Why do you guys join gangs??

This is the forum for those who believe that there are other options to gangs and violence and hope to see young people make better choices about their future. Where does change begin?

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RDRIGN
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Why do you guys join gangs??

Unread post by RDRIGN » September 30th, 2010, 3:21 pm

Why do you guys join gangs in the first place???? You join to become part of a "family", money , connection or just for the fun of it or the romance of being a in a gang?? Also how often do you guys actually put work for your click and if you do put work do you get paid??

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Re: Why do you guys join gangs??

Unread post by buLLetxx2 » October 1st, 2010, 7:17 pm

It's all dependent on many variables, each specific to location and race, and then there are variables within those variables such as socio-economic standing, majority v minority, etc.

For me, being Asian from Long Beach, it stemmed out of protection and protest from Hispanic and black gangs(namely hispanic). When you and your friends get harassed and called racial slurs at age 7 by kids twice your age, then later jumped and bullied(physically) at age 11 by those same, older, folks your fight or flight mentality kicks in and the age old "strength in numbers" idiom rings truer than it ever had, hence gangs are formed and/or gangs gain numbers from that.

Admittedly I'm just speaking for myself and those I grew up with/around. As I said, it's different from hood to hood, person to person.

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Re: Why do you guys join gangs??

Unread post by MCD » October 6th, 2010, 11:30 pm

buLLetxx2 wrote:It's all dependent on many variables, each specific to location and race, and then there are variables within those variables such as socio-economic standing, majority v minority, etc.

For me, being Asian from Long Beach, it stemmed out of protection and protest from Hispanic and black gangs(namely hispanic). When you and your friends get harassed and called racial slurs at age 7 by kids twice your age, then later jumped and bullied(physically) at age 11 by those same, older, folks your fight or flight mentality kicks in and the age old "strength in numbers" idiom rings truer than it ever had, hence gangs are formed and/or gangs gain numbers from that.

Admittedly I'm just speaking for myself and those I grew up with/around. As I said, it's different from hood to hood, person to person.
thats fucked up because gangs form in the first place cuz of discrimination and then they perpetuate it. I'm mexican n i got fucked with from whiteboys when i was a youngster. I thought about clickin up but i had good parents to keep me outta that.

People click up for one or more reasons. Money, power, respect are the main reasons. There's a chance to make some serious money, other people that dont bang wont fuck with you, and you might even get respect from people in your neighborhood. Some people do make gangs just to say their a gangster, and dont really put in work or pull in money like the real ones do but still might protect their friends and neighborhood from other gangs. I had cousins that bang and they were with their homies everyday, one of my cousins sold crank and i forget what he was making but the town was on that shit real hard so he got alot of buyers. I think he made about $700-900 a week, slangin every day.

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Re: Why do you guys join gangs??

Unread post by Brenagain » February 16th, 2012, 7:05 pm

Probably an element of that but then there are just angry people who like it because they are violent and angry. Generally how imitation crips and bloods turned up here in Australia even though A)Crips and Bloods have no prior history here,no black panthers, no American civil rights movement (B crips and bloods are an American gang (c crips and bloods are generally african american and .. well here crips and bloods are not even though my neighborhood has a minority african population..

Angry youths who make up crip and blood gangs based on the US rivalry that has no history here simply so they can beat each other other and as a poor excuse to try and beat up random people.

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Re: Why do you guys join gangs??

Unread post by StopTheKilling » June 5th, 2012, 6:44 pm

I would like answers to the same question?

Being in a gang is so unproductive, and mostly the killing is pure ignorance. How can a human being in this society and this day and age make a stupid choice to belong to a gang?

There are so many other productive choices out here so why make a foolish choice?

A young teen shot and killed an innocent baby here is LA yesterday. This makes no sense to any thinking human being.
This type of salughter has roots in pure, low-down ignorance. Any person that would shoot and kill a baby is not even human.

If you want to kill each other (especially young black men) that is one thing , but to kill a baby is just unacceptable.

Does gang members condone the killing of babies?

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Re: Why do you guys join gangs??

Unread post by alexalonso » June 22nd, 2012, 12:52 pm

The most violent gang members join the gang because they are running away from some sort of abuse at home. They find a place, the gang, where ACCEPTANCE is high, and rejection is minimal, at least in the beginning.

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Re: Why do you guys join gangs??

Unread post by RomanoBundy » December 21st, 2013, 5:06 am

I've heard a few different reasons.
Some joined because of the money (like a cop said in a documentary, "how can you rivalize with a guy who offers you, when you're 10, $300 a week for standing in the corner of the street and say when a cop arrives?").
Some joined because of the lack of love they had during childhood, so they found people who supposedly care for them.
Some joined for protection or revenge (let's say you get bullied or your sister gets killed by gang members, you join the rival).

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Re: Why do you guys join gangs??

Unread post by Racerxj17 » December 23rd, 2013, 9:05 pm

IMO, I see most join for the family feeling they might not get at home. Tons of families are single income, with one stuggling parents who is not home to guide or direct. Good or bad, to a young teen or kid the reality of consequence is overcome by the rush, the game, and the homies. Growing up in SFV I often felt the same, saw it, lived it...

