An inside look at the gang culture

   The experience of interviewing gang members was both an education and an awakening.

   One thing that stood out is that some of the young men in the gang subculture really are trying to chart a different course for their lives, but it's not easy.

   That's not just a cliche or a cop out. I used to think it was, too. But after my involvement with these young men, I saw for myself that they really, truly are trying. Sometimes trying is not enough.

   You see, the difference is when I left the GED classes and mentoring programs they were participating in to try to do better, I went home to comfortable home in a relatively safe community where my neighbors are professionals and where families are two-parent households.

   Not so much for people like Curtis, Andrew, Jamod, Anthony and Cosme.

   They leave and return to the same elements that sent them down the wrong path.

   It takes the inner fortitude of mythical proportions - something most of us don't have - to overcome some of these conditions.

   What do you think some of the solutions are?

   &8212; Deidre Williams

Comments

[Bud]

Children having babies, mothers in denial saying 'he was a good boy,' a community that does not value education, prayer circles seen as a solution, media that condones and pities gang lifestyle, a gang is incarcerated and the girlfriends take over (Hillbilly Gang), helping the police is considered snitching, much of the community feels a prisoner -

Considering all this, I say the West and East side are actually doing pretty well. Remember the early 90s when there a murder a day in Buffalo? These are self destructive cultures.

[Bud]

These videos from Langfield sum it up better than any article.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9mxMl9HmrI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fD8gSe-1p0U&feature=related

[Mark]

All the street punks ought to be exterminated. Human debris. Proof that most ni66ers are violent thugs.

[John P. Hazel]

We need to go back to the days when a little "street justice" was administered by the police. A "tune up" with the old oak night stick did wonders.

[Hank]

I am not a cynic, nor an 'exterminator.' Those are ridiculous attitudes. But, it warrants being a skeptic and a systemic reformer.
Why would you think there are "solutions" in the face of financial and economic breakdowns?
In fact, there are enough wealth and resources to provide everyone with food, shelter, clothing, and medicine. Not only here, but throughout the world.
However, the money and political power system that requires a "food chain" from predator down to prey is designed to create victims. And victims are big business to the wealthy, whether the absurd food stamp program, or the Iraq war about oil. It consumes peoples' lives, with a patina of opportunity.
Any "solution" must start at the top, and that vision and will is nowhere in sight.

[Lydia Bezou-Hojnacki]

Solutions: Education, education, education. Ratting, ratting, ratting.

Know thy enemy and turn him/her in with frequent calls to the police.

More articles like this will educate the public to what "gang culture" looks like in our own neighborhoods. How about more articles on how (including colors) gangs dress and where they are located. Then we can all be aware and help report gang activity. Good citizens do what they can to keep their neighborhoods safe.

[Beth Marie]

I agree with Hank..poverty is an American big business that supplies many with income and jobs.
This bottom class also permits the wealthy to maintain an ego status of constant superiority, where they believe that those in poverty owe their means and existence to them. What a feeling for another human to cherish, who already feels entitled.
One solution to the escape from these gangs..is the return of the middle class..a designation that has dwindled during the Bush years. It is more hopeful for the poor to aspire to the middle than to despair believing that they can never obtain the top. The middle class has more empathy for the poor..which is one step from their own status and thus that concern gives them a reason to uplift many of the impoverished....which unfortunately includes the majority of criminals...at least the ones the government chooses to seek out and arrest.

[Carl]

As a businessman, I can tell you my corporation no way benefits from uneducated young people living in poverty. That is the most ridiculous thing I have heard this week. I am looking for responsible individuals that can read at an eight grade level, get up for work on time, and act professionally at work.

I have been elated when a young person from poverty is able to make it. We do our best to assist them.

[Danno]

Fifty years ago, the African-American community was a better, stronger, and safer place. Intact families, employed fathers, home ownership, marriage, and church held the fabric of society together. All of this existed in a time of open racial discrimination and considerably less wealth.

Illegitimacy was less than that of whites today.

Then came Lyndon Johnson's Great Society, with its huge expansion of Welfare, and the civil rights movement. Can anyone say that the lives of ordinary African Americans have improved since that time?

