Gangs: The Hidden Guard by Ian C. Glover

Gangs: The Hidden Guard

Ian C. Glover Period 1 November 8th, 2013

Ian C. Glover Mr. Jimenez Period 1 10/23/13

Gangs: The Hidden Guard

“Every cop is a criminal and all the sinners are saints.” -

The Rolling Stones, Sympathy for the Devil

In our society gangs are perceived by the 4th Branch of Government (the Media) as animalistic brutes. They are considered “lower-class” or “undesirables”. How did this come to be? Who is the real creator of this perception? Do gangs fulfill the American Dream and what role do they play for society when the government turns on the people? This is a question that requires deep examination. To understand the situation you must first hear the origins of how things came to be. What I will argue is that gangs do fulfill the American Dream, and when the government and society clash in revolution, gangs will become our Marines and outlawed heroes as opposed to the animalistic brutes the media describes them as being.

Let us start with the definition of the American Dream. The American Dream, according to the Declaration of Independence, is the right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Property. That was the original definition in the July 2nd edition, inspired by John Locke. It was later revised to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness on July 4th. These are held to be inalienable natural rights of man. In this sense, The American Dream stands as a goal for gang members. In the media’s opinion, gang members do not qualify for “human” rights, because the Media holds the perception that they are savages, people to fear, and less intelligent than those deemed fit for society by certain factors including education. This concept is partly attributed to the Eugenics movement. This Eugenics philosophy of so-called “ethic cleansing”, is reinforced by society, because gang members predominantly are Black or Latino. The word, “gang”, has received a negative connotation by the Media. Gangs are judged as a whole and not by each group member. Several classic assumptions for joining gangs revolve around drug addiction, an outlet for violence, and peer pressure. This is sometimes the case, especially in a society that continuously perpetuates the acceptance of violence. However, there are other reasons as well. The metaphorical structure of a gang is a miniature mafia. All a mafia really tries to be is a family. The American Dream is being lived out by the search for truth within the gang members. In some cases, the youth are pushed into gangs due to the circumstances of poverty. In the concrete jungle currently, the code, as perceived in the Media, is “Kill or Be Killed”. This is true regarding their mentality when in gang combat, but gang members have more of a consciousness than to have no emotion and just kill for the sadistic pleasure of killing. Those who have been in gangs are often traumatized 3

individuals, rewarded with drugs, sex, and a way out of poverty with money, in order to cope with the trauma. Included in gang philosophy, certain gangs will be proud to be sent to jail, because it adds what they call, “street credit.” Now, why do gangs perpetually clash with law enforcement? The truth has very little to do with the constant threat of arrest and forgery. The clash was initially spawned by humiliation and segregation, first formally introduced by the Eugenics movement. Of course, over time, the emotional response to the racism has grown virtually non-existent, but nonetheless, it was racism that huddled all the Blacks together in small groups. And just as the gang members started to live in their own structure, formulate their American Dream, the government managed to turn them against themselves, not by violence and racism, but rather, this time, in the form of drugs. In the article, “Secret ties between CIA, drugs revealed”, written by Rosalind Muhammad, who was a former Final Call News West Coast Bureau Chief, Rosalind explains how the CIA is responsible for the introduction of crack cocaine into the street community, particularly LA, Compton, where there already was an active and violent rivalry between the Bloods and Crips gang. When the CIA were questioned on their motives, they released a public response: the money made from the selling of crack cocaine was going to help fund the CIA-backed Nicaraguan Contra army in the early 1980s. The other reason that goes off books, was that crack was invented to break up the gangs in the ghetto, to turn everyone on each other. The results today are sickening and sad. Since the inception of Crack Cocaine in the early 80s, the ghetto has been torn into violence and animalistic sadism, exactly as the media describes. This gives the media fuel to enforce a negative perception onto minority communities and dehumanize gangs, 4

since the majority was Black and Latino, and therefore labeled by the Eugenics Movement, “unfit for society”. The way the Eugenics Movement labeled Blacks and minorities was through scientific tests that they started at Elis Island, and in the name of science, made insulting claims, describing them as apes and the shape of their brain decreased their intelligence. Tied in with the lack of education, minorities have no place in a functioning society, where the importance of intelligence is determined on school education instead of life’s education. Gang members may be the only people with the real education on how to survive in this world. The spread of disinformation through all forms of media outlets, including the News, started out as a CIA Operation called Operation Mockingbird. Operation Mockingbird granted the Media the use to the unlimited power of propaganda to an aggressive advantage, and now with almost everything it has become a habit of creating a false picture out of anything. The first real example of this type of propaganda through television was during the JFK election battle, where for the first time in history, the candidates, Nixon and Kennedy used the tool of the television for fierce debating and gathering supporters. Now that we know the Media’s perception and the government’s involvement to break up the gangs, let us turn to an issue that plagues the ghetto and normal society. With the increasing depletion of the middle class gang violence has been escalating, the balanced structure of society is destabilizing, and a potential government enforcement of Martial Law. The presence of Martial Law would spiral the United States into a “police state”, and its very nature would spark chaos and bloodshed. We are seeing bits and pieces emerging with the increase of firepower for the police force, with the investment of 1.6 million rounds of hollow-point bullets in the summer of 2013. The article, “Faces 5

of US Poverty: These days, more poor live in suburbs than in cities”, written by Richard Mertens for the news magazine The Christian Science Monitor, explores how suburban poverty in America has been expanding. According to the article, across the country it grew 53% between the years 2000 and 2010, which is more than twice the rate of urban poverty. There is a saying that warriors are only at peace when they are at war. Peruvian Hip-Hop Artist Immortal Technique, who grew up in Harlem, has two quotes that just might be prophetic. The first quote, from his song, The 4th Branch, off his Album Revolutionary Volume 2, released in 2003: “Martial Law is coming to the hood to kill you as you’re hanging out your flag out your project window.” In a later song based on the attacks of 9/11, titled Bin Laden, Immortal Technique explores in his second verse how the Media is confusing the mass public about the war, and how that if the war was being fought here, that Gangs wouldn’t fight for the government’s interpretation of the American Dream, but rather fight for the survival of their home: “They say the rebels in Iraq still fight for Saddam, I tell you that’s Bullshit, I’ll tell you why that’s totally wrong because if anyone ever invaded the Hood tonight, it would be warfare through Harlem and Washington Heights. I wouldn’t be fighting for Bush or White America’s Dream, I’d be fighting for my people’s survival and self-esteem.” This quote shows that gangs would fight for their survival, self-esteem, and most importantly, their home, when under attack. As the citizens of America occupy the same streets to stand up against a common enemy, the citizens become an extension of family. In times of civil war, the importance of protection is at an all time high. We are starting to see this now, when movements such as Occupy Wall Street clash against 6

police, protesting against the 1% who control the world. Citizens and gang members would no longer be in hatred or fear of each other. As Immortal Technique says in his song called Caught in the Hustle, “The world is volatile and the street is my education/ shaping the nation like the blueprint of a Mason” and “I would like to raise my children to grow to be soldiers but then the general would decide when they life would be over so I work hard until my personality splits, like the Black Panthers into the Bloods and the Crips”. The Black Panthers were a rebellious group against government and police force, who stood for the unification and protection of the people of the streets. The Black community has much to be angry about, and if they are pushed to a certain limit, they will become hyper-vigilant towards the government. When the home is threatened anyone who shares that home is family. Therefore, gangs become the knight in shinning armor, when our city gets attacked, either by government force or another entity. Gangs appear to become more alive and more human than most individuals in society today. The American Dream is being pursued, only increasing the desire to graduate to a class above the poverty level. With intention in mind, gang members are very human, with emotions as sensitive as you and me, but hardened to live in the environment they are surrounded in. When the government goes against the people, the gang outlaws become vigilante heroes, a defender for their truth, home. In one sense, the French Revolution is an example about the people revolting against the government because the government stopped putting those underneath the upper class as top priority. The gang is the mob of people who risked severe punishment to create change. Another example is the Civil Rights Movement, where Martin Luther King, helped lead the Blacks through non-violent tactics and risking consequences and police brutality, to 7

obtain their human rights and end segregation. The list goes on and on, from Gandhi to Nelson Mandela. The underprivileged minorities are no longer the bad influences of what not to become, but rather transform themselves into the dared idols we now idolize, who stopped at nothing to protect what was theirs and fought to maintain it for everyone. With this in mind, gangs have been misjudged in appearance for the longest time and when the time is right, when the ghetto is able to rise from poverty into acceptable society, well then maybe the world may begin to know peace. But for that to happen, the gang members must find internal peace. The culture of hip-hop music has kept this American Dream alive and remembered, and it is largely the influence of hip-hop music that keeps these people sane throughout the day, because for the ghetto, hip-hop has evolved to being the only way to connect with the rest of humanity. Granted by the Declaration of Independence, the American Dream establishes three inalienable rights: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Property. Redefining the American Dream for the benefit of gangs, property is collected which is represented as streets or gang turf; life is lived to the fullest as gang members experience all of life around â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the birth and death cycle; liberty is granted because drugs and sex are liberating the traumas they go through in the hood. Therefore, gangs live the American Dream. Perceived through a racial and misinforming lens provided by the Media, gangs have been viewed as terrorists and out of control juveniles, trying to belong but should be avoided at all costs for safety. With the government production of crack cocaine, the ghettos have emerged from holding their own to a level of insanity. So through cocaine and the Eugenics segregation, gangs have been morphed into these perceptions. However 8

if the government went into Civil War or revolution with the citizens of the United States, the tables would turn and gangs would protect their home, our home. Despite the violent perception, the moral of this story is: Never Judge A Book By Its Cover.

Bibliography

“Crime, The Media, And Constructions of Reality: Using HBO’s The Wire as a Frame of Reference” College Student Journal, http://elibrary.bigchalk.com/elibweb/curriculum/do/document?set=search&dictionaryClic k=&secondaryNav=&groupid=1&requestid=lib_standard&resultid=1&edition=&ts=506 EB610A04F74B86A4DDBC0075363B6_1383924149360&start=1&publicationId=&urn =urn%3Abigchalk%3AUS%3BBCLib%3Bdocument%3B218876729&pdfflag=y , 0601-2013 “G2: When his IPhone was stolen as he was walking home, Stuart Jeffries started to see his neighborhood in an entirely different way” The Guardian, http://elibrary.bigchalk.com/elibweb/curriculum/do/document?set=search&dictionaryClic k=&secondaryNav=advance&groupid=1&requestid=lib_standard&resultid=37&edition= &ts=506EB610A04F74B86A4DDBC0075363B6_1383924108287&start=26&publicatio nId=&urn=urn%3Abigchalk%3AUS%3BBCLib%3Bdocument%3B216435550 , 05-292013 “Face of US poverty: These days, more poor live in suburbs than in cities” The Christian Science Monitor, http://elibrary.bigchalk.com/elibweb/curriculum/do/document?set=search&dictionaryClic k=&secondaryNav=advance&groupid=1&requestid=lib_standard&resultid=1&edition= &ts=506EB610A04F74B86A4DDBC0075363B6_1383923951019&start=1&publication Id=&urn=urn%3Abigchalk%3AUS%3BBCLib%3Bdocument%3B219394401 , 09-112013 “Pathways to Early Violent Death: The Voices of Serious Violent Youth Offenders” American Journal of Public Health, http://elibrary.bigchalk.com/elibweb/curriculum/do/document?set=search&dictionaryClic k=&secondaryNav=&groupid=1&requestid=lib_standard&resultid=6&edition=&ts=506 EB610A04F74B86A4DDBC0075363B6_1383923682800&start=1&publicationId=&urn =urn%3Abigchalk%3AUS%3BBCLib%3Bdocument%3B217711789&pdfflag=y , 0701-2013 “Poverty pushed me into joining a gang” New Straits Times, http://elibrary.bigchalk.com/elibweb/curriculum/do/document?set=search&dictionaryClic k=&secondaryNav=&groupid=1&requestid=lib_standard&resultid=2&edition=&ts=506 EB610A04F74B86A4DDBC0075363B6_1383923593774&start=1&publicationId=&urn =urn%3Abigchalk%3AUS%3BBCLib%3Bdocument%3B219383694 , 09-15-2013 “Secret ties between CIA, drugs revealed” Final Call News, http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/National_News_2/Secret_ties_between_CIA_dr ugs_revealed_2625.shtml, 04-20-2012 “Gangs of Oakland County” Downtown Publications, http://www.downtownpublications.com/Articles-features-c-2013-08-01-216374.112113Gangs-of-Oakland-County.html, 08-01-2013 10

“Impact of Latin Kings arrests felt through quiet summer”, Holland Sentinel, http://www.hollandsentinel.com/news/x511630754/Impact-of-Latin-Kings-arrestsfelt-through-quiet-summer?rssfeed=true, 09-30-2013 “In the Grip of Gangs: Muskegon communities damaged, fearful over issue, authorities say”, Michigan News, http://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2013/09/in_the_grip_of_gangs_ muskegon.html, 09-23-2013 “Chicago ‘Gang Summit’ Planned For September In Hopes of Curbing Street Violence Among Rival Gangs”, Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/01/chicago-gang-summit-_n_3689247.html, 0801-2013

Ian C. Glover Period 1 Mr. Jimenez 9/19/13

CRIME, THE MEDIA, AND CONSTRUCTIONS OF REALITY: USING HBO'S THE WIRE AS A FRAME OF REFERENCE Guastaferro, Wendy P  College Student Journal  06-01-2013

Summary: This article is about a popular television show on HBO called “The Wire”, and it addresses criminal justice through media and crime reports. It explains how this show is incredibly informative, facts over action, and it is to educate the students on society, and in this case, gangs. It briefly touches upon the lifestyles of the males in gangs, and shows women in a negative light as prostitutes. In this article, crime begets crime. Quotes: “Noirs emphasized the underworld and were cynical, scripts became non-linear, criminal motives focused on pathology, viewers were introduced to the femme fatale, the distinction between good and evil became blurred, and directors focused on stylistic elements such as lighting, high-contrast shadow, and frame depth, and the storylines shifted from the detective to the criminal (Rafter, 2006, p.29-36).” “The media consistently make the connection between race, poverty, drugs, and crime and in turn, public perception mirrors these connections (Entman, 2006; Gilens, 1999; Wilson, 1996).” “Beyond a prison sentence or death, viewers are left to consider the long-term consequences of the violence, fear, and the stressors of gang involvement.” Analysis: Based on my topic, “Do gangs fulfill the American Dream for some people and what position do they do for society when the government fails to consent with society's desires”, this article gave me very little information. The only thing I got from it, really, was that the media aka The Forth Branch makes out gangs to be criminals and tells teens 12

that they are at risk. They try to prevent teenagers going into gangs, with good reason, of course, but they make gangs out to be violent and evil. However, inside a gang life (I have known my fair share of people who have been in gangs), it is more relaxed than the media portrays. Yes, there is anger and they suffer from PTSD, so the gang war violence increases, but there is loyalty and at times, there is peace. I think the article covered the show better than give information on the mediaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s perception of gangs, but thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s just my opinion.

Article #1: CRIME, THE MEDIA, AND CONSTRUCTIONS OF REALITY: USING HBO'S THE WIRE AS A FRAME OF REFERENCE Guastaferro, Wendy P College Student Journal 06-01-2013 Jump to best part of document

This article shows how a uniquely situated television show was used as a pedagogical tool to address numerous criminal justice topics in a crime and media course. The show is Home Box Office's (HBO) The Wire. The first season focused on 'the law' and 'the street' and how each is affected by drug enforcement, sales, and use. Specific attention is given to the themes and generalizations from the show that can be used to promote more informed understanding about society. Implications are provided. Satisfaction, Leisure Boredom, Peer Relationships Introduction Crime on network television has always been popular but has reached new heights of success with shows like Law & Order, CSI, and their respective spin-offs. Traditionally, crime dramas and police procédurals were episodic and self-contained stories. The 1990s brought a formatting change. These shows continue to be self-contained in terms of the criminal event but in borrowing from earlier shows like Hill Street Blues, story arcs about characters were introduced (Snauffer, 2006). These shows also have a healthy dose of realism. Law «fe Order stories are based on real cases and the science in CSI is technically accurate (Snauffer, 2006). However, both condense the investigation timeline and the certainty and celerity of case resolution, thus leaving viewers with a distorted idea about the pace of investigations and the power of science to prove culpability. Forensic experts must overcome juror misconceptions about scientific capabilities and practices. For example, television shows imply the forensic expert works alone rather than with a team of a dozen or more people; and determining time of death on TV is done with nearly precise accuracy, but there are many confounding factors (like core body temperature) that make such a specific determination difficult (Johnson, 2003). The enduring appeal of these shows is the neatly 14

wrapped package presented to viewers: there is little ambiguity, the criminal justice system may stumble but justice prevails, and resolutions are reached in an expedient fashion. This conception is a media created expectation. The study of crime and justice in the media is important for several reasons: crime and justice provide a substantial portion of the media's raw material; crime stories are good 'products' for the media; public perceptions are influenced by the media; and crime policies are created, endorsed, or abandoned based in part on media coverage and public reaction (Surette, 2007). Developing and applying critical thinking skills to examine how the media shape our understanding of crime and justice and influence the policy process is imperative for many different types of students. This article demonstrates how a uniquely situated television show was used as a pedagogical tool to address numerous criminal justice topics in a crime and media course. The show is Home Box Office's (HBO) The Wire. The first season focused on 'the law' and 'the street' and how each is affected by drug enforcement, sales, and use. Specific attention is given to the themes from the show that can be used to educate students about society. The Wire is deliberate, subtle, and builds slowly. It favors atmosphere over action. Co-creator David Simon (2004) wants "... the viewers to pick up facts as they go along" stating "the camera should not advance the knowledge of the story." Simon (2004) compares this visual style to the last generation of cop shows where there was a lot of 'jumpiness' with the camera, the camera was often fishing and there were a lot of pans. The Wire is ideal for repeated viewing because things are happening on multiple levels. Therefore, students are required to purchase the first season on DVD. The course in which the show was integrated was titled Crime and the Media. The purpose of the course was to actively explore the nature of media messages concerning crime and how images created by the media impact both individual perspectives and public policy. Viewing The Wire was one part of the course. The teaching objectives included addressing aspects of theory and research from the disciplines of criminal justice and media studies and examining the connections between violence and the media. Further, The Wire was used in comparison with other crime dramas on television and in film, including examining genres, contexts and themes. The story lines in The Wire were also optimum for critically examining the culture of 'the 15

law' and 'the street', the war on drugs, and a host of social issues including poverty and homophobia. The first season of The Wire is also rich with material for other classes, notably a drugs and crime and/or policing course. Course Design The course discussed here is an upper-level undergraduate course and on a rotating schedule is also offered as a combined undergraduategraduate course. The course was a blend of lectures, viewing crimerelated media (television programs (documentary, news, or fictional formats) or films), group activities, and class discussions based on current events, readings, or other class activity. Learning objectives included building a theoretical foundation for exploring media, crime and justice as an area of social science research; gaining an understanding of how various roles in the criminal justice system (police, lawyers, offenders, etc.) have been and are portrayed by different forms of media; critically examining how youth, race, gender, and persons with mental illness are portrayed in the media; and developing analytical thinking and writing skills through regular writing assignments. Course requirements included five writing assignments and a group presentation. Questions that could be used for discussion or as writing assignments are provided. Course Readings The class was assigned Surette's (2007) Media, Crime, and Criminal Justice, long a standard text for a crime and media course. Socially constructed realities serve as sources of social knowledge and include individual experiences and symbolic reality (Surette, 2007). The media are the single most influential contributor to (most) people's understanding of reality (Entman, 2006). A learning objective was to understand the significance of how the media portrays crime and justice matters and how this affects perception on multiple levels. Another text used in the course was Rafter's (2006) Shots in the Mirror: Crime Films and Society. Historically, crime films essentially make two arguments at once: they criticize society or a particular aspect of the criminal justice system (e.g. police brutality or legal barriers to justice) thus allowing the audience to identify with a "good" bad guy and they offer the opportunity to identify with characters who restore order at the end, even if that means the death of the bad-guy hero. Rafter (2006) calls attention to the moral ambiguity in recent crime films. There is often an absence of a true hero and/or the hero is 16

hardly distinguishable from the villain. Moral ambiguity has a strong role on The Wire: viewers identify with members of Barksdale's crew despite their criminality and also with the detectives who while on the side of "good" also give regular 'beat-downs' to the hoppers and dealers, lie to superiors to protect themselves, and conspire to steal evidence. The moral line of the drug war is blurred when viewers begin to see that those who have a hand in its proliferation extend from the street to city hall. Crime genres reflect the social and political context of the time period. During the Progressive Era (1890-1920) for example communities were concerned about social unrest and street crime and it was a time of intense social reform. Gangster films showed dapper thugs, corrupt cops, helpless women and violence. Sound movies made their debut in 1927. Here the gangster and prison films came of age, with strong themes of economic deprivation, offenders who were framed, and general frustration with the American dream. These films reflected the newly developed realization that the government may not always be able or willing to care for its citizens or dispense justice. The film noir era (1940-1955) departed from previous genres in storyline, writing style, treatment of gender, the depiction of good guys, and style. Noirs emphasized the underworld and were cynical, scripts became nonlinear, criminal motives focused on pathology, viewers were introduced to the femme fatale, the distinction between good and evil became blurred, and directors focused on stylistic elements such as lighting, high-contrast shadow, and frame depth, and the storylines shifted from the detective to the criminal (Rafter, 2006, p.29-36). Student Survey A 10-question survey was administered on the first day of class to capture students' media habits (4 classes, approximately 30 students each). Fifteen students (13%) said they did not watch any crime, criminal justice, or law and order-themed television shows. Of the overwhelming majority of students who watch crime-related shows (n=103/118), Law & Order, C.S.I. : Crime Scene Investigation (C.S.I.) and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit were the most popular. Only 3 of 118 students watched The Wire regularly, 18 had viewed 1 or 2 episodes, and 96 or 81% had never seen the show. One survey question asked for objections to watching media with violence, adult language, and sexual content. Three students registered their preference to watch media without such content but none objected. Violence and adult language are regular features of The Wire. A few scenes have explicit sexual content but not beyond what is shown on 17

