Gangs?

Another Re-tread: I wrote this in response to a Mid-Atlantic Great Lakes Organized Crime Law Enforcement Network Conference held at the Radisson Hotel in Utica New York somewhere around the time I first posted. I covered the two day event in true Hunter S. Thompson style.
The most telling aspect of conference was the so-called experts did not have a clue of contemporary gang culture.
They referenced Chicago gangs that no longer exist.
They wooed and wowed the crowd with graphic tales of gang violence.
"These kids do not care" was the mantra.
"They will kill you in a second" they warned.
"Beware" they said.
The absurdity was something close to humorous, tragic. I laughed out loud a few times stifling the last chuckles with a cough. The end result of the whole event was a lot of scared Principals and social workers. There was no real talk about why gangs are an option for so many kids. No real talk about a system's failure to educate many of it's charges resulting in a one way ticket to jail, probation and back to jail.
Everyone agreed they were at war with a new cunning enemy dressed in saggy pants and bandanas. A desperate entity born out of our worst nightmares. More often than not, he is black and young.
Beware.

Gangs: Who's problem is it?
When I think of streetgangs in Utica the first question I ask myself: Do I know a gang member? The answer: I don't think so.
Crips, Bloods MS13 don't seem to have a chapter here.
I think even the Freemason's may have problems recruiting in Utica. I could be wrong, but I do not think there is practical way to measure gang activity outside of jail. Drug dealing, murder and drive-bys are the informal earmarks law enforcement looks for. But what do you do in a community that already had those earmarks sans the gang graffitti?
I think it is a matter of perception. There have been people in Utica combatting streetgangs for fifteen years. They thought there was a gang problem then.
Crime and Gangs are nothing new to Utica what is new is the awareness. It is not as if Utica suddenly woke-up and the Gangs snuck in over night.
Gangs were, that is , they used to be, a by-product of disenfranchisement, during a time of rampant institutional racism the average black man was condemned to the inner city by segregation forced to compete amongst his own for few meager scraps (limited living wage jobs).
Different groups of men from the same neighborhood, with nothing to do all day, began to hang together, a charismatic member of the group gave them a name, then they began to talk about their dreams and their realities and , most important, their struggles. This scenario played out all over the American inner cities during the civil rights era.
The revolutionary rhetoric, the dream of total freedom,was being lived through these groups. They didn't fear police, they lived according to and created their own set of rules and laws. They created their own governing bodies.
The original mission of many 'Nations' was independence from 'the man', protection from the police and peace of mind.
Police behaved a lot differently in the city back in those days. The noose of racism has loosened its death grip but the marks remain, gangs account for the societal scars endured by generations of people cheated out of their dreams.
Gangs are by-product of poverty, illliteracy and indifference.
They survive on cynicism, hopelessness and greed.
Now they are profitable.
Not only on the streetcorner but Wallstreet as well.
Gang culuture has gone corporate, just look around at all the products our young people are wearing. The gang symbolism is rampant everywhere and for the well informed, it appears to be a mainstream phenomenon.
What are your kids wearing? Do they know the 'crip walk'? Do all their friends wear the same colors and do funny hand shakes?
The sciences of sales and marketing has been applied to 'do-rags' , bandanas, and even prison apparel. The street culture has redefined what it means to be a 'gangsta'.
They are after your kids, corporate America says: "there is money in this gang thing just like the grunge thing".Stay tuned for Crips cereal"
Crips are for kids!!!!
The suits of 'The Dapper Don', the traditional gangster image, have been replaced with oversized jeans, giant chains, and even bigger medallions. The richest and most successful thugs in American history on the wrong side of the law will never be known; that is gang culture.
Do all these things exist in Sin City er' Utica?