Today African American children are born into loveless "families" consisting of the children of two or more "fathers" headed by their mothers, grandmothers, or "aunts" or whatever. This is the bitter fruit of the destructive policies of the 60s.

What child, born into a situation like that, has a chance?

Long term, we are insane as a society as long as we encourage poverty supporting the illegitimate offspring of the most dysfunctional with our tax dollars.

If our president wanted real change he would be leading a crusade to end welfare payments to support illegitimate children. Continuing the same failed policies will only produce the same results.

[whoeurtaxpayer]

The staggering fact to consider is, every one of them, will have dozens or more of unwanted, uncared for kids wandering the streets, with dozens of different girlfriends, despite the many dozens of the abortions that will occur.
Who ultimatly ends up paying for all of those staggering increases in costs? They sure as hell won't!
How many kids did that one guy have that was recently in the news? TWENTY ONE?!

All off their kids, will grow up to be...just like THEM! But, just like everthing else that's going seriously bad in the USA, who the hell cares to FIX ANYTHING that's BADLY BROKEN, when it can EASILY be used and manipulated to bring in GUARANTEED "RECORD PROFITS" for the few!

[Joseph DuBose]

Its obvious from DPC Derenda’s statement to the Buffalo News reporters question he is trying to downplay this Gang situation. Most districts officers agree the situation is way out of control. Masking this threat is making is more dangerous to the copper who has to respond to these armed terrorists. Crime is not going down period. Violent crime has spike in the past several years and now its out in the open.
.............................

Chief of Detectives Dennis Richards would not comment on whether any of those in the brazen YouTube video are known to police.
“They obviously seem to be using gang symbolism, and all of this would be disturbing,” Richards said. While some might view the YouTube clip as “just a video,” he said this recording is “carrying it to another level.”
Deputy Police Commissioner Daniel Derenda says crime in every major category is down in the city since 2005, but that police still try to be proactive.
“There are a lot of things we start putting in place [in summer] to start dealing with what comes,” Derenda said, citing the addition of police details and strict enforcement of the curfew “to keep younger kids in the house.”

[Buffalo Libertarian]

Hank wrote: "In fact, there are enough wealth and resources to provide everyone with food, shelter, clothing, and medicine. Not only here, but throughout the world."

Oh, please! Don't give me this nonsense about they're in the gangs because they're poor. You liberals had your chance with LBJ's "War on Poverty." You people created all kinds of public housing and other social programs and instead of helping people out of poverty, you've made them dependent on the government teat.

People join gangs because they choose to join gangs. People engage in criminal behavior because they choose to do so. The vast majority of poor people are NOT in gangs or otherwise engaging in criminal activity. People make choices: it's time to hold them accountable for those choices by letting them bear the consequences instead of making excuses.

Gangs have power because the people in the neighborhoods give them power - by their inaction. But it certainly has to be a difficult decision: do you let the gangs take over, do you work with a police force that, historically, has been part of the nation's long history of oppressing people of color, or do you make enemies of both by taking matters into your own hands?

Then, of course, there's all this nonsense of blacks refusing to assimilate - constatntly accusing other blacks who get an education and do well for themselves as "acting white" or being an "Uncle Tom" or being a "traitor to the race."

Getting out won't be easy, and both the gangs and the neighborhood will fight to keep you in, but getting out is possible if one wants to put forth the effort. Others before have done it; so, it can be done.

[Steve in Buffalo]

Its easy for a white kid from the suburbs with a good education to criticize and lambaste gang culture. I'm very lucky to have parents that wanted whats best for their children.

Ultimately, if we take away their main revenue source, drugs, gangs will either have to adapt and meddle in more serious, white collar crime (extortion, identity theft etc) or fail. Make drugs legal, gangs don't make money.

Watch CNBC/MSNBC's profiles on prison life. Most major gangs are started in maximum security prisons. What do these hardened criminals really have to fear? Maybe we should just make capital punishment useful. Caught selling hard drugs, get whipped 20 times. That kid in the 90s that got caned in the Phillipines for graffiti? You know he isn't tagging anything anytime soon. Certainly would cut down on correction budgets. Oh yeah, but locking people up in cages funded by taxpayers is much more humane. Call me crazy.

