HEART

Currently, there are about a million of gang members identified in the United States, and about twenty percent of them are located in California. In some areas of California, more than half of the crime is gang related and in Southern California, gang homicides are raising to a 125 percent increase in murders since 2006 (Lopez, 2009). According to Daniel McMullen, FBI agent of gangs in Los Angeles says that “southern California is the epicenter of street gangs and in the city of LA, there are nineteen gangs operating that have military training” (Lopez, 2009). Over the years, many youths within schools are the main targets for gang recruiters; therefore, anti-gang programs are implemented in schools to reduce violence and youth-gang membership.

Human Efforts Aimed at Relating Together (HEART) is a program to inform youths about the dangers of joining a gang and to prevent and reduce violence. HEART is a mediation program implemented in Los Angeles School District for children and adolescents from different ethnic, racial, and religious backgrounds to resolve problems through words rather than using violence (Lopez, 1999). It was created in 1992 by Joel T. Juntilla, a youth relations assistant for the LA Unified School District (Wedner, 1999). HEART’s main purpose is to “encourage young people to assume responsibility and accountability for maintaining a safe school campus” (Lopez, 2009). HEART’s mediators involves teachers, school counselors and administrators to apply the “Four Ds to Conflict Mediation and Resolution” which are to “defuse the situation; create a dialogue between parties in conflict, decide on a solution, which is formalized in a written contract, and do what you promise” to students or participates (Wedner, 1999).

Over the years, HEART has been an effective program to reduce school violence as well as to prevent youths from joining gangs. According to Pete Salazar, Birmingham’s dean of students says that “I’m so impressed with how these mediator work, last year we had many fights breaking out, and I had to kick students out of school. I’ve been trained by HEART now, and I have a good feeling that we now have a handle on these problems on campus” (Wedner, 1999). Furthermore, Rocio Martinez, a Youth Relations Associate in the Crime Prevention Unit for the LA Unified School District, reports that “young ladies (all between 11 and 14 years old) this program was their last shot at redeeming themselves before the LAUSD would have to wash their hands of them and deliver them to the authorities” (Lopez, 2009).

What makes HEART an effective program? HEART is an effective program to reduce school violence and prevent youths from joining gangs because it involves representatives from each ethnic, racial, and religious group to teach youths about cultural differences, and it provides a secure and safe environment as well as assistance and guidance. Since many of these youths are face with racial discrimination and lack guidance from their single-parent, HEART provides information, builds relationships and identity, and a place to study.

Unfortunately, the HEART program and many other prevention programs are suffering from a budget crisis. HEART’s budget is being cut in half, leaving only eight counselors to provide guidance, assist, and talk to students in about 400 public middle and high schools. Many individuals and the government have argue that education is the most effective method to reduce gang violence, but funding have been cut, leaving students with no books, no music classes, and recreational classes; therefore, leaving children with no choice, but to be on the streets and possibility of using violence and joining gangs. Most of these children, live with a single parent and are absent in their children lives; therefore, they need other mentors to guide them in the right path of their future. In addition, these youths want an education and are willing to learn. For example, one student says that she completes her homework at two in the morning because it is the only time that it’s peaceful for her to concentrate. Most of these children want to learn and earn an education, but with the lack of resources and living situations, they feel discouraged and tend to give up. Another student reveals that he was bruised and bloodied arriving to school every single day because he had to arrive to school through enemy territories. Children need love, affection, and belongingness, so we need to make an effort to persuade the government for more funding while we can dedicate our times to volunteer and make a difference.

Other gang prevention programs include:

Positive Education and Action to Create Excellence (PEACE)

References:

Top image: http://murcha.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/school-children.jpg

Image with females: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kamala-lopez/stop-tearing-the-heart-ou_b_229743.html

Lopez, Kamala. (July 2009). Stop Tearing the Heart Out of L.A.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kamala-lopez/stop-tearing-the-heart-ou_b_229743.html

Wedner, Diane. (September 1999). Class Notes/NEWS FROM YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOLS-Students End Fights With HEART. Los Angeles Times

http://articles.latimes.com/1999/sep/22/local/me-12966

MONSTER

MONSTER: The Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member

Monster is a novel written by a former L.A. gang member known as Monster Kody Scott that reveals his life as a gang member participant for about sixteen years. He shares his life stories of living in South Central L.A. from “the gun, street, fence, and wall” (xiv).

