A burning, screeching cat was thrown against a window in East Boston on Wednesday, killing the cat and terrifying the Eagle Hill neighborhood. The flaming animal broke a window and left a charred outline on the screen. This random and senseless act of animal cruelty has Boston police scrambling to find suspects, and investigating a possible link to the dangerous MS-13 gang.
The family who lived in the first floor residence was not home at the time of the attack, and the family living on the second floor were very unhelpful to investigators. They claimed not to know who lived on the first-floor, nor anything about the attack. A construction worker driving by witnessed the attack, but all he could tell the Boston Herald was that he saw a young man “throw something at the house. It was on fire. It was making noises. It was terrible.” Neighborhood residents gawked at the cat’s charred remains, and tried to make sense of the attack. “It’s awful, awful,” Santiago Cruz, 43, wailed. “This is not normal.”
Police believe those who burned the cat may be associated with the notoriously brutal MS-13 gang, who have strong roots in East Boston and who are known to perpetuate random cruel acts on the 13th of each month. We don’t have any strong leads,” the Boston Herald quoted one investigator, “but it is the 13th.” MS-13, which stands for Mara Salvatrucha, is a Latin American gang that started with El Salvadoran immigrants in Los Angeles but has spread across the country, and has become the most dangerous gang in the United States.
In Boston, the gang has been accused of assaults, robberies, shootings and rapes, according to the Boston Globe. In one incident, machete-weilding bandits chopped off the fingers of a rival gang member. In another incident, gang members attacked a police officer. Perhaps the most brutal attack came in 2002, when members of MS-13 attacked two deaf girls, aged 14 and 17, in a Somerville park. They knocked one girl out of her wheelchair and raped them both. Three MS-13 members were arrested in the assault.
Perhaps more terrifying than the random acts of violence is the link between MS-13 and terrorist cell Al Qaeda. According to the Boston Herald, border agents have caught MS-13 gang members smuggling members of the terrorist group Al Qaeda into the United States. Raed Hijazi, architect of the USS Cole bombing, lived in East Boston and the two flights that hit the World Trade Center on September 11 originated from Logan Airport in Boston. This isn’t to say the MS-13 is responsible for these attacks, but it is part of a system of violent links between Boston, MS-13 and terrorists.
Boston is not the only city terrorized by the MS-13 gang, violent attacks across the country have been linked to them. The Washington Post reported that in Northern Virginia, a former gang member who turned spy for the police was found nearly decapitated by a machete. In another case that is all too typical of the MS-13 attacks, a rival gang member was found with his fingers chopped off.
The El Salvadorans who started the MS-13 gang came here to escape civil war, revolution, and violence in their native country. It is ironic and tragic that they almost immediately become tied up in the same kind of violence in this country. For many of the immigrants, gangs offer belonging and power that they can’t find in traditional American settings.
The burning cat incident may or may not be part of a larger picture of gang violence, but it is senseless and cruel incidents like this that help bring gang violence to the public’s attention. The burning death of a cat may not be as brutal as a murder or a rape, but it is hideously twisted in a way that captures public imagination.
McPhee, Michele. Flaming cat hurled at home: Eastie horrified as cops hunt suspects. Boston Herald, June 14, 2007
McPhee, Michele. Eastie gang linked to al-Qaeda. Boston Herald, January 5, 2005.
Sheridan, Mary Beth. In N.Va. Gang, A Brutal Sense Of Belonging: Machete Attack Suspect Lured by Group’s Culture. Washington Post, June 28 2004.
Silva, Cristina M. Suspected members of gang arrested, four tied to MS-13 part of crackdown. Boston Globe, July 23, 2005.
