Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

May 21, 2012

Seven members of the street gang unit for the Los Angeles County Sheriff?s Department have been suspended for alleged involvement in a street gang calling themselves the ?Jump-Out Boys.?

A document describing the group?s recruiting standards and code of conduct ?explains that deputies earn admission into the group through the endorsement of members,? reports the Los Angeles Times. Members earn a special tattoo, described as ?an oversized skull with a wide, toothy grimace and glowing red eyes,? wearing a bandana imprinted with OSS, a reference to Operation Safe Streets?.?

After the gang member is involved in a shooting, the tattoo is modified by the addition of a plume of smoke rising from a revolver grasped in a bony hand ? an embellishment compared by one department source to a celebratory ?high five.?

The Jump-Out Boys aren?t the only police gang in the LA Sheriff?s Department. Members of the ?3,000 Boys? gang, which draws from jail guards are given membership tattoos as a reward for breaking an inmate?s bones. Another gang called The Vikings has existed for decades; in fact, the chief deputy is a member.

Groups of this kind are embedded in police departments nation-wide ? a development that should alarm, but not surprise us.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.