Growing up in South Central Los Angeles, at age eleven, Scott was initiated to the L.A. gang, the Crips. He received his name Monster Kody Scott by his brutality and violence beating of a man. Throughout his life, “gangbanging” was his career. His motto was that “Bangin’ ain’t no part-time thang, it’s full time, it’s a career. It’s bein’ down when ain’t nobody else down with you. It’s geettin’caught and not tellin’. Killin’ and not caring, and dyin’ without fear. It’s love for your set and hate for the enemy” (12). His “homeboys” became his family and was more important than anyone else. Over the years, he landed in Juvenile Hall, Camps, and prison, but once released, he soon returned to the life of a gang member. He has witnessed many deaths, bloodsheds, and has been brutally beaten and survived by six rounds of gunshots. Until he was locked up at Youth Training School, a maximum-security youth prison, he was introduced to Muslim services and begins to redirect his life away from “gangbanging.” He changed his name from Kody Scott to Sanyika Shakur. He educated himself and became an active member of the New Afrikan Independence movement as well as being part of the Consolidated Crip Organization (CCO) to unite all Crips into one. After an early released from prison, he shifted his life from a gang member to a civilized citizen. At the age of twenty-six, he settle with his wife, Tamu, and lives with his three children.

Interview of Sanyika Shakur on BET

References:

Top Image: http://www.mainlybooks.co.nz/-img-0802141447.jpg

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cudU68Cyptw

Sanyika Shakur, Monster Kody Scott. (1993). Monster: The Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member. New York: Grove Press.

The Turf War

One of the most prized possessions of a gang is their “turf”. Turf is the area, the territory, the land that gangs use to operate their drug business. The more land, one gang controls, the more they profit and consume more money. Gangs control an area economically to support their gang by buying more weapons and paying individuals to commit illegal crimes. For example, if an owner of a liquor store were to be located in the territory of a gang, the owner can pay the gang to keep the liquor store safe from other gang members or thieves. Also, inside these territories, gangs can traffic drugs. So by controlling a larger area, a specific gang can generate more income by selling to a larger group of drug users.

As gangs expand their turf this usually ignites turf wars. Turf wars are between two or more gangs, fighting over to take full control over a specific area. Gangs use violence and kill as many rival gang members as they could to gain territory. These wars not only harm gang members, but also innocent people as they attack through neighborhood and streets.

Mexico is plagued with turf wars. As Mexico turns into a drug consuming country, gang members are fighting each other in Mexico to control over territory in order to sell what and where in Mexico in which they can produce more money at home (Brice, 2009). In 2008, 5,400 deaths were recorded resulting from turf wars. Some consider turf wars in Mexico as its “civil war” because so much violence and so much damage are being done.

In Mexico, the gang turf war, not only is it affecting residents in Mexico, but also Americans as well. As gang members expand their territory, they will migrate further and soon cross the border killing bystander Americans. The turf war is also a problem for the United States because most of gang members’ customers are Americans. Gang members in Mexico are trafficking drugs to the US and selling drugs to Americans, causing more drugs to enter into the lives of Americans as wells as violence in the community.

References:

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLlrbAZv9Do

Brice, Arthur. (February 2009). Official: Mexican drug turf wars have led to surge in violence.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/02/19/mexico.drug.war/index.html

Prison Gangs

Most people do not think much of criminals after they are locked up in prison. Some people believe as long as criminals are confined and watched over, then we are safe and secure, but in reality we are not. Chris De Benedetti, staff writer for the Oakland Tribune explains that prisoners form into gangs and are able to commit crimes even from the inside.

Prison gangs started as a group of inmates with similarities, defending themselves from other inmates. As the number of inmates grew inside prisons, more groups were formed in order to show superiority over other groups. They turned to violence and drug trafficking within the prison walls.

Here are six major prison gangs:

Neta

Aryan Brother

Black Guerrilla family

Mexican Mafia

La Nuestra Familia

Texas Syndicate

Each of the major six prison gangs has a specific race make-up. For example, the Aryan Brother consists of only white members, and the Neta is a Puerto Rican-American/ Hispanic gang. Racial make-up allows for a certain prison gang to gain as many members as it can.

Majority of the prison gangs are affiliated with gangs outside of the prison walls. For example, the Black Guerrilla Famliy is affiliated with black Crips/Blood gangs. These prison gangs are similar in what they do such as drug trafficking, extortion, murder, robbery, and rape. Acts of violence are to show superiority over one another and to put fear into other inmates to either recruit them or use inmates as tools.

