Gangs in the United States are becoming more violent and deadly thanever. Thousand of people are dying each year from these ill-manneredthugs. In today’s societies gang activity is an everyday occurrencewhether it includes violence, drugs, death or any illegal activity inwhich they participate.
The research that I have conducted will focus onhow the selling of drugs by gangs members can lead to violence/death andhow turf wars between rival gang can also lead to death. In recent years the selling of drugs has increased in the world of gangmembers. It is their primary economical way to acquire money to supportthemselves and their family. In doing so, they are destroying people’slives.
Gang members will stop at nothing to sell their drugs for aprofit, even if it means that they have to hurt or kill someone. Theywill sell drugs to anyone as long as they make their money. A gang member must have street knowledge and have the skill to protectthemselves as well as their profit. This kind of activity is extremelydangerous to others, innocentbystanders and even the gang member themselves.
There are many ways thatthis activity is dangerous. Gang members may front (give the customer some drugs in which they havea certain time to repay the cost of the drugs back) the drug to acustomer whom they believe to be a loyal customer. This can be verydeadly if the customerdoes not pay the gang member back. If the front is not repaid the gangmember or the whole gang will come looking for the person who owesmoney. The gang members will hunt down and hurt or even go as far askill the person the first chance they get if the person is found.
Ifthey can’t find the person they will go the extra mile and threaten tokill someone in the person family. They want to make it known that apayment is due and soon. If a gang or a member is jacked (drugs stolen, usually at gunpoint)fromanother person, gang or junkie, it too is an automatic death sentence. Gangs are always strapped (armed) and ready for anything that might gowrong.
Their number one priority is to preserve the drugs well being andto alleviate their quantity of drug to make a profit. If a personinterferes with this process they are interferingwith their business. That means they have to suffer the consequencesthat will follow from it. While a gang is in the process of selling drugs they must be aware ofwho they are selling it to. Gang member must have the expertise inspotting an undercover cops or penitential crack head(junkie who will doanything to get their fix).
Most gangs do not like cops or as they wouldcall them pigs. If a cop is trying to break the gangs procedures in thedrug trade the police officer is a marked target (bulls eye for abullet). Junkies often try to pull a fast one to score(get the drug). These people are desperate and will do any thing to get their fix.
Theywill rob and steal from a gang member. They know the consequence butthey still keep on trying. Their mind is so clouded from all the drugabuse that they don’t care whether they live or die trying to get thedrug. Junkies are like pest to a gang member. They are always botheringthem for a score. Gang member hate that and as a result they will knockthem off (kill them).
It draws to much attention and when you drawattention people are sure to come running over to see what going on,especially cops. In addition to gangs and how the selling of drug leads to death, gangsas well as others die because of turf violation. Gangs have a specificturf they hang out in. The turfs consist of streets, blocks andhangouts. These turfs are well guarded and looked after and forbidoutsiders to enter unless they are a potential buyer for drugs.
If anymember of a rival gang shall enter it is a ground for termination(death). The turf is the gang’s territory. Gangs use the turfs for drug trafficking. That is one of the mainreasons why they do not like rival gang to enter. If the rival gangswere to take over their turf they would eventually lose all of theirdrug customers and that means no income. These turfs are vital for agang’s survival.
If a gang or anyone else violate the norms of a gang’s turf there is ahefty price to pay. Violence will erupt and all hell will break loose. There have been rival gangs that have violated the turf codes of anothergang and as a result there was gang warfare. Gangs will do any thingpossible to keep their turf clear from other whom do not belong there.
They will beat you to death, stab you andeven shoot and try to kill them. If they can not kill them while theywere violating their territory they will pass through their hood (turfzone) and retaliate against them. Usually they retaliate by a drive byshooting. A drive by shooting is when gang members stroll throughanother gang’s neighborhood turf and shoot a gun from the car in whichthey are riding in to kill the rival gang or at least wound them. Whenthey are doing this it is suppose to represent a clear statement: Stayaway from and out of our turf zones.
From reading and researching this subject I found it interesting howgangs interact and how violence is an every day occurrence in a gangmembers life. While I was researching the material I had to stop acouple of time and just think of how gang member could live the way theydo. With all the shooting, stabbing and people dying how can a gangmember sleep at night knowing that they could be next. To live in thiskind of environment must be terrifying. I have learned that drugs play a very big role in a gang’s survival.
Thedrugs bring in an income that gets them by. I notice that a lot of gangmembers have nice things like nice clothes, jewelry, sneakers and nicecars but they live in a poor neighborhood with run down housingand have no means of moving on to a better and much cleaner one. Iwonder why that is?I believe that gangs affect human development. People are affected bytheir irresponsible actions.
The ordinary people who want to live lifeto the fullest have a hard time doing so because gangs interrupt thatcycle by their attitude and by their violent actions. People are scaredof them and don’t want to come into contact because they fear for theirlives. They won’t even pass through their neighborhood because theydon’t want any trouble. Businesses suffer because of gangs. They lose business and customers andas a result the business may have to close down. The neighborhood thegangs live in are worth nothing on the markets because they are all rundown and in a neighborhood that is considered a bad section of town.
There is no prosperity in selling the neighborhood because there is noone interested in buying it. The reason is because the fact that it isgang territory and that it is run down. Gangs affect many people andtheir lives and will continue to do so because I believe that they willalways exist and they will never come to an end because people aresucked into this lifestyle every day.