television today. Learning from the Limitations of The Wire Students were able to learn about crime and the media from an application of the show to their own understanding of criminal justice. Research on the race of characters in crime dramas, and television generally, consistently finds that people of color are portrayed as criminals or as blue collar/service-industry workers. African Americans have the majority of roles and strongest presence in The Wire. Members of the police force are fairly evenly split between Caucasians and African Americans, including the upper ranks. Members of the street are all African American but for 2: Johnny who is an addict and the Barksdale crew's attorney, Maurice Levy. The Wire is dominated by male characters, for both the law and the street. The regular female characters are strong women: Kima Greggs is an African American detective, Rhonda Pearl-man is an assistant district attorney, and Maria Daniels is African American, and the wife of Lt. Daniels with political aspirations of her own. A cast dominated by people of color is rare, especially for a show about crime and justice. The Wire is not without its limitations on race, class, and gender issues however. Poverty & Victimization and Distortions The media consistently make the connection between race, poverty, drugs, and crime and in turn, public perception mirrors these connections (Entman, 2006; Gilens, 1999; Wilson, 1996). While impoverished urban areas disproportionately face the effects of drugs and crime, statistics on drug use and criminal offenders presents a more balanced view. According to the 2005 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, sixty-five percent of those who reported using crack in the past month were White, Hispanic, or Latino (682,000 reported using crack in past month; 446,000 of whom are White, Latino, or Hispanic) (Office of Applied Studies, 2006). Yet in 2005, 82.3% of crack cocaine defendants were African American (United States Sentencing Commission, 2006). Regarding victimization, people living in poverty are the most frequent victims of violent crime (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2005). We are just beginning to understand how crime, punishment, poverty, and victimization coalesce to form a "system of disadvantage" that perpetuates inequality and disproportionately affects African Americans (Wheelock & Uggen, 2006). The Wire portrays the hollowed out urban areas as depleted of legitimate economic and social opportunities. In this sense a broad definition of the victims of crime that accounts for the causes and 18

consequences of crime is incorporated into The Wire. In a more traditional sense of the term victim, The Wire does not show the aftermath of crime and violence from the victim's point of view. Rarely are viewers shown the private lives of the street-level dealers and the hoppers; we're not sure where or how they live but we know it can't be the ideal setting for any 14-year-old boy. Beyond a prison sentence or death, viewers are left to consider the long-term consequences of the violence, fear, and the stressors of gang involvement. The police officers are victims as well. Late in the first season in a suspenseful scene, Kima Greggs is shot in a drug buy gone bad. McNulty feels responsible and guilty. He wonders out loud if any of the fight is worth it. Barksdale's crew members regularly fight back during police encounters and the officers have cuts, bruises, and other injuries. The Wire does portray longer-term consequences of living as a police officer including crumbling marriages, tension over not spending time with their kids, the edge that is honed from regularly facing danger, and excessive drinking. Gender Messages The strongest and most powerful characters in The Wire are male. Messages about gender go beyond who makes the decisions or has final say. The language is charged with male-dominated terms: weak actions or individuals are referred to as a 'pussy' or bitch; when complimenting a woman her actions are framed within how she did X like a man; the term M-F-is used all the time. Women are regularly objectified in The Wire. Given the inundation and nature of today's popular culture regarding these words and phrases, the implications of such gender references and messages are lost on many students. The every-day portrayals and references to women as ho's, prostitutes, strippers, and as stupid seems to have desensitized students (and others) to the meanings behind the labels. Research examining race, gender, violence, and popular culture has found important connections between media representations and individual perceptions of women. One final group project looked at violence in music. The students examined rock, country, and hip hop lyrics, played samples from songs, and demonstrated that if we pay attention and don't jump to stereotypes about race, then the violence and degrading references about women are regular features of many kinds of music. Race and Violence Two examples will illuminate the subtle messages that are likely to go 19

unexamined if not specifically addressed. The first is the pervasive use of the -word. Members of the law use it to refer to each other, as do members of the street (inter-group and intra-group). We hear the word used in fun and between friends, but also with all the historical racist white power behind it. Here again, students are often desensitized and the challenge is to pull them out of their superficial view of what these words and phrases mean and to think about the history and power of language. One of the final projects looked at race and gender in hip-hop music and coalesced well with these discussions. The second of many ways race can be addressed also involves class. Detective McNulty is estranged from his wife and has 2 young sons; the McNulty family is white. When we see white kids on the show, they are playing soccer, doing homework, or playing in their large fenced-in backyard in the suburbs. Black kids on The Wire live in the projects, are lookouts yelling, "yo, 5-0", "Po-po rollin' up", or "5-0, shut it down" to warn the dealers and hoppers that the police are coming. In the opening scene where Brandon, Omar's boyfriend, is laid out tortured on the car near Wallace's house we learn not only that Avon was using this act of violence to send a message to his young crew members but of another aspect of Wallace's reality. Wallace is one of the youngest hoppers in Barksdale's crew who lives in a boarded up house (literally) that requires stealing electricity from another building. Wallace takes cares of a half-dozen kids under 10 or so years of age. When the kids balk at getting up to go to school he tells them if they don't want to go to foster care they had better get to school. Reminding students that not all white kids live in the suburbs nor do all black kids thwart the efforts of the police or live in the projects may seem obvious but the point of the course is to address the subtleties of media messages and to explain how the frames we have are reinforced, even in a show that gets it 'right' on many other occasions. Homophobia Themes The culture within The Wire's police force is fiercely homophobic. When members of the law or the street insult someone his comments will often include a belittling, emasculating sexual directive or in some other way reference two men having sex. Simultaneously, The Wire also brings gay identity to the forefront. Detective Kima Greggs is an 'out' African American lesbian. Members of the street know this about Kima and often insult her by calling her a dyke or make other derogatory references to her sexuality. Kima's relationship with her partner Cheryl struggles to find the balance between Kima's 20

demanding and dangerous job. In a later season they have a child together and their relationship has similar problems to that between Detective McNulty and his estranged wife. Many students responded positively yet immaturely to their intimate moments. Omar, the stickup artist who steals from other dealers, is a gay African American. His relationship with Brandon is not hidden and in one scene they are shown kissing. Many students had a vocal negative reaction to the scene. Recall that Avon doubled the bounties for Omar, Brandon, and their crew member when he found out they were gay. It was clear that expressing homophobic sentiments is far more acceptable than making racist or sexist comments in a class environment. This reaction mirrors survey findings that criminal justice students had more negative views toward gays and lesbians than did non-criminal justice students (Ventura, Lambert, Bryant, & Pasupuleti, 2004). Several contributing factors to such attitudes were identified including a lack of exposure to people who are gay or lesbian and the absence of an alternative 'frame' about people who are gay or lesbian. In short, criminal justice students are not challenged on their biases. Crime and criminal justice courses lag behind in directly linking gay and lesbian issues to topics such as workplace environment, hate crimes, domestic violence, and sensitivity training for law enforcement. Cannon & Dirks-Lindhorst (2006) found that threequarters of criminal justice programs did not mention gay and lesbian issues in any required or elective course. A writing assignment and class activity/discussions are planned in the future to explore these issues more fully and give students time for reflection. The Wire provides opportunities to discuss these issues through the characters Kima and Omar but also late in season three Major Rawls is seen in a gay bar, a surprising revelation. There are positive and negative attributes in all of the characters, whether they're part of the law or the street. The Wire is an excellent tool for guiding students to an understanding that what makes someone 'good police' or a worthy villain is not based on their sexuality, race, or gender. It is but one path toward extending this understanding to their real world perceptions. As a pedagogical tool, any given scene provides dynamic connections between crime and criminal justice issues. The Wire is not a standalone tool however. One possible limitation of using The Wire is if its effectiveness would be lost from using a single episode or scene rather than multiple episodes. This drawback could be ameliorated if the instructor had a strong familiarity with the story lines and characters and was able to provide the necessary background information. The 21

coarse and raw material is another limitation but can also be overcome with the proper set up for students. Discussion The Wire is 'good tv'. The story line surrounding Brandon's torture and death provides an excellent example of the multiple levels of action and plot in The Wire. There are (at least) seven themes woven within this story line that are of relevance to a criminal justice course: (1) Avon Barksdale wanted the punishment for stealing from him to be strong. He detailed how he wanted the thieves killed and displayed so everyone would see; (2) Omar is a fearless stick up artist, stealing from one gang and selling to another or directly to the street. Crime begets more crime and the cyclical and treacherous world of perpetrator-victim comes to the fore. Barksdale's crew needs to keep their guard up against raids by the police and other criminals; (3) The message to the thieves is important but the message to the soldiers in Barksdale's crew may be more so. Controlling behavior through intimidation and violence is key; (4) There is a vigilante justice that guides (positive and negative) activity on the street; (5) Omar's relationship with Brandon is viewed as a weakness on at least 2 levels. First, Barksdale's crew is openly homophobic; doubling the reward for killing them sends multiple messages to the street. The relationship is also Omar's point of vulnerability. Unlike the women in Avon, Stringer, or D'Angelo's life, Omar genuinely cares about Brandon making the retaliation particularly painful. Omar acts on an offer made earlier by McNulty and becomes a confidential informant. What is important about Omar's actions however is his motivation. He is not facing charges and cooperating to serve his own legal interests. Rather, he uses all tools at his disposal to avenge Brandon's death, including using the police as another weapon against Barksdale's crew; (6) There are race and class issues raised by this story line regarding Wallace, the kids he cares for, and their living conditions; (7) A few gang members are shown to have a conscience and feel remorse over their actions. In this case, Wallace tries to get out of the gangster life. Students were engaged in viewing and critiquing The Wire. Some of the pertinent issues have been explored in this article; this discussion is far from exhaustive however. The interaction between texts, the episodes, class discussions, and current events is important to placing The Wire in a larger and a scholarly context. The Wire provided ongoing opportunities to critically examine the issues discussed here, allowing the class to make connections that may have otherwise been overlooked. The trend of blurring fact and fiction, of infotainment 22

news, mandates a keen analysis of how the media, as a central institution, shape public perception and policy. In the end, the course was successful because The Wire provided an interesting pedagogical tool to aid in student learning. Students learned about the media, how information is accurately and inaccurately developed, and they learned how to critically analyze the media. While one television show was used in this class, there are many others that can be used as pedagogical aids. Bringing the media into the classroom allows students to place information in an objective context. In doing so, students become active consumers of the media rather than passive recipients of information. REFERENCE References Entman, R.M. (1994). Representation of reality in the portrayal of Blacks on network television news. Journalism Quarterly, 71(3), 509520. Gliens, M. (1999). Why Americans hate welfare: Race, media, and the politics of Antipoverty policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Johnson, D.G. (2003, August). Forensic pathology: Separating fact from fiction. Medical Laboratory Observer (58). Retrieved September 1, 2007, from http:// www.mloonline.com/articles/mlo0803cliniss.htm. Johnson, J.G., Cohen, P., Smailes, E.M., Kasen, S., Brook, J.S. (2002, March). Television viewing and aggressive behavior during adolescence and adulthood. Science, 295, 2468-2471. Rafter, N. (2006). Shots in the mirror: Crime films and society (2nd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. Simon, D. (2004). 'The Wire's" David Simon and George Pelecanos. (Radio broadcast: September 23, 2004). Philadelphia: Fresh Air from WHYY with Terry Gross. Snauffer, D. (2006). Crime Television. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers. Sparks, G.G., & Sparks, C.W. (2002). Effects of media violence. In J. Bryant & D. Zillmann (Eds.), Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Surette, R. (2007). Media, crime, and criminal justice: Images, realities & policies (3rd ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth. United States Sentencing Commission (USSC). (2006). Sourcebook of federal sentencing statistics, 2005. Washington: U.S. Sentencing Commission. Wheelock, D., & Uggen, C. (2006, June). Race, poverty and punishment: The impact of criminal sanctions on racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic inequality. (Working Paper Series 06-15). Ann Arbor: National Poverty Center. Retrieved July 26,2007 from: http:// www.npc,umich.edu/publications/working_papers/ Wilson, W.J. (1996). When work disappears: The world of the new urban poor. New York: Vintage Books. Ventura, L.A., Lambert, E.G., Bryant, M., & Pasupuleti, S. (2004). Differences in attitudes toward gays and lesbians among criminal justice and non-criminal justice majors. American Journal of Criminal Justice 28(2), 165-180. AUTHOR_AFFILIATION Dr. Wendy P. Guastaferro Georgia State University Department of Criminal JusticeCRIME, THE MEDIA, AND CONSTRUCTIONS OF REALITY: USING HBO'S THE WIRE AS A FRAME OF REFERENCE Byline: Guastaferro, Wendy P Volume: 47 Number: 2 ISSN: 01463934 Publication Date: 06-01-2013 Page: 264 Type: Periodical Language: English Copyright Project Innovation, Inc. Jun 2013 Back to top ^

Citation for your reference: Ensure the accuracy and completeness of your bibliography by reviewing this automatically generated citation information against the guidelines provided by the standard reference works published by the Modern Language Association (MLA) or the American Psychological Association (APA). Edit this citation Guastaferro, P, Wendy.. "CRIME, THE MEDIA, AND CONSTRUCTIONS OF REALITY: USING HBO'S THE WIRE AS A FRAME OF REFERENCE." College Student Journal 2(2013):264. eLibrary. Web. 17 Sep. 2013. Guastaferro, P, W. (2013, June 01). CRIME, THE MEDIA, AND CONSTRUCTIONS OF REALITY: USING HBO'S THE WIRE AS A FRAME OF REFERENCE. College Student Journal, (2), 264, Retrieved from http://elibrary.bigchalk.com

Ian C. Glover Period 1 Mr. Jimenez 9/29/13

Summary: This is someone’s account of a man who got phone snatched by a young motorcycle rider and six months later managed to confront him in unusual circumstances, bringing this 16 year old gang member to justice to serve an 18 year sentence in prison. We learn through the assailant’s testimony, he never “set out” to hurt anyone as the gang member he was.

Quotes: “The phone replaced the BlackBerry I'd destroyed a month earlier by running into the sea to save my daughter from drowning. “ “We (him, his case worker, a victim liaison officer, me) sat down and turned off our phones. "This is the one you stole from me," I laughed. "I am sorry," he said. He said so repeatedly. I complimented him on the professionalism of the theft. But what if it had gone wrong? "I never thought about it at the time. But I should have - we crashed a 26

few minutes later." What about hurting his victims? "I didn't set out to hurt anyone." “At court, he readily accepted the terms of the order rather than go back to Feltham Young Offenders' Institution, where he'd already spent a month, to serve an 18-month sentence. In Feltham, he said, he was OK because he knew gang members who could protect him. But their protection was a double-edged sword - it meant he would still associate with people who might lure him back into committing crimes. The order, then, gives him a chance to remake his life in a way that jail may not have. He's away from gangs, away, perhaps, from greater risks of recidivism. He attends boxing training and in September goes to college to train as plumber or mechanic.”

Analysis: I found very little help with this article sadly. It seems like one person’s account to find the gang member who took his IPhone and learn something new. The only helpful thing I found in this is that gang members don’t set out to hurt people. If this is the case then this leads me to believe that their purpose is to protect. If they there to protect, what are they protecting? Are they protecting themselves or their family?

Article #2

G2: When his iPhone was stolen as he was walking home, Stuart Jeffries started to see his neighbourhood in an entirely different way. But he never dreamed that, six months later, he would come face to face with his 16-year-old assailant Byline: Stuart Jeffries Section: Guardian Features Pages Type: News At 10 to five one Saturday afternoon last year, I was walking up the Hornsey Road in London with a tin of rhubarb from Tesco, checking the football results on my iPhone after a lovely day at Kew Gardens. The phone replaced the BlackBerry I'd destroyed a month earlier by running into the sea to save my daughter from drowning. Behind me on the pavement I heard a motorbike and, thinking the rider was going to park, carried on holding the phone in my left hand and scrolling with my right index finger - that fey, giveaway gesture of iPhone users. Over my shoulder the right arm of the bike's pillion passenger appeared and snatched the phone. The bike was 200 yards away before I composed myself enough to look for the registration plate or think about clubbing the thieves with canned fruit - it was a seamless snatch from a soft target. And a common one. The Guardian reported last year that in my borough (Islington) there was a 400%plus increase in phone snatches between 2010 and 2011. Detective Inspector Karen Gilmour, head of Islington police's robbery unit, was quoted in the local paper recently saying: "It seems to me they can make an assessment very quickly as to whether the person they're 28

looking at has got the sort of phone they want." She said that most stolen phones are immediately switched off, the sim card removed, and the phone passed on to handlers who ship them abroad for as much as pounds 600. Of all the minor unpleasant incidents I've suffered - bus stop shovings, that time I unwisely confronted a disturbed dog owner about letting his pit bulls run wild in the toddlers' sandpit, the interview during which Robert de Niro called me a "fucking wise guy" - none had as intense a physical, nor as enduring an emotional, effect. I felt winded even though I hadn't been touched. I plodded home hyperventilating, thinking grimly about my neighbourhood - drug busts in the park, a fatal stabbing outside the chip shop, my partner's sister beaten black and blue on this same street the year before by three boys for whom punching a woman until she lay flat on the pavement was a summer evening's entertainment. At home, I called the phone company, whimpered to my partner, and my seven-year-old made a collage of autumn leaves with the inscription: "To Daddy, love Juliet. PS: I am sorry about your phoun [sic]". Meanwhile, the kids who had stolen my phone had crashed their bike during a police chase and the driver had been arrested. Later police caught the boy who had snatched my phone, conspicuous because his jeans were ripped from the crash and he was wearing only one trainer. My partner's phone rang half an hour after the theft. "We've got your phone," a sergeant told me. "Think yourself lucky. Hardly ever happens." A few days later I picked it up from a police station covered in finger-print dust. Six months later, I was on a train to meet the boy. In March, after pleading guilty to several counts of theft and robbery, the boy was given a youth rehabilitation order, one of whose conditions bans him from London for six months. What did I want from the meeting? I wanted to see the thief. I spent a lot of time imagining the woeful life that would lead him to become so adept a thief. I was a victim certainly, but a privileged one. Even if I hadn't got my phone back, I'd have been able to buy another; moreover, I now feel more circumspect in my neighbourhood - in that, the theft was a usefully chastening experience. At the Youth Offending Team offices in Chatham, Kent, I shook the hand that had snatched my phone. A 16-year-old black British boy in hoodie and jeans, uncomfortably hot in this airless room. He told me 29

he was a boxer, whose mum had aspirations for him to make it as a heavyweight. What if I'd held on to my phone? Would he and his mate have beat me up? If so, doubtless, I wouldn't be feeling so benign now. What did he want from the meeting? "To say sorry," he said. This, said the victim liaison officer who arranged the appointment, was a "restorative justice meeting" at which the victim could say how the crime had made them feel and the criminal express regret to the victim for what they had done. None of his other victims wanted a face-to-face meeting, least of all, perhaps, the 34-year-old woman who had hung on to her phone, was knocked to the ground and dragged along the pavement suffering scrapes and bruises before she finally gave it up. Did she feel, as I do, like a privileged victim? Unlikely. We (him, his case worker, a victim liaison officer, me) sat down and turned off our phones. "This is the one you stole from me," I laughed. "I am sorry," he said. He said so repeatedly. I complimented him on the professionalism of the theft. But what if it had gone wrong? "I never thought about it at the time. But I should have - we crashed a few minutes later." What about hurting his victims? "I didn't set out to hurt anyone." Why did he do it, I asked. He told me that since his parents had split up he had felt as though he had to be the man of the family and provide for his mother, who lives on benefits. I said that sounded like a story he might tell afterwards to feel nobler about robbing people in the street. If his dad had been at home rather than living with a new wife outside London, he said, he probably wouldn't have become a criminal. It was his dad who laid down the law. It's a huge social problem, I said, only later thinking - what do I know of it? I'm not from a broken home. At 16, I was revising for O-levels, not meeting my crime victims with school years a wasteland behind me. Diane Abbott MP asked during a Commons speech last year about black and ethnic minority achievement: "Why do black children fail?" The answer, she said, "is partly to do with poverty in an absolute sense, although all the research shows . . . black children systematically do less well than children of other ethnicities. There is no question but that poverty is an issue. Nowadays there is also increasing peer-group pressure." Such peer pressure was a factor in 30

this case. Earlier that day, the boy told me, he had two choices - go to boxing training or go on the rob with his friend as he had done before. He chose the latter. Peer pressure isn't the whole story. Abbott spoke of black boys "who throughout their education have engaged only with women and have never seen a man as an educational role model. More male teachers are important." He told me he hadn't done well at school, couldn't concentrate - again hardly a surprise. Abbott said: "If we abandon a cross-section of the community in our inner cities, they have a way of bringing themselves back into the political narrative - a way that is not good for them or for society." That, maybe, is what happened one dismal evening on the Hornsey Road. The victim liaison officer asked how I felt after the theft. Wary, I said, careful not to use my phone in a dodgy neighbourhood (such as, it turns out, the one in which I live). "You shouldn't have to think like that," said the boy, shaking his head. "You should feel OK using an expensive phone in the street." But thanks to him I'm not. It was about the only time during the interview where I got cross. I think he was disappointed that I wasn't more angry during our hour together. If so, good - I didn't want to give him the satisfaction. Rather, I wanted to give him something worse, crueller even - pity. He suffered much more than me, I said repeatedly. I showed him my daughter's drawing as if to stress how loving and solid a family I have. A low blow. He told me about his family - how furious his mother had been, that his dad was so angry he wouldn't visit him in jail, how his nan was ashamed of him. He told his nephew that the thing he has around his leg is a hi-tech watch - just so he doesn't learn his uncle's a tagged criminal. I felt sorry for his mum, who couldn't come to the meeting, for his dad, who wouldn't, and - a little - for their son. The order bans him from going inside the M25 for six months. It means he can't see his mother, unless accompanied by his case worker. He now lives with his dad in Kent. At court, he readily accepted the terms of the order rather than go back to Feltham Young Offenders' Institution, where he'd already spent a month, to serve an 18-month sentence. In Feltham, he said, he was OK because he knew gang members who could protect him. But their protection was a double-edged sword - it meant he would still associate with people who might lure him back into committing crimes. The order, then, gives him a chance to remake his life in a way that 31

jail may not have. He's away from gangs, away, perhaps, from greater risks of recidivism. He attends boxing training and in September goes to college to train as plumber or mechanic. As the case worker drove him back to his dad's house to fulfil his curfew, I returned to the city from which he is banned, thinking about this boy, both victim and perpetrator of the crime. He said he would write to me and when he does, I hope he'll tell me he's doing something worthwhile with his life, because it doesn't do either of us any good for him to remain what he is to me now, an object of pity. (Copyright, Guardian Newspapers Limited, May 29, 2013)

Ian C. Glover Period 1 Mr. Jimenez 9/29/13

Face of US poverty: These days, more poor live in suburbs than in cities Richard Mertens Correspondent  The Christian Science Monitor  09-11-2013

Summary: This article goes into another person’s testimony of how poverty in the suburban community has become very dangerous very quickly. He says he makes his living hustling in the streets, as that is the only real way to make money where he is. Gangs point guns a lot at people in the suburbs. It uses statistics to show how the suburban life is becoming more prominent in America.

