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Kyle Young
Dr. Quinn
English Comp. 1
04/06/2011
The History and Evolution of Gangs
Violence, drugs, troublemaking, vandalism, and terrible influences. These are just a few
of the first thoughts that come to many peoples’ minds when they hear the word GANG. My goal
for writing this paper is to show that “gangs” or social clubs as they were originally identified
were started as a good thing and for a specific reason, but they have changed into what we know
today as gangs.
What is a gang? This question can be answered in a couple of different ways, however
not all of the answers are the true answer to this question. A gang is a group of people who share
a common identity through an organization (gangsrus.com). In its current usage it typically
portrays a criminal organization or a criminal affiliation in one way or another. The word gang
often carries a negative connotation; however, within a gang members may adopt the phrase
anyway as a statement of identity or defiance. In the words early usage, the word gang referred
to a group of workmen. The word gang is still often used in this sense in the United Kingdom.
Martin Sanchez, Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for Urban Ethnography at the
University of California states that most recent research has treated gangs in one of two ways:
either as a gathering of individuals with a specific negative set of personal attributes or a group
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of individuals who act in a deviant and or criminal manner. However he believes that this not
exactly the case and goes on to explain that what he finds troubling about both approaches is
their common underestimation of connections between the structural conditions of society at
large and the form of collective behavior that is ‘the gang’, and their similar recycling of
individualistic thought which is rampant in today’s American culture. Gangs and members of
gangs do not fit in and do not want to be grouped in with the normal members of society. Most
gang members join these gangs as a way of making a statement and separating themselves from
the norm the American society.
So where did gangs come from? How were these gangs started? Well Robert Walker, a
retired FBI agent who while working for the FBI headed up the gang task force in the Chicago
area, states on his website that gangs in the United States are not a new or recent phenomenon.
Asians, Blacks, (Afro-Americans), Hispanics, and Whites - they are all part of the history of
gangs. Gang history has been traced back to the post Revolutionary War days and originally they
were formed as a means of self-protection and as social clubs.
There are four major kinds of groups which were predecessors of the street gangs of
today. Secret Societies like the Italian Mafia and the Chinese Triads; “Gangs” of Outlaws in the
Wild West like the Jesse James gang or Al Capone in the mid west; Racist “gangs” like the Klu
Klux Klan; and the “Voting Gangs” like Ragens Colts, tied mainly to the Democratic Party in
large cities.
In the early nineteenth century, Irish immigrants, American natives and African
Americans formed the first street gangs in New York City. The founding members of these
gangs were the same age as most members of current street gangs, from the early teens to about
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the mid-twenties. They consisted of six main groups: The Smiths’s Vly gang, the Bowery Boys,
and the Broadway Boys were white, Irish groups; the Natives were white original new Yorkers,
and the Fly Boys and the Long Bridge Boys were African American. These six main gangs drove
the first social stakes in the streets of New York City.
Later with the arrival of immigrants of many other ethnicities likes the Poles, the Italians,
the British, the Germans, the Scandinavians, the Dutch, the Welsh, the Scottish, the Russians,
and the Jews, other gangs began to form, mostly by race or culture. The earliest gangs of New
York were not criminal groups. Many street gang members were employed, mostly as common
laborers. Some were bouncers in saloons and dance halls, as well as longshoremen. A few were
apprentice butchers, carpenters, sail makers, and shipbuilders. They engaged in violence, but
violence was a normal part of their always-contested environment; turf warfare was a condition
of the neighborhood. Gangs formed the “basic unit of social life among the young males in New
York in the nineteenth century.” (Gang Info 101 by Lisa Wells PG. 23-24)
As bad as this sounds the more dangerous street gangs than previously seen emerged
around 1820 from the persistent disorder that gripped the city slums, tenements, saloons, and
dance halls. The Forty Thieves gang was characterized as “the first important and decisively
dangerous gang of the quarter century.” It and other new groups of gangs that emerged in this
period were centered in criminal enterprises as much as in territorial disputes. “It is astonishing
that the more sophisticated the gangs became, the more violent they grew as well.
The Whyos (named for a bird-like call the members used to alert one another) is said to
have been “the most powerful downtown gang between the Civil War and the 1890’s. It
appeared to have emerged from an earlier gang, the Chichesters. This transformed and far more
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criminal gang actually had a take-out menu of its services, including punching ($2), nose and jaw
bone broken ($10), leg or arm broken ($19), shot in the leg ($25), and “doing the big job” ($100
and up).
Four gang alliances were the longest-lived gangs on the Lower East Side of Manhattan
for nearly two decades on either side of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries: the Five Pointers,
the Monk Eastman, the Gophers, and the Hudson Dusters. Territorial disputes and
reorganizations were commonplace, but the Jewish Monk Eastman Gang was particularly
notable for having terrorized New York City streets.
The Five Points gang, also called the Dead Rabbits, typically formed in the corner
groggeries (selling a combination of groceries and cheap liquor) were particularly influential,
such that it is said to be “the most significant street gang to form in the United States, ever!” The
Five Points Gang became the major league to many young street gangsters and a farm club for
the Mafia. Its co leader, Johnny Torrio, became a significant member of the Sicilian Mafia. He
recruited street hoodlums from across New York City to the Five Points Gang, including a
teenaged Brooklyn boy of Italian descent named Alphonse Capone, better known as Al Capone
or “Scarface.” The apex of the five point’s gang’s 25-year history was approximately 1857. “By
the 1870s, few members remained in Five Points. Years later, in 1919, being sought by
authorities in connection with a gangland murder in New York, Al “Scarface” Capone moved to
Chicago when Johnny Torrio needed his assistance in maintaining control of Chicago mob
territories. “Al Capone eventually became the most violent and prolific gangster in Chicago, if
not…the United States, that law enforcement has ever experienced.
