The Butterfly and the Knife in Court

June 25, 2007 5:23 PM

You've heard about MS-13. But did you expect that members of “The World's Most Dangerous Gang” would now be testifying for the prosecution? Other witnesses would be envious. The saga of The Butterfly and the Knife is in a new chapter. (Previously)
posted by Robert Angelo (6 comments total)

Thanks for this. I'd love to see Hollywood try to tackle the real organized crime of America like this.
posted by Bookhouse at 6:01 PM on June 25, 2007

If you watch the video on the "prosecution" link, you can see a good example of 'non-prejudicial language' that we talked about in this thread. Rather then saying "She murdered the victim", the prosecutor says "She stabbed the complainant in the heart". It's not all that convoluted, although it sounds strange to call a dead person a 'complainant'
posted by delmoi at 6:39 PM on June 25, 2007

That first link is fascinating in terms of both its content and its atrocious grammar.

Like many gangs, MS-13 was named after "La Mara", a street in El Salvador and "13th Street" in Los Angeles.

Really? Many gangs are named after "La Mara," a street in El Salvador? I had thought it was just the one.

Code named "Strong Arm", the Honduran government arrested more than 4,000 gang members in 2003, often solely because they wore tattoos or colors of known gangs.

The Honduran government is code named "Strong Arm?" Cool! I wonder if our government here in the USA has a cool code name like that. Code name: "Fuck Wit."
posted by infinitywaltz at 8:17 PM on June 25, 2007

I hate gangs, a few months ago we had a brawl on the main street in my town in the middle of the afternoon with dozens of these assholes fighting it out and one stabbed to death.
All the sweet and kind politically correct leaders and activists are more concerned about not "stigmatizing" gang members and whining about how society has failed the little bastards and things get worse and worse.
I am starting to think that a nice penal colony about five miles off the coast would work, give them a helicopter ride out there, and drop them off.
No land out there? Tough shit, shoulda lived civilized.
posted by Iron Rat at 9:49 PM on June 25, 2007

Consider yourself lucky Iron Rat, they could have been tossing flaming cats around Main St.
posted by paxton at 5:44 AM on June 26, 2007

We all agree that society has failed. "Sweet and kind" people just think that society f-ed up on the preventative side of things where others clearly think society f-ed up on the reactionary side. Thanks for the strawman, though.
posted by Skwirl at 10:07 AM on June 26, 2007