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Global social problems of gang activity
Essays on gang culture
Sociology of gang violence
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Growing up in poverty, lack of parent's attention, financial gain, drugs, power, corruption, lack of opportunities, vengeance, hopelessness, and an open display of violence as an everyday occurrence is depicted in film City of God and Sin Nombre. Both these films tell a story of kids being recruited into the gang life. In City of God we have Li’l Ze, who as a kid, starts killing at a young age, he yearns for power, and has no fear. We see the life of Li’l Ze as a child transition into adulthood, and he is feared within the favelas of Rio. In Sin Nombre we find Benito, who is 12 years old, and is recruited by Casper to join the Mara Salvatrucha 13 gang, also known as MS-13. Benito was submitted to the initiation ritual of the gang, and endures …show more content…
The film centers around Willy, nicknamed Casper. Casper is a member the Mara Salvatrucha gang. Casper introduces Benito, a 12 year old into the Mara Salvatrucha. Benito is then nicknamed Smiley. Just like Steak'n'fries in City of God, Smiley was ordered to kill a member of another gang member from the Chavala gang. Casper shows Smiley how to use a makeshift pipe gun and the gang member is killed. Smiley is trembling and hesistant, but he completes the mission he was assigned. We see the cruelty Lil'Mago is in the scene, and he makes it clear that once in a gang alway in a gang. Chavala is then fed to the dogs. Roger Eberts states in his review "Smiley, so young, with a winning smile, is perhaps the most frightening character, because he demonstrates how powerful an effect, even hypnotic, gang culture can have on unshielded kids". This was true in Smiley's case and in the favelas. In Sin Nombre, Casper takes Smiley under his wings, and at the end of the film, it is Smiley who kills Casper. This is also the same in City of God, where Li’l Ze is killed by the Runts, the same group of kids that were working for him. Smiley showed loyalty to the Mara Salvatrucha. Both Smiley and Li’l Ze were little boys when they started killing, it is sad that both of them wanted this type of lifestyle. None of them showed any …show more content…
We meet Sayra, a Honduran girl who is traveling with her family on a train through Mexico to get to the United States. As in City of God, the people from Central America also face the same issues such as gang violence, corruption, and lack of opportunities. There is a scene in the film, where the people that were heading North, were stopped by Mexican authorities. The Mexican authorities then demand any items of value and for them to get naked, in order to search them. Clearly, this is corruption. Both films depict police corruption, where we entrust our authorities, and in turn the misuse their
In order to determine why Rodriguez joined a gang so early in his life, we have to scrutinize his childhood up to that point. In Always Running Rodriguez provides us with a very thorough description of his childhood from the time on at which children move into a wider social context an thus learn how to treat people outside their family and build up relationships with those.
“She is wearing a necklace of hickeys, a black mini skirt, a pair of three-inch heels she bought two weeks ago on her 14th birthday” this sentence, for example, illustrates the character, Tequila, who is only 14 but already has experienced many things (227). What made me angry about this article was the reality of what these characters faced. The amount of crime, and the shootings, at a young age. However, what I found interesting about this was how it became different when the new drugs came. “’My people took your ideas and totally bent it and turned it around and took away any of the pride or the respect that was in a gang (235).’” Stager does an effective job in intertwining the scenes with the history of Los Angeles gangs. It allows you to understand the changes of the gangs, whereas newspapers, and other newscast would simply showcase the amount of homicide and gangs violence there has been in LA since the
Throughout the film there are two main characters. These two characters are Irish brothers that share a deep sense of their Catholic religion. Their names are Murphy and Connor McManus. Murphy and Connor are two normal men who are put in an extraordinary situation. Connor risks his own life to save the life of his brother. The situation starts out with a bar fight with two Russian mafia members. The Russians lose the fight with the two brothers; the next morning they come after the McManus brothers for revenge. Murphy and Connor kill the two men in self defense and go to the police station. While in the holding cell, they are given a message from a “spiritual force” to rid the world of evil men. The two brothers mutter “kill all that is evil, so all that is good may flourish”(The Boondock Saints) From that moment they devote themselves to a battle between good and evil. Another important character is David Della Rocco, also known as the “Funny Man” or just Rocco. Rocco is a package boy for the Yakaveta family which is involved in the Italian mafia. The head of the Yakaveta family is “Papa” Joe Yakaveta. Papa sets up Rocco in a situation to have him killed; Rocco finds out about papa's plans and decides to join forces with Murphy and Connor in killing evil people. The killings are mainly focused towards men with mafia affiliations. So Rocco tells the McManus brothers who to ki...
For the children of the projects, the pressure to join a gang never waivers. Quick cash and protection are hard forces to resist in a world of poverty and violence. However, the children's role in these gangs is inferior to that of the leaders. At first, the concept of joining is quite attractive. According to Lafeyette, one of the two brothers profiled in the book, " 'When you first join you think it's good. They'll buy you what you want' " (31). However, " 'You have to do anything they tell you to do. If they tell you to kill somebody, you have to do that' " (31).
In the book Luis thinks that by joining gangs he will be empowering others.The author exposes the readers to gang violence, rape, drugs, and trouble with the police.
