Interesting new article from LAWeekly

[Strangler]

http://www.laweekly.com/ink/05/11/features-duersten.php

Some comments about this article from the og I'd like to add here for discussion purposes:

It's pretty crazy how vicious they require their members to be. there's one part in the article where it talks about four AB guys walking onto a tier of cells and walking right into a black gang's area and killing one guy while severly #%@&#%@ up two others, all while totally outnumbered. I think at that point you've probably just "clicked" like they say pitbulls do when they're fighting. like you'd have to be so far gone to the point where you'd be like, "fu-- it...I don't even care if I die." you'd have to be like a killing machine....literally. its probably not even like reality to them at that point....like killing to them is like you or I complaining to our bosses about someone not doing their job correctly.

anyone else catch in the article that AB members make it a point to train themselves physically for up to five hours each day.

Just trying to imagine the pure obsessive energy that they pour into making themselves into killing machines is mind-boggling.

Here is a quote from the article that relates to martial arts:

They fought gladiator-style, which is essentially a simple but balletic street fight magnified — like everything else in prison — tenfold. A 10-second fight in prison is an eternity. In much less time, windpipes can be severed, jugulars torn out, spinal cords pierced and livers punctured. But the AB made a science of death: Their “warriors” studied anatomy texts in prison libraries to better understand parts of the human body that could be maimed for maximum effect.

[scotty1]

The US prison system is pretty terrifying in some places.

the other one’s doing ‘burpees’ — sort of like jumping jacks mixed with push-ups — for hours every day.” As a result, most AB members can break their restraints, as Jessner demonstrates by putting his wrists together. “They use one of the cuffs as leverage to break open the other cuff.”

Apparently repeated calisthenics don't make you stronger, just increase your endurance.

So can someone explain that?

[Hua Lin Laoshi]

Very interesting. I like the self taught killing points. Guess you can learn from a book.

"Five years ago, an AB member named Jeff Milton went berserk in a Los Angeles courtroom, breaking his cuffs and pitching a TV across the room."

I had a friend that brokes cuffs, ripped the mic from the table and threw it at the judge.

He beat the cops so often that whenever they wanted to arrest him they would circle around him, toss him the cuffs, then plead with him to put them on.

[Starchaser107]

was quite a long read, but definately a very disturbing state of affairs here.

[MonkeySlap Too]

They put rabid dogs down... I don't see why this is tolerated.

[Ming Yue]

well said MS2.

[red5angel]

don't you get it MS2? They might be able to rehabilitate these folks

Of course you could always look at it like this - the AB are basically doing the prison system a favor by killing all these other dudes in prison. A few guards get whacked a long the way, and maybe the ultimate punishment shouldbe brought down in those cases but otherwise if they're just killing each other......

[MasterKiller]

Originally posted by red5angel
don't you get it MS2? They might be able to rehabilitate these folks

Of course you could always look at it like this - the AB are basically doing the prison system a favor by killing all these other dudes in prison. A few guards get whacked a long the way, and maybe the ultimate punishment shouldbe brought down in those cases but otherwise if they're just killing each other......

No, they're killing brown people, not each other.

And besides, not everyone of these guys is a lifer. They get exposed to this environment and then get released back in the population at some point. You think that is a good thing?

[red5angel]

actually you would be partially wrong MK. If you read the article it turns out they also spend a lot of time killing each other and people they disagree with of any color. Sure they're primary targets used to be people of color but even that seems to have changed some, atleast according to what the article indicates.

they don't get released back into the public if they get whacked first