LOS ANGELES (AP) - In a murderous quest aimed at "cleansing" their turf of snitches and rival gangsters, members of one of Los Angeles County's most vicious Latino gangs sometimes killed people just because of their race, an investigation found.
There were even instances in which Florencia 13 leaders ordered killings of black gangsters and then, when the intended victim couldn't be located, said "Well, shoot any black you see," Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca said.
"In certain cases some murders were just purely motivated on killing a black person," Baca said.
Authorities say there were 20 murders among more than 80 shootings documented during the gang's rampage in the hardscrabble Florence-Firestone neighborhood, exceptional even in an area where gang violence has been commonplace for decades. They don't specify the time frame or how many of the killings were racial.
When I think of racially motivated killings, I don't think of Hispanic gangs targeting Blacks. Perhaps that's just me, but this strikes me as unusual.
I also have a hard time thinking someone fiddled the numbers to show a trend that isn't there. First off, to what benefit? Second, since this seems counterintuitive; there's easier ways to slip in manipulated data than with counterintuitive data.
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