Street Gangs

[Paradox]

I was just watching CSPAN and they were debating on some new legislation to combat street gangs through mandatory minimum sentences, trying minors as adults in some cases, and so on. Some of the Reps argued against these measures and were in favor of preventive measures such as after-school programs and such. But this got me thinking, how do we Communists reach out to gang members? Should we approach them differently because of their gang membership? I've known a few gang members, been friends with a few, but that was before I was a Communist. Most were Mexicans, and some were cool with me cuz I used to wear a Mexican flag (bandanna) wrapped around my wrist at school. I wasn't a gang member but they were cool with me cuz of that Mexican pride, even when I was wearing opposite colors. And I also mentioned a couple of times how I thought that it was crazy for gang members to be fighting each other because no matter what color or street you represent, you're all in the same struggle, and fighting your reflection ain't gonna make things better. So, with that said, how do you think we should deal with gang members? Any different than we would anyone else? What do you think?

[PRC-UTE]

Unless you're from the same area, know them, are respected by them, there's probably no way you can reach them.

Even then, I'd be wary of hoods.

[guerillablack]

This legislation is racist. They are building more prisons and need ways to fill them fast. They will be flooding them with as much minorities as they can. What is difficult is that most gangs are not organized in a way, that we can just get all the Bloods, Crips, Vice Lords, etc to cease fire with one treaty. Also realize this has been going on for a while. And is beyond colors, drugs have hurt us even more. Because Bloods kill Bloods, and Crips kill Crips, Vice Lords kill Vice Lords, etc. I have alot to say on this, but not right now. I'll be back.

[resisting arrest with violence]

You don't have to reach them, they're already revolutionaries.

[comrade_mufasa]

Originally posted by resisting arrest with [email protected] 11 2005, 04:14 PM
You don't have to reach them, they're already revolutionaries.
How?

[Jersey Devil]

Originally posted by [email protected] 11 2005, 08:31 PM
This legislation is racist. They are building more prisons and need ways to fill them fast. They will be flooding them with as much minorities as they can. What is difficult is that most gangs are not organized in a way, that we can just get all the Bloods, Crips, Vice Lords, etc to cease fire with one treaty. Also realize this has been going on for a while. And is beyond colors, drugs have hurt us even more. Because Bloods kill Bloods, and Crips kill Crips, Vice Lords kill Vice Lords, etc. I have alot to say on this, but not right now. I'll be back.
Politically correct rhetoric. The fact is that I grew up around these "victims" and in fact they are not "victims" if anything they are race traitors. They sell poison on the corners to members of their own community, they kill their brothers. The Ku Klux Klan kills less black and latino men then do the Latin Kings or the Crips. Don't expect me to shed a tear for these race traitors that make social progression impossible.


I've known a few gang members, been friends with a few, but that was before I was a Communist. Most were Mexicans, and some were cool with me cuz I used to wear a Mexican flag (bandanna) wrapped around my wrist at school. I wasn't a gang member but they were cool with me cuz of that Mexican pride, even when I was wearing opposite colors. And I also mentioned a couple of times how I thought that it was crazy for gang members to fighting each other because no matter what color or street you represent, you're all in the same struggle, and fighting your reflection ain't gonna make things better. So, with that said, how do you think we should deal with gang members? Any different than we would anyone else? What do you think?
If you met them at school then they are not "real" gang members.

[Paradox]

If you met them at school then they are not "real" gang members.

Just cuz they go to school don't mean they ain't really gang members. They got into fights, sold dope and shit like that. Why they went to school, I don't know. Maybe to find new members or something, cuz they definitely weren't going to school to learn in class.


They sell poison on the corners to members of their own community, they kill their brothers.

And what pushes them to do that? To resort to selling drugs? Would you be so quick to judge those in Colombia or Afghanistan who don't have any other way to feed themselves? Minimum wage ain't gonna pay for shit. And what about rehabilitation? The u$ locks up more people than any other country in the world, and the majority of them are minorities. Yes, we need to stop gang activity, but the legislation that was being discussed will do nothing to improve the situation. Those who are proposing this legislation just want to profit off the problem, not solve it.

[Jersey Devil]

Profit? Who will profit from keeping people in jails? It costs the taxpayer approx. 20K a year to keep a person in jail. Your "assertion" is incorrect.

[Paradox]

What? You don't know? Prisoners are used as cheap labor.

[Paradox]

http://www.newhumanist.com/prison.html



The prison system in the United States is a blend of private business and government interests. While politicians say publicly that the "war on drugs" or the "fight against crime" is the rationale behind incarceration, the drive for profit and social control are the real purposes of incarceration. In the 1970s, Chief Justice Warren Burger called for turning prisons into "factories with fences" and this concept has now been widely implemented. Inmates -- mostly people of color and the poor -- represent a cheap labor pool comparable to sweatshops in Mexico, Indonesia, or Southeast Asia. Today, inmates in the U.S. are being paid as little as 23 cents per hour to manufacture goods for corporations like McDonalds, TWA and Starbucks.

