24 Hour Counselor: I Might Join a Gang

Hi, I'm Nate. You've heard about gangs. You know the members wear special colors, carry a weapon, have money, and get protection when they need it. There are some gangs in my school, three if you count the girls' gang. I'm thinking about joining one. Guys younger than I am are already in gangs, running around with big wads of money. It looks to me like these guys are part of something big. And I'm part of nothing.

Yeah, I might join a gang. I just might. But first I have to meet with Jesse Moore. He's a cop in the police Youth Division. Moore is supposed to know about gangs. He even claims he was in one once.

Moore calls himself a Christian. He says he found out that following Christ was a better answer to his troubles than a gang. I guess I can take some time out to see what's on his mind. So I'm going to ask some questions.

OK, Detective Moore, what is a gang anyway?

Detective Moore: Nate, I hope I can help you. A gang is a group organized to make a lot of money for the leaders, but at no risk to the leaders. There are other kinds of gangs, but that describes the biggest, most dangerous ones. The official police definition is: any group of individuals operating in consort for the purposes of committing criminal activities.

Nate: I thought a gang was supposed to give you protection, a way to make money, something to really belong to.

Detective Moore: I have to be honest, Nate. They do offer you those things--money, excitement, a place to feel like you belong. But when you belong to a gang, that means you really belong to them. They own you.

Nate: Nobody owns me.

Detective Moore: Not now. You are in control of your own decisions. I hope it stays that way.

Nate: These gangs sound great. The members stick up for each other. They wear special colors. They even have their own language. I want to know about the special gang language. Don't they have special words to describe what they do?

Detective Moore: Yeah, they do. The terms change all the time, but here are some recent ones. Listen to these words and what they mean. You learn a lot about gangs just from the words they use. For instance, "banger" means an active gang member. "Banging" means violence committed by a gang member, such as a shooting, a violent robbery, or an assault.

Nate: Why the word "banger?"

Detective Moore: It's pretty clear. It comes from the sound of a gun. It seems kind of funny, doesn't it? The words they use make it all seem like a joke, but real people get hit by real bullets and are really dead.

There are other terms to listen for. A drive-by or a ride-by is an act of shooting from a moving car toward a rival gang member's vehicle or house. The purpose is to protect your territory or take revenge for something someone did to you or your gang. "Jump-in" means a gang's initiation rights. New members go through a sort of ceremony, and promise to put the gang above everything else in their lives.

A "rag" is a handkerchief worn with the gang colors. Something interesting is happening with the colors. The gangs use to display their colors plainly when the big thing was to have gang identity. A few years ago if you were in a gang, you wanted everyone to be able to tell by looking at you. Now, they don't want to attract attention because they are more into money than they are in pride of membership. The colors are often not even worn. Gang membership is sometimes a secret.

A "home boy" is a fellow member of your own gang. This is part of the "we" feeling that gangs try to generate.

"Rock" means the crack or crystal form of cocaine, which is concentrated in whitish colored lumps. It is now the most important reason gangs exist. It is where most of the money comes from. And money is the big issue with gangs today.

There are also a lot of terms for weapons. For instance, a "nine" is a 9-millimeter semi-automatic pistol, and a "twelve" or a "gage" means a shotgun.

Here is one that is revealing about the true nature of gangs. A "missionary" is a gang member sent from the home city of the gang to set up branches to sell drugs.

Nate: What is so revealing about that?

Detective Moore: Remember, I said that most gangs exist to make a lot of money for the leaders at no risk to them. The way they make their money is through selling illegal drugs. They can only sell so much in one city, so they branch out to other cities. Meanwhile, other gangs do the same thing. Since more than one gang is trained to do that in your city, they end up fighting each other for the right to sell drugs. That is when the shooting starts, the "banging," the "ride-by's."

Nate: I might have to shoot somebody? Nah. I won't really have to do that.

Detective Moore: You will if they tell you to.

Nate: Wait. You are moving pretty fast for me. Let's go back to the beginning. How do you become a gang member? What about these guys I see who are 10, 11, and 12 years old running around with rolls of money and being important? They aren't shooting anybody, are they?

Detective Moore: Probably not yet.

Nate: What are they doing?

Detective Moore: Typically, the younger ones stand out on the street wherever the selling is going on with just a little bit of crack cocaine at a time, just enough for a few sales. They sell the cocaine and pass on the money to a gang member who is usually watching nearby. That way, if the seller gets caught, only a little bit of the valuable drug is lost.

The younger member is the only one who gets caught, and the real seller doesn't get caught at all. The young guys take the risks and get what they think is a lot of money, maybe a few hundred a week. The real profit goes up the line to the active gang members, especially to the leaders. The younger ones are expendable. They take the heat.

