Comments on: "so I decided to join them thinking it was just a small friendly gang but it turned out their not!"

"so I decided to join them thinking it was just a small friendly gang but it turned out their not!"

Melinika — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 19:34:30 -0800

Ask Dominique - an advice column for gang members. (via Salon Broadsheet)

By: eegphalanges

eegphalanges — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 19:42:29 -0800

Join the Army, kid!

By: jonson

jonson — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 20:19:49 -0800

Hmm. Pretty much everything I know about being a gangsta I learned from the song "Damn it feels good to be a gangsta," but I'm relatively sure one thing real gangstas never do is write into advice columns for help.

By: batmonkey

batmonkey — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 20:31:16 -0800

jonson said: "but I'm relatively sure one thing real gangstas never do is write into advice columns for help." Shocking, perhaps, but...real gangstas do include these scared little kids writing in to that site. You did mention the limits of your knowledge, though, so I'm sure you won't be too disappointed to find out you're wrong ;]

By: Alvy Ampersand

Alvy Ampersand — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 20:53:38 -0800

Very interesting; like batmonkey said, it's all too easy to dehumanize people who're in that lifestyle. But at least it keeps them out of 4H.

By: Citizen Premier

Citizen Premier — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 21:05:54 -0800

"I just recently got "jumped in" to the Sureno gang..." >>> "Ditch the superficial friends and find people alike or people who accept you!!"" Yeah, that's smart. Ditch your gang. I don't think Dominique knows shit about gangs.

By: batmonkey

batmonkey — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 21:18:30 -0800

I don't think Dominique does, either. Sounds like someone who wants to help, but doesn't have the skills for advising people who can be completely mindlessly killed for, say, not showing up to "hang out".

By: owhydididoit

owhydididoit — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 21:25:52 -0800

joe gatlin wrote: dominique, i iz wite/dutch/england english.i beleive dat gangs shood be apreciated and not hated.i pesonly,idolize da godfatha,and if u hate da godfatha,den u a hata.mi point iz dat i dont get wy u help kidz in gangs.

By: jason's_planet

jason's_planet — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 21:38:50 -0800

Join the Army, kid! I read an article in the Economist a couple of years ago about this Army recruiter in Washington Heights -- that's a poor Latino neighborhood in Northern Manhattan, for the non-USians in this discussion. The recruiter had to reject people with facial tattoos, people with gang tattoos, convicted felons, women with more than X number of kids outside of marriage, illegal aliens and a whole bunch of other categories I can't remember. The recruiter was able to accept one out of every thirty people who approached him for information about joining the Armed Forces. I suspect they may have become a lot less picky since then, though.

By: empath

empath — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 07:16:42 -0800

If you start letting gang members into the military, you'll end up with out of control militia's if you aren't careful.

By: Harvey Birdman

Harvey Birdman — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 07:40:11 -0800

Nothing is as dangerous as an out of control militia. That is, except for an out of control apostrophe.

By: Navelgazer

Navelgazer — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 08:56:53 -0800

I think I'm gonna go sit in a corner and cry now.

By: jonmc

jonmc — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 10:04:32 -0800

By: Marla Singer

Marla Singer — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 11:20:11 -0800

The recruiter had to reject people with facial tattoos, people with gang tattoos, convicted felons, women with more than X number of kids outside of marriage, illegal aliens and a whole bunch of other categories I can't remember. When interviewing a woman, the Army actually gives a shit whether any children she has were born in or out of wedlock? What are they, living in 1950? (And somehow I doubt they ask even one male whether he has any children outside of marriage.)

By: monkeymcgee

monkeymcgee — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 11:49:49 -0800

If you start letting gang members into the military, you'll end up with out of control militia's if you aren't careful. Interestingly enough they are having some gang activity (just tagging and throwing signs right now) over in Iraq within the US forces.

By: Elsbet

Elsbet — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 15:38:20 -0800

The children out of wedlock thing has to do with the number of dependents that the Army would be responsible for financially. There's also the matter of who would take care of the children during a deployment. They do ask males too. When I worked for the Coast Guard recruiters, for example, there were no single parents of any type allowed as new recruits. Retention is a different matter entirely.