Gang violence is not a laughing matter, stats show that in New Jersey as gangs move into suburban areas, the crime rate goes up. These facts don’t necessary mean that gang members are just killing anyone for any reason but that those who are being killed in this case are mostly witnesses, people who are willing to speak against these gang members.In this case the gang members stick by the saying “snitches deserve stitches”. Click below for more info
Ms. Dotson, 23, saw fellow gang members kidnap a man who was later choked and left for dead in a garbage bin on Aug. 30, 2004. The next day, she was shot twice in the head and left on the floor of her Trenton home with a cigarette lighter and pieces of candy on her body.
Her killing set off a new round of witness intimidation, and presented a stark challenge for the authorities: how to make a case against the gang members suspected of killing her. The police and prosecutors have lined up four Latin Kings members to testify, pledging to protect them against threats, offering them plea bargains and reduced sentences in return for their testimony and their promise not to back down.
But the case has not gone smoothly. One witness was attacked while in protective custody and scalded in the face with hot oil. And a Latin Kings leader charged in Ms. Dotson’s killing said in a jailhouse interview this month that the gang members now cooperating with prosecutors were unlikely to make it to the witness stand, or to survive if they testified.
