Law enforcement is on high alert after a new threat against police officers on the street and in the U.S. prison system began circulating Wednesday.
The threat is linked with what's being dubbed "Black August " -- an observance started in the 1970s by a prison gang called the "Black Guerilla Family." The crusade is supposedly to "honor" their fallen brethren.
The high alert bulletin, issued from the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Sacramento Intelligence Unit and the FBI's National Gang Intelligence Center, states that prison guards in particular are at increased risk during "Black August."
The Black Guerrilla Family's poster above says everything about their intentions.
Bay Area news affiliates KGO-TV and KABC reports that one of the most prominent members of the Guerrilla Family, Hugo Pinell, served "46 years in solitary confinement after a San Francisco rape conviction, and after killing a prison guard and slashing the throats of two other guards who survived during an escape attempt in 1971."
The ABC affiliate adds:
Former San Quentin inmate Jerry Elster remembers Pinell as a freedom fighter. "When I went to prison at 20 years old, there was somebody there to remind me not to compromise my integrity," said Elster, who currently works as the healing justice coordinator for American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker organization devoted to service, development and peace programs throughout the world.
Last summer, just 12 days after corrections finally released Pinell from solitary, he was stabbed to death in a riot at State Prison Sacramento.
The bulletin says the Black Guerilla Family believes state prisons worked with the Aryan Brotherhood to kill Pinell.
At the very least, Elster believes the state had a duty to protect Pinell. "I mean, it's only those who are charged with authority and protection, of protecting and housing of Hugo Pinell who have to bear that responsibility," Elster said.
The bulletin warns an inmate source: "Claims the BGF has a 2-for-1 kill policy." That the BGF is "going to kill correctional officers and Aryan Brotherhood gang members to send a firm message. And the attacks will occur across the country, not just in California, and will likely occur during the BGF's memorial celebration of Black August."
Retired FBI special agent Rick Smith told ABC, "I think it's serious":
"They put that bulletin out, they don't want to be caught with something happening with the information they have and not disseminating it."
The FBI's Baltimore office reports that the Guerrilla Family reportedly "discussed how they could ambush law enforcement officers who were parked in alleys or side streets."
The FBI's bulletin also mentions the San Francisco Bay View newspaper for publishing articles, "suggesting California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation responsibility for Pinell's murder, and promoting Black August celebrations as a platform for action."
Bay View is apparently the newspaper that published the horrific illustration above of a gorilla eating a pig -- a clear reference to what the Guerrilla Family hopes to do to law enforcement members. The paper's editor Mary Ratcliff downplayed the disturbing image as just an "emotional release" and said she's surprised her newspaper is named in the FBI's bulletin.
This is unfortunately what our law enforcement agents are up against daily. And their elected leaders continue to fail them.
