgh…

Eight years ago this month, the Daily Herald's award-winning series "The Hidden Scourge" documented the rise of heroin and club drugs in the suburbs.

Fast-forward to 2009, and, sadly, little has changed. Heroin is not "hidden" anymore - low cost and availability are making it a drug of choice among substance-abusing suburban teens who fail to recognize how dangerously addictive it is.

Today and Friday, the Daily Herald…

SPRINGFIELD - State lawmakers face a $13 billion deficit and a bevy of other calamitous issues, but there's been one vote so far this year that made members cringe more than any other.

Eyeball tattooing.

More specifically, tattooing the whites of the eyes. Technically it's known as scleral tattooing and is accomplished by injecting ink into the fibrous eye tissue or by placing…

A local official was shot and wounded yesterday as she left a public meeting by a gunman angry at the use of taxpayer money to help pay for a new baseball stadium.

Mary Rose Wilcox, a Maricopa County supervisor and Hispanic activist, was listed in fair condition at a local hospital after being shot in the pelvis. Her injury was not considered life-threatening, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Authorities said a man pulled a…

Those gangs have 562 confirmed or suspected members, including associates — people who may socialize with gang members or allow meetings in their homes but are not involved in criminal activity.

Police have identified known or suspected gang members in each of the city's public high schools and Washington Middle School, said Green Bay police…

One or more people went on a damaging spree this weekend, marking cars with gang graffiti near Five Points and other areas that previously hadn't seen gang-related crime, Athens-Clarke police said.

Most gang graffiti has been concentrated in predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods in…

One or more people went on a damaging spree this weekend, marking cars with gang graffiti near Five Points and other areas that previously hadn't seen gang-related crime, Athens-Clarke police said.

Most gang graffiti has been concentrated in predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods in…