Quotes: "I couldn't walk down the street without someone pulling out a gun on me.” "Of course the crime rate has gone up, due to the fact of unemployment, due to the fact of drugs, due to the fact of poverty," he says. "Crime is always an issue when you have people who can't properly feed their families."

"It's getting bad out here," says Marqueze Thomas, a recent high school graduate who had stopped to pick up a friend in Calumet City, south of Chicago, where residents complain of increased gang activity.”

Analysis: The only thing I learned from this article that is even remotely related to gangs is the area gangs have been populating in considerably. The suburban communities, which are growing in numbers and size all across America like a plague, perpetuate gang violence. It seems as if these communities in poverty are easy for gangs to seize control over because despite there being very little supplies and things to do, the poverty becomes a home to them. For them, they will do anything to protect their home and so they set a street code. In one sense, they play the role of the police for the citizens under “marshal law”. So when the police will enforce marshal law, then wouldn’t the gang members be considered the rebellion, advocating for themselves and the citizens around them? In truth, it seems like they live the American Dream, they control property and as the rebel fighters in Iraq say, “We are at peace only when we are at war”.

Article #3:

Face of US poverty: These days, more poor live in suburbs than in cities Richard Mertens Correspondentâ&#x20AC;¨The Christian Science Monitorâ&#x20AC;¨09-112013 Jump to best part of document

Face of US poverty: These days, more poor live in suburbs than in cities Byline: Richard Mertens Correspondent Section: NEWS Marcus Thomas, a lanky, unemployed construction worker, says he moved out of Roseland, a poor neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, because it had become too dangerous. "I couldn't walk down the street without someone pulling out a gun on me," he says. He didn't go far. Mr. Thomas came to this suburb just a few miles away, where on a recent afternoon he pushed one of his three children along the sidewalk in a stroller. "It's better than the city," he says. "There's not too much violence." Suburbs are increasingly becoming the address of America's poor. Suburban poverty across the country grew 53 percent between 2000 and 2010, more than twice the rate of urban poverty, according to a recent report by the Brookings Institution. For the first time, more poor people live in the suburbs than in cities. "I think suburban poverty is here to stay," says Alan Berube, one of the authors. "It's not going to revert back to the cities." Much of the rise in suburban poverty is due to the impoverishment of working families already living there. The decline in manufacturing, the Great Recession, and widespread foreclosures have left many longtime 35

suburban families reeling. At the same time, the suburbs have become a destination for poor and low-income people arriving from somewhere else. Some, like Thomas, have abandoned poor urban neighborhoods in hopes of living somewhere better - with safer streets, better schools, and housing that's cheaper than in gentrifying urban areas. And new immigrants, many of them poor, are bypassing the urban neighborhoods where they once settled and heading straight to the suburbs. By official measures, poverty has risen dramatically in the United States. Between 2000 and 2011, the nation's poor increased from 33.9 million to 46.2 million. As of 2010, 55 percent of the poor in major metropolitan areas were living in the suburbs. Among the "near poor" - those with incomes as much as twice the poverty level - 63 percent were living in the suburbs. (The poverty threshold for a family of four is currently $23,550.) This rise in suburban poverty reflects long-term demographic shifts America is more than ever a suburban nation - and economic changes that have widened the gap between rich and poor and have made it more difficult for families to secure a place in the middle class. The rise is also happening as city centers across the country are booming, attracting the young, wealthy, and well educated and in some cases displacing poorer residents. "What we're seeing is that poverty is being pushed out of the city core," says John Bartlett, executive director of the Metropolitan Tenants Organization, a nonprofit that assists renters in the Chicago area. "The poor are much more in the periphery now, kind of like in a European city." In the Seattle area, for example, rising rents in the city have pushed low-income blacks into the southern suburbs, where they have joined waves of immigrants, local observers say. In Tukwila, Wash., poverty rose from 13 percent to 24 percent between 2000 and 2010 as the community attracted Bosnians, Somalis, Latinos, and blacks from urban neighborhoods. In Lakewood, Ohio, just outside Cleveland, poverty increased from 9 percent to 16 percent during the same period, in part because of families moving out of Cleveland. For the poor, living in the suburbs can pose special challenges challenges that social services officials say the poor are often unprepared for. Perhaps the greatest difficulty is transportation. 36

Suburbs are built for cars, yet a car is beyond the means of many poor and low-income residents. Instead they catch rides with friends, ride bikes, or use suburban bus lines with limited service. These challenges are more than an inconvenience; they make poverty that much harder to escape. "If you don't have a car, it's very hard to get a job or to keep a job," says David Cassel, head of the United Way of DuPage/West Cook in the western Chicago suburbs. "It's also hard to access services." Victoria Wainwright struggles with these difficulties every day. She lives on modest federal disability payments - about $850 a month and income from an occasional job as a housekeeper. She can't afford her own place, so she shares an apartment with two other women on a busy street in Wheaton, one of Chicago's western suburbs. She has no car, so she was delighted recently when a friend gave her an old Schwinn. Otherwise, she walks, threading her way through back streets to her local grocery store because many of the main roads lack sidewalks. To pick up food at local pantries, which she depends on to make it from month to month, she asks friends for rides. She says the local buses often don't run where she needs to go. "I used to go to the malls," she says. "It's a good opportunity to apply for jobs. But it's hard to get there. It's a lot of different buses. You make a lot of transfers. You spend a lot of time getting there." Her two children live with their father in a neighboring suburb, but she is seldom able to go see them. The expense of suburban life often comes as a shock to poor and lowincome people, says Jane Macdonald, director of client engagement at Loaves & Fishes Community Pantry in Naperville, Ill. "If you're not factoring in the cost of a car, the cost of gas, those kinds of things, I think you can underestimate the kind of job you might need to support your family," she says. Yet for many people, those jobs are scarce. True, some suburbs abound in low-paying jobs in retail sales and in services like landscaping and restaurants, but these jobs typically pay too little to lift workers very far out of poverty, if at all, social services officials say. Moreover, many low-wage jobs are available through temporary employment agencies that may offer a string of positions without benefits or a guarantee of steady employment. 37

"The companies do not hire permanent employees anymore," says Joey Gamilla, who waited to pick up groceries at Loaves & Fishes on a recent morning. "It's mostly temps. They don't have to pay benefits." Workers, he complains, "are expendable." Mr. Gamilla has been looking for steady employment since 2008. Once a project manager at a stainless-steel fabricating company, he is one of the many suburbanites who lost their jobs - and their houses - and are trying to claw their way back to the middle class. He hasn't made it yet. He says he has "no illusion" he'll find a job with the salary he had in 2008. He just wants a job. So far, none he's found has lasted, including ones for which he was far overqualified. Now, as he and his wife face eviction from their apartment, Gamilla, who is in his mid-50s, is hoping just to pay his rent, keep his car, and preserve his dignity. "I can't believe myself," he says. "I'm willing to work for $10 an hour." Even in suburbs that have preserved a modest manufacturing base, the practice of hiring temporary labor makes it difficult for poor and low-income workers to earn a living. The strip malls of Aurora, a western Chicago suburb, are sprinkled with temp agencies. Each day workers trickle in and out, some headed by van or car to regular assignments, others hovering about cheerless waiting rooms or pedaling hopefully from one agency to another. On a recent morning, Greg Ingram, a former real estate appraiser, said he had worked at three jobs in the previous two weeks and at 15 over the past three years. He was looking for No. 16. His last job - at a warehouse in a neighboring suburb - ended when the worker he caught a ride with quit after concluding that the pay was not worth the expense of getting there. "Here I am," said Mr. Ingram, standing with his bicycle outside the third agency of the day. "I'm just trying to get something steady. If I just get a job here and there, I'm not going to be able to pay for a room." In a sense, moving poverty to the suburbs has been a long-term goal of federal housing policy, which aims at reducing the concentration of the poor in inner cities. Public housing agencies that offer rent subsidies to poor and low-income families have torn down housing 38

projects in cities like Chicago and have encouraged poor families to move to wealthier suburbs with good schools and job opportunities. These efforts have had only limited success. Poor families moving from city to suburb or shifting between suburbs are far likelier to settle in poor areas than in wealthier enclaves. As a result, suburban poverty is beginning to look a lot like urban poverty, with pockets of increasingly concentrated poor. Poor suburbs are getting poorer. The suburban agencies that stock food pantries, run mental- health programs, place people in low-cost housing, and provide other assistance are struggling to keep up with the demand. Often, researchers say, suburbs are ill-equipped to cope with rising poverty because they lack the social services networks and philanthropic organizations that tend to concentrate in cities. "The suburbs lack the infrastructure of poverty," says Candace King, executive director of the DuPage Federation on Human Services Reform in Chicago's wealthy western suburbs. "We're developing them as quickly as we can, but we don't have the food pantries and community health centers and shelters that are available in the cities." Experts blame the problem in part on policy decisions made decades ago, when poverty was mainly an urban concern. "Human-services funding and federal, state, and private philanthropy go disproportionately to the city, less to the suburbs," Ms. King says. "Now, when our need is climbing, climbing, climbing, state money is getting cut, federal money is getting sequestered. Our need is just through the ceiling." Yvonne Orr, head of the South-Southwest Suburban regional office of the United Way of Metropolitan Chicago, says funding requests to her agency rose from $3.5 million to $6.5 million this year, even as the United Way's own funding shrank from $2.6 million to $1.1 million. "Our social service agencies are overburdened," she says. One such agency is the Thornton Township Food Assistance Center, which serves 17 municipalities in the mostly poor south Chicago suburbs. It hands out groceries to more than 5,000 people each month, and the number keeps growing, says Antoine Collins, the center's manager. "People are forgoing food and medicine just so they can pay their bills," he says. "They're looking for help because they're stretched thin." 39

Meanwhile, rising poverty in suburbs like Harvey worries many middleclass residents. While the poor praise the suburbs because they are quieter and safer than the city, other residents are troubled by the accumulating effects of poverty. Some are leaving for other suburbs farther from the city. "It's getting bad out here," says Marqueze Thomas, a recent high school graduate who had stopped to pick up a friend in Calumet City, south of Chicago, where residents complain of increased gang activity. Overall, suburban crime has declined in recent years, mirroring a drop in urban crime. And yet Keith Price, an alderman in Harvey, where the poverty rate soared from 21.7 percent to 33.2 percent between 1999 and 2011, says crime is a much bigger problem in his community than it was when his family moved there from Chicago in the 1980s. "Of course the crime rate has gone up, due to the fact of unemployment, due to the fact of drugs, due to the fact of poverty," he says. "Crime is always an issue when you have people who can't properly feed their families." Marcus Thomas, one of Harvey's newer residents, may think of the town as a safer place to live, but in some ways, his life is little changed. He said he hadn't worked in at least five years, although he hoped to land a job on a construction project. How does he make a living? As he talked, he spotted an acquaintance a short distance down the street. Reaching deep into his jeans, he drew out a small packet, pressed it into the man's hand, and returned clutching a small wad of bills. "I hustle," he says. The rise in suburban poverty reflects long-term demographic shifts America is more than ever a suburban nation - as well as economic changes. 2013

Ian C. Glover Period 1 Mr. Jimenez 9/19/13

Pathways to Early Violent Death: The Voices of Serious Violent Youth Offenders Richardson, Joseph B; Brown, Jerry; Van Brakle, Michelle  American Journal of Public Health  07-01-2013

Summary: This article covers studies about significant factors regarding violent death of youth gang members in adult jails. It goes into interviews with young Black males who have been detained in adult jails to understand the violence that occurs in them. The writers explore what happens psychologically to these “at risk teens” and find mental disorders, a significant withdraw from society, and high amounts of PTSD and depression. The article states and concludes that no youth member should ever die so early or so violently, because the violence that is committed is unquestionable. Quotes: "I carry my gun anywhere I go, I mean if I got to crush [kill or injure] someone, then I will. I don't care. It's either him or me." -Ice, aged 17 years” “The following themes emerged in the narratives of the participants in this study: the code of the street (respect and disrespect), violence as a form of labor, chronic exposure to violence, carrying a weapon, social networks, substance or alcohol use, institutional violence, and services.”

“It's not about being scared. You got to show no fear. All I need to know is a guy got beef . . . after that, it's on [attack or defend yourself]. And, we always say in my neighborhood, "If you got did [murdered or violently assaulted] . . . then your ass deserved it!" It's like when I see a guy laying out, dead in the street. I like to look and see if his eyes are open. If they are open, then I say he deserved it. (Method, aged 16 years)”

Analysis: This article was MUCH more informative than the previous one. In this, they provided much more descriptive analysis on the suffering gang members itself and it taught me that they operate by a code, a rule on the street. This leads me to believe that a gang is a family, and in many ways live the American Dream. I have known gang members who have said that in their gang, going to jail is a privilege, mans them up, so to speak. I also learned the brutality they suffer in these jails and how much they really don’t say to these reporters. I also see that these people will do anything to survive, which includes being savages. To a government eye, I could see how they would be placed almost on the same spectrum of terrorists. So when the government is out of place, I see the gangs acting as heroes for society. What is their problem becomes everyone’s problem and what will be society’s problem will become their problem. Therefore, the true nature of a gang will be revealed only when the government acts out and turns against the people. In times of revolution, they will be society’s militia.

Article #4:

Pathways to Early Violent Death: The Voices of Serious Violent Youth Offenders Richardson, Joseph B; Brown, Jerry; Van Brakle, Michelleâ&#x20AC;¨American Journal of Public Healthâ&#x20AC;¨07-01-2013 Jump to best part of document

Quantitative studies have uncovered factors associated with early violent death among youth offenders detained in the juvenile justice system, but little is known about the contextual factors associated with pathways to early violent death among youths detained in adult jails. We interviewed young Black male serious violent youth offenders detained in an adult jail to understand their experience of violence. Their narratives reveal how the code of the street, informal rules that govern interpersonal violence among poor inner-city Black male youths, increases the likelihood of violent victimization. Youth offenders detained in adult jails have the lowest rate of service provision among all jail populations. We have addressed how services for youth offenders can be improved to reduce the pathways to early violent death. (Am J Public Health. 2013;103:e5-e16. doi:10. 2105/AJPH.2012.301160) "I carry my gun anywhere I go, I mean if I got to crush [kill or injure] someone, then I will. I don't care. It's either him or me." -Ice, aged 17 years On any given day in the United States 7600 youths younger than 18 years are detained in adult jails.1,2 Youths of color are overrepresented among this group.3 Although they represent only17% of the total youth population, 62% of youths prosecuted in the adult criminal justice system are Black, and they are 9 times more likely than are White youths to receive an adult prison sentence.4 Serious minority male offenders are more likely to be transferred to adult court 43

and confined to more restrictive settings.5 Research on serious violent youth offenders who were adjudicated in an adult criminal court suggests that they are at greater risk for violent injury and early violent death than are youths processed in juvenile court.6-11 Youths placed in adult jails and prisons are also at greater risk to be sexually and physically assaulted. They are the easiest prey for violent victimization and sexual abuse and so are the hardest hit,12,13 and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, they are approximately 34% more likely than are youths adjudicated in the juvenile justice system to be rearrested for a violent crime.14 Although studies have documented early violent death among youth offenders detained in adult jail,6 a critical omission in this research is contextual information on why the rate of violence and homicide is so high among this population.6,10,11,15-18 Their "voices" are missing.18 Although there is a wealth of quantitative data on risk factors for early violent death among youth offenders,6 we know little about the meaning of violence in their lives and how violence shapes their social worlds. We have addressed this gap in the literature. To explore pathways to early violent death among serious violent youth offenders, we drew on the narratives of Black male adolescents transferred to adult court. We explored how these youth offenders negotiated the social context of inner-city violence while they were on the "outside." We asked questions regarding "disrespect" as well as the following questions: Did they carry firearms? In what situations would they use a firearm? What role does violence play in their lives? How do drugs, alcohol, and violence fit into the social context of their lives and the communities where they reside? Were they chronically exposed to violence? Have they ever been violently victimized? How do they negotiate violence in the context of jail? CODE OF THE STREET We used Anderson's Code of the Street19 to theoretically frame these questions. Anderson performed an ethnographic study on violence on Black male youths in inner-city Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He argues that high rates of poverty, joblessness, violence, alienation, lack of faith in the police and the judicial system, and hopelessness have produced a neighborhood street culture "code" that influences how individuals, particularly Black male youths, negotiate interpersonal violence. The structural inequalities and institutional racism that have disconnected them from educational and labor market opportunities have resulted in a subculture in poor communities where an 44

underground economy provides the social and economic means for young Black men to survive.20-24 Their social dislocation from job opportunities and mainstream institutions has created an oppositional culture that embraces norms, values, and behaviors that value violence and aggression. The inclination to violence springs from the circumstances of life among the ghetto poor: lack of jobs that pay a living wage, the stigma of race, the fallout from rampant drug use and drug trafficking, and a general sense of alienation. In response, a street culture has evolved in which violence regulates public space and everyday behavior. Anderson19 defines "the code of the street" as a set of informal rules that govern interpersonal public behavior, including violence. The street oriented (those whose norms oppose mainstream values) establish and enforce the rules, but on the street the distinction between who is "street" and who is "decent" (those committed to middle-class values) is irrelevant. Everyone must know the rules or suffer the consequences of violating the code. At the heart of Anderson's code is the issue of respect and the predisposition to violence to acquire, defend, and maintain respect through the use of violence and aggression. Respect is loosely defined as being treated right or granted the deference one deserves. For many streetoriented Black male youths, their identity, honor, and self-esteem are tied to their attributes; indeed, one may be willing to die rather than suffer being disrespected on the streets.19,25-27 In communities where legitimate employment opportunities are elusive and often unattainable, particularly for young men with histories of criminal justice involvement, respect is regarded as a highly valued commodity. The distribution of respect is in short supply but in high demand.19 In the world of the street oriented, respect becomes a form of currency, an intangible form of social wealth. According to Anderson,19 respect is "hard to gain but easily lost." As a result, some youths, such as the boys in this study, spend much of their adolescence in a state of hypervigilance, constantly seeking to acquire, maintain, and preserve their respect through violence and aggression. Anderson defines this process of constant vigilance as "campaigning for respect." When this occurs, street youths give a public impression that they will not tolerate transgressions against their reputation, because something extremely valuable is at stake in every interaction.7 Those campaigning for respect can never be "caught slippin," a street term defined as not being vigilant. Chronic exposure to violence among Black male youths, as victims, 45

perpetrators, and witnesses, may have severe consequences on their mental health. Rich and Grey28 found that symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were especially prominent in the narratives of young Black men who ascribed to the code. Youths expressed symptoms such as chronic hyperarousal, blunting of normal fear and emotions (emotional numbing), nightmares, and flashbacks (reexperiencing).7 For the boys we studied, we believe that the code is an appropriate conceptual framework for examining and understanding the nuanced pathways to early violent death. We built on Anderson's framework of inner-city Black male youths' interpretation of the code and violence. We examined how young Black male serious violent offenders interpret and negotiate the code of the street and the implications for their pathway to early violent death.6,19,28 Furthermore, we used the code to explore how chronic exposure to violence and mental health disorders, specifically PTSD, intersect. MENTAL HEALTH AND YOUTH OFFENDERS IN ADULT JAILS The prevalence of mental health disorders is significantly greater among youths detained in adult jails. Youths detained in adult jails are 36 times more likely to commit suicide than are youths detained in juvenile detention facilities and 19 times more likely to commit suicide than are youths in the general population.2 Furthermore, juvenile perpetrators of violent crime are more likely to be victims of violent injury.29 Previous studies that compared psychiatric disorders among youths processed in juvenile court and youths processed in adult criminal court indicate that for youths processed in adult criminal court the prevalence of specific and comorbid psychiatric disorders is as high as or higher than that for youths processed in juvenile court.30 Among youths transferred to adult criminal court, the 6-month prevalence rate for major depression was 3 times greater (16%) than was the lifetime rate among adult male detainees. 30 Recent findings on youths transferred to adult court indicate that youths may experience worse long-term psychiatric outcomes than do youths processed in juvenile court; however, few empirical studies on this population of youths are available.30 Although these findings suggest that youths transferred to adult criminal court may have a greater need for psychiatric services than do youths detained in juvenile prisons as well as detained adults, youths detained in adult jails have the lowest rate of service provision among all jail populations.6 Adult correctional systems are often not prepared to identify or treat 46