Nate: What about protection? I thought gangs made you safe.

Detective Moore: It started out to be that way, motivated by racial hatred. But the main black gangs are now accepting white members, if they enhance the cash flow. They don't care about saving anybody from racial exploitation. They really only care about making the maximum profit. They still have about 98 percent black membership, but they are starting to take anybody who can offer them a way to gain strength or make money. They don't exist to protect you. They make you exist to protect them and their financial gain.

Nate: I hear a lot of different names for these gangs, like the Crypts and the Vice Lords.

Detective Moore: Those are both names of real gangs. They also have local names. For instance, in Los Angeles the Crypts have sub-groups named Rolling 30's, Rolling 60's, Santana Block, Grape Street, and others. There is another nationwide gang called Black Gangster Disciple Nation, usually shortened to be GD. Still another name, Bloods.

These are all gangs that concentrate on drug dealing and sometimes selling guns. The Vice Lord gang sometimes claims to be a Muslim religious sect, but I don't think that very many real Muslims would accept them.

Nate: I hear you talking a lot about black gangs. Do other races have gangs?

Detective Moore: Yeah, they do. For instance, there is a gang that is made up of young men of Asian extraction called Chopsticks, and another calling themselves 209 NIPS. Chopsticks members are known for gun distribution, extortion, invading homes, and robbery. The 209 NIPS steal cars and move drugs. They are just as dangerous and profit-centered as any other gangs.

Nate: What's extortion?

Detective Moore: Extortion is forcing a business person to give you part of their income. If he doesn't turn over the money, his shop may be burned down or he might get beaten or cut up.

Nate: You said these gangs invade homes. What's that?

Detective Moore: Invading homes is a lot different than burglary. Burglars sneak in and steal things. Invaders just walk right in on you, assault you, take your money, steal things from the house, wreck the place, and then leave.

Nate: I thought all these gangs got started because people just needed protection and something to belong to. Like, if a person is a member of a minority race and feels like he is on the outside of everything, he forms a gang to make up for it.

But you make it sound like it's just a bunch of criminals at the top using the other gang members for a profit.

Detective Moore: A lot of gangs did start out just to protect the kids who lived in a certain few blocks of a city and to help each other out. Or maybe to provide some safety from gangs already formed by other groups. They provided a sense of companionship and belonging to kids who were from families that had a lot of trouble.

But the groups don't stay the same. A power struggle gradually grows in a gang as some begin to see that there is a way to gain more power and money. At the same time, the gang is influenced by the growing addiction to drugs in our society. So what at first may have some understandable purpose becomes converted to a way to deliver drugs and make a lot of easy money. With easy money always comes violent competition.

Nate: I know some guys that belong to all-white gangs. What about that?

Detective Moore: Most all-white gangs tend to be smaller, local groups without much national organization. They may get into handling drugs, but they are usually not competing with the big gangs. Basically, they are afraid to. They prefer defenseless victims. They often engage in white-supremacy vandalism such as burning a cross on the lawn of a minority family or painting violent slogans on a building. They often imitate adult groups that think whites are superior.

Nate: Do girls ever join gangs?

Detective Moore: Girls are sort of allowed in, but they usually play only a very second-class role in the major drug dealing gangs. They might be put out on a corner handling the drugs or carrying the guns--taking the higher risks. Very often they support the status of their "man" in the gang just by hanging around him and being at his side. It demonstrates his power.

Some girls are kept around to make sex available as a reward for the gang members. Girls are very much like property to a gang. Girls may rent apartments that are then used by the gang members as drug dealing centers. The girls take the major risks.

Nate: Aren't there gangs just for girls?

Detective Moore: There are a few independent all-girl gangs, but more that are associated with the male gangs. Some independent girl gangs in one local city are the "She Devils" and the "Pack Seven." Mostly, though, they are in with the male gangs as sort of second-class members. Most of these girls haven't got much family or have been abused at home, beat up, sexually abused, or mistreated. They may think that gang life will be an improvement, but it is really just more of the same--only more dangerous. In the end, when they are no longer of any use, they are abandoned by the group.

Nate: I know a girl who says she is in a gang. She says it's terrific. She always has money and new clothes and jewelry. Why not join? I want to be part of something exciting and have money and girlfriends--be important. I'm not part of anything now. I sure never have any money. Girls won't even talk to me. I'm about the least important person I know.

Detective Moore: Now we are getting down to it. Let me ask you a couple of questions. You mentioned that you want to be part of something. What about your family?

Nate: Forget that. I don't mean anything around there.

Detective Moore: You are just what gangs are looking for--someone who is looking for a place to belong, a family, someone who has a poor relationship with his own family, or maybe doesn't have a family at all. A gang can make you feel a part of something bigger than you. They will offer you protection. No one will bother you. You will have money in your pocket. There will probably be girls around, and there will be a lot of effort to make you feel important. I know because I have been there.