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By the 1960s, more than two-thirds of the New York gangs were Puerto Rican or African
American. However, the highly organized Chinatown gangs reigned for nearly 20 years—from
the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s—during which they were responsible for systematic extortion
and violence. In this same period, a surging Hispanic/Latino population succeeded whites across
New York City, creating an explosion of both all-minority and multiethnic neighborhoods. In the
post-1990 period, newer Hispanic groups began to succeed Puerto Ricans. In fact, by the late
1990’s, Hispanics had replaced African Americans as the largest minority group in New York
City.
In the 1990s, post-World War II urban renewal, slum clearances, and ethnic migration
pitted gangs of African-American, Puerto Rican, and Euro-American youth against each other in
battles to dominate changing neighborhoods, and to establish and maintain their turf and honor.
By 2008, approximately 640 gangs with more than 17,250 members were criminally active in the
New England region. Most of the gang growth in this region has been in what is called the “222
Corridor” named this because Pennsylvania Route 222 bisects five cities in the state. In the
decade following the late 1990s, each of these cities experienced a dramatic increase in gangs
and their associated criminal activities. Violent gang members from major metropolitan areas
such as New York City, Newark, Philadelphia, and Baltimore travel to and through the “222
Corridor” using the smaller urban communities as part of their drug distribution networks.
The gangs of today wear colors or particular types of clothing and come from every
ethnicity, Asian, African American, Hispanic, and White. They use nick names or "monikers" to
identify themselves. They use drugs and alcohol. They conduct criminal activities which include
assaults and murder. The gangs of today did not originate any of these identifiers or criminal
activities, they have simply increased and expanded on that which was required to be a “gang
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member” of past. Gang activity flourishes because of denial. Gangs always have, and always
will, continue to grow in numbers as long as Community Leaders, Law Enforcement, School
Districts, and Parents turn their heads or UNTIL A TRAGEDY Occurs!
Every gang no matter where they are located and no matter how old the gang maybe
abides by a set of rules called “ The 3 R’s” known to all gang members. In order to understand
the gang mentality clearly and better you must know these rules. The first R is Reputation/Rep:
This is of critical concern to gang members. A rep extends not only to each individual, but to the
gang as a whole. The second R is Respect: This is something everyone wants and some gang
members carry their desire for it to the extreme. Respect is sought for not only the individual, but
also for one's set or gang, family, or territory. Some gangs require, by written or spoken
regulation, that the gang member must always show disrespect to rival gang members. (Referred
to in gang slang as dis). If a gang member witnesses a fellow member failing to “dis” a rival
gang through hand signs, graffiti, or a simple "mad dog" or stare-down, they can issue a
"violation" to their fellow posse member and he/she can actually be "beaten down" by their own
gang as punishment. The third R is Retaliation: in gang culture, no challenge goes unanswered.
Many times, drive-by shootings and other acts of violence follow an event perceived as a “dis”
(disrespect).
Every gang has a set structure that they follow. Gang members all have a rank in this
system. There are six levels to gang structure. The first level is Leadership: The leader of a gang
determines at what level of criminal activity the gang will function. Characteristics of the leader
are reflected in the day to day activities of the gang. The second level is Hard Core: The hard
core gang members are usually the older gang members, the individuals who are culturally and
criminally enmeshed in the gang and are at risk of being so for life. Most violent gang activity
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emanates from the hard core gang members. Hard core gang members usually make up about
10% of gang membership. The third level is Associate: The associate gang member has usually
made a personal commitment to the gang culture and is dedicated to achieving the level of
recognition needed to attain hard core status. The fourth level is Fringe: The fringe gang member
is still able to function outside of the gang structure and has not made a commitment to a life in
the criminal gang culture. This type of member drifts in and out of the gang and seems to lack
direction. The fifth level is Wanna-Bes: Wanna-bes are not actually gang members. They are
youth who view the gang as an exciting place to be, a place where they could become
"somebody". Wanna-bes may emulate gang dress, graffiti, hand signs, and other gang cultural
symbols, and they may associate with known gang members, but they have not yet been accepted
into the gang. The final level is Cliques: Very seldom is the gang at full strength. Exceptions to
this, of course, would be times of conflict or possibly at social functions. What is most often seen
as “the gang” is usually a clique from within the larger gang. The clique is a group of associate,
fringe, and often, wanna-be gang members who gravitate around one or more of the hard core
gang members. This somewhat resembles a gang within a gang.
So in conclusion what was once started as a good thing and a place for people of the same
race and ethnicity to meet and protect their neighborhoods has completely changed. Gangs now
have become increasingly violent and engage in the drug and gun trades and occasionally the
trafficking of human beings. The economy and the poverty rate have all led to this change in one
way or another. Hopefully with this paper I have showed you that not all gangs are bad or
criminal, but the majority have turned this way or are turning this way overtime.
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