Why Do People Join Gangs

Why do people join gangs? Gangs, or most people define as a group of criminals who band together for mutual protection and profit, are still widely increasing in the United States today. Even though everyone can agree that any gang related activities and crimes are against the law, people still joins it regardless with various reasons: Desire for protection, to appear cool, and have a sense of family. People often join gangs to get a protection from others. Especially in ghetto, where most of the gangs originate from, people struggles to live every day because of a high crime rate and low income. Joining gangs would be the only way for them to live safely because they seek to protect one another. While some people join gangs mainly to survive, the others are completely opposite. They join gangs in order to appear or sound “cool.” These mostly affects youth because they like to stand out than the rest especially at school. Some gangs are even designed to attract young recruits. Some wears the latest fashion trends, throw the hottest parties, and drive the coolest cars. They can appear to have the perfect lifestyle to a young kid who's looking to fit in somewhere. They have an image of "coolness" that has been established by the media. Although some might think having a coolness and protection is some of the reasons why people join gangs, it is very situational and only targeted towards certain groups. Usually, the main reason why people join gangs is to have a feeling of family. Most of the gang members are from a broken family, abandoned child, and others that were not accepted from the society. They do not understand having a sense of people who actually “care” for one other. So when they join gangs and develop their first sense of strong bonds, they would most likely to be part of a gang. There are many other reasons why people join gangs such as a peer pressure, need for money, excitement, and so on. But overall, people join gangs to be in part of something that they never have experienced before. Even though they know it is against the law to kill a person, do drugs, and possess illegal weapons, they will still do it regardless because they care for one another.

1. What is the full “official” name of the gang?
Blood Oath (Bloods) A.K.A. East Coast Bloods
2. What is the agenda or reason for the gang’s existence? Is it race, protection, drugs, or a combination of various factors?
They are all about the protections. Bloods would risk their lives to protect the other members.

3. What are the gang’s colors and/or symbols? How do they identify themselves?
B.L.O.O.D. stands for Brotherly Love Overriding Oppression and Destruction of Society.
Wears red clothes to symbolize the blood.
D.O.G.S. stands for Doing Only Gangster S*it.
Star shaped symbol represents soul, body, unity, lost, and love.
4. What are three other things you have learned about this gang from the film?
They have to take another person’s life in order to become bloods.
They are usually respectful of the other gangs.
Bloods usually dominates the east and the west coast of U.S.

5. What did you find to be the most violent crime or dangerous activity the gang engaged in that was shown in the video?
After G-check, whoever that hesitates to answer the blood questions gets killed.
6. What is the full “official” name of the gang?
Hell’s Angels
7. What is the agenda or reason for the gang’s existence? Is it race, protection, drugs, or a combination of various factors?
Mostly known as “Fun for rebels,” Hell’s Angels is the biker gangs that seeks to discipline the other gangs. They mostly does the organized crimes and sells drugs.

8. What are the gang’s colors and/or symbols? How do they identify themselves?
T.C.B. stands for Take Care of Business.
They sells their specialized drugs called D.O.A. in which stand for the Dust of Angels.
They usually have a weekly chapter meeting at church.
9. What are three other things you have learned about this gang from the film?
They hate Mongols.
About 85% of their members has been arrested for felonies.
They are very secretive.
10. What did you find to be the most violent crime or dangerous activity the gang engaged in that was shown in the video?
Casino crime scene. It has been recorded live by using a security camera and also known as the most violent crime in Casino.
11. What is the full “official” name of the gang?
MS-13
12. What is the agenda or reason for the gang’s existence? Is it race, protection, drugs, or a combination of various factors?
MS13, just like any other gangs, a goal is to make everyone know that they are the most powerful gang in the world. They seeks for drugs, power, and their race.

13. What are the gang’s colors and/or symbols? How do they identify themselves?
13 represents the 13th letter of an alphabet.
Mara Salvajuano is the leader of a gang.
14. What are three other things you have learned about this gang from the film?
To be in part of MS13, new members has to get grounded for 15 seconds
Very famous for being the most “ruthless” gang
MS13 exists in more than 42 states.

15. What did you find to be the most violent crime or dangerous activity the gang engaged in that was shown in the video?
Bus massacre where all of the passengers got shot and dead including the children.
16. What is the full “official” name of the gang?
Skinheads “frontline on the race boards” (Neo-Nazis)
17. What is the agenda or reason for the gang’s existence? Is it race, protection, drugs, or a combination of various factors?
Their goal is to make races separated and to show the others that whites are the most superior races than any other races. They are very violent and racist.

18. What are the gang’s colors and/or symbols? How do they identify themselves?
Boot party refers to beating with a pair of boots as a group
They wear the white and blood shoelaces to represent their race and blood.
19. What are three other things you have learned about this gang from the film?
They have swastika tattoos.
Skinheads were first originated from Great Britain and created from the gap between rich and poor.
Homeskin nation is known as the most dangerous white race group in the world.

20. What did you find to be the most violent crime or dangerous activity the gang engaged in that was shown in the video?
Just hitting a random person because he/she is not white. Sometimes led to death.
21. What is the full “official” name of the gang?
Latin Kings
22. What is the agenda or reason for the gang’s existence? Is it race, protection, drugs, or a combination of various factors?
Their primary goal is to protect their race. They also do drugs, but it was not as important as their race and protection.

23. What are the gang’s colors and/or symbols? How do they identify themselves?
Armor De Ray means love for Spanish.
They usually cannot trust their own members.
Yellow represents their symbol as a Latin.
White manifesto teaches a lesson on how to behave.
24. What are three other things you have learned about this gang from the film?
Normally gets killed if someone breaks the rule.
They would attack anyone who is wearing anything associated with red.
King blood is the leader of Latin Kings because of his crime record.

25. What did you find to be the most violent crime or dangerous activity the gang engaged in that was shown in the video?
Murder of King Roman. Killer chopped off the corpse and set it on fire. And also attempted to eliminate King Mougie during Halloween but he barely escaped.

How do you feel society could better deal with the gang issue? Do you feel tougher laws or intervention programs could make a difference? What would you do to tackle the gang problem? Gangs have been existed for decades and it still is. The society as a whole already tried a numerous way to prevent the establishment and the recruitment of gangs and while some did work, the rest did not. Although having tougher laws or intervention programs might help to suppress the problems temporarily, there is no “definite” solution to prevent the gang issues, and there will not be. As a society advances through the development of technology, medicine, and others, a lot of people will expect that the problem becomes easier to solve, but in reality, it becomes much difficult. Having a better technology do not only benefit the society, but also the gang members, which makes the problem even more complicated. An internet for example, although it helps people to have an access to a recent news and alerts, the gangs can have an access to that also. When a police car comes by, it notifies the nearest gang members to be cautious. The society is trying their best to deal with issues, but it is a lot more complicated than most people think. Making the laws tougher or having an intervention programs might help, but it does not extinguish the problems completely; it is like Darwin’s theory of evolution. When the police hires more officers to deal with gangs, a lot of the gangs will surrender but whoever that gets to survive gets to make even more powerful gangs. Same thing applies to the intervention programs. While the program may help a child to become more aware of the society, whoever that were already in an influence of other gangs will not care regardless. Personally, if solving all these issues were up to me, I would do the exact same thing as what society wants me to do. Making the laws stricter, hiring more police officers, and educating more children, that is what I would do because I know that the gang issues are not as easy to solve as what most people think. When technologies grow, the gang will grow, and when the society drops, the gang will drop too. There are many ways to prevent it, but no way to solve it.