See what you can find on Victoria's Secret. I remember reading somewhere that some of their lingere is made by u$ prisoners used as cheap labor as well!!! :lol: It's so sickening it's funny.

[American_Trotskyist]

You don't have to reach them, they're already revolutionaries.

What ignorance.

Gang members are just people who have to make a living, find some kind of family or just something to protect them. I believe we should idolize the drug selling culture, we should teach them that they too are being exploited. This is just annother product of socio-economic inequality. We also have to remember that it isn't just Crips, Bloods and Latin Kings who are vitims of this inquality it is also the new Neo-Nazi youth. The rise of this Fascism is just annother product of the inquality and we must also treat it just as any other gang. Smash the gangs! Liberate the Youth and Workers!

[Severian]

Originally posted by [email protected] 11 2005, 06:05 PM


See what you can find on Victoria's Secret. I remember reading somewhere that some of their lingere is made by u$ prisoners used as cheap labor as well!!! :lol: It's so sickening it's funny.
Of course prisons aren't profitable overall. But yes there are those who profit because they don't have to pay the whole cost of buildings, guards, etc.

Also the companies which are contractors for the prison system. Any large institution generates institutional interests in preserving and enlarging it.

****

As for gang members: they'll shoot you as quick as they'll shoot a cop or each other.

Maybe it's possible to reach some, I don't know: but idealizing 'em ("they're already revolutionaries") or even a major orientation to 'em would be deadly. One of the things which destroyed the Black Panthers.

[resisting arrest with violence]

Originally posted by comrade_mufasa+May 11 2005, 10:12 PM--> (comrade_mufasa @ May 11 2005, 10:12 PM)
resisting arrest with [email protected] 11 2005, 04:14 PM
You don't have to reach them, they're already revolutionaries.
How? [/b]
Compare any street thug or lumpenproletariat to a petit-bourgeois motherfucker. It's like comparing night and day. Sure gang members are ignorant and foolish but they do recognize their own strength. And they're out there surviving. How can you people criticize those drug dealers out there? What would you do to survive, work at McDonalds? Hell no. I'd sell weed, crack, meth anything to stave off having to work for some low-down corporation.

When I say motherfucker I'm not saying that to you, I'm describing the petit-bourgeois who are indeed motherfuckers. Well the book A Clockwork Orange puts forward the idea that a gangmember can be a revolutionary. The book's hero is anti-capitalist who criticizes his droogs' desire to go after the BIG BIG money.

"'And what will you do' ... 'with the big big deng or money as you so highfaluting call it? Have you not every vesch you need? If you need an auto you pluck it from the trees. If you need pretty polly you take it. Yes? Why this shilarny for being the big bloated capitalist?'" page 52

http://www.robokopp.de/images/clockwork_orange/a_clockwork_orange_04.jpg

http://www.imps4ever.info/specials/centaur/durango2a.jpg

http://www.imps4ever.info/specials/centaur/durango3.jpg

http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~villains/graphics/alex.jpg


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumpenproletariat

[Hampton]

You don't have to reach them, they're already revolutionaries.

Maybe at one time. One of the popular ideas is that CRIP stands for Community Revolution in Progress and at one time that may have been true with people like Fred Hampton and others forming a "Rainbow Collation" and unitig the gangs to stop killing each and focus on other things.

Not to sure about that now. There's also legislation being passed in Nj to do things about gangs.

[guerillablack]

Originally posted by Jersey Devil+May 11 2005, 10:16 PM--> (Jersey Devil @ May 11 2005, 10:16 PM)
[email protected] 11 2005, 08:31 PM
This legislation is racist. They are building more prisons and need ways to fill them fast. They will be flooding them with as much minorities as they can. What is difficult is that most gangs are not organized in a way, that we can just get all the Bloods, Crips, Vice Lords, etc to cease fire with one treaty. Also realize this has been going on for a while. And is beyond colors, drugs have hurt us even more. Because Bloods kill Bloods, and Crips kill Crips, Vice Lords kill Vice Lords, etc. I have alot to say on this, but not right now. I'll be back.
Politically correct rhetoric. The fact is that I grew up around these "victims" and in fact they are not "victims" if anything they are race traitors. They sell poison on the corners to members of their own community, they kill their brothers. The Ku Klux Klan kills less black and latino men then do the Latin Kings or the Crips. Don't expect me to shed a tear for these race traitors that make social progression impossible.


I've known a few gang members, been friends with a few, but that was before I was a Communist. Most were Mexicans, and some were cool with me cuz I used to wear a Mexican flag (bandanna) wrapped around my wrist at school. I wasn't a gang member but they were cool with me cuz of that Mexican pride, even when I was wearing opposite colors. And I also mentioned a couple of times how I thought that it was crazy for gang members to fighting each other because no matter what color or street you represent, you're all in the same struggle, and fighting your reflection ain't gonna make things better. So, with that said, how do you think we should deal with gang members? Any different than we would anyone else? What do you think?
If you met them at school then they are not "real" gang members. [/b]
So you have never known a gang member in school?What school you went to? There is no universal law saying all gang members must drop out of school,not use computers,etc.