Rumor Blames LA Freeway Shootings on Mexican Mafia

In a classic example of what sociologists call a "wedge-driving rumor," an email currently circulating in Los Angeles may be exacerbating ethnic tensions by attributing the recent spate of freeway shootings in the area to a race-based gang vendetta. Hispanic street gangs have vowed to execute between 400 and 1,000 African-American males, the text claims, because a black gang known as the Rolling 60s stole a shipment of cocaine from the Mexican Mafia. But while it's true that a few of the freeway shooting victims have been black, whites and Latinos have also been among those targeted since mid-March.  Read more...