Gangs

[Ed62]

Do you have a problem in your area with gangs? We have a Gary, IN address, but we live in an unincorporated area, not Gary. Gary is loaded with gang activity, and about 10 years ago, there were 2 guys firing guns at each other in front of our neighbor's house. That was the only incident we've been aware of in almost 17 years here. But you don't have to go very far to find the other side of life.

Ed

[crokett]

No problems here, but then I live in the boonies.

There are problems in Durham. It is roughly halfway between Atlanta-Virginia/DC and not too far off I-95 for people coming up from Florida. So unfortunately it is where a lot of drugs are moved through.

[mschrank]

Only gangs of possums, squirrels and racoons in my neighborhood.

[Uncle Cracker]

There is a gang of girls (5-8 years old) in my neighborhood that is traffiking in black market Power Puff Girls. I don't know much about them, because they keep their business on the down-low, but I understand their tactics are ruthless. I stay out of their way, because I don't want to become a statistic...

[gsmittle]

My school district insists there is no gang activity at the three high schools. I wonder if the superintendents have ever walked the halls? I see gang signs every day. So far no gang-related violence (that I know of) though.

Oh, I work in a solidly middle-class, working family type of school district.

g.

[Daryl]

There was a kid going around doing graffiti last summer, they caught him and no more graffiti. However our town has an anti gang task force in order to use up some fed money.

[kirkroy]

There are hispanic gangs in the frederick, md area (a tiny city north of washington, dc and just east of where I live). My brother, who works for a law enforcement agency, says that at least some of them use rape as part of their initiation (the pledge, or whatever you call them, commits rape against a girl, specifically hispanic girls). I've never had any issues myself but I have seen fairly large groups of kids looking menacing. I have 2 daughters so I'm pretty leery... My kids are actually half hispanic but they look like they came straight out of scotland/ireland as my genes are so powerful... I would guess that would keep them from being targets but I still take extra care when in town.

[Ed62]

My school district insists there is no gang activity at the three high schools.

Unfortunately, that's the norm for school officials. If they were truthful about the problem, maybe it wouldn't get out of hand.

Ed

[Hellrazor]

My school district insists there is no gang activity at the three high schools. I wonder if the superintendents have ever walked the halls? I see gang signs every day. So far no gang-related violence (that I know of) though.

How often do you see the big chief in the halls? There is gang activity almost everywhere anymore... It might not be the violence issues, but the drug issues are there.

[scmhogg]

I live about 40 miles from Central L.A. However, my town, Simi Valley and JR's town, Thousand Oaks, often finish one-two on the FBI safest city list. But, both towns have nascent gang activity.

A real shame are the kids with no gang ties, who dress up like bangers, and get shot for their clothes. They don't know where you can wear red and where you can wear blue, and live.

At the very least, shooting lessons should be mandatory for any gang membership. We have to minimize the collateral damage to infants and grannys. Who ever heard of shooting a pistol held sideways???

Steve

[atgcpaul]

We attended a neighborhood watch meeting with a presentation by the head
of the gangs unit of the local PD. Apparently there are at least 40 different
gangs in our city with a growing presence by MS-13 and even Cripps/Bloods
which I thought was a West Coast thing. Kinda' scary to think about...

[newbie2wood]

Whether you think about it or not, gangs are present everywhere. MS-13 has an estimate of 100,000 members in North and South America, that number is bigger than any police force. Cribs and Bloods, along with other folk and people nation gangs, are big on both coasts. Skin heads and motorcycle gang members are heavily concentrated in the outskirt of cities.

BTW, if you ever visited Great Adventure Amusement Park in NJ on Halloween you can see that gangs are a big problem. Cribs and Bloods members are all over the park, along with families who are trying spend a day with their little ones.
________
Buttsex Live

[Ej101]

I live about 5 miles from downtown Los Angeles. Yes there are gangs here. There is a gang injunction so they can be arrested if they are riding in a car or out past 10pm, but we really do not have enough police to bother with doing that.
On the plus side, the city comes out and paints over the graffiti for free and usually it is taggers doing their community service that are painting it over.

[TB Roye]

We have gangs in Sacramento, Crip, Bloods and Mexican gangs. We live right in the middle of it. Mainly beacuse of the Affordable housing laws around her. Many house were bought up but out town landlords as investments. The rents are cheaper here than in LA or SF and we have a lot of Section 8 housing so we have had a large imigration of gangbangers over the last coupel of years. Add in we have 2 large prisions here and the inmate families have moved here and are on welfare we have a mess. So far they have not cause LOML and myself or neighbors any problems, we have neighborhood watch and we patrol on weekend nights and have radios to contact the police it gets hairy some time. The Aisian gangs are the ones the scare me, they are much more brutal than the black or hispanic gangs. The police are doing all they can but they don't get the help and laws they need from the politicans. I would love to have that Sheriff from Arizona here and see what happens. For now I carry when LOML and I walk the dog and have one on the night stand and a 12 ga. in the hall closet by the front door. they are locked up properly during the day but at night the 357 is on the night stand. I hate living like this but with the real estate market we can't move now. I don't even like guns but learned to use them in the Army am not afraid to use them now if needed. On the 4 of July and New Years this place sound like a war zone and it is not all fireworks.

Tom

[eccentrictinkerer]

I live in Minneapolis, MN. We have a very serious gang problem here. I live in a nice neighborhood near Lake Harriet (part of a chain of 7 lakes and parks).

Three miles north of me is an area that averages a murder a week. Two young men were murdered yesterday.

We had (and continue to have) an influx of people from Gary, East Chicago and the Detroit area because we offer a better standard of living and really, really good welfare benefits. You get off the bus and head for the welfare office a few blocks away. You immediately get a cash advance and vouchers for a hotel. City and county government wokers will coach you on how to get more benefits.

If I sound exercised, it's because I've lived here for 61 years and I've watched my city go to h^ll because our officials take money away from police and firefighters and hand it to social welfare programs. Our Minneapolis Civil Rights Department has ONE HUNDRED TWENTY+ employees. Just think how many cops we could hire if we eliminated this useless department.

And my property taxes are 50 to 100% higher than if I were in any adjacent suburb. Why do we stay? I have lived in my 1914 Craftsman-style home for 35 years surrounded by the most wonderful neighbors in the world. I walk 5 blocks to a beautiful lake with a bandshell that hosts concerts all summer long.

But the feral youth that are running rampant here may just drive me out. We not only have Crips and Bloods, we have Hmong, Laotian, Thai, Somali and Hispanic gangs who are constantly fighting it out with guns and knives.