Prison gangs not only commit crimes inside the prison walls, but they are reaching out to the public as well. For example, leaders of prison gangs are issuing commands to gang members outside the prison to commit crimes and also to transfer drugs into the prison walls. How would this work? Some inmates will have the opportunity to be on parole. The parolee will cooperate and communicate to the prisoners and gang members outside the prison and provide information of what is happening on the streets. Prison gangs would use coded letters to send to a parolee or an outside affiliated gang member to commit a crime or to transfer drugs.

As more and more parolees are released into the community and more prison gang crimes occur it would become the communities’ problem as well. So it’s our duty to work with our community to eliminate prison gang activities from our community and prison system.

References:

Benedetti, Chris De. (May 2003). Prison gangs reaching through bars. Retrieved October 30, 2009 from http://findarticles.com/p/articls/mi_qn4176/is_20030527//ai_n14548906/

Danitz, Insight. (September 1998). The gangs behind bars. Insight on the News. Retrieved October 26, 2009 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n36_v14/ai_21161641/

Florida Department of Corrections. Major prison gangs. Retrieved October 31, 2009 fromhttp://www.dc.state.fl.us/pub/gangs/prison.html

Logan, Samuel. (May 2009). US Prison Gangs Uniting with Mexican Crime Organizations. Retrieved October 25, 2009 from http://mexidata.info/id2266.html

Miller, Bill. (October 2007). Prison gangs. Retrieved October 26, 2009 from http://startelegram.typepad.com/crime_time/prison_gangs/

Montogomery, Michael. (March 2005). Gangs Reach Out of Prison to Commit Crimes. Retrieved October 26, 2009 from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4525733

United States Department of Justice. Prison gangs. Retrieved October 31, 2009 from http://www.justice.gov/criminal/gangunit/gangs/prison.html

MS-13 Street Gang

Fleeing from a twelve-year civil war in El Salvador, in the early 1980s, Salvadoran refugees and immigrants settled mostly in southern California and soon migrated throughout the United States. While living in America, many of the refugees and immigrants relied on each other for protection from hatred and racial discrimination, so together they formed the Mara Salvatrucha street gang as known as MS-13. Many members of the MS-13 gang were in the military in El Salvador, so they used their fighting skills violently toward others (Barnhart, 2009). Mara Salvatrucha received their name after a street in San Salvador and represents their gang status by wearing blue and white, the colors taken from the national flag of El Salvador (Barnhart, 2009).

Currently there are about 100,000 members, mostly comprised of Salvadorans, Hondurans, Guatemalans, Mexicans, and other Central and South American immigrants; however, they are rapidly expanding to accept many non-Hispanic individuals (FBI, 2008). MS-13 can be found in Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and New York metropolitan areas, and now they can be found in many suburban and rural areas (Swecker, 2005).

MS-13 activity level is dangerous and violent. Their criminal activity includes “drug distribution, murder, rape, prostitution, robbery, home invasions, immigration offenses, kidnapping, carjacking/auto thefts, and vandalism” (FBI, 2008). In 2004, a bus carrying innocent citizens were attacked by MS-13 gang member and they killed 28 people and seriously injured 14 others (Swecker, 2005). The massacre occurred because of rebellion against the laws targeting gang members in Central America. This shows that MS-13 do not care who they killed. It could be civilians in order to get their message across. According to Shelly Domash, she says that “one of the more unusual aspects of MS-13 when compared to other street gangs is that it is extremely flexible in its activity. While some gangs are only into drugs, MS-13 will do any crime at any time” (2005). For example, it is found that many residents from Mexico would pay gang members to murder border patrol officers in order for them to come to the United States (Carter et al, 2006). MS-13 also engaged in drug trafficking of mostly cocaine, crack cocaine, marijuana, and heroin (Swecker, 2005). Therefore, more and more drugs are coming across the borders and into the hands of Americans.

Currently, the US Department of Homeland Security is collaborating with Central Americans governments and law enforcement agencies to defeat the international problem related to intense poverty and lack of education and opportunity that has cause many Central Americans to become MS-13 as their only survival (18 with a Bullet,1). Also, to specifically combat the MS-13 gang, the FBI has created the MS-13 National Gang Task Force before the gang becomes more organized. Their purpose is to make it easier for local, state, federal, and international law enforcement agencies to exchange information and identify MS-13 members in their locations (Swecker, 2005).