The gang and the community are intertwined as the gang encompasses many of those that live in the area, as presented in the ending of the film. The ending is important because it sets up the permanency of label theory, and when the role of delinquent becomes evident. Throughout the movie the main character Montoya Santana speaks of respect and his gang, until the end where it states how he regretted his role, as a kid turning to gang culture for respect. In the movie it states,” You know, a long time ago, two best homeboys, two kids, were thrown into juvie. They were scared, and they thought they had to do something to prove themselves. And they did what they had to do. They thought they were doing it to gain respect for their people, to show the world that no one could take their class from them. No one had to take it from us, ese. Whatever we had... we gave it away” ( ) This quote connects of labelling theory because it relates the role of gang members they had to play at juvenile detention and extended to that identity being the basis of them growing up. Proving themselves became the bases of their identity being labelled as criminals at such a young age created a need for a role to protect themselves the only way they knew how. They come from a place where gang was the only prominent role in their
The film makers are trying to depict Colombia as a town rather than a country. Despite the landscape views we get from Colombia’s most famous cities and mountains, in Narcos, the audience sees Colombia as a place that is dangerous, has no progress and it is politically unstable. This bothered me for the most part , because again its misrepresentation. Maybe it has to do with the fact that during this era all you heard from Colombia were Narco stories. According to fusion, “It's a helpless, stubborn nation, unwilling and unable to defend itself. This means basically that Colombia is being represented as a small town in a western movie. This can directly correlate with Native Americans because European Americans back in the day viewed Indian Reservations the same as Americans view Colombia, as shithole. The descriptions by Americans to these 2 places are almost
Victor Rios is a previous gang member, whom “was given the opportunity” to get out of the youth control complex. In his book “Punished”, he analyzes the experiences of young black and Latino boys in Oakland, California. Rios gives us an intimate description of some of the everyday forms of “hyper discrimination” these minority boys experience. This book review will focus on the main concepts explained in chapters one through three from the book Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys.
Both films represent the conflict between the poor and powerful through institutions overpowering the individual in the urban environment. This is clear in City of God, as the police are
We should admit it that young gang members will be terrible if they do not have a nice guide. In the movie Freedom Writers, Parco, who never felt sorry for that Asia boy, shot a person with no hesitation. Many gangs use their gang members to collect drugs proceeds, acquire or sell drugs, or do kidnappings, which is a menace to society . Some youth gangs destroy public environment by drawing graffiti and engaging in vandalism . It is normal if there is no one keeps telling them it is wrong and never gives up on them, nevertheless, they did not just suddenly become unrelenting the first time they got their initiation into the gang life. At the beginning Eva was just a girl dreaming about being a princess. After years of fighting, she could mercilessly beat her enemy. While in the meantime, she felt sad for Anne Frank, she still dares to impugn what she had been force to comply and said what she “has to say”. They are cruel, but it does not means they are unable to be
This book was about a street gang called the Mighty Vice Lords. They were the second largest gang in Chicago with about 30,000 members. The Vice Lords started in the Illinois Training center (Juvenile Correctional Facility) for boys in St. Charles Illinois during 1958 and was led by Edward “Pepalo” Perry and Alfonso Alfred. This group was known to be brutal and violent. It discussed how a violent gang can become a community organization and change the way things were done for the betterment of the community. This information is important because it showed that gangs can become a positive force.
A Climate of Fear “The Gang Crackdown”, provided by PBS, communicates the everyday struggles that the communities of Nassau County face every day. The video’s focus revolves around the homicidal and violent crimes that have been provided by the “MS-13” and the details of cracking down on their development. The Latin American gang from El Salvador is known for their audacity to target the young population of Long Island and their homicidal tendencies. They have targeted children and teenagers at their workplace, their home, and their school. These gang members have left the community defenseless and struck fear into the hearts of many parents along with the government itself.
CNN presents the documentary, Homicide in Hollenbeck, spotlighting gang activity in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Hollenbeck. This documentary explores the subculture of gangs existing within Hollenbeck from a several perspectives. The people documented include a mother who lost both of her sons to gang violence, a priest that has tried to help rehabilitate gang members, a police officer that has worked in Hollenbeck for five years in the gang unit, and a current gang member. For a conclusion, Homicide in Hollenbeck focuses on a juvenile exposed to gang life on the cusp of decided where they want their life to lead; gangs or freedom. Problems attributed to the high rate of gang activity and number of gangs in Hollenbeck are the high poverty rate, low employment rate, and broken families that make up the majority of Hollenbeck. The crime most discussed, as per the title of the documentary, is homicide The number of gang related homicides has risen even though the criminal behavior of gangs has ultimately decreased in the neighborhood. In order to fight the overwhelming gang presence, the police believe in increasing the amount of gun power on the streets and number of jailed gang members. The priest who runs Homeboy Industries stated that he feels most gang members are just young men who can’t get out of the gang life. With more funds and opportunities, he thinks the problem could be decreased. In the end, the documentary mentions that the FBI has formed a gang center where local law enforcement agencies can share information to gain more knowledge and to better fight the presence of gangs.
In The Beast: Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail, Oscar Martinez comments on the injustices that occur while migrating from Central America. Central Americans are forced to leave their countries in fear of the inevitable consequences. The systematic abuse Central Americans endure while migrating is founded on that fear which results in more repercussions for migrants. The psychological effects of migrating is used by Martinez to give insight on the atrocities that happen in Central America. The corruption involved while migrating in Central America is against human rights and should be brought immediate attention internationally. Martinez uses the experiences of migrants to expose Mexico’s passivity on the subject and to expose readers’ to the hard truths that occur while migrating.
Our team presentation focused on three Latino gangs, MS-13 (Mara Salvatrucha), the Mexican Mafia and the Los Surenos gang. My part of the presentation was to provide information on the type of crime these three gangs are known to commit. The crimes committed by the MS-13 gang are varied, violent, and take place all over the country. The FBI even put together a task force called the MS-13 National Gang Task Force in December of 2004 to try to put a stop to this gang’s activities. (www.fbi.gov). Los Surenos or Sur-13, originally based in Los Angeles, has also branched out from turf wars with rival gangs to “for profit”, violent crimes across the country. The Mexican Mafia has a similar story to tell as well in regards to gang crimes, which again range from respect crimes, and retaliatory violence to crimes for profit.