[Helen Rosnicki LPN]

Don’t worry Mayor Brown said that crime is going down. He must be talking about the petty theft categories. The fact of the matter is Buffalo is a war zone. He chief propaganda ministers spin a line of Bulls*&^ and tell us its getting safer. Ya if you drive around with a Tank maybe!

Remember listen closely now as the election draws closer. Ask questions. Get answers. What is the Police Department doing about this scourge? The fact that Homicides are “Going down” means nothing when you learn that several people receive gunshot wounds every day in the City of Buffalo. In when I began working at the Medical Center we seen about 250 gunshot injuries a year. Now I see an average of 3 to 4 per day. Multiply that by 365 days. Now you see the real picture. Thank You.

Helen Rosnicki LPN

[Buffalo Libertarian]

Steve in Buffalo wrote: "Its easy for a white kid from the suburbs with a good education to criticize and lambaste gang culture."

Well, I'm not from the suburbs and I learned quite a bit about gangs when I was in the Navy and had a former member of a gang in Los Angeles working for me.

The gang "culture" (if one can call it that) obviously fills a need that those who join aren't getting met elsewhere. But people make choices and they should be held accountable for those choices.

I agree with you about ending the government prohibition on the various substances that gangs are buying and selling in an underground economy - the government has no business dictating to people what substances they may or may not ingest. Make the substances no longer lucrative for gangs and they'll have to find something else to do.

I also agree with you about bringing caning to the US but the event you referred to happened in Singapore, not the Philippines.

[Buffalo Libertarian]

Danno wrote: "If our president wanted real change he would be leading a crusade to end welfare payments to support illegitimate children. Continuing the same failed policies will only produce the same results."

Slick Willie Clinton limited Welfare benefits to a five-year lifetime limit but several states (New York in particular) came up with state programs to essentially restore lifetime (and intergenerational) public assistance.

Don't expect Obama to do anything to interfere with his ACORN buddies' goal of so overwhelming the government with participants in government social programs as to force the government to collapse (and be rebuilt in some European image).

[HapKlein]

It’s sad to see so much racism still prevalent among these comments. If you have failed to study and seek understanding of the problems created by the overt and covert prejudice of this nation you are as racist as any Alabama race baiter. If the problems of race are allowed to continue in this nation remains the laughing stock of the world. We elect a brilliant black man to the Presidency but fail to properly educate the majority of his brethren.

The main problem with the ongoing development of urban black and Hispanic gangs and their growing menace to our society is literacy plain and simple. The children are not educated sufficiently and by the age fifteen they realize that staying in school will only point up continuing failure, theirs and ours.

So this illiterate person lands in the street and guess who picks them up and points the way to money in the pocket? With a sea of guns available to arm this growing army and an ocean of heroin moving out of Afghanistan we have all the ingredients for endless growing guerrilla warfare in our cities. Luckily they are mostly shooting one another but someday…

And people thought Armageddon was going to be something out of the bible and by failure to educate we are creating our own version.

[james]

It's about time the news covered the glaring problem plaguing this city. DuBose up there is right about DPC Derenda downplaying, and has been at it since his big cash payment to Brown at election. That sealed his appointment. It might help by putting people who are capable in charge of the safety of our public, he is not one of them. The Chief of Schools is ignored by DPC and Wiliams' hasn't done anything to address gangs int he schools which are everywhere, even in elementary levels. We need a gang intelligence officer in the high schools, bring back school details for the school to call for help since they are discouraged/ordered not to call 911. Awareness is the first step, we are past that, we need police and schools to unite NOW, no more poitics. Maybe Byron Brown could actually SAY something for once and make a decision based on the welfare of the public instead of his smoke and mirror career

[John Scinta MD.]

ABOUT: "It's about time the news covered the glaring problem plaguing this city. DuBose up there is right about DPC Derenda downplaying, and has been at it since his big cash payment to Brown at election"

--------------------------

I have to agree with this blogger. The PD is in a state of shambles. Money wasted on marihuana buy/busts and crack pipe charges all for the sake of numbers. I call on the news to put the Administration on the grill and ask the tough questions. Overtime money wasted in certain sectors of the department, which have little to no effect on the daily slaughter we see on the streets. Unfortunately this Mayor lost a chance to really put a dent in crime after the debauchery of the Diina Administration left the city in chaos.

