Is it really accurate to call these groups gangs at this point? They are not gangs in the sense that people in the US or Europe would understand. They are not groups of criminals engaged primarily in economic crimes. They are basically armed autonomous militants. Their main activities are political and governmental. Most of the killing is for control of territory they oversee.
In essence Haiti has become a failed state and these groups are vying to control that power vacuum. The term gang is more misleading than clarifying and I have to wonder if there is some unconscious racial bias at play with media coverage.
Would we call cartels in Mexico 'gangs'?
Maybe there's a better more specific term, but the broader and more generalized one still seems to fit.
if they started calling them "militias" people would argue whether they were well-regulated
I think it's more trying to preemptively delegitimize any groups among them who could come to the fore while the UN policing response is still lacing their boots
Don't want any of them to be able to claim they're freedom fighters while the Kenyans are capturing the ones who cooperate and killing the ones who don't
I don't really see that as the role of the media. The media should inform people about what's happening, not editorialize to support some hypothetical future military action.
Also, I mean, they are freedom fighters. That doesn't mean I support them but they are violent radicals seeking the overthrow of the government. Freedom fighters is just how the media and governments refer to militants they want to make sound benign. You can argue that the Taliban were freedom fighters, as were the rebels in the US civil war. It's kind of a nonsense term.
It should but it does not. The media demonizes the side that we want to kill and manufactures consent for you to do so. Then when you have been convinced that one side is good and the other one evil we can send in troops to coup the country and place a puppet regime.
Khadaffi was a great example of us killing a dictator and then leaving a power vacuum that was far worse.
If we actually cared about helping people not being killed we'd be stopping arms to israel by now.
Yes they're definitely autonomous militias not gangs. There's even been dust ups with the Dominican military which is substantially more armed and trained (by US forces) than their Haitian counterparts.
Haiti is such a tragedy, they try to stand on their own and then they get nuked by an earthquake and chorlera, they try at democracy and their president gets assasinated - the country just cant get a fuckin break. Everyone's mostly too poor to escape and the DR closed their borders, which honestly I can't blame them, everyone else is trapped in the meat grinder. It's the ultimate example of why colonialism scars for generations even after the occupiers leave.
Is it really accurate to call these groups gangs at this point? They are not gangs in the sense that people in the US or Europe would understand. They are not groups of criminals engaged primarily in economic crimes. They are basically armed autonomous militants. Their main activities are political and governmental. Most of the killing is for control of territory they oversee.
In essence Haiti has become a failed state and these groups are vying to control that power vacuum. The term gang is more misleading than clarifying and I have to wonder if there is some unconscious racial bias at play with media coverage.
Would we call cartels in Mexico 'gangs'?
Maybe there's a better more specific term, but the broader and more generalized one still seems to fit.
if they started calling them "militias" people would argue whether they were well-regulated
I think it's more trying to preemptively delegitimize any groups among them who could come to the fore while the UN policing response is still lacing their boots
Don't want any of them to be able to claim they're freedom fighters while the Kenyans are capturing the ones who cooperate and killing the ones who don't
I don't really see that as the role of the media. The media should inform people about what's happening, not editorialize to support some hypothetical future military action.
Also, I mean, they are freedom fighters. That doesn't mean I support them but they are violent radicals seeking the overthrow of the government. Freedom fighters is just how the media and governments refer to militants they want to make sound benign. You can argue that the Taliban were freedom fighters, as were the rebels in the US civil war. It's kind of a nonsense term.
It should but it does not. The media demonizes the side that we want to kill and manufactures consent for you to do so. Then when you have been convinced that one side is good and the other one evil we can send in troops to coup the country and place a puppet regime.
Khadaffi was a great example of us killing a dictator and then leaving a power vacuum that was far worse.
If we actually cared about helping people not being killed we'd be stopping arms to israel by now.
Yes they're definitely autonomous militias not gangs. There's even been dust ups with the Dominican military which is substantially more armed and trained (by US forces) than their Haitian counterparts.
Haiti is such a tragedy, they try to stand on their own and then they get nuked by an earthquake and chorlera, they try at democracy and their president gets assasinated - the country just cant get a fuckin break. Everyone's mostly too poor to escape and the DR closed their borders, which honestly I can't blame them, everyone else is trapped in the meat grinder. It's the ultimate example of why colonialism scars for generations even after the occupiers leave.