transferred youths for mental health disorders. Few adult jails or prisons have culturally and developmentally appropriate mental health services for serious violent youth offenders. Studies of service provision and use among serious violent youth offenders processed in juvenile court and adult criminal court suggest that youths transferred to adult court and detained in adult jails or prisons receive far fewer services than do youths processed in juvenile court.3,5 Furthermore, youths transferred to adult court and detained in adult jails are often detained in oppressive conditions (e.g., 23-hour-a-day lockdown). These "adult-like" conditions can create or exacerbate preexisting mental health disorders. Youths in adult jails will spend on average 261 days (almost 9 months) in adult jail with no rehabilitative or educational services.2 Research has found that longer periods of detention and stressors associated with processing youths in adult criminal court may increase the risk of psychiatric disorders and other adverse developmental social and functional consequences. 30-32 Ultimately, most youths detained in adult jail will be released within 1 year. Reports on youths adjudicated in adult criminal court indicate that almost 50% of youths detained in adult jails will have their cases sent back to the juvenile court system or dismissed.3 On release, many will return to the same high-risk neighborhoods, where the threat of violence and the code govern interpersonal violence among young Black men.19 Through the use of narratives, we examined the perceptions of the code of the street among Black male serious violent youth offenders detained in an adult jail. We explored how Black male youth offenders who ascribe to the norms, values, and behaviors of the code may be at great risk for early violent death. We also explored how violent youth offenders negotiate the context of neighborhood violence and their coping mechanisms for dealing with trauma while on the outside. We chose to study Black male serious youth offenders detained in an adult jail because youths in adult jails are an understudied and neglected population of juvenile offenders. The few empirical studies on this population indicate that minority youths detained in adult jails are at greater risk for suicide, violence, aggression, and homicide than are youths detained in juvenile detention and in the general population.6,30 Although several thousand Black male youths are detained in adult jails on any given day in the United States, little is known contextually about the risk factors that may increase the likelihood of early violent death among this vulnerable population of youths, which has a long history of neglect from policymakers, practitioners, and researchers. Several reports on juveniles in adult jails have referred to this population of youths as "invisible."33 To 47

develop a hypothetical model of pathways to early violent death among Black male serious violent youth offenders, we built on Anderson's conceptual framework with concepts of traumatic stress, substance use, accessibility to weapons, social networks, and equating violence to work. METHODS We collected the data we used for the analysis from a qualitative pilot study using focus groups on the health risk behaviors of youth offenders processed in adult criminal court for serious violent crimes and detained in an adult jail. We recruited a small sample of 15 Black male youth offenders aged 15 to 17 years. The average age of participants was 16.7 years. We recruited inmates at the Bay City Jail (pseudonym) Bay City Jail is located in a large metropolitan area on the eastern seaboard. Although the facility houses primarily adult inmates, the jail also has a segregated juvenile unit that houses male youth offenders. The juvenile unit typically operates at or above maximum capacity. At the time of this study 100% of the youth offender population was Black. The average length of stay for an offender was 210 days. Armed robbery was the most common offense (60%). All youths in the study reported being affiliated with a gang, and all resided in impoverished neighborhoods with high rates of crime, violence, and unemployment. The youths' reading levels ranged from fourth to eighth grade, although some young men in the sample were functionally illiterate. All participants reported engaging in daily substance and alcohol use; 15% had experienced a violent firearm injury. Procedures The University of Maryland's institutional review board waived the need for parental consent after we made several attempts to contact the parents via telephone, e-mail, and postal mail. The institutional review board acknowledged that researchers may not have access to the parents in a routine way, forcing them to expend a great deal of energy just to reach the parents, let alone secure their consent.34 Participants consented to participate in the study. We informed participants that the purpose of the study was to collect data on their perceptions and attitudes regarding health risk behaviors among 48

adolescents in Bay City, particularly youth offenders. We emphasized the voluntary nature of the study. We did not offer any monetary incentive; a key incentive for participation was the opportunity for inmates to be released from their cells for free time (2-3 hours). Twenty-three-hour-a-day lockdowns were typical for most youths on the unit. Participants acknowledged that the opportunity to engage in focus groups with other youths and adults, instead of spending the majority of the day confined to their cells, was a key incentive. The time participants spent in the focus groups instead of idle in their cells provided a break from the monotony of social isolation. In addition, we offered other incentives for participating in the study. For example, we gave participants books such as the Autobiography of Malcolm X and journals that they could use at their discretion. Participants were also given a weekly movie day, when they collectively selected a film to view. This incentive also provided participants an opportunity to interact outside their cells. We collected data in focus groups. Two Black male researchers who were culturally competent in working with Black male youths led the focus groups. Both researchers were extensively trained in qualitative research methods and had conducted community-based participant observation ethnographic research in disadvantaged Black communities, jails, and prisons for more than 20 years. One researcher had an extensive history of incarceration. He was raised in many of the neighborhoods where several of the young men in the study resided. His history of criminal justice involvement added to his street credibility among participants and helped in developing rapport with the young men in the sample. The lead researcher had considerable expertise in conducting ethnographic research on the social context of adolescent violence among Black male youths in disadvantaged communities. He also had 5 years of experience working as a volunteer mentor with incarcerated youths in juvenile prisons. Researchers recruited participants for the study by making a presentation to the youth inmates. Following the group presentation, the researchers approached each inmate individually in the privacy of his cell during lockdown.34 Each inmate had a private cell. Fifteen youths consented to participate in the study. For unknown reasons, not all youths agreed to participate in the study. We were unable to determine whether there were differences in youths who chose to participate and those who refused. The research team conducted weekly focus groups with youth offenders on health risk behaviors such as unprotected sex, substance or alcohol abuse, and violence. The team collected data over a 649

month period. These focus groups were typically conducted on Saturday afternoon in a classroom located in the juvenile unit. The average length of the focus groups was 2 hours. Participants were actively engaged in the discussion for the 2-hour period. The incentive of free time reduced participant burden. We have referred to all participants by pseudonyms. To protect the confidentiality of participants, researchers instructed each participant to not discuss the context of the focus group discussions outside the classroom. Because most participants were members of gangs, they were instructed not to divulge the names of any individuals, gangs, or neighborhoods. The researchers routinely emphasized this rule, and it was instrumental in keeping participants from divulging certain facts that may have led to physical harm as a victim or perpetrator of violence while in jail. We also instructed participants to immediately inform the correctional staffand us if they were threatened or physically harmed as a result of their participation in the study. Participants did not report any threats or incidents of physical harm. Researchers conducted 10 focus groups. The average range of participation was 13 to 15 participants for each focus group. All the participants remained in the study until completion. Researchers were able to establish validity and reliability through practicing trustworthiness.23,35-37 One of the strengths of our study was our reliance on our cultural competence as Black male researchers and the numerous focus groups we conducted with the same group of youths. Our continuous and routine presence allowed us to establish trust with the participants. We explicitly framed focus group sessions as voluntary conversations. The focus group questions were open ended and tended to be freeflowing.38 We chose focus groups rather than one-onone elicitation methods because data collection in the jail setting was more time efficient and effective, 39 participant interactions enhanced the quality of the data,40 and the range of views could be easily and quickly assessed.41 The researchers also used a semistructured discussion guide composed of open-ended questions about the code of the street. The discussion guide was framed by questions taken from a previous ethnographic research study on the code of the street, violence, traumatic stress, and substance use among young Black men.28 Our overall goal was to describe the social context of violence among youth offenders detained in adult jail. We focused on gaining a better understanding of the contextual experiences related to violence and the code of the street.19 50

The researchers leading the focus groups developed rapport with the participants over the course of the pilot study, which allowed more indepth discussions of violence and the code of the street. Conversations that began with simple questions concerning violence often moved into the realm of social contexts, interactions, and the embedded meanings and perspectives of the participants themselves.38 As participants elaborated on their views regarding violence, they delved into their narratives regarding participating in and observing violence. Participants also elaborated on their views regarding respect, violence on the street, and what contextual factors framed how, why, when, and where interpersonal violence and aggression should be used. Researchers usually initiated discussions by using the first 30 minutes of the focus group to screen a film, typically a documentary or docudrama. They then used the film's subject matter to frame the theme of the focus group discussion. For example, I (J. B. R.) used the HBO series "The Wire," which dramatized drug use, crime, violence, and poverty in inner-city Baltimore, Maryland, to frame focus group discussions. I attempted several approaches (some successful and others not) to learn that I "had to meet the participants where they were." Initially, I attempted to use readings from autobiographies such as Monster: The Autobiography of an L. A. Gang Member42 but quickly learned that some boys in the group were unable to read. In fact, some participants divulged to the research team that they were unable to read and suggested to the researchers that watching films would be a more effective approach for framing our discussions. This method was quite successful in eliciting responses from the participants. We asked the following focus group questions to assess the adoption and utilization of behaviors associated with the street code.28 d How do you define respect? d In what ways do you acquire and maintain respect on the street? d How do you lose respect on the street? d What defines being a "sucker" or a "punk?" d Do you trust or have faith in the police? d Who do you rely on for protection?

d How do you protect yourself? d Have you ever been violently injured? d Have you ever witnessed someone harmed or killed? d Is your neighborhood dangerous? d How important is it to be respected in your neighborhood? d What are signs of disrespect on the street? d What does disrespect mean to you? d How do you respond in situations in which you think you have been disrespected? d Do you carry a weapon? d When is it necessary to use a weapon? d Are you in a gang? d Have you ever engaged in gang-related violence or crime? d Do you smoke marijuana or drink alcohol? d Is the jail a dangerous place? Data Analysis Jail restrictions prohibited audiotaping. We assigned a researcher to take detailed notes on the discussions while the lead researcher facilitated the discussion. After the focus group sessions were completed, the facilitators met to debrief and discuss the notes and context of the group discussion. We made transcripts of each focus group session. We analyzed the notes from the discussion using qualitative analysis software, ATLAS.ti, version 7.0 (ATLAS.ti Scientific Software Development GmbH, Berlin, Germany). We conducted content data analysis after each focus group session. Content analysis involved analytic induction that applies first a deductive analysis approach and then an inductive approach that allowed us to identify emergent themes.41 We used a grounded theory approach for the data analysis, and the themes and subcategories evolved from the 52

data.43 We coded data according to themes and subcategories.28 We extracted all the segments related to the research questions from each of the 10 transcripts of the focus groups. We and a research assistant (unfamiliar with the data) independently coded a subset of transcripts to note major themes, concepts, and patterns. 44 We compared coding decisions and found that they reflected a high level of consistency. The 2 coders found strikingly similar initial data patterns. This procedure allowed the coders to conduct reliability checks to ensure consistency with the interview data collection. The initial broad coding categories were as follows: respect, substance or alcohol use, exposure to violence, carrying a weapon, code of the street, and social networks, peers, and gang affiliation. When we had completed the coding procedure, we constructed a table with the main organizing categories and subcodes in the leftcolumn and a summary of what youths reported across focus groups in the right column.34,45 While examining the data, we found that being enmeshed in the culture of the street and ascribing to the code shaped participation in violence. Once we identified the data pattern, we revisited the transcripts to challenge and refine our major findings.44 RESULTS We have highlighted the social context of violence among Black male serious youth offenders detained in an adult jail. The following themes emerged in the narratives of the participants in this study: the code of the street (respect and disrespect), violence as a form of labor, chronic exposure to violence, carrying a weapon, social networks, substance or alcohol use, institutional violence, and services. We have summarized the themes and presented selected responses from the focus group participants. Acquisition and Maintenance of Street Respect Violence, negotiation of the code of the street, and the importance of respect and protecting oneself were topics that participants openly discussed.19,28 In the focus group discussions, the threat of violent victimization and the adherence to the code framed when, how, and where to use violence. All the participants carried firearms daily, and all had witnessed a serious violent assault (shooting, stabbing, or beating). Approximately 75% of the participants had witnessed a homicide. Three of the participants witnessed the homicide of a friend or relative, and half reported confronting violence regularly, for 53

example, while attending school or spending time with friends. Most youths expected to confront violence on a daily basis. BL and BG discuss the threat of violence, the maintenance of street respect, and always being prepared for conflict: You got to be ready to put in your work [violence] at any time; it doesn't matter what it's over: disrespect, money, whatever. Work is work. (BG, aged 17 years) You have to be ready because it [violence] can happen at any time. . . . Someone is always going to try [disrespect] you. Once you violate [disrespect] my space, you gotta get dealt with [use violence]. (BL, aged 16 years) Violence as a Form of Labor The findings suggest that some youth offenders equated violence to labor. In communities where Black male youths are often chronically unemployed and marginalized from mainstream opportunities and labor markets, economic violence-meaning violence associated with economic crime- represents a form of work. Accumulated engagements in violent events on the street give an individual credibility and respect and in a sense build the "street resume." Youths considered both noneconomic violence and economic violence, such as fighting for a gang or murdering a rival over drug territory, as "working." Several youths used the phrase "putting in work" to describe violence as work. The concept of putting in work translates into the respect and deference that one properly deserves for the cumulative experiences of engaging in violence. Putting in work is a central part of low-income young Black men making their way through the dangerous world in which they live.28 Many youths in the study perceived building a reputation and acquiring and maintaining respect through the use of violence as a full-time occupation. 42 During their waking hours, they appeared to be constantly working to protect their self-respect and build and defend their reputations while simultaneously working to earn income from crime and violence. Here Mo and Dre describe the concept of putting in work. I have put in too much work [violence and crime] in my "hood" to give it up [respect and reputation] to some other dude. Plus, I got a family name to protect . . . 'cause they killed my brother, so I can't be softin no way. (Mo, aged 17 years) Nobody around our neighborhoods is working. So hitting someone's 54

head [murder], it's like working. Youngins [adolescents] in my hood [neighborhood] already know they're not going to get no job and they're not going to college. So for them this is work; this is how they work. This is how they earn their rep [reputation]. Bottom line, no matter what world you in, the underworld, the real world, whatever world, people want to be respected. In the underworld, the street world, you progress and get respect by putting in work [violence], doing things that other people in the real world might think is wrong, like laying somebody down [murder]. For us, hitting somebody's head [murder] might be the only way to deal with a situation. For some, it might bother you at first, you might have nightmares about it, but after you put in more work you get used to it. That's just how it is. (Dre, aged 16 years) Mechanisms for Coping With Chronic Exposure to Violence The most common forms of violence that youth offenders experienced as perpetrators, victims, and witnesses were fights, threats with weapons, and shootings. The interviews revealed that most youths in the study expressed no fear of these sorts of violence. Several boys were desensitized to the threat of violent victimization. Participants routinely described a loss of fear and lack of emotion toward violence and death. The participants also expressed that early violent death was an inevitable outcome in their lives. Faced with the looming danger of being killed or violently injured, many youths did not envision living beyond young adulthood. This fatalistic form of PTSD is defined as emotional numbing.28 Eleven of the 15 (73%) participants expressed symptoms of emotional numbness and thought that their life expectancy would not exceed young adulthood. Many inner-city adolescents crave respect to such a degree that they will risk their lives to attain and maintain it and feel that it is acceptable to risk dying over the principle of respect. To display a lack of fear of dying portrays "true nerve."19 Consequently, they often lead an existential life. Not being afraid to die is by implication to have no compunction about taking another's life if the situation demands it. Method and Ice provide their narratives describing their lack of emotional connectedness to victims of homicide and the inevitability of early violent death. It's not about being scared. You got to show no fear. All I need to know is a guy got beef . . . after that, it's on [attack or defend yourself]. And, we always say in my neighborhood, "If you got did [murdered or violently assaulted] . . . then your ass deserved it!" It's like when I see a guy laying out, dead in the street. I like to look and 55

see if his eyes are open. If they are open, then I say he deserved it. (Method, aged 16 years) No matter what you do out here, you gonna die anyway; you can die stepping offa bus into the street. We all got to die. Beef [disputes] on the street, f-king raw [unprotected sex], it's all the same to me; you can die from anything out here. I mean what's the difference? We all got to die. (Ice, aged 17 years) Chronic Exposure to Violence Across Contexts Some participants lived in peaceful communities but faced numerous conflicts at school or traveling on public transportation. Many worried about being hassled, threatened, or challenged to fight while in or on their way to and from school. Violence often occurred in public, densely populated places in the neighborhood or school setting. Anderson19 characterizes these public spaces as the "staging area"-a physical space where the campaign for respect is most often waged. Staging areas typically are neighborhood establishments youths frequent, such as fast-food carryouts, street corners, basketball courts, schoolyards, liquor stores, bars, and public transportation (bus stops and subway stations). In these staging areas, young Black men "perform" by engaging in violence as a means to acquire and maintain respect. In the staging area, the basic requirement is the display of a certain predisposition to violence. One's bearing must send the unmistakable if sometimes subtle message to other persons in the staging area that one is capable of violence and mayhem when the situation requires it, that one can take care of oneself.19,46 Here Ray and Ali discuss school and public transportation as the staging areas in their campaign for respect. Yeah, I live in a decent neighborhood, but I had to go to the same school with some dudes who were always looking for something to get into . . . and they be going hard every day [instigating violence]. So my crew always had beef [disputes] with them. I had to be ready to fight at any time. They were always trying to take somebody's heart [respect]. (Ray, aged 17 years) I had to take 2 buses to school that go through neighborhoods with dudes I got beef with. I lost a fight real bad once on the bus. So I just stopped going to school. Something was popping off[violence] every day; either I was going to kill them, or they were going to kill me. (Ali, aged 17 years)

We asked participants to rate the safety of their neighborhoods on a scale of 1 (safe) to 10 (dangerous). They rated safety in their communities as dangerous. Several youths indicated that they had witnessed the homicide of a relative or close friend. Interviewer: On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 meaning your neighborhood is safe and 10 meaning that your neighborhood is dangerous. How would you rate it? Malik (aged 16 years): I would rate it a 20. It's always somebody getting shot in my neighborhood. Kenny (aged 16 years): I would rate it a 10. Two of my friends were murdered right beside me in a drive-by. Somebody drove by shooting, so we all fell on the ground, but they didn't get up; they died right there in front of me. G (aged 16 years): I would give it a 10. I seen my man [friend] shot in the head right in front of me; he died in my arms. Mo (aged 17 years): No doubt it would be a 10 maybe 20. I got shot in my neighborhood, and my brother was killed in front of me. He got killed in a new pair of Jordan's. I still have them. I have the sweat suit he was killed in too. It still has the blood on it. Carrying a Weapon All the youth offenders in this study expressed the need to carry a weapon at all times for protection. Weapons played an important and complicated role in establishing respect and self-image.19 For many young inner-city men, a weapon is part of an individual's personal possessions, like clothes, jewelry, and sneakers, that speak for him in his campaign for respect. Carrying a weapon commands respect and gives the appearance in the staging area that he will not tolerate transgressions by others. Interviewer: Have you ever carried a weapon for protection? All participants agreed that carrying a firearm is necessary. Ice (aged 17 years): I carry my gun anywhere I go. I mean if I got to crush [kill or maim] someone, then I will. I don't care. It's either him or me. Tee (aged 17 years): I carry my gun around anywhere, even if my 57

mother is around. I mean if I see the guy I got beef with [dispute] then I'm gonna crush him regardless of who is around. Mo (aged 17 years): Yeah, I've even carried my gun to Juma [Muslim prayer at a local mosque on Friday afternoon]. It's plenty of dudes in Juma with gats [guns] on them. You might be safe in Juma, but you still have to get back home. Social Networks All the boys in the study were members of a gang. Their strong social ties to the gang were characterized by loyalty to their peers. Studies have shown that Black male delinquent youths who co-offend with other delinquent youths, particularly violently, are more likely to be victims of violence.47 Here, Mo, a victim of violent firearm injury, discusses engaging in violence. I got 4 friends I run with; we all been friends since we was little. We chop dope up and get money together. We put in work together [selling drugs and engaging in violence associated with drug dealing] and have taken charges for each other. I've taken a bullet for one of them. (Mo, aged 17 years) Substance and Alcohol Use Twelve (80%) participants reported that they smoked marijuana on a regular basis. Two (13%) participants reported smoking "wet" (marijuana and PCP [phencyclidine]) regularly and using cocaine periodically. Five (33%) participants reported drinking regularly. The reasons they used drugs or drank alcohol varied. Some smoked marijuana regularly with members of their family at home and when gathering with peers. Others drank alcohol before engaging in sex. Some youths who sold drugs (specifically crack cocaine) exchanged sex for drugs. As part of the exchange, they would often get high with their sexual partners. I chief [smoke marijuana] all day, every day. I love smoking with the Backwoods [cigars used for smoking marijuana]. (Mo, aged 17 years) I like to get my drink on. I like to drink that Goose, E&J, or Henny [brands of alcohol] but I might chief every now and then. I won't have sex, though, unless I'mdrunk offthat Goose. (G, aged 16 years) I've been raised on smoking Backwoods all my life, so that's all I 58

smoke. (Lenny, aged 17 years) I like to smoke that wet [marijuana and PCP,] and sometimes I like to sniffa little bit [cocaine]. (BL, aged 16 years) I trick [exchange drugs for sex] all the time. I give these hoes [women] 2 stones [crack] for some head [oral sex]. (Ice, aged 17 years) Negotiating Violence in Jail For many, negotiating the social context of violence in the adult jail system was quite similar to negotiating violence on the streets. The code that governed interpersonal violence on the streets also governed the use of violence and aggression in jail. Youths appeared to be in a perpetual state of hypervigilance, always cognizant of the potential risk for violent victimization. You can't trust nobody in here; ain't nobody your friend; you got to watch your back at all times. You can never get caught slipping [not being alert], or somebody might stab you or jump you. Whatever. I just stay to myself and read my bible. This ain't nothing like juvie [juvenile detention], where everything is nice and sweet. Once you're here, it's no joke. You can't show no signs of weakness up in here. If you do, you'll be asking for pc [protective custody]. That's when everybody knows you're a b-tch. (Ace, aged 17 years) Adult jail is the real deal. Once I put on that orange jumper, I realized this ain't no Pine Mills [juvenile detention facility]. That was child's play up there. Ain't nothing sweet about being in here. This is gladiator school. (Darius, aged 17 years) Services According to research, services for youth offenders detained in adult jails are limited.5 The sanctions and services youth offenders receive may affect the future trajectory of their lives. We asked youths if they received any services while incarcerated. Interviewer: Are there any violence prevention programs for you here at the jail? G (aged 16 years): Nah, we don't get sh-t up in here but the GED [general equivalency diploma] program. There ain't no other programs 59

