Anybody Else See Possible Gang Connections In This?

Police pull over an SUV today for a minor traffic violation near the Napier Housing Projects, after being tipped off by the ATF, and they find assault weaponry, bullet-proof vests, and an improvised explosive device. On their 6:00 report tonight News 2 mentioned a possible connection to the President's visit to Nashville, while WSMV identified the motive as black-marketeering in area housing units.

Given the availability of high-powered assault weapons on our streets, the News 2 theory of some kind of connection to the President's visit seems pretty farfetched to me. Now, in my opinion, it might be plausible that the ATF wanted to get these weapons off the street before the President's visit, so they tipped the police off. But that doesn't mean that the couple in the SUV were a part of some clandestine conspiracy beyond outfitting urban youth with weapons with which they can commit crimes in their own neighborhoods. Unless the media does some more digging, we'll never know why here and why now. In Salemtown, we've recently become acquainted first-hand with the availability of assault weapons and continuing gang activities. Until another motive for the reported offense is produced with clear evidence to support it, I'm inclined to see this as an arrest of people who prey on the anger of disaffected youth in transitional neighborhoods by selling them assault weapons.

I sure wish the mainstream media would do a little more investigative work into possible connections to gangs in neighborhoods proximate to public housing, rather than floating speculative balloons or simply parroting what law enforcement officials tell them before moving on to something else. I hope the local police are looking into the gang angle, too.