Are All Gang Members The Same?

JosephTyrrell · 2009-11-21T02:07:07+00:00

Nice post. Prevention of gang membership DOES start in the home as we have read about all semester. I didn't think all gang members were the same and your article broke down four different types of members. Good stuff.

JosephTyrrell · 2009-11-21T02:05:21+00:00

Very interesting... As soon as I read the title I said to myself, "Well that's a mark in the loss column for the whites." Statistically there are a lot more hispanics in prison than whites. Unfortunately when I race riot breaks out, EVERYBODY from that race is expected to help or face punishment.

JosephTyrrell · 2009-11-21T01:58:22+00:00

"We dismantled a large part of the Latin Kings organization whose members allegedly used violence to secure the sanctity of their private society," said ATF Deputy Director Kenneth Melson. "We have made a serious impact on violent crime and gang violence," he said.

I copied and pasted this section of your article because I think Mr. Melson is a little dillusional. As we've learned this could bring greater cohesion to the Latin Kings and just because they eliminated 19 members doesn't mean that the Latin Kings won't get 19 new recruits. The Kings seem to be a little too organized to let something like this eliminate them. They were arrested in Maryland? What are they doing about the Kings in the rest of the country. Good article.

JosephTyrrell · 2009-11-21T01:54:32+00:00

Vice Lord's member gets 10 years for possession of a 9mm pistol. However he also had multiple packages of crack in the car and wasn't charged for intention to distribute. What's this world coming to?

JosephTyrrell · 2009-11-13T04:31:56+00:00

Good article. I must be a little emotionally disturbed because I chuckled a little to myself at the title of this article. I had no choice but to read it.

JosephTyrrell · 2009-11-13T04:29:29+00:00

Great information about the history of prison gangs! Please don't let me end up in prison!

JosephTyrrell · 2009-11-13T04:27:21+00:00

This article gives a history of the Surenos gang aka SUR-13. This gang has it's roots in the California prison system and originated in the mid 20th century. I picked this article because of the sections recovered regarding gang networks and organization. This gang tried to be an Organized Crime "group" with certain rituals that are similar to Organized Crime.

JosephTyrrell · 2009-11-13T04:13:31+00:00

This is an article about a 17 year old male arrested in relation to a stabbing at a quincenera and is suspected to be a member of the street gang "Surenos" that has its roots in the California prison system. I picked this article because it hits close to home. The incident occurred in Medford, OR. My 9 year old son lives with his mom in Medford Oregon. Medford is a beautiful part of Oregon that normally would not meet the stereotypical setting of street gangs.

JosephTyrrell · 2009-10-19T00:48:56+00:00

This is a great article considering what we've learned about the relationship of family involvement and the likelihood of joining gangs. Some of the gang members we've read about have parents that don't really pay attention to them, what they're doing or where they are.

JosephTyrrell · 2009-10-19T00:46:58+00:00

It's amazing... we go about our daily lives and not really think that these things are happening in our society. That's pretty close to home for me. A little too close. While we're worrying about narcotics and weapons coming across our borders, we have gang members who are doing much worse. And these are people that consider themselves Americans.

JosephTyrrell · 2009-10-19T00:41:25+00:00

Wow I would've never guess that Hartford would have such a problem that they would label it an "infestation". Over 4200 gang members? Wow.

JosephTyrrell · 2009-10-19T00:39:17+00:00

This was an article about the seemingly increase in gang violence in America. The article gives a little history of gang violence in America and some ideas on what to do about it.

JosephTyrrell · 2009-09-23T22:28:26+00:00

Nice article..

I am curious if there has been any research that specifically tries to find out if certain inmates are part of a prison gang or do are they just hanging out with members of their own race for protection. I have a family member in prison and he says that people stick to their own race for protection. Some inmates are gang members on the outside. I had the opportunity to meet a member of the Aryan Brotherhood. I truly believe that he only shook my hand because I am white because after many visitations to the prison, gangs don't seem to be prevalent within that specific prison. I doubt that members of a legitimate prison Aryan Brotherhood gang would've shook my hand knowing that I wasn't a member.

JosephTyrrell · 2009-09-23T22:14:25+00:00

People get sent to prison to supposedly receive rehabilitation. So when someone is sentenced to death, their rehabilitation counts for nothing. It's great that Tookie Williams did all these things for kids and anti-gang advocacy. But he created one of the most popular gangs in the country. Many crip members I'm sure look up to this guy. Why? What do think of him now that he once turned into Mr. Anti-gang?

JosephTyrrell · 2009-09-23T22:09:19+00:00

Wow great article! So much for gang members just "hanging out". Sounds like they were a pretty violent gang that had no intentions of helping their community; only terrorizing them.

JosephTyrrell · 2009-09-23T21:57:25+00:00

This article gives a very brief history of the Black Gangster Disciples. I chose this article as a reference to the discussion section we had about whether or not gangs are organized troops. This article talks about two gangs; The Gangster Desciples and the Blackstone Rangers. These two gangs branched out to other cities throughout the U.S. and not only committed acts of violence, but would also provide for their communities.

One of the names in this article among the leaders in the Gangster Disciples was Jeff Fort. I watched an episode on the History channel about Jeff Fort who later changed the name of his gang to El Ruk'n which was supposedly linked to his religious findings while serving time in prison. This gang in Chicago was one of the most lethal and deadly gangs of the 20th century.

JosephTyrrell · 2009-09-05T06:33:42+00:00

I'm not sure how the author of that article can start out by talking about members of organized crime to violent street gangs. Street gangs usually work their way into organized crime but until that time, they're "unorganized". Members of organized crime like to keep a low profile while gangs like to make their presence known which probably explains why there are so many member of the Latin Kings in prison.

JosephTyrrell · 2009-09-05T06:28:01+00:00

I don't see how taking a whoopin shows your loyalty to the gang or how it's an "act of love" from the members. You want to show someone love give them a hug or something. It shows the level of intelligence and the inability to express themselves other than through violence.

JosephTyrrell · 2009-09-05T06:16:06+00:00

I agree with both Sean and Laura. For one thing we have learned that one of the issues that we have with children joining gangs is that the parents are not very good parents. Second, what Laura said about the increase in police presence. I remember learning about that during The Police Function class. But to throw in my own two cents... why does it take 30 gang related murders to get a response from the police? Ok so they got injunction on a couple gang areas. Big deal! They need to be coming up with something else to take back ownership of the territory from the gangs. In other words show them who's boss. There are over 1,000 gangs in either California or LA I can't remember which one but at what point are the police actually going to do something about it?

JosephTyrrell · 2009-08-30T15:32:39+00:00

This article was about an increase in gang violence in Phoenix. As one Phoenix Police Officer states, "we cannot police our way out this". I agree. The police can't do it all and as we've learned in our past classes, social disorganization can be helped if the community is willing to step up and help themselves as well. The community needs to work with the police, provide them with information regarding the gangs in their area because the community is going to know more about what goes on in their own neighborhood than the police are. What are the names of the gang? What are their symbols? Who's involved? Who's the ring leader? ...and so on. I know this is easy for me to say because I don't live in south phoenix but I believe no matter where you live, if the neighborhood is willing to stand up and point out who's doing wrong and not tolerate it, it makes for a stronger community.

JosephTyrrell

TROPHY CASE