headlights milwaukee

From: obri0051@gold.tc.umn.edu (Heather L OBrien-1)
Subject: Re: New Urban Legend?
Date: Sun, 19 Sep 1993 06:40:05 GMT

>From The Milwaukee Journal, Saturday, September 18, 1993, page A22:
   
  "Flyers on gang killings are false, police say (Doubt cast on claim that
               youths chase cars, kill motorists for sport)"
    
   Gory rumors of late-night  gang  initiation murders,  being circulated in
flyers in parts of the city and suburbs,  are completely  without  basis  in
fact,  according to the gang crimes unit of the Milwaukee Police Department.
A  representative  of  the  unit  said  Friday  she  did  not  know  who was
circulating the flyers  or  how  many  people  had  received them.   Another
officer said the flyers had been seen in  western  Milwaukee  and  near  the
Milwaukee County Medical Center, 9000 W. Wisconsin Ave., Wauwatosa.
 
   According  to the flyer,  a new method of inducting gang members involves
gang initiates who drive around  the  city  during the evening without using
headlights.   When an oncoming driver flashes his or her headlights to alert
the other car that it is without headlights,  the  gang  members  supposedly
chase the car and kill the driver and passengers.
 
   "Gang  members  interpret  that  as 'lights out,' a euphemism for killing
someone," said the representative for the gangs crime unit, paraphrasing the
flyer.  The police official did not want to be identified.
 
   Police emphasized that they have not  heard  of a single incident that is
vaguely similar,  the officer said.   According to the flyer,  "two families
have fallen victim" to the gang initiation ritual in Milwaukee.   "I  assume
that  that  means taht two families have been murdered by gang members," the
officer said.   Police said that  they  had  never found any family that had
been attacked or killed in such a manner.
 
   Apparently,  the flyers started to  circulate  in  Chicago  and  came  to
Milwaukee several days ago.  News of the flyers was discussed on a Milwaukee
radio station, the officer said.  The Chicago Police Department, the Chicago
branch of the FBI,  the Milwaukee Police Department and the Milwaukee branch
of the FBI all report that the flyers are "totally unsubstantiated," another
officer in the gangs crime unit confirmed Friday.
 
   "Chicago  is  unaware of any similar incidents involving gang initiation,
so we're not putting anything out (in the form of public information) and we
have no reason to  believe  this  applies  to  Milwaukee," the first officer
said.   "If this were a substantiated claim,  we would put something out for
the health and safety of residents.   But there is no  substantiation,"  she
said.
 
   Television coverage of the flyers aired Thursday night.  Since then, news
of  the ritual is "spreading like wildfire," the officer said.   "But no one
can confirm the validity of the flyers."
   
 
- Jes "It's 1:43 Sunday morning, and I just typed in an entire article" ter
--


January 25, 1995