in here for us. Ice (aged 17 years): All we get is GED and the math teacher. He don't even know what he's doing. Besides y'all [researchers] coming here, all we have is a poetry program. DISCUSSION The narrative analysis we have presented demonstrates that Black male serious violent youth offenders are at great risk for violent injury. The contextual data we have presented also suggest possible pathways to early violent death. Youths transferred to adult court face considerable challenges as they negotiate the social context of violence in high-risk communities. They have few options to avoid danger. The participants suggested that once involved in a criminal and violent lifestyle, it is often difficult to escape. Studies have shown that the contextual factors we have discussed, such as disrespect, carrying a weapon, delinquent social networks, exposure to violence and substance and alcohol use, increase the risk for early violent death.6,8,9,19,47-49 One of the pathways to early violent death that thematically emerged in our analysis was the concept of violence as a form of labor. We found that with few prospects for employment, inner-city young men often rely on crime and violence as work,50 which includes such activities as selling drugs, robbery, drive-by shootings, and burglary. Participants characterized gun violence as an essential aspect of labor and most often associated it with economic crime. Violence as labor may heighten the risk for violent injury and early violent death. Furthermore, unlike youth offenders processed in juvenile court, where crimes are automatically removed from individuals' record once they become legal adults, youth offenders processed in adult court (if convicted) acquire an adult felony on their record. This may further stigmatize and marginalize Black male youth offenders as they seek legitimate employment opportunities.20,51 These boys share a sense of alienation from mainstream opportunities and live in environments where an oppositional culture thrives.19 Respect is a highly valued commodity in their social worlds; it is viewed as a salient form of social capital in disadvantaged communities where resources are often scarce. Consequently, Black boys and young adults work hard to earn respect and protect it.19 In their social worlds, this is a full-time job, which occasionally requires the use of violence.42 In a culture where masculinity is defined by respect, not showing fear, and not appearing to be weak, youths spend much of their waking hours protecting their reputations. In the 60

social hierarchy of the streets, a young man who is perceived as a "punk" or "weak" falls to the bottom of the social ladder.19,26,28 He must work his way up the social ladder through the use of violence or face the risk of greater violent victimization. In either scenario, one cannot escape the risk of being violently injured. Consequently, many youths perceive the possibility of being violently injured or killed as inevitable.26 The literature on crime as work for inner-city Black males has received significant attention in several classic ethnographies. 19,24,50,52 Building on those studies of crime as work, we found that participants perceived noneconomic and economic violence as work. For Black male youths who have been socially alienated, dislocated, and marginalized from mainstream opportunities and labor market connections, the oppositional culture legitimizes violence as work.19-22 In response to blocked labor market opportunities, young Black men create their own value system of what work means. The perception of violence and crime as work heightens the risk for early violent death. This type of work is literally an occupational hazard. In the code of the streets, being disrespected on the job results in violent retaliation. Whether working as drug dealers or gangbangers, a violation of the code requires swiftand immediate action.42 Sanyika Shakur's autobiography, Monster: The Autobiography of an L. A. Gang Member, captures the concept of violence as labor. Shakur describes the process of building a reputation for himself and his gang as work: For the past 5 years I had gotten up every morning and ironed my gear [clothes] with thoughts of nothing else but doing propaganda for the set [gang]. I did this with the zeal of a religious fanatic. . . . I felt nothing but a sense of duty. Revenge was my only thought. Only when I had put work in [violently injuring or murdering a rival gang member] could I feel good that day; otherwise I couldn't sleep. Work does not always constitute shooting someone, though this is the ultimate. Anything from wallbangin [writing your gang's name on a wall] to spitting on someone to fighting-it's all work. And I was a hard worker.42(p52) They also developed different coping mechanisms to "get through" chronic exposure to violence in the community.53-56 Some young men in the focus groups described symptoms of emotional numbing or the lack of emotional responsiveness to witnessing trauma and the possibility of early violent death.57-60 This form of PTSD is commonly found among combat veterans.61 Some youths coped with witnessing homicide by using rationalizations such as "the person deserved it." 61

Others embraced the inevitability of an early violent death with a sense of fatalism, using such phrases as "We all gotta die." Many adolescents live in violent neighborhoods where witnessing violent trauma paralleled the experiences of soldiers in combat. In fact, some boys often referred to their peers as "soldiers" and "generals." Some youth offenders expressed being in a constant state of hypervigilance or hyperarousal in their neighborhoods, and as they traveled across other social contexts violence could happen at any place and at any time.62 Using public transportation, going to school, or even attending religious services at a church or mosque required hypervigilance as youths crisscrossed through unfamiliar neighborhoods. The phrase "something can pop off" (meaning violence may occur) at any time was thematic. Being prepared to engage in violence was central to self-preservation. This sometimes real and other times exaggerated sense of vulnerability resulted in youths feeling compelled to carry guns. All the participants in the study reported carrying a gun regularly for protection. Previous studies on violence and trauma among young Black men suggest that violent interactions cause hyperarousal and emotional numbing and that carrying a weapon increases the likelihood of violent injury.8,9,28,62 Peer groups also influenced participation in violence and crime. All the participants in the study were members of gangs. Thrasher63 observed that gangs engage in many collective behaviors, violence being a primary behavior, a behavior that is normative. 64 Violence is integral to the life of a gang and gang members tend to engage in more violence than do other youths.29,65,66 Threats of violence play an important role in gangs because they have consequences for future violence. Gangs are merely a macrolevel extension of the individuals who constitute gangs, and the respect and the reputation of the gang must be protected at all cost. Gangs, like individuals, believe that they must retaliate against rival gangs if they are disrespected or they will be at greater risk for victimization. Engaging in violence on the individual level offers a certain level of autonomy and rational choice.67 Individuals can decide if and when they should engage in violence. This is not the case once an individual joins a gang. In the context of a gang, the strong ties to other members and their commitment to each other enable members to engage in acts of violence that they might not have committed otherwise.64 A common principle among gang members is that they must violently retaliate against rival gangs if a fellow member is disrespected, threatened, or injured. Furthermore, gangs must also 62

defend spatial territory or turf. Violating the sanctity of turf is a form of disrespect that requires retaliation.19 Although gangs provide safety in numbers, they also increase the risk for violent victimization. One aspect of gang membership that increases the risk of violent injury and early violent death is "contagion." 68 Contagion refers to subsequent acts of violence caused by the initial act, which typically takes form in retaliation.68 Contagion may explain the cycle of gang violence. Previous studies on violent trauma and the code of the street suggest that substance and alcohol use precipitate violent trauma.7-9,28,69,70 Substance (particularly marijuana) and alcohol use was consistent among the young men in the sample. Eighty percent of participants smoked marijuana daily, 33% drank alcohol daily, and 13% smoked marijuana mixed with PCP regularly. Some youths acknowledged periodic cocaine and crack cocaine use primarily in the exchange of sex for drugs. None of the participants indicated that substance or alcohol use was tied to violence. We did not explore whether substance and alcohol use was used to selfmedicate symptoms of PTSD, such as emotional numbing or hyperarousal. Furthermore, we did not explore whether youths were intoxicated at the time of their offense. This was a limitation of the focus groups. Research indicates that violent adolescents have 1.5 to 3.0 times the use rates for different kinds of drugs than do nonviolent youths.71 Other studies suggest that substance use is one of the best predictors for engaging in youth violence among youths aged 15 to 25 years.29,72,73 The contextual role substance and alcohol use plays in violence among serious violent youth offenders requires further exploration. Regarding the bidirectional flow of violence between jails and communities, we found that the code governed interpersonal violence in the community as well as in the jail setting.74,75 The acquisition and maintenance of respect through the use of violence and aggression paralleled the use of violence on the street. Grouping violent youth offenders in the same setting created a culture in which forms of disrespect and violations of the code were quickly responded to with violence. A social hierarchy of power existed in jail similar to the social order on the street, and, similar to the street, in this setting respect was the most highly valued form of social capital. Social distrust was exacerbated; some youths reported being in a perpetual state of hypervigilance, constantly wary of the risk for violent 63

victimization. Violence in this setting was normative. On several occasions the researchers were prevented from entering the juvenile unit as a result of violent gang-related incidents. Remaining in this fight-or-flight physiological state for several months takes a toll on the psychological and physical health and well-being of youths. Research suggests that the prevalence of psychological disorders among youths processed in adult court and detained in adult jails is as high or higher than are those among youths processed in juvenile court.30 Finally, culturally and developmentally appropriate program services such as behavioral health counseling, substance and alcohol use counseling, and HIV and violence prevention and intervention programs were unavailable to youths detained in this adult jail. This finding is consistent with results of other studies that found that adult jails often do not have culturally and developmentally appropriate services for youth offenders.3,5 For youths returning to high-risk communities with undiagnosed and untreated mental health disorders, the lack of treatment services in adult jails may play a role in early violent death. Limitations One limitation of our study is that self-reported accounts of violent behavior are notably susceptible to distortion and hyperbole. 38 We tried to limit this by asking repeat questions that addressed recurring themes, and we plan to address these issues in a larger mixed methods study. The majority of participants expressed a consensus on most of the topics we explored. The tendency toward uniformity when individuals interact in a group is a concern.76 Conformity also appears to be related to age. The research literature on focus group methodology suggests that there may be a linear relationship between conformity and age in focus groups, particularly among adolescents of the same age and socioeconomic class. Although the most effective method for decreasing conformity is to have a mix of participants from various age groups, studies on adolescent behavior require homogeneous groups in which participants are close in age.76 Although participants in this study may have exaggerated or underreported their behaviors, the qualitative data are congruent with much of the quantitative data collected on violent risk behaviors among youth detainees held in juvenile detention facilities.6 Shaw's77 classic ethnographic research on delinquent youths notes that it is not expected that delinquents will necessarily describe their life situations objectively, but even the highly subjective record has a value for 64

behavioral study. Youths may compensate for feelings of inferiority with exaggeration or elaboration, but the participant's view of the situation may be the most important element for interpretation. We found that their own story, or voice, reveals useful information concerning at least 3 important aspects of delinquent conduct: (1) the viewpoint of the youth offender, (2) the social and cultural situation in which the youth offender is responsive, and (3) the consequence of past experiences and situations in the lives of youth offenders.77 Ethnographic research on the social context of violence among this population of youth offenders can provide rich descriptive data on the context of violent interactions as well as on the shared experiences among violent youth offenders regarding how they negotiate violence in high-risk communities. This information has important implications for correctional health care research and public health policy. The research team was unable to access the jail at times because of lockdowns, which affected the continuity of the research. Lockdowns were often the result of violence in the juvenile unit. In some instances, inmates in the juvenile unit were locked in their cells for weeks. During lockdowns, civilians were prohibited from entering the jail. This unexpected protocol reduced the number of focus group sessions we were able to conduct. However, we believe the sheer number of focus groups we conducted with the same group of youths strengthened the study. Focus groups are not typically conducted longitudinally with the same group of participants. This approach fostered trustworthiness, thus increasing the reliability of the responses. An additional limitation of this study was the daunting task for 2 researchers to conduct a study with a sample size of 15 youths in focus groups that on average lasted for 2 hours. The task of facilitating focus groups and taking notes without the aid of audio recording equipment was quite difficult. In the future, a study of this magnitude requires more researchers to ensure the integrity of the findings. Splitting large groups into smaller more manageable focus groups is advisable. Conducting research in jails is quite difficult. 78,79 Some correctional officers' lack of support adversely affected how we conducted the study. For example, getting inmates to the focus groups on time was problematic. The study could have also been stronger had we used a triangulation approach.44,45 The use of individual interviews as an additional data collection method would have provided more validity to the findings. 65

Individual interviews may have been more conducive to investigating highly sensitive topics that youths were unwilling to discuss in a group setting. Individual interviews may have provided the opportunity for youths to express more empathy and vulnerability, which they may have been reluctant to express in a group. In future studies on this population, individual interviews and participation observations should be used as an additional data collection method. Finally, the data collected was exploratory and collected at 1 institution. The sample was small (n = 15). Therefore, the findings may not be generalizable to a broader population of youths transferred to adult criminal court and detained in adult jails. Finally, because of the critical nature of respect described in the study, it is highly likely that the focus group setting distorted reporting, as participants may not have been able to express weakness or empathy in that setting. Implications for Public Health Policy Correctional health care systems cannot assume that assessment and treatment approaches developed for youths detained in juvenile detention facilities will be effective for youths processed in adult court and detained in adult jails.30 Developmentally and culturally appropriate services and treatments for youths processed in adult court and detained in adult jails must be implemented in jail settings. The data from this study support findings from previous studies on pathways to early violent deaths among youths processed in the juvenile and adult court that suggest that violence prevention and intervention programs are critically needed in both juvenile detention and adult jails.6 Youth offenders detained in adult jail have the lowest rate of service provision. Violence prevention and intervention strategies could reduce the risk for violent injury and help youths deconstruct the code of the street. Violence intervention programs could be effective in establishing alternative ways to establish selfexpression, self-esteem, social identity, and masculinity. To date, little is known about the effectiveness of violence prevention and intervention treatments delivered to youths in adult correctional facilities. Psychiatric services for youths processed in adult court should address the unique characteristics of serious violent youth offenders transferred to adult court. Research suggests that two thirds of youths in detention have 1 or more mental health disorders. 6,80,81 Youths 66

in adult jails have the highest rate of suicide among all inmates. Undiagnosed and untreated mental health problems may contribute to increased aggressive and violent behavior on release that may have serious implications for pathways to early violent death. Unfortunately, for the thousands of juvenile offenders held in detention centers across the United States, mental health services are rarely provided in correctional settings and on release, and few community-based mental health care resources are accessible to high-risk adolescent youths.8285 Youths transferred to adult criminal court should be diagnosed and treated for mental health disorders and periodically evaluated while detained in adult jails. We found that youths were chronically exposed to violent trauma in the local community. Additionally, the oppressive conditions of confinement in an adult jail may exacerbate or create mental health disorders. A standardized assessment of PTSD should also be used in the evaluation of mental health disorders.86 Studies have shown that the odds of having a psychiatric disorder were greater among youths transferred to adult criminal court and sentenced to prison.30 On average, youths transferred to adult criminal court and sentenced to prison had more than 1 psychiatric disorder, and 15% had all 4 major types of psychiatric disorders.30 Symptoms of PTSD were also prevalent among youths in this study. Psychiatric service providers need to consider the disproportionate representation of individuals from racial/ ethnic minority groups in the transfer process when developing and implementing developmentally and culturally appropriate mental health services in jail settings. Mandatory screenings and treatment of substance and alcohol misuse must also be implemented in jail settings. Use of marijuana, PCP, cocaine, and alcohol has consequences that may contribute to recurrent violence and heighten the risk for early violent death. Substance and alcohol use interventions for youth offenders detained in adult jails could reduce high-risk behaviors that may lead to early violent death. Studies on violent trauma among young Black men have found that victims of recurrent violence and individuals chronically exposed to violence report higher levels of substance use and are more likely to self-medicate to relieve their symptoms of trauma, particularly PTSD.7-9,28,62,69,70 Finally, reentry programs are needed in the communities to which these youth offenders will return. The majority of youths detained in adult jails will return to distressed communities where violence, crime, and infectious diseases are pervasive. These communities also lack 67

adequate health care services. Poor Black male youths, particularly those with histories of criminal justice involvement, are often estranged from traditional health care systems. Lack of insurance coverage and access to culturally competent community-based physical and mental health services make it difficult for those who are in distress to find treatment in high-risk communities. Effective reentry programs may interrupt substance use, carrying a firearm, and adhering to the code of the street, which studies have shown raise the risk for violent injury.25,27,28 Communitybased health care providers should work to ensure that youths returning from adult jails are not at great risk for violent victimization, substance use, and infectious diseases such as HIV/ AIDS. Reentry programs could provide continuity of care for youths transitioning from jail to the community. These programs should also address educational failure and employment. Chronic unemployment is significantly correlated with violence among lowincome Black male youths.27,76,87 Thus, reentry programs for highrisk youth offenders may combat the risk factors that significantly contribute to negative health outcomes, particularly violent injury. Despite the relatively small number of youth offenders detained in adult jails, research on youths in adult jails is needed. This is an understudied population of youth offenders. More longitudinal descriptive studies are needed on violence and trauma among serious violent youth offenders. A comparative study of serious violent youth offenders processed in juvenile and adult court could provide information about resilience to violent victimization among 2 high-risk groups. Longitudinal studies are critically needed on the transition from adolescence to young adulthood among serious violent youth offenders, and the following questions need to be asked: What are the challenges for this population of vulnerable youths as they move into young adulthood? What are their challenges on release back into the community? Although studies suggest differences in mental health outcomes and service provision among youths processed in juvenile court and adult court, to our knowledge no studies have examined differences in risk factors for violent victimization among the 2 groups.30 More research must be conducted on services for serious violent youth offenders in juvenile detention settings and in adult jails. Conclusions

The voices of these boys speak directly to the crisis faced by thousands of Black male youths who have been marginalized and socially dislocated from mainstream opportunities. They have been placed on the margins of society and are asked to make sense of their lives. On the basis of their limited options, engaging in violence to acquire and maintain the respect needed for day-to-day survival makes sense. For many in the mainstream, this approach to life may seem unfathomable and senseless. The onus falls on researchers to provide a deeper understanding of their social worlds. Far too often their voices have been absent from our research and discourse in shaping public health policy. Pathways to early violent death can be altered. Death among Black male youths should be neither early nor violent. REFERENCE References 1. Arya N. State Trends: Legislative Victories From 2005 to 2012: Removing Youth From the Adult Criminal Justice System. Washington, DC: Campaign for Youth Justice; 2011. 2. Arya N. Jailing Juveniles. Washington, DC: Campaign for Youth Justice; 2007. 3. Sickmund M. Juveniles in Corrections. Washington, DC: US Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency; 2004. 4. Arya N, Augarten I. Criminal Condition: African-American Youth in the Justice System. Washington, DC: Campaign for Youth Justice; 2008. 5. Mulvey EP, Schubert CA, Chung HL. Service use after court involvement in a sample of serious adolescent offenders. Child Youth Serv Rev. 2007;29(4):518-544. 6. Teplin LA, McClelland GM, Abram KM, Mileusnic D. Early violent death among delinquent youth: a prospective longitudinal study. Pediatrics. 2005;115 (6):1586-1593. 7. Rich J, Corbin T. Healing Hurt People (HHP) Trauma History Instrument. Philadelphia, PA: Drexel University; 2010. 8. Cooper C, Eslinger D, Nash D, Al Zawahri J, Stolley P. Repeat victims of violence: report of a large concurrent case-control study. Arch Surg. 2000;135 (7):837-843. 69

9. Cooper C, Eslinger DM, Stolley PD. Hospital-based violence intervention programs work. J Trauma. 2006;61(3):534-537. 10. Yeager CA, Lewis DO. Mortality in a group of formerly incarcerated juvenile delinquents. Am J Psychiatry. 1990;147 (5):612-614. 11. Lattimore PK, Linster RL, MacDonald JM. Risk of death among serious young offenders. J Res Crime Delinq. 1997;34(2):187-209. 12. Parsell TJ. Behind bars, teenagers become prey. New York Times. June 5, 2012. Available at: http://www.nytimes. com/roomfordebate/2012/06/05/ when-to-punish-a-young-offenderandwhen- to-rehabilitate/in-prison-teenagersbecome- prey. Accessed October 8, 2012. 13. Scott G. Prison is too violent for young offenders. New York Times. June 5, 2012. Available at: http://www.nytimes. com/roomfordebate/2012/06/05/ when-to-punish-a-young-offenderandwhen- to-rehabilitate/prison-is-tooviolent- for-young-offenders. Accessed October 8, 2012. 14. Campaign for Youth Justice. CDC releases report finding that laws transferring youth to adult justice system increases violence and harms public safety. Available at: http://www. campaignforyouthjustice.org/documents/ CDCStudy.pdf. Accessed October 8, 2012. 15. Laub JH, Vaillant GE. Delinquency and mortality: a 50-year followup study of 1,000 delinquent and nondelinquent boys. Am J Psychiatry. 2000;157(1):96-102. 16. Ezell ME, Tanner-Smith EE. Examining the role of lifestyle and criminal history variables on the risk of homicide victimization. Homicide Stud. 2009;13 (2):144-173. 17. Ramchand R, Morral AR, Becker K. Seven-year life outcomes of adolescent offenders in Los Angeles. Am J Public Health. 2009;99(5):863-870. 18. Lane J, Lanza-Kaduce L, Frazier CE, Bishop DM. Adult versus juvenile sanctions: voices of incarcerated youths. Crime Delinq. 2002;48(3):431-455.

19. Anderson E. Code of the Street: Decency, Violence and the Moral Life of the Inner City. New York, NY: W W Norton; 1999. 20. Mincy RB. Black Males LeftBehind. Washington, DC: Urban Institute Press; 2006. 21. Wilson WJ. The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass and Public Policy. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press; 1987. 22. Wilson WJ. The meaning and significance of race: employers and innercity workers. In: WJ Wilson, ed. When Work Disappears. New York, NY: Knopf; 1996: 111-146. 23. Young AA. The Minds of Marginalized Black Men: Making Sense of Mobility, Opportunity, and Future Life Chances. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press; 2004. 24. Venkatesh S. Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets. New York, NY: Penguin Press; 2008. 25. Wilkinson DL. Guns, Violence and Identity Among AfricanAmerican and Latino Youth. New York, NY: LFB Scholarly; 2003. 26. Canada G. Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun: A Personal History of Violence in America. Boston, MA: Beacon Press; 1996. 27. Stewart EA, Simons RL. Race, code of the street, and violent delinquency: a multilevel investigation of neighborhood street culture and individual norms of violence. Criminology. 2010;48 (2):569-605. 28. Rich JA, Grey CM. Pathways to recurrent trauma among young Black men: traumatic stress, substance use, and the "code of the street." Am J Public Health. 2005;95(5):816-824. 29. Loeber R, Farrington DP. Never too early, never too late: risk factors and successful interventions for serious and violent juvenile offenders. Studies Crime Crime Prevention. 1998;7(1):7-30. 30. Washburn JJ, Teplin LA, Voss LS, Simon CD, Abram KM, McClelland GM. Psychiatric disorders among detained youths: a comparison of youths processed in juvenile court and adult criminal court. Psychiatr Serv. 2008;59(9):965-973.

