Associate Columnists
In addition to its Senior Editorial Board, the Gangs Across America website is proud to be supported by its dedicated and expert Associate Editors
Inv. Gabe Morales was born in Yakima, WA, which has a large number of Hispanic gangs, and grew up in West Seattle’s High Point Projects area, where he saw the growth of Black gangs in the 1980s. He worked with at-risk kids in Seattle, became familiar with Asian gangs, and studied White Supremacists activity in the Northwest. He joined the United States Marine Corps and served 3 out of 4 years in Southern California. He worked at Folsom State prison for six years as a Corrections Officer and worked with youth in Los Angeles group homes and gang members on probation. At the King County Jail in Seattle, WA he worked for approximately 15 years in the Classification Section, where he specialized in Security Threat Groups and became a recognized expert on the subject. He is the lead instructor on gangs at the WA State Academy for police and correctional officers and is currently Vice President of the International Latino Gang Investigators Association. Gabe Morales is an author of numerous articles on the subject, frequent lecturer, and also wrote a book called “Varrio Warfare: Violence in the Latino Community”. He was recently appointed to the WA Gang Study Group by politicians in Olympia, WA.
Det. Hunter Glass is the Nation’s foremost expert on the phenomenon of gangs in the military. He has been investigating gangs in the military for over a decade and a half. He is retired US Army soldier and member of the 82d Airborne Division and recently retired Fayetteville, NC Gang Detective. He is the coauthor of a soon to be released book called Gangster Soldiers: A New Threat Invading the Streets of America. He can be reached at popog8r@earthlink.net
Det. Joe Viola, after 25 years of service, retired in 2005 from the Bergen County Sheriff’s Department as the lead detective for gang investigations. He has conducted countless proactive investigations on major gangs as well as cultivating numerous informants to provide valuable information for internal criminal investigations and street-level criminal investigations. He is currently a law enforcement training instructor for the Homefront Protective Group, a law enforcement training and consulting company. Joe Viola can be reached at jviola@homefrontprotect.com.
Invest. Mark L. Reid is a member of a major metropolitan sheriff’s agency with more than 20 years of experience. During his career, he has been involved in many successful investigations and proactive interdiction endeavors against drug traffickers, firearms traffickers, street gangs and organized crime as well as other violent criminals and has received numerous awards, honors and citations. He has also earned Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Criminology as well as Master of Laws and Doctor of Laws degrees in Criminal Justice. Mark served on the Executive Board of the East Coast Gang Investigator’s Association (ECGIA) from 2000 to 2006 representing over 1800 professionals involved in every aspect of gang investigations and intelligence. He was the editor of the ECGIA’s Manual of Concealable and Exotic Weapons and has written numerous law enforcement safety and intelligence bulletins that are distributed internationally. Mark was also instrumental in the development of ECGIA’s Gang Reduction through Intervention Prevention and Education (GRIPE) Program.