All you have to do is whatever they say. First, you will be put through a phony ceremony where you will promise on your life to do whatever the leaders tell you to do. Then you will be tested.

You will likely be given a small quantity of drugs, probably crack cocaine, and stationed at different selling spots to make drug deals. A person in a car might come by, or someone might walk up, hand you some money, and you deliver. Most deals would have been arranged in advance by an older gang member. But you won't know any details.

Nate: What about the cops?

Detective Moore: We'll be out there, all right, waiting for you. We will be trying to make a buy from you or will be somewhere around with a video camera. We'll be kicking down the doors of your gang houses. We will be trying to stop the flow of drugs that destroy lives. If you become part of the drug problem, we will put you away.

Detective Moore: You will have to have a weapon. But just carrying a deadly weapon is good for five to ten years in prison in most states.

Nate: Why would I have to have one?

Detective Moore: Because members of other gangs will be out to get you. You are going to need protection, Nate. You will be a part of a really dangerous life-style. By the time you are 20, there is a good chance you will be dead or in prison.

Nate: But my gang will protect me. That's part of the deal.

Detective Moore: As soon as you get arrested, the gang will leave you. They will let you take the heat. And they won't worry about you telling on them because they know that you know they'll kill you if you do. And your mother or sister or brother . . .

Nate: They won't go after my family.

Detective Moore: Your family will be just another handy place to do the gang's work. But what do you care? The gang is going to be your new family, remember?

The other gang members will leave you. They will move on to another city, or they will move on to prison. Or they will move on to the morgue with their own personal toe tag. You will be arrested. We will eventually get the evidence on you, and you will definitely go away.

Nate: You make it sound pretty much like a dead end.

Detective Moore: This is no exaggeration, Nate. It's the truth.

Nate: What about the money? I can do this long enough to get some money and then get out.

Detective Moore: It's a strange thing about that money, Nate. I've never known a gang member who had any real money. Maybe a few hundred dollars, maybe even a few thousand at a time. The only money or property you as a gang member can ever have is what you can carry with you. If you put it in the bank, the Internal Revenue Service will want to know where you got it. It's the same if you buy a house or even a new car.

You can't leave it hidden around. Someone will find it. Someone will always want to take your stuff. The money just sort of disappears. Easy come, easy go. And, somehow, you end up just plain broke.

Nate: Well, what am I supposed to do? My life sure isn't getting anywhere now.

Detective Moore: There are a lot of things you can do, Nate. They aren't easy, but all of them are easier than joining a gang will turn out to be. You can have a future, a real future, one where you get to live your own life.

The big attraction of a gang is a desire to belong to something. As independent as we like to think we are, we are all basically lonely unless we have some part in a group. The most important of these groups is the family. Sometimes, our families fall short. You don't get to choose your family, but you do get to choose how you live your own life.

Try really joining your family. You can't make them treat you right, but you can treat them right. Try joining your school, really joining it. Set a goal to bring your grades up in every class. Your teachers can help you set realistic goals and steer you into classes where you can do well. But you have to ask them for help.

Picture yourself in the future with a good job and maybe a family. Spell out exactly what you want to be and do. Make a detailed plan on how to get there from where you are now.

Nate: I flunked school last year. And the principal was going to turn me in for stealing if I didn't come and talk to you.

Detective Moore: I know all that. You have made some mistakes, Nate. It won't be easy getting turned around.

Nate: Hey, if you are my friend, why talk to me about my mistakes?

Detective Moore: Listen to me: "The wounds of a friend are trustworthy, but the kisses of an enemy are excessive." That is from the Bible, Proverbs 27:6 (HCSB).¹ The guys who want you to join their gang are only saying things to you that you want to hear. I am telling you the truth. Think about it. They want you to die for them. I go out every day and risk my life for your mother and sister and you. That's a real friend.

Nate: Why do you do it?

Detective Moore: In the Book of John, Christ said, "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."

You don't have to do this by yourself. Sure, you feel abandoned and neglected and short-changed. You feel like you are not getting anywhere. We all do sometimes.

You may feel worthless, but you are not alone. Every teacher in your school will try to help you if you go to them ready to work. Every school counselor will be your friend if you approach them honestly. Every minister in every church in this city will give you a hand and listen to what you have to say. They will show you that in spite of all the trouble we humans cause each other and ourselves, God is always there willing to take us in.

I turned around, Nate. I was in it all the way and getting out wasn't easy. But we did it. God and me. We did it together.

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¹Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible^® Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2004 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission.

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The 24-Hour Counselor
© 1999, Broadman and Holman Publishers.
All rights reserved. Compiled by Richard Ross.