31. Redding RE. The effects of adjudicating and sentencing juveniles as adults: research and policy implications. Youth Violence Juvenile Justice. 2003;1(2):128-155. 32. Bishop DM, Frazier CE. Consequences of transfer. In: Fagan J, Zimring FE, eds. The Changing Borders of Juvenile Justice: Transfer of Adolescents to the Criminal Court. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press; 2000:227-276. 33. Arya N, Villaruel F, Villanueva C, Augarten I. America's Invisible Children: Latino Youth and the Failure of Justice. Washington, DC: Campaign for Youth Justice; 2009. 34. Abrams LS. Sampling 'Hard To Reach' Populations in Qualitative Research. Qualitative Social Work. 2010;9(4):536-550. 35. Harding DJ. Living the Drama: Community, Conflict, and Culture Among Innercity Boys. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press; 2010. 36. Goffman A. On the run: wanted men in a Philadelphia ghetto. Am Sociol Rev. 2009;74(3):339-357. 37. Liebow E. Tally's Corner: A Study of Negro Streetcorner Men. New York, NY: Rowman & Littlefield; 2003. 38. Draus P, Carlson R. The game turns on you: crack, sex, gender and power in small-town Ohio. J Contemp Ethnogr. 2009;38(3):384408. 39. Krueger RA. Focus Groups: A Practical Guide for Applied Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage; 1994. 40. Krueger RA, Casey MA. Focus Groups: A Practical Guide for Applied Research. 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage; 2000. 41. Patton M. Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods. 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage; 2002. 42. Shakur S. Monster: The Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member. New York, NY: Grove Press; 2004. 43. Glaser B, Strauss A. The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research. Chicago, IL: Aldine; 1967.

44. Abrams LS. Envisioning life "on the outs": exit narratives of incarcerated male youth. Int J Offender Ther Comp Criminol. 2012;56(6):877-896. 45. Abrams LS, Hyun A. Mapping a process of negotiated identity among incarcerated male juvenile offenders. Youth Soc. 2009;41(1):26-52. 46. Anderson E. Code of the streets. Atl Mon. 1994;273(3):80-94. 47. Wilkinson R. Why is violence more common where inequality is greater? Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2004;1036:1-12. 48. Rich JA, Stone DA. The experience of violent injury for young African-American men: the meaning of being a "sucker." J Gen Intern Med. 1996;11 (2):77-82. 49. Black MM, Ricardo IB. Drug use, drug trafficking, and weapon carrying among low-income, African-American, early adolescent boys. Pediatrics. 1994;93(6 pt 2):1065-1072. 50. Sullivan ML. Getting Paid: Youth Crime and Work in the Inner City. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press; 1989. 51. Edelman P, Holzer HJ, Offner P. Reconnecting Disadvantaged Young Men. Washington, DC: Urban Institute Press; 2006. 52. Williams T. The Cocaine Kids: The Inside Story of a Teenage Drug Ring. New York, NY: Da Capo Press; 1990. 53. Voisin DR, Bird JD, Hardestry M, Shiu SC. African American adolescents living and coping with community violence on Chicago's southside. J Interpers Violence. 2011;26(12):2483-2498. 54. Voisin DR, Neilands TB. Low school engagement and sexual behaviors among African American youth: examining the influences of gender, peer norms, and gang involvement. Child Youth Serv Rev. 2010;32(1):51-57. 55. Breslau N, Davis GC. Posttraumatic stress disorder in an urban population of young adults: risk factors for chronicity. Am J Psychiatry. 1992;149(5):671-675. 56. Breslau N, Chilcoat HD, Kessler RC, Davis GC. Previous exposure 73

and the PTSD effects of a subsequent trauma: results from the Detroit Area Survey of Trauma. Am J Psychiatry. 1999;156 (6):902-907. 57. Litz BT, Schlenger WE, Weathers FW, Caddell JM, Fairbank JA, LaVange LM. Predictors of emotional numbing in posttraumatic stress disorder. J Trauma Stress. 1997;10(4):607-618. 58. Feeny NC, Zoellner LA, Fitzgibbons LA, Foa EB. Exploring the roles of emotional numbing, depression, and dissociation in PTSD. J Trauma Stress. 2000;13 (3):489-498. 59. Ozer EJ, Weinstein RS. Urban adolescents' exposure to community violence: the role of support, school safety, and social constraints in a school-based sample of boys and girls. J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol. 2004;33(3):463-476. 60. Howard DE, Feigelman S, Li X, Cross S, Rachuba L. The relationship among violence victimization, witnessing violence, and youth distress. J Adolesc Health. 2002;31(6):455-462. 61. Kashdan TB, Elhai JD, Frueh BC. Anhedonia and emotional numbing in combat veterans with PTSD. Behav Res Ther. 2006;44(3):457-467. 62. Rich JA. Wrong Place, Wrong Time: Trauma and Violence in the Lives of Young Black Men. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press; 2009. 63. Thrasher FM. Gang: A Study of 1,313 Gangs in Chicago. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press; 1927. 64. Decker SH, Winkle BV. Life in the Gang: Family, Friends, and Violence. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press; 1996. 65. Klein MW, Maxson CL. Street gang violence. In: Weiner NA, Wolfgang ME, eds. Violent Crime, Violent Criminals. Newbury Park, CA: Sage; 1989:198-237. 66. Deschenes EP, Esbensen F. Violence and gangs: gender differences in perception and behavior. J Quant Criminol. 1999;15(1):63-96. 67. Clarke RVG, Felson M. Routine Activity and Rational Choice. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction; 1993. 74

68. Lofton GG. Structuring an environment for increased comprehension, communication, and computer literacy-from a state college, system and school perspective. In: McNich GH, Lentini GF, Creamer MB, eds. Reading Research in 1984: Comprehension, Computers, Communication. Fifth Yearbook of the American Reading Forum. Athens, GA: American Reading Forum; 1984:46-50. 69. Claassen CA, Larkin GL, Hodges G, Field C. Criminal correlates of injury-related emergency department recidivism. J Emerg Med. 2007;32(2):141-147. 70. Keough V, Lanuza D, Jennrich J, Gulanick M, Holm K. Characteristics of the trauma recidivist: an exploratory descriptive study. J Emerg Nurs. 2001;27 (4):340-346. 71. Ellickson P, Sanner H, McGuigan KA. Profiles of violent youth: substance use and other concurrent problems. Am J Public Health. 1997;87(6):985-991. 72. Chassin L, Knight GP, Vargas-Chanes D, Losoya SH, Naranjo D. Substance use treatment outcomes in a sample of male serious juvenile offenders. J Subst Abuse Treat. 2009;36(2):183-194. 73. Mulvey EP, Steinberg L, Fagan J, et al. Theory and research on desistance from antisocial activity among serious adolescent offenders. Youth Violence Juv Justice. 2004;2(3):213-236. 74. Mateu-Gelabert P, Lune H. School violence: the bidirectional flow between neighborhood and school. City Community. 2003;2(4):353369. 75. Mateu-Gelabert P, Lune H. Street codes in high school: school as an educational deterrent. City Community. 2007;6 (3):173-191. 76. Stewart DW, Shamdasani PN, Rook DW. Focus Groups: Theory and Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage; 2007. 77. Shaw CR. The Jack Roller: A Delinquent Boy's Own Story. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press; 1966. 78. Braithwaite R, Hammett T, Mayberry R. Prisons and AIDS: A Public Health Challenge. San Francisco, CA: Jossey- Bass Health Series; 1996. 75

79. Robillard AG, Braithwaite RL, Gallito-Zaparaniuk P, Kennedy S. Challenges and strategies of frontline staffproviding HIV services for inmates and releasees. J Correct Health Care. 2011;17 (4):344-360. 80. Vaughn MG, Wallace JM Jr, Davis LE, Fernandes GT, Howard MO. Variations in mental health problems, substance use and delinquency between African American and Caucasian juvenile offenders: implications for reentry services. Int J Offender Ther Comp Criminol. 2008;52(3):311-329. 81. Abram KM, Teplin LA, McClelland GM, Dulcan MK. Comorbid psychiatric disorders in youth in juvenile detention. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2003;60 (11):1097-1108. 82. Abram KM, Paskar LD, Washburn JJ, Teplin LA. Perceived barriers to mental health services among youths in detention. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2008;47(3):301-308. 83. Chitsabesan P, Bailey S. Mental health, educational and social needs of young offenders in custody and in the community. Curr Opin Psychiatry. 2006;19(4):355-360. 84. Wang PS, Sherrill J, Vitiello B. Unmet need for services and interventions among adolescents with mental disorders. Am J Psychiatry. 2007;164(1):1-3. 85. Thomas J, Gourley G, Mele N. The availability of behavioral health services for youth in the juvenile justice system. J Am Psychiatr Nurses Assoc. 2005;11 (3):156-163. 86. Foa EB, Riggs DS, Dancu CV, Rothbaum BO. Reliability and validity of a brief instrument for assessing posttraumatic stress disorder. J Trauma Stress. 1993;6(4):459-473. 87. Sampson R. Urban Black violence: the effect of male joblessness and family disruption. Am J Sociol. 1987;93(2):348-382. AUTHOR_AFFILIATION Joseph B. Richardson Jr, PhD, Jerry Brown, EdD, and Michelle Van Brakle, PhD AUTHOR_AFFILIATION About the Authors Joseph B. Richardson Jr is with the Department of African American 76

Studies, University of Maryland, College Park. Jerry Brown is with the Cultural Systems Analysis Group, University of Maryland. Michelle Van Brakle is with the Center for Substance Abuse Research, University of Maryland. Correspondence should be sent to Joseph B. Richardson, Jr, PhD, Department of African American Studies, University of Maryland, 1137 Taliaferro Hall, College Park, MD 20742 (e-mail: jrichar5@umd.edu). Reprints can be ordered at http://www.ajph. org by clicking the "Reprints" link. This article was accepted November 26, 2012. Contributors J. B. Richardson Jr was responsible for study conceptualization, data analysis, data interpretation, and article preparation. J. Brown was responsible for study conceptualization. M. Van Brakle was responsible for article preparation. Acknowledgments This project was supported by the Mental Health and Substance Abuse in Corrections, Clinical Research Scholars Training Program at the Morehouse School of Medicine, Department of Community Health and Preventive Medicine (award 5R25MH080669). The authors would like to thank Ronald Braithwaite and Lula Beatty for their support. Human Participant Protection The University of Maryland's institutional review board approved this study's protocol.Pathways to Early Violent Death: The Voices of Serious Violent Youth Offenders Byline: Richardson, Joseph B; Brown, Jerry; Van Brakle, Michelle Volume: 103 Number: 7 ISSN: 00900036 Publication Date: 07-01-2013 Page: E5 Section: ANALYTIC ESSAY Type: Periodical 77

Language: English Copyright American Public Health Association Jul 2013

Ian C. Glover Period 1 Mr. Jimenez 9/29/13

Poverty pushed me into joining a gang  New Straits Times  09-15-2013

Summary: This article explores a testimonial account of a witness to a murder during a gang fight. The woman goes into precise detail on how the gangs were equipped and explains that circumstances is what leads people to becoming violent gang members, that it is not something you plan out to be. She also recites that there were rewards given to the gang members, including sex, drugs and alcohol consumption.

Quotes: "It is not like you plan to be a gang member and get involved in crime. Circumstances drive you into it. Growing up in a povertystricken neighbourhood, it was easy to be enamoured by the lifestyle of a gangster.” “The woman was crying over the death of her 24-year-old son, who was murdered during a gang fight. I was involved in the fight and had witnessed the murder. He was from a rival gang and was slashed to death by a senior from my gang. "Until that dreadful day, I had never thought about the consequences of my actions. That scene, which took place some 30 years ago, haunts me until today.” "Junior gang members do not get to meet the leader. He is known only to some senior members. To become a full-fledged member, there is a rite of passage that we had to go through. The seniors kept tabs on the kinds of activities that the juniors were involved in and how "successful' we were before allowing us to move up the ranks. “ 79

Analysis: This article is riveting to the core and it gave me education on how gangs prepare themselves and how they fight. It gives hints to the violent life style they live and the ruthlessness of the bloodshed they participate in. It shows that in the public eye they are the people you wish not to associate yourself with, but without acknowledgement that you could become one due to circumstances is shocking. I am very glad I found this article as I am now enlightened by the tragedy others suffer.

Article #5:

Poverty pushed me into joining a gang â&#x20AC;¨New Straits Timesâ&#x20AC;¨09-15-2013 Jump to best part of document

Poverty pushed me into joining a gang Edition: New Sunday Times Section: Main Section "MY mother's best friend was wailing and pounding her fist against her chest. The ashen look on my mother's face as she tried to console her friend is something that I will never forget. "The woman was crying over the death of her 24-year-old son, who was murdered during a gang fight. I was involved in the fight and had witnessed the murder. He was from a rival gang and was slashed to death by a senior from my gang. "Until that dreadful day, I had never thought about the consequences of my actions. That scene, which took place some 30 years ago, haunts me until today. "I was 17 then and had been involved in many gang fights. I have been scarred badly in many of the fights, but that was the first time that I had witnessed a murder. "A few days later, the police rounded up all those involved in the fight, including me, but the murderer escaped. After five days in the lock-up, we were released. Our gang leader had taken care of the matter and the case was closed. "The incident rattled me and that was the first time that I had a strong desire to leave the life of gangsterism and violence. But, the gang does not let go of its members easily. "My mother tried to straighten me out many times. Once, she sent me to an uncle's house in a different state. That kept me away from the gang, but after a year, I had to come back to my hometown and I got involved again. 81

"It is not like you plan to be a gang member and get involved in crime. Circumstances drive you into it. Growing up in a povertystricken neighbourhood, it was easy to be enamoured by the lifestyle of a gangster. "It was a choice made by many of the boys in my community to survive. It put food on the table, gave us better clothes and shoes to wear and provided pocket money. "I was 13 and in school when I first got involved. We were the 'urban poor'. My father was a labourer and did not have a permanent job. My mother clean-ed houses from time to time to feed our family of seven. One meal a day was a blessing. "Like the others, I started out doing petty things like extorting money, stealing car parts, gambling and then, progressing to break- ins. Peer pressure called for me to go along with whatever that happened. So, if I was told to engage in a gang fight, I just did it. No questions asked. "Gang fights always took place to safeguard our turf or when one of our members had been threatened by a rival gang member. "My gang was well-equipped with machetes, parang, swords, knives and whatever we needed to protect ourselves and attack rivals. "Junior gang members do not get to meet the leader. He is known only to some senior members. To become a full-fledged member, there is a rite of passage that we had to go through. The seniors kept tabs on the kinds of activities that the juniors were involved in and how "successful' we were before allowing us to move up the ranks. "There were rewards, too, and this often involved taking the juniors to brothels and bars to experience sex, alcohol and drugs. "The loot that we obtained from our activities was always shared among the members. We were required to pay a monthly fee of about RM40 to the leader, who assured us of protection if something came up. "Back then, RM40 was a lot of money and as such, we had to think of ways to make enough money to support our needs and save some for the boss. "Breaking into people's houses was the easiest way to make quick 82

money. The stolen loot was quickly sold and the money, shared. Together with my gang members, I had broken into hundreds of houses and carted away valuables. "Our backs were covered at all times. I was 15 when the police first arrested me after a major gang fight in school. Then, at 16, I was caught for robbing a couple, but after a week, I was released with the help of my gang leader. "Knowing that we could get away with murder, so to speak, made us brazen. Being a gang member made us feel important and powerful. There was also a sense of belonging and camaraderie. For many who had come from broken families, it was a means to escape from disturbing family circumstances. The gang offered much solace. "Once you are involved in a gang, dropping out of school comes naturally for most. However, it was different for me. My mother was determined that I stay in school and complete Form Five. She said education would be the way out of our misery and being the eldest, I should set an example for my siblings. "I also stayed in school because there were opportunities to take part in sports. I was an athlete and loved football. I dreamt of travelling to different places to watch great sportsmen in action. And, like the other boys in my gang, I wanted to accumulate wealth quickly through whatever means to chase my dreams. "I had the notion that the world of crime would help me attain my dreams faster. Coming from a destitute background, the future seemed limited, but the world of gangsters gave us the delusion of grandeur. "School was not easy. There were many fights between rival gangs. For poor students like me, it was also the place where we saw what the children from rich families had. They came to school in cars, wore nice clothes and shoes and had meals every day. We wanted the same things, but our situation was different; even a meal was hard to come by. So, we stole from the rich. "I used to walk up to the cafeteria, just take the food there and give it to the poor children without paying. No one dared to say anything. This drove the school authorities to provide free meals to the poor. The poor students in school used to look up to me and this made it easier to recruit them into the gang. 83

"Despite my notorious ways and the many problems that I caused in school, the principal encouraged me to pursue my dreams. I sat for my Form Five examinations and then, went on to pursue technical studies in another state, as my mother wished. "When I left my hometown to pursue my career, it was easier to stay away from the gang. Others in my gang were not as lucky. They had no education or the support of their parents to go further in life. Many of them went on to become drug dealers and were caught by the police or killed in gang fights at a young age. "And, those who continue to live in a world of crime have never found a way out of poverty." (Copyright 2013)

Ian C. Glover Period 1 Mr. Jimenez 11/8/13

Article Review: “Secret Ties Between CIA, drugs revealed”

Secret ties between CIA, drugs revealed BY ROSALIND MUHAMMAD ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED, 1996 | LAST UPDATED: APR 20, 2012 - 9:44:06 PM

Summary: In this compelling whistle-blowing article, the author explores the introduction of crack cocaine placed into the ghetto to fund the CIA-back Nicaraguan Contra Army and to break up the ghetto. It explores the story of a street dealer named Ricky Ross and it mentions about the Bloods and the Crips during that time.

Quotes: “Although the Mercury News details the activities of numerous Nicaraguan and American informants and ties involved in the drug-gun trade, three men are cited as key players: Norwin Meneses, a Nicaraguan smuggler and FDN boss; Danilo Blandon, a cocaine supplier, top FDN civilian leader in California, and DEA informant; and Ricky Donnell Ross, a South Central Los Angeles high school dropout and drug trafficker of mythic proportions, who was Mr. Blandon's biggest customer.” “Mr. Alphonse, who now resides in Alabama, said he has warned for years that the flood of crack cocaine and assault weapons into the Black community was not the doing of the Bloods and Crips. "Inner city youth don't have the resources to manufacture cocaine or ship in guns," Mr. Alphonse said. 85

Others agree.” “Millions of dollars in drug profits were then funneled to the Fuerza Democratica Nicaraguense (Nicaraguan Democratic Force), the largest of several antiCommunists commonly called the Contras. The 5,000-man FDN was created in mid-1981 and run by both American and Nicaraguan CIA agents in its losing war against Nicaragua's Sandinista government, the Cuban-supported socialists who had overthrown U.S.-backed dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979.”

Analysis: This is by far THE MOST IMPORTANT ARTICLE that I have read. Without this article I could not go off of any evidence aside from personal experience with affiliates who I have known. It speaks deeply into the corruption of our government and gives a substantial cause of anger for the Blacks to have against the government. Keep going wistle-blowers!

Article #6:

Secret ties between CIA, drugs revealed BY ROSALIND MUHAMMAD ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED, 1996 | LAST UPDATED: APR 20, 2012 - 9:44:06 PM

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For nearly a decade the CIA helped spread crack cocaine in Black ghettos

[Note: This article was originally published in 1996 by then Final Call News West Coast Bureau Chief, Rosalind Muhammad.] • The Complete Archive of Gary Webb's Explosive Series: "Dark Alliance" (NarcoNews) • Read about the FBI's COINTEL Program (NOI.org/COINTELPro)

LOS ANGELES (FinalCall.com) - New evidence has surfaced linking the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency to the introduction of crack cocaine into Black neighborhoods with drug profits used to fund the CIA-backed Nicaraguan Contra army in the early 1980s. This evidence has given credence to long-held suspicions of the U.S. government's role in undermining Black communities.

Thousands of young Black men are serving long prison sentences for selling cocaine -- a drug that was virtually unobtainable in Black neighborhoods before members of the CIA's army started bring it into South Central in the 1980s at bargain basement prices," wrote Mercury News reporter Gary Webb, in the first installment of the shocking series of reports. According to a series of groundbreaking reports by the San Jose Mercury News, for the better part of a decade, a San Francisco Bay Area drug ring, comprised of CIA and U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency agents and informants, sold tons of cocaine to the Crips and Bloods street gangs of Los Angeles. Millions of dollars in drug profits were then funneled to the Fuerza Democratica Nicaraguense (Nicaraguan Democratic Force), the largest of several antiCommunists commonly called the Contras. The 5,000-man FDN was created in mid-1981 and run by both American and Nicaraguan CIA agents in its losing war against Nicaragua's Sandinista government, the Cuban-supported socialists who had overthrown U.S.-backed dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979. This CIA-backed drug network opened the first pipeline between Columbia's cocaine cartels and the Black neighborhoods of Compton and Los Angeles, according to the Mercury News. In time, the cocaine that flooded Los Angeles helped spark a "crack explosion" in urban America and provided the cash and connections needed for Los Angeles's gangs to buy Uzi sub-machine guns, AK-47 rifles, and other assault weapons that would fuel deadly gang turf wars, drive-by shootings, murders and robberies -- courtesy of the U.S. government, according to the article. "While the FDN's war is barely a memory today, Black America is still dealing with its poisonous side effects. Urban neighborhoods are grappling with legions of homeless crack addicts. Thousands of young Black men are serving long prison sentences for selling cocaine -- a drug that was virtually unobtainable in Black neighborhoods before members of the CIA's army started bring it into South Central in the 1980s at bargain basement prices," wrote Mercury News reporter Gary Webb, in the first installment of the shocking series of reports. Although the Mercury News details the activities of numerous Nicaraguan and American informants and ties involved in the drug-gun trade, three men are cited as key players: Norwin Meneses, a Nicaraguan smuggler and FDN boss; Danilo Blandon, a cocaine supplier, top FDN civilian leader in California, and DEA informant; and Ricky Donnell Ross, a South Central Los Angeles high school 88

dropout and drug trafficker of mythic proportions, who was Mr. Blandon's biggest customer.

