Also, from my observation of the author’s interaction with the gang members, he acted in a way, that was out of respect, and in no way condemning of the gang members or their culture. He befriended them and truly showed great interest in their personal lives. He also knew that he couldn’t’ approach these gang members in a hostile manner, as he learned this from a gang member, who stated that “You can’t just walk into the neighborhood and act like a tough guy, you get beat up.” Moreover, I also observed that the author seemed mild mannered, and certainly did not come across as this know it all, arrogant researcher. I can only imagine how scary this entire experience may have been for him, but nonetheless, he allowed himself to “hang around” the gang members as they drove him around their dangerous neighborhood.
At first I was extremely excited to read this autobiography and learn about the gang culture. Having lived in Southern California my entire life, I have heard a great deal about the Crips and the Bloods and their
The language is different, yet means the same thing. They have codes that they use with their hands. They stay loyal to the gang or they die, they take care of their own. Every member is well taken care of within the group which is the misconception for some who join. Be in a gang and become a part of a family, a brotherhood, make more money than they would with an average job; for most immigrants in California jobs would be becoming a gardener, moving furniture around, manual labor at factories, etc.
When involved in a gang you feel there is no way out, nobody understands your struggle and your chances of dying is 60% more than the average person. It is important to reach out to the youth and Art Rodriguez has done a great job contributing to that cause. The gang life I can relate too. In my experience and in the music that the older homies use to influence their young recruits always explain the struggle that once you are in there is no way out.
The life of a gang member is a rough road of obstacles, it’s dangerous, violent, and frightening. The article What’s it like to be a Gang Member, by Bill Lee, and the poem We Real Cool, by Gwendolyn Brooks, portray this message using different methods. The texts both describe an aspect of danger, and also a cycle that gang members fall into that can affect them for the rest of their lives. Each time a new stanza in the poem, We Real Cool, by Gwendolyn Brooks occurs, the author moves onto another aspect of his life as a gangster. He does this to get across the message to the reader, for example, “We real cool.
A big example of this is the George Floyd incident. This case of police brutality took the world by storm, with every major news outlet and most people talking about it. The story is that a man by the name of George Perry Floyd Jr. was an African American male who was brutally murdered in Minneapolis by a white police officer. The police arrived after he had been accused of using a counterfeit bill to purchase a pack of cigarettes; it only took another seven minutes for Mr. Floyd to be unconscious and pinned beneath three police officers showing no signs of
Secondly, today’s society is full of gangs and some of the members are born into that life and do not know any better, similar to the main character in the outsiders. “One of the worst effects of gang membership is the exposure” (Gangs and Children). Most people are either born into the gang lifestyle or have joined because they have nowhere else to turn to. Being in a gang provides people with that sense of family and
Being part of a gang provided each of the members a sense of being part of something concrete and consistent as they, “met every morning in an impromptu car-park”(Greene 463). This desire to be included often compels the boys to follow the group, irrespective of whether the groups’ actions were right or wrong. Greene’s story works toward a climax when Trevor, the latest recruit in the gang, purposes to obliterate Mr. Thomas’s house: “‘We’ll put it down,’ he said. ‘We’ll destroy it’” (Greene 465).
Introduction This paper gives will give depth information on gang activity in the U.S. and explore the causes of gang memberships and it will also mention several policies that have been studied to prevent youths from joining them. As of today, gangs continue to be a huge problem in the U.S. gang members are violent and are also responsible for committing crimes from assaults to murder using firearms and other weapons to intimidate rivals, law enforcement, and the general public. The purpose of my paper is to address why many youths join gangs. My paper will also address a few policies and programs that can prevent youths from joining a gang and prevent those who are already part of it from committing crimes.
Being in a street gang can be a positive experience. In our novel, The Outsiders, we learn that the main character and his two older brothers are part of a street gang called the 'greasers'. We can see that the boys in the novel were having a pretty positive experience in the street gang, due to the brothers having a hard time at home due to their parents deaths. They find a sense of belonging and an emotional outlet. I would not consider being in a street gang,
Introduction When we think about what makes up a gang there is so many attributes that it could consist of. There is one thing for sure and it is that the majority of gangs share the same three desires which are “money, power and respect and they’ll get it by any means necessary” (Pieper, 2012: 1). This essay will focus on the ways in which contemporary gangs have changed from those of the 1950s and 60s. I will draw upon the work of many academics, including that of Albert Cohen and his theory that gangs are made up of ‘delinquent boys’.
Police got a call of a possible fight breaking out on the platform of the Fruitvale Station by a crowded train coming from San Francisco. As police started to arrive to the scene two officers had already reprimanded him with his arms behind his back. He was motionless and then one of the officers by the name of Johannes Mehserle who was a 26-year-old white male pulled his pistol from his waist and shot Grant in the lung, which lead to his death later that night (Kirk, Papachristos, Desmond: 864, Additional Cases). The researchers chose this case and the case of Sean Bell because they wanted to see if non-local shootings affected the crime reporting in Milwaukee as well. What was interesting is that in the case of Sean Bell the amount of calls went down like the other three cases.
Many times they feel like that lifestyle was made for them that they were meant to be on the streets. But that isn’t a lifestyle that is not the route to take or the way to live. Usually people who enter a gang have something wrong it is either at home with their families or even in themselves. They want to change and do something different in their life so they enter one for the rush and the love that the members or the “streets” will give them. Once they realize to a point that a gang isn’t for them they want to change and they do but not too much for the better.
The concept of gangs is a simple, but complex as the mind of man slips further away from logic due to social issues becoming a gateway to violence. Gangs have become a scapegoat to identity and power due to those stuck in poverty and those who are vilified by society in the middle class. The psychology of gangs is perplexing today more than ever, it has moved from a need for something to a suicidal mission which can put every one at risk. The sociological structure develops this mind set as social issues with friends, family, and the self which leads one to essentially be suicidal for a type of because they can feel comfortable dying in. These concepts give fuel to an eternal loop of hatred and grief which only incites more idolization of gangs
When you gangbang, you subject yourself to danger on a daily basis. When you gangbang, you can get hurt or killed in many different ways. You can get hurt or killed by so-called homeboys from your own gang. There are many rules that come with gangbanging. Rules are very important to every aspect of life, and gang members find rules to be just as important.
