(March 10, 2011) — “[Armenian Power] was formed to protect Armenians from other gangs like the Bloods, Crips, Latin Kings, and all that started in the ’80s like every other gang,” said junior Sipan BegIaryan. Law officials recently arrested members of the gang Armenian Power because of their various organized crimes and past felonies. On Feb. 16, 19 defendants from Glendale and six from Burbank were charged with organized crime in Los Angeles County. Authorities say that the scams Armenian Power (also known as AP) committed took $20 million from discount store shoppers and the elderly. Officials later determined that the gang had a system for leaving the number-skimming machines in place for about a week, gathering banking information, then replacing the store’s own machines, according to the Glendale News-Press . Although the AP has made a name for itself over the years, some students seem to agree to disagree when it comes to determining the good and bad of AP’s actions. “Well, bluntly stated, I know a few members of the ‘Armenian Power’ or AP,” says junior Nare Nazaryan. She says that she is pretty sure every Armenian knows or has at least heard of some members from the gang, and that in recent arrests, she feels that Armenians are the ones who are being targeted the most. “Every race has their wrong and their right,” says Nazaryan, “but publicizing a specific race because of ‘crimes’ being committed is discrimination.” Other students, such as senior Chrystelle Simonian, think that it’s a choice of social environment. “I’m sure everyone in [AP] has a reason to be associated with it,” says Simonian. “I mean, that’s why we all do things, right? For a reason?” Nevertheless, a large portion of the Armenian students at Clark agree that the gang gives a bad representation of Armenians — all within reason, of course. Glendale News-Press columnist and GUSD substitute Dan Kimber recently wrote that Armenian Power are like modern-day klansmen, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, Aryan nation members — and so on and so forth. “Let’s go ahead and add Armenian Power to that list, but let’s understand that they are no more representative of the Armenian people than the malignancies mentioned above are representative of the great majority of the good people in this country,” he wrote.