For years, writers, authors, activists, gang members and others have implicated the U.S. government in the deadly crack cocaine-gun trade. According to the Mercury News article, for the better part of a decade, "Freeway Rick," as he was nicknamed, was unaware of his supplier's military and political connections. But together, the trio was directly and indirectly responsible for introducing and selling crack cocaine as far away as Cleveland, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Dayton and St. Louis. Ricky Ross' street connections, ability to obtain cocaine at low prices and deals that allowed him to receive drugs from Contra-CIA operatives with no money upfront helped him to undercut other dealers and quickly spread crack. He also sold crack wholesale to gangs across the country, said the Mercury News report. Most of the information surrounding the CIA's involvement in the crack trade came from testimony in the March drug trafficking trial of Mr. Ross, 36, who, along with two other men were convicted of cocaine conspiracy charges in San Diego. A federal judge indefinitely postponed Mr. Ross's Aug. 23 sentencing to grant his lawyer time to try to show that federal authorities misused DEA agent Mr. Blandon to entrap Mr. Ross in a "reverse" sting last year. Mr. Ross could receive life in prison without the possibility of parole. Records show that Mr. Ross was still behind bars in Cincinnati in 1994, awaiting parole, when San Diego DEA agents targeted him for the reverse sting-- one in which government agents provide the drugs and the target provides the cash. Though Mr. Blandon has admitted to crimes that have sent others away for life, the U.S. Justice Department turned him loose on unsupervised probation in 1994 after only 28 months behind bars and has paid him more than $166,000 since, court records show. Mr. Blandon's boss in the FDN's cocaine operation, Norwin Meneses, has never spent a day in a U.S. prison, even though the federal government has been aware of his cocaine dealings since at least 1974, according to the Mercury News article. For years, writers, authors, activists, gang members and others have implicated the U.S. government in the deadly crack cocaine-gun trade. Many have charged the U.S. government with supplying gang members with 89

these tools in an effort to undermine and eradicate the Black community through wanton murder, drug addiction and crime. Some believe crack did not become an "American problem" until the drug began hitting white neighborhoods and affecting white children. On Aug. 23, the Los Angeles City Council, responding to pressure by the Los Angeles Chapter of the Black American Political Association of California (BAPAC), asked U.S. Atty. Janet Reno to investigate the government's involvement in the alleged sale of illegal street drugs in Los Angeles' Black community to support the CIA-backed Contras. BAPAC vice chairman Glen Brown told The Final Call that a federal agency monitored by a civilian advisory board is one way the government could investigate the matter because "we can't have people who are responsible for this investigate themselves." BAPAC, a statewide coalition of political activists, has also demanded that the U.S. government provide the necessary funding, materials and labor to rebuild urban areas destroyed by crack cocaine, as well as the necessary medical care, education, counseling, and vocational training to restore shattered lives. Long-term Los Angeles activists Chilton Alphonse, founder of the Community Youth Sports & Arts Foundation, which aids former gang members, said he briefly assisted Ricky Ross when the drug dealer was paroled from prison inn October 1994, after serving about half of a 10-year prison sentence in Cincinnati in exchange for his testimony against corrupt Los Angeles police detectives. "He came back to Los Angeles and tried to get his life together," Mr. Alphonse said. "Rick was a legend in the streets. But he flipped (testified against law enforcement officers). He said they used him to skim money from him." Mr. Alphonse was referring to Mr. Ross's 1991 testimony against Los Angeles Police Department narcotics detectives who had been fired or indicted along with dozens of deputies from the Los Angeles County sheriff's elite narcotics squads for allegedly beating suspects, stealing drug money and planting evidence. Mr. Alphonse, who now resides in Alabama, said he has warned for years that the flood of crack cocaine and assault weapons into the Black community was not the doing of the Bloods and Crips. "Inner city youth don't have the resources to manufacture cocaine or ship in guns," Mr. Alphonse said. Others agree. In December 1989, while head of the NAACP Los Angeles Chapter, Anthony A. Samad (then Anthony Essex) announced his findings that some Bloods and Crips members had implicated the U.S. government in the ruthless crack and assault weapons trade among Los Angeles street gangs. Mr. Samad said that he learned this after extensive interviews with gang members housed in Los Angeles County Jail. But he was largely ignored by Black elected officials, he said who sided with law enforcement. "Gang members charged then that gang rivalry and drug wars were being perpetuated by the police and the government," said Mr. Samad, who is now president of Samad & Associates, a consulting firm. Henry Stuckey, of Stop the Violence/Increase the Peace, said that government 90

involvement in community drug trafficking was common knowledge in some circles. "Obviously African American males didn't have planes and boats to move the guns and narcotics into the Black community." Mr. Stuckey said. Mr. Stuckey said that Black and Latino youths must be appraised of the government's involvement in order to understand that their communities will continue to be the dumping grounds for guns and drugs unless the youths "do for self." "I do think that the blame that was laid on the gangs was wrong," Mr. Stuckey said. "But I can't say that it vindicates them for their actions because they had a choice in the matter. (Still) it's horrible that the government targeted our youth." Roland Freeman, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Chapter of the International Campaign to Free Geronimo Pratt, is a former member of the Black Panther Party. The BPP was targeted and ultimately nullified by FBI counterintelligence programs. Mr. Freeman said he knows firsthand of the deceit of which the government is capable; a government, he said, that tries to "set itself up as if it's higher than God when really it's lower than the devil." "(They put) small pox in the Indian's blankets and gave them fire water," Mr. Freeman said. "They make drugs available to Blacks and other minorities. It only surprises me that (the CIA) got caught."

Ian C. Glover Period 1 Mr. Jimenez 11/8/13

Article Review: “Gangs of Oakland County”

Gangs of Oakland County By Lisa Brody News Editor 08/01/2013 –

Summary: This article is an in depth summary of the gangs inside Oakland County. It provides substantial information about them from the inside out and most importantly they provide interviews that question how children get involved with gangs and how to prevent them from become at risk children. Quotes: “Thug Life. Goon Squad. Almighty Latin King Nation. Men of Blood. Money Over Everything. New World Order. 1st Enfantry. You may have heard some, or all, of these names. They're the name of gangs, some of which operate all over the United States. They all are entrenched in areas of Detroit. And they, along with other gangs, all have a presence, to varying degrees, in Oakland County.” “These are not the Jets and the Sharks taunting Officer Krupke from West Side Story. Although most members of gangs are usually in their early teens to late 20s, they're not playing "gang". They mean very serious business.” “Many guys (gang members) have been trained to not deny they are a gang member when they're arrested and questioned, to tell us what their tattoos say and stand for. It's a sign of respect for them, that they're a gang member. They 92

want it seen," Moore said. While they will proudly acknowledge they are a member of a gang, and tell law enforcement which gang they are a member of, that's usually all they'll give up.â&#x20AC;? Analysis: I like this article because it is long and it has a lot of information to work off of. I think without these types of researched articles we could not understand the nature of gangs and would always have to rely on what the media would be telling us. I think it is very accurate and well written. I highly recommend this article.

Article #7:

Gangs of Oakland County By Lisa Brody News Editor 08/01/2013 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Thug Life. Goon Squad. Almighty Latin King Nation. Men of Blood. Money Over Everything. New World Order. 1st Enfantry. You may have heard some, or all, of these names. They're the name of gangs, some of which operate all over the United States. They all are entrenched in areas of Detroit. And they, along with other gangs, all have a presence, to varying degrees, in Oakland County. Yes, gangs exist in Oakland County, notably in Pontiac and in the southern Oakland County communities of Southfield and Oak Park, where the gang lifestyle, which revolves around money, violence, guns, illicit narcotic sales, retail fraud, and demanding respect, proliferate. Communities abutting Pontiac, such as Bloomfield Township, Waterford, West Bloomfield, Auburn Hills, Sylvan Lake and Keego Harbor, encounter gang activity as spillover. Community borders do not exist for gangs. There may be a home invasion in a nearby city or township as gang members, needing goods and cash, pay no attention to municipal boundaries. Ditto with retail fraud. There are substantially more stores with large goods in Bloomfield Township or West Bloomfield than in Pontiac, providing them the incentive to venture into our towns. These are not the Jets and the Sharks taunting Officer Krupke from West Side Story. Although most members of gangs are usually in their early teens to late 20s, they're not playing "gang". They mean very serious business. Oakland County law enforcement recognizes and understands this better than regular civilians, many of us who are unaware of the gang activities happening in our midst. In 2009, following a significant rise in gang-related crime in Oakland County, the FBI, in conjunction with the Oakland County Sheriff's Office, Oakland County Prosecutor's Office, Michigan State Police, Bloomfield Township Police Department, Auburn Hills Police Department, Waterford Police Department, (now defunct) Pontiac Police Department, Homeland Security, Michigan Department of Corrections, and Drug Enforcement Agency formed the Oakland County Violent Gang Task Force to identify and target for prosecution violent criminal 94

enterprises that operate in and around the Oakland County area. The FBI emphasizes it is a "joint venture to enhance the effectiveness of federal, state, and local law enforcement resources through well coordinated initiatives seeking the most effective investigative and prosecutorial avenues by which to convict and incarcerate dangerous offenders." Jeff Downey, FBI Supervisory Senior Resident Agent for Oakland County, noted, "We've been successful to date, but there's more work to do. Gangs haven't gone away. We see gangs coming from Detroit, coming to Pontiac. There are a lot of gang crimes which are crimes of opportunity. Some are traditional violent crimes â&#x20AC;&#x201C; involving guns, drugs, money, assaults. They're all about making money for the gangs and the individual." Google "Thug Life", as an officer in the task force recommended, and you will be inundated with information on information on the late rapper Tupac Shakur, rap and hip-hop artists who quote the lyrics, gang members who have adopted his credo, and the prevalence of "thug life" in Oakland County. According to writer Bruce Poinsette, "THUG LIFE" was a movement created by Tupac, his stepfather Mutulu Shakur and godfather Geronimo Pratt, who all had ties to the Black Panther Party, in an effort to politicize gangs. The men had come to believe the Black Panther Party was being misdirected towards oppressing the black community rather than defending it. Tupac wrote in 1992, "I didn't create T.H.U.G. L.I.F.E., I diagnosed it," when he helped get rival California gang members from the Crips and Bloods to sign the Code of THUG LIFE. The first principle of the code is that "All new Jacks must know: a) He's going to get rich. b) He's going to jail. c) He's going to die." THUG LIFE stands for "The Hate U Gave Lil" Infants Fucks Everyone". The phrase is used to express pride in living the thug lifestyle, and while the MerriamWebster Dictionary defines a thug as a "brutal ruffian or assassin", Tupac defined a thug as "someone going through struggles, has gone through struggles, and continues to live day by day with nothing for them. That person is a thug, and the life they are living is the thug life. A thug is not a gangster. Look up gangster and gangsta. Not even close, my friend." However, members of gangs and law enforcement who track them likely disagree. In their efforts to be gangsta, members are often full on gangster â&#x20AC;&#x201C; violent, disrespectful of authority other than the individual in charge of their gang, focused on money, drugs, and guns. According to the 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment released by the national Gang Intelligence Center, there are approximately 1.4 million gang members belonging to more than 33,000 gangs that were criminally active throughout the United States as of April 2011. The assessment was developed through analysis of available federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement and 95

corrections agency information, data from the 2010 NDIC National Threat Survey and open source information. "The concept of a gang isn't inherently negative. A group of people coming together under the common interests of protection and economic gain doesn't elicit crime and violence on its own. However, when you factor in poverty, joblessness and a dependence on the black market drug trade, which has no regulations preventing the use of violence to solve disputes, then you have a recipe for disaster," Poinsette wrote. "In fact, most gangs were not started to terrorize communities but to protect them." Detective/Sergeant Greg Moore of the Oakland County Sheriff's Office Violent Gangs Task Force would disagree. "You Tube postings for Pontiac and Detroit feature the glorification of the gangster life style, with its glorification of dope, money, guns and cars. Women come last, because they are objectified and disrespected. If you watch these You Tube videos on Pontiac, the gang members talk openly about videoing their thuggery. It's mind blowing." In 2008, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard authorized the formation of the Jail Gang Intelligence Unit because law enforcement had recognized that gang members being sent to jail did not stop their activities. "We started noticing which gangs were affiliating with each other, and with different gangs," Moore said. "We began assembling statistics, which communities they were from, who they were connecting with." "Depending on which prison they go to, especially the much larger prisons, they can get affiliated with larger gangs and gang activity," Downey said. "You get them off the streets, but there is gang activity in prisons. We try to use every tool we can to get them put away for a long time. The focus is to work long term criminal investigations to get them long term sentences." Implicit in that statement is that those who receive shorter sentences can make other gang contacts in prison which can continue once they are released back onto the streets. Moore said the reality is that gangs are everywhere, and different police departments have different problems with different kinds of criminal activities. "Southfield has different kinds of activities than Pontiac," he said, declining to elaborate. "Each community is familiar with their own gangs." Southfield and other southern Oakland County communities have been infiltrated by gangs from Detroit who have established networks in those cities, not interested nor respectful of the change of boundaries. Pontiac gangs currently are mostly separate from Detroit's. But road access from one end of Oakland County is simple, with only a car needed to get from one municipality to another. "We see gangs from Detroit coming into Pontiac," said the FBI's Downey. "A lot 96

of gang crimes are crimes of opportunity. Some are traditional gang crimes â&#x20AC;&#x201C; guns, drugs, money. The violence is about respect, control, territory and influence. Then there are the killings. Sometimes they happen for mere robberies, for money. Money is extremely important. Gangs are all about making money for the gangs and the individual. For most gangs, money and territory are the driving forces." Moore said that currently the Oakland County Violent Gangs Task Force has positively identified about 750 gang members, spread out between different gangs. "Some are gang members in name only. Some get to their late 20s and move on. There's a smaller proportion of the ones who are causing real problems. "In Pontiac, to a large degree, there is a close arrangement of people attracted to the thug life, with its emphasis on guns, money and drugs," Moore said. "Most Americans earn respect through their good name. They (gang members) believe respect is if no can look you in the eye. Most often the leader of the gang is the one who can instill the most fear (in others) through violence and intimidation." Moore said that unlike in some cities, Pontiac's gangs are disorganized in terms of organizational structure. "Typically in gangs, there is a strict structure where they have a definitive leader, a second-in-charge, and various shot callers who will tell individual guys what to do. There are usually five or six guys in their crew who do drug deals and car thefts," he explained. "In Pontiac, there really is no organization." "Not all gangs are as hierarchical as national gangs. Some are loosely affiliated with national gangs, and may take the name of a national gang without being really affiliated," Downey said. From intelligence briefs, many gangs in Detroit do have the typical gang leadership organization. It's unknown at this time if, as gangs move northward and infiltrate Pontiac, that organizational structure will change. While the FBI and members of the Oakland County Violent Gangs Task Force do not want to specify exactly which gangs are in Oakland County, other sources confirm that the Goon Squad, Sur-13, NWO (New World Order), MOB (Men of Blood, their old acronym, but now Money Over Bitches), MOE (Money Over Everything), Latin Kings, a division of the Almighty Latin King Nation, Devil's Diciples, 8-Balls, M-13, Pinewood Posse and 1st Enfantry. In December 2011, members of the Goon Squad sprayed gunfire inside the Waterford Township Rolladium roller rink, striking five patrons. Waterford Township police learned that the shooting was the result of issues involving a rivalry between two Pontiac gangs, the Good Squad and 1st Enfantry.

"Some of the people shot were innocent bystanders, innocent skaters," said Waterford Township Police Chief Dan McCaw. "The shooters had a mission at hand, to shoot an individual who they had shot before and were after again. Home invasions, larcenies, carjackings, and other small crimes are more popular among gang members. Shootings come from disagreements over rivalries." McCaw said it doesn't matter what neighborhood or community people live in, "I see certain gangs in Waterford, and in Oakland County, in Birmingham, in Bloomfield, all over. I see evidence throughout the state." Bloomfield Township Police Chief Geof Gaudard concurred. Bloomfield Township has an officer assigned full time to the Oakland County Violent Gangs Task Force. "Just as crime knows no boundary, neither do criminals. We see drugs, larcenies, home invasions, and violent crimes, so it makes sense for us to commit to the task force. Many times, this is how they fund their lifestyle," Gaudard said. "We see crime everywhere. In our northern end (of Bloomfield Township), we'll see more of these types of crimes committed by gangs that are in the southern and eastern ends of Pontiac. They do cross the boundaries and come here," he explained. "The amount of crime these guys commit is shocking." "They will move into an area if an opportunity exists," Moore said. "It's not due to an economic downturn – there's always gang activity. At times, it becomes more prolific. In 2008, there were 28 homicides, most due to gangs, in Pontiac. It was directly attributed to younger people carrying guns. The problem is they didn't hit their target – they hit everyone around them." Gaudard said that there are usually less violent crimes, which he defined as crimes against a person, "because they don't live here," but Bloomfield Township does see its share of larcenies, drug sales, and other crimes. "They sell drugs here. It runs the gamut, marijuana, prescription drugs, heroin – whatever we see in this community and throughout Oakland County." This past May, teens affiliated with gangs posted threats on Twitter and Instagram against the Orchard Lake St. Mary's Festival right before it was held. A press release from the Oakland County Sheriff's Office stated that calls were made to the sheriff's office and to Orchard Lake Police after parents and others reportedly noticed someone posting threats on the social media sites. "The threats consisted of several photos showing a handgun, an assault rifle and a photo of several fully loaded high-capacity magazines for a handgun," the press release said. "Each of the photos made a reference to the Orchard Lake 98

St. Mary's Festival." There was a photo of someone holding a gun with a message below stating, "We can't wait till st. marys fair." On May 24, the Oakland County Prosecutor's Office authorized and granted an arrest warrant against a 16-year-old Detroit teen for domestic terrorism, a 20year felony. He was arrested in Detroit, and his case was assigned to an investigator in the FBI's Oakland County Violent Gangs Task Force. He allegedly admitted he had ties with Detroit gang members, and admitted to making one of the Twitter threats with the gun. Investigators would not identify which gang he may be a part of. "We're part of the task force to aid and assist with legal issues, such as the writing of search warrants and helping (investigators) with what they need, with legal boundaries," noted Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper. "The other reason we're active members of the task force is that the federal government does not have juvenile jurisdiction, so all those cases come to us. If a gang member is a juvenile, a local prosecutor will be involved. We work in conjunction with the feds." According to statute, all juvenile jurisdiction rests with the state, not with the federal government. Cooper said there are occasional exceptions, such as with computer crimes, like child pornography. "It's best to go federal then because the penalties may be more severe." The teen who bragged on Twitter and Instagram before the Orchard Lake St. Mary's Festival is hardly unique in today's era of social media. Gang members, after all, are primarily male, in their teens and early to mid 20s. They are proud of their gang affiliation, and they want others to know. Tagging, or marking with graffiti on old homes, road signs and railroad tracks, definitely is ongoing. "They mark their territories with colors using spray paint," said West Bloomfield Police Lt. Curt Lawson of the Investigations Bureau, who said that West Bloomfield currently sees little gang activity, unlike a period from 1997-2000, when the township saw a three-year period of tagging of roads signs and other signs of the the gang Folk Nations in the northern part of the community. "They were white kids, usually 16 to 19 years old, and lot of them were in school, going to Walled Lake Schools. They were having gang wars. We didn't see the major violence, but definitely mischievous behavior. Our then chief sent four officers to Detroit to work with the Detroit Gang Squad â&#x20AC;&#x201C; I was part of that â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and we learned how to put it down." Bloomfield Township's Gaudard said that while they don't get a lot of tagging on road signs, they do see it on abandoned and vacant buildings, and on train 99

overpasses. "Where we see it is closer to our northern borders," he said. Some gangs still have color affiliations. They flash finger symbols to one another, which Lawson said is their way of saying which gang they're in. "They're all little boys with AK 47s," he said. Like other young adults, they also use Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Instagram, Whisper, and other social media. "They're hugely active on social media," Moore said. "MySpace used to be big. Now it's Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube. There's Whisper, where it's only up for a few minutes and then it disappears. They take pictures and post them. They're proud." "On an individual basis, they're on Facebook bragging about what they do. A lot of crime you know they're doing, and usually we can find them and their friends on Facebook and Twitter," Cooper said. She said they are often identifiable on Facebook by using their gang signs. "They also use other names on their social media pages. And they brag." In addition, tattooing is a way for them to identify with their gangs. It has also become a powerful identification tool for law enforcement. The FBI has begun collecting tattoos gathered from police agencies around the U.S., private industry, and even academia in order to create a national database for law enforcement officers, which is part of the Generation of Identification program, a $1 billion program for the next step in biometrics and identification. It's designed to be used for investigative purposes, helping law enforcement explain what certain tattoo symbols mean and whether there are gang or other affiliations. While a tattoo is not as definitive an identifying mark as DNA or fingerprints, tattoos, or their photos and descriptions, can help investigators identify suspects as well as help prosecutors gain convictions. Moore noted that identifying and matching tattoos is part of Bouchard's proactive approach to law enforcement. "Anyone arrested in Oakland County goes directly to the Oakland County Jail, regardless of where (which municipality) you are arrested in. That being the case, the best source of intelligence is our jail deputies, who have been trained to recognize, interpret and ask about tattoos," Moore explained. They have compiled a computer database of anyone with a tattoo which can be accessed by description as well as body location. Law enforcement can find it useful when seeking a suspect whose name they don't know. "Many guys (gang members) have been trained to not deny they are a gang member when they're arrested and questioned, to tell us what their tattoos say and stand for. It's a sign of respect for them, that they're a gang member. They want it seen," Moore said. While they will proudly acknowledge they are a member of a gang, and tell law enforcement which gang they are a member of, 100

that's usually all they'll give up. "Typically they have a culture of not wanting to rat the others out," Moore said, explaining it's a mixture of both fear and pride in being part of the gang which drives that. "They have a lot of pride in their gang â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and fear of what could happen to them." Law enforcement in Oakland County, by working together, is making serious inroads in combatting gang activity. Downey emphasizes the collaborative approach among the member agencies in the task force is the key to battling this kind of crime. "This is a relatively new task force. It only started in 2009; it's only four years old. It takes a while to develop your intelligence to combat it," Downey said. He said that an ongoing investigation into the New World Order gang, which began in 2010, has led to a total of 70 people being arrested. "This year, so far, we've arrested seven," he said. Most of the charges have been federal charges, anywhere from narcotics trafficking to gun charges. Nine were local arrests, possibly juveniles. He won't say. "Ten years ago, all of us police departments operated on our own," Waterford's McCaw said. "But criminals have no boundaries, so we have to work together in the 21st century. Our success in the 21st century is to forget about boundaries and work collectively to get these kids off the streets and either rehabilitate them, if we can, or take them off the streets where they can't prey on innocent civilians. Some of them can be rehabilitated. Some are just lost and looking for something to belong to." What drives certain teens to gangs is usually their personal history. "If a child does not feel loved, or does not feel part of a family network, they are looking to be part of something. In a gang, even though it is criminal activity, they are part of something," McCaw said. Lisa Kirsch Satawa, a juvenile defense attorney at Clark Hill PLC in Birmingham, agreed. "The most important thing is young people who get involved in a gang is it's a programming issue. It's in their brain, they have a need to belong," she said. "You have to look at their family and ask, why do they need to belong to a gang. Is it stability? A connection to drugs? Is it money? Or is it simply low self-esteem and needing others to pick you up? It depends on the individual, but it all comes back to the family." She emphasized that a child who is going to join a gang is not getting the love, affection, stability, permanence or safety, "which is what every kid needs," from their family.