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Re: Why do you guys join gangs??

Unread post by PhatBoi » January 20th, 2016, 4:46 pm

I'm older....40... When you're a kid, you don't really think about much, and having loving parents isn't always enough to keep you out of a gang.

For me, it was about survival. My father was very educated but marginalized because of his activity with the Puerto Rican Independence Movement. Him and my mom ended up working low wage jobs. We lived in really rough areas of NJ and then NYC.

My elementary school experience consisted of trying not to get jumped on my way to and from school... I was stabbed at age 9 and shot at by age 11. I was beaten during a home invasion.

Then one day I was about to get jumped and these guys pulled up in a car and said "he's with us". Told me no one was going to mess with me anymore. Gave me rides home, let me hang out with them. I wasn't in a position to say no and I didn't want to say no. I didn't see anything wrong with them. Even later, some of the things we did, it was to the people who would have done them to us if they could.

It was all about protection. Then money and girls. In junior high and high school, I had girls throwing themselves at me for protection. Being with me meant no one would mess with them. It was nice, I liked the power and not having to be afraid. One time when a car pulled up to me and a guy got out, pulled a gun to my head, I laughed at him. That's the kind of power I felt I had. Was it stupid, yeah? Did I really have power? not in the scheme of things.

Gangs were different then, there were rules, you knew your history, culture...

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Re: Why do you guys join gangs??

Unread post by cribby1983 » October 10th, 2016, 11:38 am

alexalonso wrote:The most violent gang members join the gang because they are running away from some sort of abuse at home. They find a place, the gang, where ACCEPTANCE is high, and rejection is minimal, at least in the beginning.
Abuse, neglect, domestic violence and poverty ….

Basically if you grow up in the hood and from early age on all you see around you is people getting hurt, killed, abused… what do you expect? In addition to that, if you experience abuse at home it makes you feel so little, helpless, hopeless and vulnerable that you try to get away from it. Children usually form a bond with their mother. She is the first caregiver, the first human being a newborn get in contact and build a bond with. She is the first person a child trusts and depends on when it comes to protection. Second comes dad.

Now imagine mom getting beat up by dad and a little 3-4 year old sees that. What the child develops is a thinking like, if mom can’t even protect herself from the beating, how could she protect me. And at the same time you as a little dude can’t trust your dad no more either because if he beats your mom he will most likely beat you too sooner or later. And if he is and abuser, how would he prepare you for real life, without gang banging, without violence and all that. He can’t because he most likely has never learned it himself.

And if it isn’t abuse it is usually because other family members are members. It is very impressive if the older cousin is a gang member doing all the stuff your mama told you not to do. It is curiosity. It is wanting to do what the older boys do. But even that goes back to underlying emotional abuse at home. Abuse doesn’t always have to physical. It can be that your parents try to protect you so bad from the world that it make you feel so insecure and small as a child that you start looking at your older brothers or cousins or uncles and you start seeking excitement. You start wanting to experience life and you start feeling overprotected and you start trying to break free.
If someone always makes every decision for you there comes a point where you start feeling that it isn’t right-which is usually in the early teens, when you start realizing that in other families things are different and you start trying to figure out what is right and wrong and of course as a boy at 12-13 years of age you start looking at older male family members and other boys in the neighborhood. Same goes for when you are neglected at home. No matter what kind of abuse it is, physical or emotional – most boys join gangs around that age for the reasons I mentioned.

And if all this comes with poverty and being constantly told, no, you cant have this, no we cant go there, no I don’t have the money for this or that, you will go out and try to get things on your own and at 13, 14 there is only very few ways to make money fast.

Like I said in the beginning all these things can be broken down to a child developing insecurities and the idea that they are not good enough for this world. They want to be something, a part of something, they are seeking a meaning, a feeling of being important in this world and they start covering their insecurities and weaknesses by joining gangs, where they have to prove that they are somebody who deserves respect and acceptance – things they received at home.

The only problem is that if a young dude tries to cover up his perceived shortcomings and weaknesses with aggression and anger, he will develop serious mental health problems and disorders but as a young dude you don’t see that part coming. I wish something could be done about this tho.

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Re: Why do you guys join gangs??

Unread post by cribby1983 » October 10th, 2016, 11:46 am

PhatBoi wrote:...My elementary school experience consisted of trying not to get jumped on my way to and from school... I was stabbed at age 9 and shot at by age 11. I was beaten during a home invasion.

Then one day I was about to get jumped and these guys pulled up in a car and said "he's with us". ...
Basically you wanted to prove that you were worth their protection because you felt like you needed it. You tried to be accepted by them in order to stay protected. That is why you joined and stayed in the gang. Plus if you were beaten during a home invasion, you must've developed the idea that you parents could'nt protect you properly in your home. You were seeking protection from a source other than your parents.

I have a question tho. How do you live today after all these years? Do you (still) suffer from it, like in form of being paranoid or always needing some kind of weapon around you, just in case??

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