References:

(2008, January). El Salvador: Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13). Retrieved October 9, 2009

from http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/uncategorized/18-with-a-bullet-el-salvador-mara-salvatrucha-ms-13/2239/

Barnhart, Tracy E. (2009, January). Spread of a Menace. Retrieved October 20, 2009 from http://www.corrections.com/news/article/20497

Carter, Sara A, and Mason Stockstill. (2006, January). Report: MS-13 gang hired

to murder Border Patrol. Retrieved March 1, 2009 from http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_3386933

Domash, Shelly Feuer. (2005, February). America’s Most Dangerous Gang-MS13-

Violent, Vicious, and Spreading Fast. Retrieved October 9, 2009 from http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1347306/posts

Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2008, January). The MS-13 Threat: A National

Assessment. Retrieved October 20, 2009 from http://www.fbi.gov/page2/jan08/ms13_011408.html

Swecker, Chris. (Swecker, 2005). Congressional Testimony: Statement of Chris

Swecker Assistant Director, Criminal Investigative Division Federal Bureau of Investigation Before the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere House International Relations Committee. Retrieved October 12, 2009 from http://www.fbi.gov/congress/congress05/swecker042005.htm

"Beat In"

Initiation has always been a part of the human culture. Tribes such as the Sambia have initiation rituals to transformed “boys” into “men” and “girls” into “women,” and the Christian baptism accepts or confirms someone into their religious order. Initiation rites range from simple as accepting a certain set of rules to surviving hardship. Gangs as organized group have also developed initiation rites.

There are several types of gang initiation rite: “beat in” to committing murder.

The “beat in” is one of the more common initiations. The word explains it all, to be “beat in” literally means if a person wants to join a gang, he or she will have to go through a severe beating. This beating is done by selected members and it is any form of beating. It may range from stomping a person to using clubs or bats. Sometimes being “beat in” is not enough. The initiate will also have to commit criminal acts such as assault, drive by, or even murder before he/she is acknowledge into the gang. These are done to anyone from rival gang members to innocent people. As for girls, to avoid these initiations mentioned above, some must go through a “sex in”. This is when a female is forced to have intercourse with selected men, ranging from 1 to multiple men.

Video of a “beat-in”

The initiation rite for street gangs is to determine whether an individual is capable of being a member. What is a capable member? A capable member is one who will show no sign of opposing his/her gang. He or she must obey the commands and take any necessary action to get something done if needed. So these initiations allow a certain gang to analyze this certain individual that is looking to join the gang.

Joining a gang takes an initiation and alike leaving a gang, also takes an initiation. Gang members wanting to leave will have to get “beat out.” If members request to leave the gang, usually they will be assaulted by selected members of the gang. It is similar to a “beat in,” but more severe and possibility result in death.

As gangs grow and develop, we can only imagine that these initiations will evolve with it. Simple initiation such as a “beat in” may turn in to mass violence and crimes. An example is an organized and powerful gang, growing bigger and recruits more people to be part of their gangs. Initiations would not be as simple as getting “beat in,” but more complex and organized such as killing multiple people, robbing in the mass… and the list goes on. As long as society exist gangs will exist, therefore it affects us all. So we need to take action to control gangs, limit their activities and hopefully abolished them. If done so, we will see a safe society.

References:
Figure 1 Top: http://www.searchforvideo.com/music/g/gang-of-four/
Video: http://www.fugly.com/videos/12180/Gang_beating_-_Brutal_gang_initiation.html

Carlie, Michael K, Ph.D. (2002). Into the Abyss: A personal journey into the world of street gangs. Retrieved September 20, 2009 from http://www.faculty.missouristate.edu/M/MichaelCarlie/what_I_learned _about/GANGS/join_a_gang.htm

Leading The Fight Against Gangs in the United States: An Educational Guide. Retrieved September 20, 2009 from http://www.hopefs.org/Behavior/the fight againstgangs.html

SparTech Software. (1998-2009). MS-13. Retrieved September 22, 2009 from http://www.altereddimensions.net/crime/MS13Gang.aspx

Walker, Robert. (1999-2009). Gangs or Us. Retrieved September 20, 2009 from http://www.gangsorus.com/initiations.html