Quote:
Originally posted by Rudey
Can you please just stop talking to me? Yeah thanks 59 year old college boy.
Nobody has posted a good enough answer. Someone who lives in communities with gangs won't have much influence, wealth, political privileges - ie the system won't move to change it because as innocent as they are, they're not important. Cold.
-Rudey
--Think.
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Look despite the common misconception gangs do not only inhabit the ghettos of cities, they have members and operations everywhere that they have an interest. If it is just a simple street gang that confines itself to a couple of blocks, then I can see your arguement.... but those gangs are far and few between now (well at least in Toronto).
Most gangs seem to be organized along ethnic and criminal activity, not on their socio-economic background (again using Toronto example). Currently the crime of choice for some gangs up here is home invasions, protection (old stand by), prostitution (an older stand by), drugs, and rent'in (guns, vehicles, or muscle for crimes). A couple of years ago they were also into the home-grow pot operations, but organized crime has pretty much pushed them out now.
But my comment about "what makes you think their killing each other?" was meant to make you and others think. Gang rivals rarely call each other up to arange a nice deserted spot to settle their differences. Instead we see the drive-by, coffee shop attacks, or an ambush.... all commited by people that aquired their knowledge of gun play from watching movies.... so people other than the intended target are hit, and some die. There have been cases where a shooter has used a high-caliber pistol, and the round has gone through walls and struck "innocent people" a block or more away. Two years ago I can remember walking home from the bus after a party and hearing something like "fireworks" coming from an apartment, only it was some guy firing an AK-47 at another apartment building to make a "hit", only a couple of people were wounded, including two cops, but it could easily have been worse. The thing is gang hits are made when and where the target has supposedly let their guard down: at home, at the coffee shop, at the club, at a party, at Caribana, at a concert, at the mall, at school, or anywhere else they think they are safe.... all of these have many non-gang members around and as potential "innocent by-standers".
Now Rudey before you go spouting off about me talking about things I don't know or understand I guess I'll have to back myself up now. First personal experience, sure I live in a great neighborhood, with big old houses, but if I walk a couple of blocks I enter some of the more run down housing and apartments in Toronto; there has been shootings, stabbings, murders, drug-dealing, prostitution, and even a couple of cops shot (one killed). You learn to identify the gang's tag marks, and what each is roughly into (hell I went to school with some of these guys), and for the most part they stick to "playing" with each other..... but the secondary sources of income rely on "innocent" people: muggings, home invasions, break and enter, car-jackings, hold-ups, or the black-market... all of which can quickly escalate and result in a dead body. Now for professional information: three of the guys on my men's hockey team are party of the gang task-force that the Toronto Police force has, and after games at the bar work often comes up; usually after a story has hit the papers. The biggest thing is keeping track of which gang is in which rank: 1st- official affiliation with organized crime (big money and support), 2nd- un-official affiliation with organized crime (sort-of like calling up the minors), 3rd- major street gang (more than 100 members, estimated annual income over 4 million), 4th- street gang (around 50 members, no real big money scores, but has a lot of weight in their area), 5th minor street gang (about a dozen or so members, minor crimes for the most part, usually associated with one of the higher ranked gangs). For the most part the maimings and killings are the work of the 3rd-5th ranked gangs, but it may be instigated by one of the upper-ranked gangs or organized crime, because all of these gangs are inter-related to varying degrees.