John Scinta
Williamsville, N.Y.

[John Duggan Jr.]

This Mayor will not confront the thugs however the most interesting thing was that the Special Weapons and Tactics units (SWAT) and Buffalo Police Department officers, were deployed to the Canisius College campus from multiple districts, including Buffalo, Lancaster, Amherst, Cheektowaga, and the Erie County Sheriffs. It was a pretty impressive show of force one that probably would not even mobilize for a large scale riot, but I guess paying more than seventy officers time and half, in overtime, makes sense for the City of Buffalo's budget. I believe that it was just a little over a month ago that the salaries' of numerous police officers were reported on, in the Buffalo news, stating that some officers were making over a hundred thousand dollars in overtime. It’s not that they do not warrant that pay many in fact deserve it, but the officers that were deployed today did not. Picture upon picture were taken showing the police sitting in or on their squad vehicles. Seems like well deserved pay if you ask me. Looks like Byron Brown is really deploying the best of the best (SWAT) the proper way. I would be interested to find out the figures on the amount of overtime pay paid out today, as opposed to the revenue brought in for 50 dollar drinking tickets.
Also on addressing the fact of students disrupting the neighborhood, what people do not seem realize is the impact Canisius College has on the community. Every weekend Canisius College sends students out into the community cleaning and rebuilding it through Habitat for Humanity or other Canisius organized cleanups. Or what about the Canisius College Red Cross Disaster Relief chapter, or the fact the Canisius College graduates some of the best and brightest minds into the Buffalo economy to work for top companies and firms. So I feel that Canisius’ one day to relax from a years hard work is least we as students can ask for all that Canisius College does for Buffalo.

[Buffalo Libertarian]

HapKlein wants to blame racism and illiteracy for the gangs. Others want to blame the gangs on bad upbringing or on poverty. Why is everyone and everything else to blame but the individual who makes the CHOICE? Whatever happened to people being responsible for their own actions? Why is Bernie Madoff responsible for ripping off a bunch of people but everyone and everything except the gang-bangers themselves are responsible for the existence of gangs and for what the gang-bangers do?

HapKlein, we have a public education system here in the United States where anyone, regardless of skin color or ethnic origin or socioeconomic level can receive a FREE education all the way through 12th grade. These kids have the same educational opportunities as other kids attending these government indoctrination centers (public schools) and there is no excuse for any child attending school to be illiterate. It's up to the parents of these kids to send them to school and to make education a priority in their lives, and it's up to these kids to put forth the effort to succeed.

But when doing well in school is considered "acting white" or being a "traitor to the race," how are racism and illiteracy the reasons these kids join gangs? Besides, there was not one mention in the article about either of these being factors in why people join gangs.

No, it isn't racism or illiteracy or bad parenting or poverty or anything else except for one thing: individuals making choices - uninformed choices, choices under pressure, but choices nonetheless.

[Comino Reality]

The best way to counter urban gangs is to start early by looking intensively at youngsters behavior in school.

First are they attending school? If they are not in school where do they go when school is in session? What is being done to counter absent students?

If students act out in school are they getting the attention and discipline they need? Are they violent towards others at a young age? Do they come to school tired and unfed? Again are they out of school frequently?

Does their school have anti gang policies that actively seek to identify gang activity and counter gangs with policies and programs that inculcate within children dignity and respect for humanity, self esteem, and self worth?

Is gang activity ignored within schools?

Are children who are likely to become gang members being identified early? Are intervention programs being implemented to turn children towards a life of productive citizenry?

In the City of Buffalo why aren't the video cameras being deployed in areas where there is high gang activity on the East and West sides?

Why aren't there more Buffalo Police Department, anti gang units trained in counter gang intelligence roving the streets day and night looking for youth gang members not in school, breaking traffic laws, violating quality of life laws, and going directly to their bases of operation constantly and occupying them? Why aren't the sources for gang weapons and other contraband being targeted by the State and Federal government?

Why are Deputy Police Commissioners within the Buffalo Police Department being promoted to these positions based on political contributions instead upon their policing and ability skill sets? Why are police leadership positions being based upon money that was donated to the the candidate who won the election to the office of Mayor of the City of Buffalo?

