Medieval? Try Pre-Columbian

        Some of the recent cultural enrichment news has been the reports of the indictment of 22 members of the gang, MS-13. (See, e.g., Breitbart and this article authored by the Los Angeles Times). According to USA Today, "[n]ineteen of those indicted are considered illegal immigrants, and most of the group's members arrived in the U.S. in the past four years from Central America." Also, "[a]ll but two are under the age of 24." Just children, really (sarc.).

        So, what are these "Dreamers" accused of doing? Well, the indictment includes "racketeering charges that include nearly 200 criminal acts, committed across several states over nine years." Oh, and they "hacked to death seven people in the last two years, including a rival gang member who was dismembered and had his heart cut out by six MS-13 soldiers in the Angeles National Forest for defacing the gang’s graffiti[.]" More specifically, they "lur[ed] a perceived rival gang member who they believed to have defaced MS-13 graffiti to the forest outside Los Angeles and killed him with a machete. They dismembered his body and cut out his heart before dumping the remains into a canyon, authorities said." And, from the same LA Times article, "Four people were killed in the Angeles National Forest by members of the Fulton clique wielding machetes, baseball bats and knives[.]" The article continues:

Law enforcement officials said the two-year spasm of violence was carried out largely by Honduran and Salvadoran immigrants hoping to return MS-13 to its bloody roots. Paul Delacourt, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, said the bloodshed was motivated in part by the group’s desire to make MS-13 less deferential to the Mexican Mafia, which wields influence over most Hispanic and Latino street gangs in the Los Angeles area.

Most of their victims were also recent immigrants. The article explains:

      “These gang members sought out young victims in their teens and early 20s who were new to this country. Many had recently immigrated from El Salvador and Honduras. They were alone, looking to fit in with others from their native countries,” Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey said. “But instead they met their demise quickly at the hands of gang members who preyed upon them.”

      The Fulton clique targeted people they believed to be cooperating with law enforcement, who belonged to a rival gang or who’d fraudulently claimed membership in MS-13, Lacey said. Six of the slayings described in the indictment unsealed Tuesday were committed to join or advance within the Fulton clique, authorities said.

      MS-13 in Los Angeles traditionally required new members to be jumped in, or beaten while a shot-caller counted aloud to 13, prosecutors wrote in court papers. But beginning in 2017, the indictment says, L.A.-area cliques that identified with “503” — an orthodox, ultra-violent subset of MS-13 that broke off when the gang’s incarcerated leadership engaged in peace talks with El Salvadorian authorities — required would-be initiates to kill a rival, or perceived rival, to join.

We are so fortunate that, just by crossing the border and partaking of our "magic dirt," they became real Americans. In fact, they are so American that prosecutors have described their bloody murders as "Medieval." Notwithstanding that the murders--particular the removal of the heart--remind me of another culture. A pre-Columbian culture. In Mexico.