Having recently attended a gang seminar sponsered by the NYPD & NYCDOC in realtion to street gangs and Prison gangs. I'm still callin BS on your supposed vast knowledge of street gangs in the NYC. I'll go with what the Coppers and C.O.'s who actually work gangs. Tell me. Not what you've read in a magazine or newspaper.
And they say the King's are viable. They say you have Norteno's. They say you have Sureno's, They say you have MEMA. And by the way you also got a helluva lot of Mexicans. Bein from NYC you probably just automatically think they are Puerto Rican.
And finally having spent five years in a Gang Unit in a Metropolitan Police Dept. I think I might know a little something about the Gang Scene across the board. Because wonder of wonders we trade info.. So unless your banger that wants to flip then I suspect you can tell me very little about the "Thug Life" that would be of any value or validity. What you've read or seen in "Colors" don't count.
So I'll stand by my evaluation of BS.
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You can stand by whatever you wish, the fact remains you have never lived in my community, and unless you have lived in NYC for at least awhile you don't know anything. Its that simple. I experienced it firsthand, you didn't.
Which is exactly why I don't pretend to know what goes on in LA or Detroit, I haven't a clue. And I am not going to tell someone who lives there that hes full of s*** because he said something different that I heard. For a person who has never lived in NYC calling BS on a 28-year resident shows a amazing amount of arrogance, especially considering that your sole evidence to back yourself up so far is your "I-know-better-than-you-so-shutup" response. If you expect me just to take your word for it...sorry I just don't.
You have said Mexicans gangs are huge, well thats curious statement because Mexicans only make up about 6-8% (400000-600000 people) of all Hispanics in NYC. Generally gangs prefer staying where there is a ethnic community. Puerto Ricans are about 35-40% of the Hispanic population followed next by Dominicans, and probably the various Central American Ethnic Groups (Salvador, Nicaruagua, etc) in between, THEN its the Mexicans.
Its kind of difficult to have large Mexican gangs when their is a tiny community to support it. And sure enough there are only 2 major gangs and they are small. There of course other minor ones.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/10282007/news/regionalnews/gangs_of_new_york.htm?page=0
You'll notice that there are only 2 Mexican gangs on that list, Vasta Locos and Ninos Malos and they both have less than 300 members...combined. That makes them pretty goddamn insignificant if you look at the rest of the list.
In NYC, the Dominicans have much greater influence than the Mexicans do. They are political, and their community is enormous. There is a huge Dominican parade every year, DDP and Trinitos is a serious issue, they also have the Cocaine trade, as South America drug cartels uses the Dominican Republic as a transfer point.
In NYC you cannot even find a decent Mexican restaurant, thats how sparse the community is.
When you think about NY Gangs you think Crips, Bloods, Latin Kings, DDP, Decepticons, Flying Dragons, MS-13, amongst many others almost none are Mexican. And for the record, I never said the Latin Kings weren't viable, (again, you need to read
before commenting) I said they weren't as powerful as they once were and that their power is diminished. Thats just a fact. Just research the aftermath on the arrest of King Tone in 1998. There were subsequent roundups as well later on in 2005 I believe.
To answer your question of where I get my information. therein lies the big difference between us, I didn't have somebody else tell me anything, Personal Experience has been my teacher. Like many people I went to HS in NYC where gangs was a very real danger. In fact our HS guidance counselor usually spent a few days at the beginning of each year warning us about them. This was back in the day before metal detectors where shootings at school was commonplace (never at mine, but at the HS next door it was common). There were gang members in my class, some even carried guns to class. I used to see others on the street all the time, there was a time I could guess who they were (the affiliation). I could tell if they were chill or if I should cross the street quickly. I got jumped by them twice, with two butterflies presented at my face. I knew never to look them directly in the eye, never show anything they might want, and to be very careful of what I said. I have experienced two gang related shootings at the Public HS next to mine. All of this was about 17 years ago. My father has some experience in Criminal Defense involving gang violence cases (although is not a criminal defense lawyer). I have 2 friends who are now NYPD officiers. One is a NYPD Police Captain dealing with Asian gangs in Chinatown. And yes occasionally I read things too, it makes me smarter.
Oh and incidentally the film "Colors", is about gang life
in LA, not NYC. Perhaps you know "the gutter" in your community (I sure as hell don't), but you sure as hell don't know mine. Lets just leave it at that.
We Should get back to subject so that will be my last comment here, drop a PM if you want to talk further.
irate2:
