The Latin Kings: A Street Gang Story [ ]

Tonight, at 9:30 on HBO

—-

TONIGHT Jon Alpert, an 11-time Emmy winner, turns his camera on the Latin Kings for HBO in his documentary “The Latin Kings: A Street Gang Story.”

And no, the Latin Kings is not a dance troop. Instead, it’s an infamous street gang that began in prison as a way for Puerto Rican prisoners to defend themselves.

The doc focuses on Antonio “King Tone” Fernandez, who was the leader of a giant gang of Puerto Ricans throughout New York State. He pledged to take them from being a disorderly gang into one that fought poverty thus the new name: The Latin King Nation.

It worked fine until King Tone got busted and was sent to a federal pen for drug dealing. So much for charismatic leaders.

The rituals and the giant meetings Alpert captured make you think you’re watching part Elks Lodge meeting – replete with the uniform yellow-and-black outfits, the secret hand signals and credos – and part Mafia summit. Not for nuthin’ but the secret hand signals look like you’re watching a gigantic band of Latino Mr. Spocks – Trekkie gangstas, if you will.

The documentary follows King Tone from house arrest to his breakup with his girlfriend, from his 121/2-year sentencing to a little about his life in prison and his lovely, middle-class parents. Particularly interesting is his attorney, Ron Kuby, who got taken in by the charismatic Tone.

Kuby believed that King Tone was being persecuted because he was a strong ethnic leader of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s ilk. Yes – if Dr. King had been a drug dealer instead of a civil rights hero.