[Saints News] The Perception of Gangs

[HaveADream]

Strawberry Has Been Stereotypical Gang Territory In Media

 

The Perception of Gangs

Exclusive Interview with a Los Santos-based Gang Member.

 

Kalyani Jamil

 

Los Santos - a city full of glamour, a nightlife constantly reinventing itself, big-budget film studios, and, perhaps more carefully hidden away by the Tourism Board, a long history with gang crime. We sat down with one of those gang members to see if what we have learnt from films and television is true, what it's actually like to be in a gang, how one joins a gang and whether the government and the police are doing enough to elevate those who feel that this is the only life out there for them. In this, we spoke to a man who identified himself with a nickname, preferring to keep his real identity a secret.

 

Warning: This interview contains strong language some readers may find disturbing.

 

So can I ask how you got yourself involved in a gang?

 

Sure. So I was going in an outta juvenile since I was twelve, my fourth stint in, I was like fourteen. Dudes were banging on me hard. When you locked up, you gotta click up with neutrons if you not banging. Niggas kept hitting on me and shit, you feel me? Always getting podded up an shit. So I was like, all right, fuck it, and just clicked up with the same set my brother's from. Shit's in the bloodline.

 

Is that sense of brotherhood felt strongly in a gang?

 

Most definitely. Most people think of it as some phoney shit, but when you don't have anything then it's gonna be your basis. My moms' was always at work, my dad been serving a twenty-year sentence for a long minute now. Those were my brothers, sisters, and the bigger homeys wus like my fathers.

 

There are rival gangs I'm assuming? How do you feel towards them? What would you do if you saw someone from another gang, for example?

 

It depends. The organization that I'm in, we on that new-age time you feel me? A lot of these dudes out here be acting like it's the seventies, on that old-time type stuff. If dudes got into it with my folks then we gonna get into it, that's off the top. But I ain't gone run up on some dude cause he flossing some colour or none of that. Nobody's trying to get locked up over some nigga wearing blue or red chuck Taylors, you feel me? But the organization that I been getting into it with, it's new on the books. Some dudes trying to rule shit like the usual. Got into it with my little homey. Type shit like that. If I saw uh dude from and enemy set, then by code I gotta jump off and do something to them.

 

And if you were offered the chance to leave, like a winning lottery ticket, what would you do?

 

I mean, I don't know. I'm trying to leave right now but it's only so much you can do. You can take an animal out the wild, but at the end of the day, he's still gonna be on that other time he's been on for all his life.

 

Do you feel anger towards the police department or the government for the way they've marginalised minority races, like Hispanics, Asians, and African Americans?

 

That's the thang with me. When you move how you move within an organization and y'all start making noise, of course, the police are going to come and try to suppress. That's by injunctions or whatever the hell they try to plant on a block, you feel me? Maybe it's more dudes going in and out than usual. So when it comes to all that, I don't mind. It's just that- sometimes, they are forgetting that the dudes out here are humans too, you feel me?

 

A Wall Covered In Graffiti In South Los Santos

 

So you don't think there's more for the government to do to help people like you get out of poverty and that kind of crime?

 

I mean, I don't know. If it is, it ain't doing that well as it is. You got teenagers moving like grown-ass men, you feel me? Yeah, of course. My little homey just got outta juvenile and he's like fifteen. Already got shot at two times. Seen his big brother die last week, you feel me? Shit's bred in the mind mad young.

 

And what about your life expectancy? Doesn't it bother you that you could die any day for the colours you wear?

 

I don't think on that shit. Like, anybody can die where ever you're at, you feel me? I can go to Vinewood and get shot by some whiteboy just cause he got his noodle touched when he was three years ago. I could go to Vespucci and get chopt up by them Salvatrucha niggas or them skinheads, you feel me?

 

There may be a lot of misconceptions about how gangs operate and the people inside of them, based on perceptions from music and films, what would you like to clear up about those misconceptions?

 

Oh yeah, most niggas are thinking that we be on that old-vibes type shit like some uh these Mexicans out here. We don't be on the corner, sucking dick and not getting shit done by the hour. We're really out here, you feel me? On top of that, there's a different between uh gang member and a gang banger. You can be apart of an organization and not get into shit. Might be ina little tussle here or there, but you going to school and getting shit done. [And that's a gang-member]

 

A gang banger is the nigga with the strap, rolling up an down the rivals spot and talking hot shit. Staking niggas spots out. Banging niggas out. Whacking niggas out on the walls and shit, you feel me? That's the active niggas. If you gang banging, you in that shit a hundred per cent. Ain't no half stepping.

 

And no way out?

 

That's another thing. Niggas think dudes out here moving like mobsters- you can leave when you want. My moms' wus a Nutt way back in the day and dropped out during a little stint, you feel me? I know plenty dudes that used to bang but they just drop flags. If you drop out and join a whole new organization though, then that's when it becomes uh problem. You not gonna drop flags on Bloods then try to link up with them rabbit niggas around the corner, you feel me? I just wanna pitch in- My little homey Raskal just got locked up like two days on a bullshit charge, so free him. An R-I-P Wooski, my nigga. On hoods.

 

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What Are Your Thoughts? Leave your comments below, or send your opinions to 7687 or via email.

 

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[DLimit]

Username: Tom_Tongva

Comment: Them big city kids from them gutters ain't a problem, 'round here... In fact, I met one of them up North... Good fella... Just kinda respected the land and spoke about struggles and all... We all know the government done fucked them over, which is why they act this way.

[Lerius]

Username: Billy Bobson

Comment: time to call in the national guard to napalm these communist niggers!!

[aldo]

sick