In the 1970s and 1980s, Chicago gangs distributed
gang cards to stake their neighbourhood claim. Full gallery available
here.
posted by gman
on Jan 20, 2012 -
44 comments
80 Blocks from Tiffany’s was what The Warriors
, the cultish and campy Hollywood street gang movie involving roller skates and a race to Coney Island, could never be. It was real. Shot over the course of a couple of weeks in the summer of ’79 (as the seeds of hip-hop culture were slowly sprouting in the BX), 80 Blocks from Tiffany’s
, produced by Lorne Michaels [and directed by SNL director Gary Weis], veers away from the social commentary typically associated with gang exposés. Instead, the 60-minute documentary focuses on the personalities behind the news reports, including a tough NYPD detective from the Bronx Youth Gang Task Force and a sympathetic community activist. Quoted from the introduction to
an interview with Gary Weis.
posted by filthy light thief
on Oct 12, 2011 -
15 comments
The Jungle. Made in 1967 and awarded a Documentary Film Award at the Festival de Popoli, Italy, The Jungle is a short film made in Philly by Harold Haskins and the 12 & Oxford Film Corp. Re-discovered a few years back through Temple University’s Urban Archives.
posted by fixedgear
on Jan 26, 2011 -
2 comments
"Normally subcultures in Australia are taken from other countries and just reproduced here.
Sharps or sharpies are an Australian specific subculture, developed in Australian specific conditions." Sharpies were members of suburban youth gangs in Australia mainly from the 1960s to 1980s,
particularly in Melbourne, but also in Sydney and Perth to a lesser extent. "Everybody was in a gang. Everybody. Every second street there was a gang. Um --
there was like you were either in a gang or you were the victim." The time of the sharpies is part of Melbourne folklore. Forget JFK. Where were you when Frankston erupted after the
AC/DC concert in 1977? While the violence was legendary, so were
the fashion and the music.
Lobby Loyde and the
Coloured Balls,
Buster Brown,
Skyhooks, Fat Daddy,
Hush. And nobody
danced like the sharpies (which resembles
skanking of
some sort).
Anyone over forty who grew up in Melbourne has at least one story to tell about the sharpies (PDF). Some stories are about
gang leaders with missing teeth and shit-eating grins, while others
look back with some sort of fondness.
posted by filthy light thief
on Apr 14, 2009 -
23 comments
I often find myself asking, "Who wants to kill me and how can I avoid them?"
It seems that the list is pretty long. There are a whole batch of
international threats out to get me. There also appear to be a number of
street gangs, happy to do the deed as well. What's worse is that they are
spreading. However, since I don't travel abroad and I don't live in a fancy-dancy city like Los Angeles, Chicago or
Fargo, I'm probably safe right? Nope, sadly it seems hate groups are everywhere -- in
my backyard and probably
yours. I think this year I'm having Thanksgiving in the bunker.
posted by BeReasonable
on Nov 26, 2008 -
43 comments
The history of Chicago's
greaser gangs of the 1960s and 70s is an interesting one. Greaser gangs were street gangs made up of young white men who emulated the style of 1950s Fonzie-esque greasers, and existed in opposition to the perceived threat of Latinos and other minorities who were moving into their formerly Irish/Italian/Greek/etc. neighborhoods. Gangs such as the
Simon City Royals and the
Almighty Gaylords (previously) fought
amongst themselves and against Latino gangs such as the Latin Kings and the Vice Lords throughout the late 60s and 70s, even employing
racist/extremist logos and imagery to intimidate their enemies. Racial divides became less important with the advent of the drug trade, as formerly bitter enemies untied under the
People and Folk nations and graduated from comparatively innocent Outsiders-style street battling to violent warfare. Read all about this real-life version of The Warriors directly from the people who lived it.
posted by DecemberBoy
on Aug 10, 2008 -
35 comments
was there just a second ago... Cop Watch LA, a police watchdog group, posted the video on YouTube,
said organizer Joaquin Cienfuegos. Cienfuegos said the video was shot by a neighbor of Cardenas with a cell phone camera. The neighbor gave it to Cardenas' family, who then gave it to Cop Watch, according to Cienfuegos.
posted by Bravocharlie
on Nov 11, 2006 -
83 comments
Ima Gangsta -- the motivation and the regret. "San Francisco has an out of control gang violence problem, but what motivates young people to join gangs? Ruben City Palomares -- in his first film -- explores the reasons young homies choose to get jumped into a gang and reveals the lifetime of regret older gang members carry as a result of their fateful decision to be a gangsta. Palomares, 16, is a filmmaker with
Conscious Youth Media Crew."
posted by derangedlarid
on Oct 4, 2006 -
23 comments
The Almighty Gaylords "...To our first time visitors or people with little understanding of street gangs in general, the web site probably appears a little weird or creepy at first glance..." Gang violence - Chicago Gaylord style...
posted by longbaugh
on Jan 11, 2006 -
42 comments
Bellevue school bans hats, hoods... In order to curtail
unproven gang activity, Interlake High School has banned baseball caps, and the wearing of hoods, stemming from alleged gang involvement on the part of a few students. The faculty "believes" there to be gang actvity, and we all know that gangs require hooded-sweatshirt / ballcap uniforms, or you're out... Gang members can usually be singled out due to their poor fashion taste, but it has nothing to do with how they joined. This must be more of that freedom we North Americans seems to endorse so much...
posted by Dark Messiah
on Mar 8, 2004 -
63 comments
Gang Stories "The goal here is to tell some stories of what goes on behind the guns, drugs and crime in the headlines. These stories are the oral history of my old neighborhood. Figured it might do some good to write them."
posted by jdroth
on Sep 6, 2003 -
9 comments
Great article on how gang deportees go back to their old countries much deadlier than before they left. Reminds me of the prison is a "criminal college" argument.
posted by skallas
on Nov 11, 2000 -
3 comments
The world's most successful terrorist group strikes again. Although they can't claim the numbers of other terrorist groups, 17 November is considered to be one of the deadliest. Claiming over 20 kills with none of their members ever having been captured or killed is something to be proud of I guess. When I was stationed over in Greece, this group was our biggest fear, besides the fact that it was rumored that the group had links to the Socialist Party of the government and that the party "assisted" (using the term loosely) them from being captured. I had hoped that they had turned to internal terrorism and not International, as I hadn't heard anything about them in the last 7 years, but I guess that hope was optimistic.
posted by da5id
on Jun 8, 2000 -
1 comment