Why doesn't the U.S. Federal government take over the operating of poppie fields in Afghanistan and pay the workers better money then they get now? Why not take these drug operations over and supply the sick people of the world the cheapest medication possible? Why not legalize and regulate marijuana use to take away the profit making from urban gangs and foreign drug cartels?

Why are tax dollars being constantly diverted to the Buffalo Bills, building casino operations, the Peace Bridge and the downtown of Buffalo and Niagara Falls while ignoring urban decay and housing stock? Why are houses in Buffalo allowed to decay? Why are new homes being built in Buffalo instead of protecting the better existing housing stock? Why is downtown being constantly repaved and having new trees planted while the back streets and sidewalks and tree replantings take decades upon decades to occur in the neighborhoods deemed less deserving?

Why does the City of Buffalo clean up the leaves in the streets in high priced neighborhoods but not on poor and middle class streets?

Why is the Mayor of Buffalo and the County Executive in favor of creating an urban environment based on low expectations and failure for the majority of students from Buffalo Public Schools and thus feed casino operations with workers and new gambler revenue?

Why is TO given the key to the City of Buffalo and Rosa Gibson and Detective Delano taken for granted?

[Beth Marie]

I believe that the police force is only as motivated as the leaders in place who encourage that characteristic.
Derenda is a product of a payolla job and is permitted to conduct a personal business at work, because of it..which I see rightfully angers the troops and creates unproductive disrespect.
The commissioner..Gipson..on the other hand is known as a liar. I recently had legal action with him and he blatantly lied under oath. Before I left I presented him with a goodbye that included the actual truth from one of his false statements..and while he never even glanced at me, he put his head down and spit a a pffft from his lips..in embarrassment from being caught and the shock I would call him on it.
The real meaning of that incident is.... if the commissioner would lie under oath...what do you believe he is doing to the citizens of Buffalo and everyone else affected by his statements relative to crime is down, crimes are solved and he has it all under control?
I know what I think now...we have a crisis in Buffalo that is being covered up by long time hacks that have made the rounds of this city state and county employment opportunities for many years and they are covering heavily for the mess they help create and ignore while they worked for the recognition and glory exclusively!
Throw out Gipson and his wingmen...vote out Brown!

[Hank]

Buffalo Libertarian and Carl are thinly-disguised isolationists who live in a fantasy world and ivory towers where they operate "independently."
There is no real independence. There is only inter-dependence. Societal breakdown by crushing the middle class, pointed out by Beth Marie, will have consequences as that of gangs. Try looking at Nicaragua. Economists have shown there is plenty of medicine and food in the world, but the dictator-type controlled nations and those moving in that direction control distribution and are rife with corruption. The fact is that WNY, as an example, has not yet hit bottom. It has a long way to go, and is heading in that direction. Isolationists and Ivory Tower residents will feel the impact in rising social costs. You can complain, but you must pay.

[Buffalo Libertarian]

Comino Reality wrote: "The best way to counter urban gangs is to start early by looking intensively at youngsters behavior in school."

And holding them accountable for their behavior, including gang activity.

Comino Reality wrote: "Why doesn't the U.S. Federal government take over the operating of poppie fields in Afghanistan and pay the workers better money then they get now? Why not take these drug operations over and supply the sick people of the world the cheapest medication possible? Why not legalize and regulate marijuana use to take away the profit making from urban gangs and foreign drug cartels?"

Eliminating the black market by allowing a legal market to exist for the same products will go a long way; though one wonders if perhaps the cartels and the gangs will simply switch to marketing some other illegal product or service.

Hank wrote: "Try looking at Nicaragua. Economists have shown there is plenty of medicine and food in the world, but the dictator-type controlled nations and those moving in that direction control distribution and are rife with corruption. The fact is that WNY, as an example, has not yet hit bottom. It has a long way to go, and is heading in that direction."

So, you think that more government and further abandoning the ideals on which the American Constitution was based is the solution?

Believing that the United States should not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries doesn't make one an isolationist, it makes one a non-interventionist. Go learn the difference!

As for what you seem to think your bone-headed notion of "isolationist" has to do with street gangs in Buffalo, are you also one of those people who think that everyone and everything else is to blame EXCEPT for the gang-bangers themselves?