Gangland

In 1992, when the movie South Central came out, it was very impacting on the way I viewed a culture half way across the country and the neighborhood that I lived in.  In my neighborhood there were no big gangs, maybe little groups of mischievous kids, in which I was probably apart of one of them.  I was probably starting Junior High School about then, very influenced by the things I saw around me.  In those days I had two groups of friends, the ones around my neighborhood and the ones from school.  It was the early '90s and a bit of the '80s had a influence on the times.  The two groups did not intertwine.  Both groups got into bad habits.  Unfortunately, since both my parents worked, most of my upbringing was based on outside the family influence.  The friends I had around the neighborhood were a bit older than me, in High School and a few even older.  The age gap varied ten to twenty years.  The friends I had from school I met in elementary school and some anew.

Of course the friends I knew first were the ones around my neighborhood.  They consisted of mostly Chinese and a couple of Ecuadorians, most good kids.  We would ride our bicycles around the block, have water gun fights, check out a movie at the theater, play Atari or Nintendo, trade baseball cards and other activities.  A few years later it wasn't as nice as the first introduction when everyone didn't know each other and we came together because of the closeness of the area and familiar faces.  The group of friends from the neighborhood have parted ways a little and the close friendship only consisting of "hi" and simple rhetorical "how are you".  The first reason is because as we play together we play with each other's toys or what friends have.  It seems that when you play with your friends things happen and things break, not on purpose of course.  Friends argue and come across differences.  The second is status or how one changes through life influences.  Such as taking part in joining a gang and they bring that influence back to the neighborhood.  Born To Kill aka B.T.K. was a small Asian gang I had associated with at a younger age.  No I was not in the gang, but I became friends with a few.  Of course someone as young as ten to fifteen you don't have much decision making based on morals or logical decisions.  A young persons decision is based on what's around or primal decision making.  There was this kid about ten years older than me, he had the nicest bicycle on the block, the chromed out ones with hot rims.  He had a brother that was even older that we all knew and respected because he was like amongst the two oldest around the neighborhood.  He disappeared for a while.  He came back different, not just an average kid but he had spiked hair that was shaded a little blue and a badder attitude.  As a young kid, you think stuff like was cool.  We didn't realize he had joined B.T.K. until he started showing off his butterfly knives and tiny little small handgun.

In the later parts of elementary school, my two friends were a Bangladesh kid and a Vietnamese kid.  The Bangladesh young man was a good kid and we played on the school courts as normal friends.  We would remain friends until beginning of High School.  The Vietnamese young man I still know and we are both different men now.  The Vietnamese friend was a good guy at heart, great guy really, but within his circle of friends also included other Vietnamese friends along with a Brazilian kid and Mexican friends, which became my friends also.  The latter part of the previous statement is where the bad seed came in, not so much because of race but because that's who they were.  The area of Astoria, New York City is a small neighborhood.  It consist of a few hundred or so blocks, I would estimate.  It's area is a nice residential family like area to live.  However, within this area, the Queensbridge and Ravenswood (though not as bad or as how notorious NAS made the Queensbridge) housing projects are only a few blocks away.  The affordable run down houses are also a few streets away.  The area is a very diverse neighborhood.  We use to run around it and cause mischief and trouble.  It got to the point where we almost became organized: the one who could commit the baddest acts would lead or be the top of our group.

The movie South Central is about the Crip gang.  In the movie, instead of going by Crips, they used "Deuce".  It starts off with the main character Bobby Johnson being released from prison being picked up by his set of three Deuces.  The driver is his right hand man and inspiration for the gang, Ray Ray.  Ray Ray seems to be the charismatic leader.  They meet outside Bobby's old crib and this is where you find Bobby's son and his "baby's momma".  They come by a local drug dealer: Genie Lamp.  Genie Lamp is a local dealer, an average one.  The idea Ray Ray has is that Deuce will grow to take over all the dealers like Genie Lamp and turn Deuce into one big organization.  In the end he says Deuce is about 50,000 strong.  Not too long after Bobby's release, he "puts in work" by killing Genie Lamp then goes into hiding.  It's not good enough because his friends get him arrested and he is grilled by a detective causing him to do prison time for ten years.  While in prison he finds that Ray Ray is managing things selfishly, duh.  Maybe one day there will be a gang that runs things fair and square with moral and responsibility.  Bobby's son, Jimmie, is being raised by his mom by herself.  Jimmie still has the Deuce influence with his young peers and is recruited by Ray Ray as a car stereo thief.  He does well but upon stealing Willie Manchester's car stereo he gets shot in the back.  Jimmie Johnson goes through rehabilitation.  As Bobby Johnson learns his son has been shot through the fault of Ray Ray and the news that Ray Ray has turned the gang into his own selfish enterprise, he separates from the Deuces.  Being alone in prison gets him in trouble with the Aryan Brotherhood.  He is working to get paroled, he accomplishes it, but luckily only through a Muslim (Malcolm X like) set of prison inmates who buys his freedom with fifteen cartons of cigarettes and some laundry services.  He studies the ways of black history reformist and learns to free his mind from hatred through words, As-Salamu Alaykum (peace unto you).  One scene shows as an Aryan inmate brings him shoes to shine as part of his freedom contract, he gets up as to fight, but then sits down because of the peace he has just learned.  The show is a little unreal because in the end, when he gets paroled, he confronts Ray Ray and wins back the freedom of him and his son; Willie Manchester is set free, end the scene with Ray Ray in his hide out putting the gun back into his back pants, all through the power of talk and a little love.

I saw this movie as a kid and loved the gang side of the film.  I loved how when he was about to get jumped, all he had to do was throw Deuce signs and the other kids backed off.  Nine years later, as an adult, re-watching it, I loved the inspiration of how Bobby Johnson was reformed and took back his son through knowledge that people can change.  I feel very fortunate to have not had to make those decisions, though has come close.  It's amazing that one culture can travel into the homes of young children to be enticed by such power and be rich quick but behind it is a deadly influence.  In 1995, a storm of people getting cut in the face took the news of New York City.  The bloods have come to New York City but not really the Los Angeles Bloods gang.  It seems that in 1993, the UBN (United Blood Nation) was formed as an adaptation in the name of the West Coast gang.  UBN (The Eastcoast Bloods) formed in Riker's Island prison (at the upper end of Astoria) started having recruitment by slashing the faces of innocent people.  A friend of a family member who was attending Bronx Science High School was slashed in the face for his backpack.  These are influences that never leave me.  One of my former favorite music artist was Snoop Doggy Dogg and Kurupt.  I think the first mentioned was the one who made the Crips well known, it spread the blind word to blank headed youths about 'banging.  I know I was intrigued by it at a young age.  There are so many youths that fall into it or can't escape it because the influence is so strong.