101

"The parents could be checked out, there could be a single parent, absent parent, lots of parents of different kids of the same mom, financial struggles, too many children in the home, mom working a lot of jobs. Sometimes mom is trying really hard, but she may not have the tools to succeed," Kirsch Satawa said. She added peer pressure is powerful as well. "Older siblings parenting younger siblings drives a lot of kids out of the house, too. Many kids don't feel they are getting anything out of watching other kids in the house, feeding babies, so they turn to gangs." "When you have 14 or 15 year olds with older siblings with $700 in cash in their pockets without a job, it impresses them," said Moore. Moore said a big objective of the gangs task force is in prevention. He urges parents to watch for warning signs their child may be involved in a gang, from admitting to "hanging out" with gang members, showing an unusual interest in one or two particular colors or a specific logo, using unusual hand signals to communicate with friends, or having specific drawings or gang symbols on their school books, clothes, walls, or tattoos. Other warning signs to recognize are unexplained cash or goods, such as clothing or jewelry, if they come home with unexplained injuries, such as fight-related bruises, or injuries to their hands or knuckles, if they carry a weapon, and if they have been in trouble with the police. Moore said to look for negative behavioral changes such as withdrawing from the family, declining school attendance, performance, and behavior, staying out late at night without a reason, displaying an unusual desire for secrecy, breaking rules consistently, showing signs of drug use, and speaking in gang-style slang. "A lot of times people would say, oh, they're just wanna-be gang members. I said, there's no such thing. You then are a gang member," West Bloomfield's Lawson said. "They're no less dangerous because they're trying to be part of that culture, and they're going to try to prove and impress the gangs, and that can make them more dangerous." "Oakland County is an affluent community. Know there are gangs here. Pay attention to your kids, and where your kids are going, and where they're going to party. If you see these signs, talk to them. Take some parental responsibility," Moore advised. -

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Ian C. Glover Period 1 Mr. Jimenez 11/8/13

Article Review: “Impact of Latin Kings arrests felt through quiet summer”

Impact of Latin Kings arrests felt through quiet summer By JIM HAYDEN The Holland Sentinel Posted Sep 30, 2013 @ 01:13 PM Last update Sep 30, 2013 @ 03:03 PM

Summary: This is an article regarding an arrest the police have made on one of the Latin Kings. The police are proud that they are minimizing gang violence and association and now they believe they are making the kids safer. Despite a few cases of graffiti, there have been no gangs trying to take the fallen leader’s place. Quotes: “Though there have been reports of graffiti in the city, including the high-

profile tagging of Herrick District Library and Holland City Hall in June, police have not seen another gang trying to step into the lead role the Latin Kings once held, Messer said.” “The impact of the arrests of 31 people earlier this year linked to the Latin Kings gang in Holland was felt this summer.” “Rising gang activity led to Holland assigning an extra officer to the West 103

Michigan Enforcement Teamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s gang task force in 2008, which typically has three Holland police officers and one Ottawa County Sheriff's Office deputy. In 2010, two officers from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, two U.S. attorneys and at least three WEMET officers began investigating Latin King activity, working closely with sheriff's office deputies and Holland police officers.â&#x20AC;? Analysis: Despite it being an article on gangs, this article had no help for me. I can see how the media would get excited about big arrests but the celebration I find is pathetic. There is no real reason to be celebrating when there is so much really going on. And if the media wants to launch a real entertaining investigation, they should look into the brutality the police force gives to people!

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Article #8:

Impact of Latin Kings arrests felt through quiet summer Zoom

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By JIM HAYDEN The Holland Sentinel Posted Sep 30, 2013 @ 01:13 PM Last update Sep 30, 2013 @ 03:03 PM Like

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Holland — The impact of the arrests of 31 people earlier this year linked to the Latin Kings gang in Holland was felt this summer. The federal indictments in February, coupled with the first sentencing of a gang leader last week, substantially reduced gang activity in the city this summer, according to Matt Messer, Holland Department of Public Safety chief. “The arrests and lengthy investigation have had a significant impact on the Latin Kings and we are still actively pursuing other individuals for their involvement with this gang,” he said. On Sept. 24, Desidario Amaro was the first to be sentenced in federal court in Grand Rapids from those earlier raids. He will serve 33 months in prison and three years of supervised release after that for racketeering and firearms charges, according to court records. Amaro, 38, was with the gang when it started in the early 1990s and was one of three regional leaders of the gang, according to a report on MLive. 107

Rising gang activity led to Holland assigning an extra officer to the West Michigan Enforcement Team’s gang task force in 2008, which typically has three Holland police officers and one Ottawa County Sheriff's Office deputy. In 2010, two officers from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, two U.S. attorneys and at least three WEMET officers began investigating Latin King activity, working closely with sheriff's office deputies and Holland police officers. Police documented instances of cash deposits by Latin King members into jail accounts for known or prospective gang members, as well as marijuana and cocaine sales, witness tampering, illicit gun use, assaults, stabbings and attempted murder. Though there have been reports of graffiti in the city, including the highprofile tagging of Herrick District Library and Holland City Hall in June, police have not seen another gang trying to step into the lead role the Latin Kings once held, Messer said. “We have not slowed at all when it comes to gang-related investigations. The city has also began looking at other ways to impact gang involvement,” Messer said, including starting the Holland Youth Connections program. The first-time project linked 12 students with supervisors to perform hands-on work for four hours per day, three days a week. The students learned about work ethic and teamwork, developed pride in themselves and their community and were held accountable. They learned about earning a paycheck, having a checking account and using a debit card. “We have heard over and over that one of the keys to minimizing gang involvement is to provide job opportunities for the young people of our community. This provides a sense of belongingness and teamwork (and income) that can take the place of being associated with gangs,” Messer said. — Follow Jim Hayden on Twitter@SentinelJim.

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Ian C. Glover Period 1 Mr. Jimenez 11/8/13

Article Review: â&#x20AC;&#x153;In Grip of Gangs: Muskegon communities damaged, fearful over issue, authorities sayâ&#x20AC;?

In the Grip of Gangs: Muskegon communities damaged, fearful over issue, authorities say By Heather Lynn Peters | hpeters@mlive.com Follow on Twitter on September 23, 2013 at 6:42 AM, updated September 23, 2013 at 10:12 AM

Summary: This article explores one traumatized neighborhood community in association with gang violence. There is a massive take over and now the violence is fueled by drugs and greed. It speaks of the terror of loyalty since they occupy like the Gestapo.

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Quotes: “The

biggest threat to the community these days is just that – their loyalty to one another. They are willing to die or go to prison to defend themselves and each other against the rival gangs, police said.” “t’s no secret that the Muskegon area has loosely organized gangs that for years have been linked to a number of drugrelated, weapon-related crimes, including some fatal shootings. Law enforcement, school officials and community members have tried to put the problem in perspective, but struggle to find ways to control the rival groups. This three-day series takes a closer look at the negative affect gang activity has had on once-safe neighborhoods, and how the lives of young men falling into that lifestyle struggle to walk away.” ““It’s an ongoing problem. There is no light at the end of the tunnel,” Gill said. “For law enforcement ourselves, there’s no one answer if you’re looking at the cause. We can investigate and we can arrest. We are dealing with offspring. I was arresting the grandfathers and fathers of the generations now committing criminal acts.”

Analysis: Even though it explores a real life situation where gang members are brutes, this is an unfair propaganda on the true motivations of gang members. It is horrible to read what happens but the media, as shown here, distorts many key component facts, so I want to meet one of the people there and ask what is really going on.

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Article #9:

In the Grip of Gangs: Muskegon communities damaged, fearful over issue, authorities say

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1/9 Graffiti at the Ferguson Bath, Kitchen, and Light building, 1577 S. Getty in Muskegon near the Nims Street intersection in Muskegon on September 19, 2013. Ken Stevens | ksteven2@mlive.com Print By Heather Lynn Peters | hpeters@mlive.com Follow on Twitter on September 23, 2013 at 6:42 AM, updated September 23, 2013 at 10:12 AM Tweet

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Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no secret that the Muskegon area has loosely organized gangs that for years have been linked to a number of drugrelated, weapon-related crimes, including some fatal 112

shootings. Law enforcement, school officials and community members have tried to put the problem in perspective, but struggle to find ways to control the rival groups. This three-day series takes a closer look at the negative affect gang activity has had on once-safe neighborhoods, and how the lives of young men falling into that lifestyle struggle to walk away. MUSKEGON COUNTY, MI – Muskegon County may not be Chicago or Detroit when it comes to organized crime, but make no mistake: Gang activity is here and it has taken its toll on once-peaceful Muskegon neighborhoods where residents are terrorized by groups of gun-slinging, dopedealing men walking the streets. Police say that a large number of the robberies, weapon offenses and drug-related crimes that have long plagued the community can be linked back to neighborhood gangs like those taking over the areas of Wood Street and Mason Avenue in Muskegon, and other gangs in the city of Muskegon Heights. The problem has frustrated law enforcement for decades as authorities wrestle with breaking through a code of silence among gang members as well as residents fearful of retaliation, and stemming a criminal way of life that now encompasses generations. “You have to know you’re dealing with a subculture. Often they are driven by drug profits and those types of things. Often people involved are drug users or associates of wouldbe gangs,” said Muskegon Heights Police Chief Lynne Gill. “Often when you have acts of violence, and someone becomes a victim, there’s a very good chance they are part of that subculture in some manner –whether they’re a rival, 113

buying drugs or trading a car for drugs. It’s rare that a person who is not involved in that subculture is directly victimized.” While not everyone refers to those groups of males in Muskegon, and around Glendale Avenue and East Park Manor in Muskegon Heights as actual “gangs,” no one denies a longtime rivalry between those groups exists. “It’s so destructive,” said Muskegon Public Safety Director Jeffrey Lewis of the gangs’ criminal influence on the neighborhoods. “It’s about turf wars and we don’t take it lightly. Yes, there are localized groups here that band together and they’ve named themselves. Any time a group assembles together for illegal purposes, bad things happen.” Authorities have said a number of shootings – some fatal – have distinct links to one or more of the area gangs, which usually consisting of males ranging in age from 13 to 30. Because several recent homicides in Muskegon County remain unsolved, it’s too soon to say just how many may have gang-related ties, police say. The secretive nature of gang members makes it hard to build criminal cases and hard to quantify exactly what crimes are gang-related. But authorities have gathered enough information through the years to recognize the troubling hallmarks, giving them an understanding of the magnitude of the problem. Muskegon wasn’t always so divided, recalls Brett Gardner, a former Muskegon County chief assistant prosecutor. Gardner attributes drug use in the area to the neighborhood division. 114

“Whether it’s a gang-based on a neighborhood or it’s a national one, they’ve defined territories and they become important and start to foster violence. The first thing a gang does is it creates unrest and fear in their very own community,” he said. “I came to this community in 1984 and neighborhoods were still safe havens. They were places they could enjoy. They could have cookouts. They were relatively safe. But as we started to get that influx of crack cocaine in the late 80s, it changed forever.” A deadly culture, fueled by drugs, greed Gardner said the Wood and Mason groups really began to get some financial backing from drug buyers in the mid-1980s. Crack was suddenly available at a reasonable price and that’s what fueled some of the organized criminal activity, he said. “It put something out on the street that everyone could afford and no one could kick the habit. Organized activity came to distribute the crack cocaine and cornered the market. We started seeing the division of the neighborhoods and the safety factor was escaping. The traditional neighborhoods started to dissolve.” And the gang members took over, he said. Today members of gangs openly wear gang colors while walking the streets and standing on street corners. Gang graffiti is sprayed on vacant buildings and houses in both cities. Some openly identify themselves as “from the Mason” or “on the Wood,” if asked. Many display their gang loyalty with tattoos of gang signs and street names that are forever inked on their faces, arms and chests. 115

The biggest threat to the community these days is just that – their loyalty to one another. They are willing to die or go to prison to defend themselves and each other against the rival gangs, police said. “I think this is just a cultural issue and there are a lot of young adults out there who don’t have the opportunity and direction they are seeking. I think they are finding satisfaction in these groups. There is a hierarchy. There is a caring for one another in their groups,” Lewis said. So why aren’t these groups being dismembered by law enforcement, starting with the “leaders” who send their young foot soldiers to do the dirty work? It’s complicated, authorities say. “It takes time,” Gardner said. “It goes back decades. It’s truly neighborhood territory. It used to be about girls. It was money, and back then, it wasn’t about drugs. They weren’t as important. But that’s what is today: territory, turf, identity, money and drugs – and girls.” Lewis said a collaboration of police officers on a local, state and even federal level, along with the Muskegon County Prosecutor’s Office has been underway to curb the issue. “If you look at it, it’s just an illegal enterprise,” Lewis said of the rival groups’ activity. “We aren’t going to tolerate this.” The gang activity is crossing over city lines and allegiances to specific groups are blending between Muskegon and Muskegon Heights, police said. At least one of the gangs in Muskegon Heights has banded together with a gang in the city of Muskegon, making it more 116

volatile and dangerous, said Gill, the Muskegon Heights chief. “It’s an ongoing problem. There is no light at the end of the tunnel,” Gill said. “For law enforcement ourselves, there’s no one answer if you’re looking at the cause. We can investigate and we can arrest. We are dealing with offspring. I was arresting the grandfathers and fathers of the generations now committing criminal acts. “As far as gangs go, throughout the years, we have tried different things. Gangs are mobile. They are constantly recruiting and you’ll find lots of people who are willing to sign up for that.” A vicious, deadly cycle Fatal shootings tend to result in retaliation shootings when associated gang members are involved, and the cycle is hard to stop. “Obviously there is no one ingredient or formula to fix this,” Lewis said. “We don’t want people to retaliate against them.” A 2010 shooting of an alleged Wood Street gang member, Brandon McPherson, 19, may have very likely resulted in the recent shooting of Elijah Henderson. Authorities said some may have believed Henderson was part of the Mason Street gang. That assumption has been disputed by Henderson’s mother, though authorities believe it is a possible motive. Henderson, 17, was shot dead on May 1 while walking alone on a Muskegon street. His shooter or shooters remain at large, police said. McPherson was shot twice in November 2010. Authorities 117

say there may be a possible link associated with Henderson’s death and a street-corner vigil on April 30, that was held for McPherson the night before. Henderson possibly lost his life as retaliation from the Wood Street members, police have said. Maurice Clemons was ultimately sentenced to prison for the McPherson shooting, and in testimony at Clemons’ preliminary hearing, witnesses had said the shooting resulted from bad blood between residents of the Mason Avenue neighborhood and the Wood Street neighborhood. Clemons was with the “Mason Street gang,” McPherson with the rival “Wood Street gang,” according to witnesses from the Mason group. Gardner said one way to come at these groups is to apply the Federal RICO Act -- Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations -- described as a statute that is normally used against organized crime in the drug organizations or street gangs. “We talked a long time about going after it as a criminal enterprise,” Gardner said of his time as chief assistant prosecutor. The problem is, most of the loosely organized street gangs in Muskegon often don’t have a leader or identify with one. Still, Gardner said it’s a possibility to charge some of the gang members if law enforcement can prove there is some financial gain associated with the criminal activity. “Every group who is involved in violence has a top dog,” Gardner said. “If you’re part of a group and you get financial gain from illegal activity, you’re guilty of this crime.” 118

Gardner said Wood and Mason gangs are often tied to dopedealing. “They’re selling dope. They have people sell the dope. You don’t have to have a defined organization. You just have to show you have the illegal activity and that people are getting financial gain for it.” He admits the current administration has a challenge ahead as it’s difficult to prove who is linked to what sort of criminal activity. “The community needs to know. We need to have a bigger handle on it,” Gardner said. Muskegon County Prosecutor D.J Hilson said breaking down these groups is difficult and it’s especially hard to prove a “criminal enterprise” is occurring. “In order to do a criminal enterprise charge, you have to have someone in the organization willing to talk about the organization. We can barely prosecute those cases because no one wants to talk. Until that happens, it’s very difficult,” Hilson said. Hilson is a strong believer in keeping young men off the streets and forcing them into safer environments – like stable homes and classrooms. Curfew sweeps have been fairly successful recently, he said. “I think it’s about keeping the kids off the street and from our standpoint, we’re not just charging them and putting them away,” he said. “Everything starts at the home. If we can’t do something to help strengthen the family environment, this cycle is never going to end.”

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Hilson said those who are “busted for curfew violations” have to attend a program – Mediation & Restorative Services -- and so far that course has had a 96 percent success rate. Authorities keep an eye on whether the same kids end up in the juvenile court system, he said. “If you get a healthy, safe home, you get a healthy safe family and kids are less likely to skip school because they recognize how important it is,” Hilson said. “They are less likely to be out running the streets at night.” The members of Wood and Mason groups tend to flock to the streets when the direction they are looking for at home just isn’t there, Hilson said. “They’re not getting the support from home and have to find it somewhere else. That’s false security. If they think for a second those groups will support them forever, they’re crazy. If it benefits them to snitch on each other, they’ll do it in a heartbeat.”

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Ian C. Glover Mr. Jimenez P1 10/1/13

Chicago 'Gang Summit' Planned For September In Hopes Of Curbing Street Violence Among Rival Gangs Kim Bellware The Huffington Post 08/01/2013

Summary: This article addresses black on black violence in Chicago. A California pastor is attempting to set up a “gang summit” to help cool down the dramatic increase of gang violence on the city’s Far South Side. He is hoping the gang members will attend so they can settle everything together and not behind closed doors. His goal is to make gang members equal as opposed to the view that they are given in the media today.

Quotes: “You

cannot reduce violence without bringing the killers to the table." 121

“Next year, we will go to Los Angeles, then Detroit,” Tatum said. “The whole goal this year is black on black crime in Chicago.” “As gang violence continues to take a heavy toll on Chicago, some are hoping a so-called "gang summit" will help curb the killings.”

Analysis: I did not learn anything new in this report. I think the report is short and concise, reporting that people of power are trying to make peace among gangs but still remain ignorant as to why they really are the violent ways they are. They haven’t realized it was the CIA who put crack cocaine into the hood to break them up and now they got what they wanted. If they want to bring them together and make them equal it will not work, because the humiliation they receive cannot be put in words.

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Article #10:

Chicago 'Gang Summit' Planned For September In Hopes Of Curbing Street Violence Among Rival Gangs Posted: 08/01/2013 12:57 pm EDT | Updated: 08/01/2013 1:17 pm EDT Like Recommend 173 people recommend this. Be the first of your friends.

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Summit In Chicago, Chicago News

As gang violence continues to take a heavy toll on Chicago, some are hoping a so-called "gang summit" will help curb the killings. The effort is led by California pastor, the Rev. Gregory Tatum, who grew up in 1960s Chicago in the now-demolished CabriniGreen housing project. According to the Sun-Times, Tatum hopes the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton will attend the Sept. 27-28 summit on the city's Far South Side, though neither men have yet responded to the call. “Next year, we will go to Los Angeles, then Detroit,” Tatum said. “The whole goal this year is black on black crime in Chicago.” Though not immediately clear, the Sun-Times report indicates Chicago Police will not be present at the September meeting. Tio Hardiman, former director of CeaseFire Illinois, told the Sun-Times he would recruit hundreds of gang members to attend, stating, “You cannot reduce violence without bringing the killers to the table." In the early '90, cities like Cleveland, Minneapolis and Kansas City held summits along with Chicago. In '92, a truce was successfully brokered in LA between the Blood and The Crips street gangs. Former Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis tried a similar strategy in 2010 when he invited leaders of West Side gangs to a secret meeting that was later panned by local lawmakers. Ald. Bob Fioretti (1st) blasted the sit-down, saying, "Gangs are not to be coddled" and later noting that by the top cop engaging with gang leaders "he brought them to a table and made them equal." In late July, the Tribune reported the Congressional Black Caucus came to Chicago to develop solutions to urban violence around the nation that lawmakers could in turn bring to Washington. 124