Gangs-- Final

So what exactly is a gang? Well to me a “gang” is any group of people who identify each other in the same way. But the specific type of gangs I’m referring to in my blog is the kind in which the members are known to commit an immense amount of crimes, including thievery and drug dealing. These kinds of gangs identify themselves by colours and gang insignia. A professor from the University of Columbia, Sudhir Venkatesh specializes in this field and also describes gangs in the same way.
Unfortunately the crimes committed do no stop at thievery and drug dealing. In New Zealand nowadays, stabbings and shootings are becoming more and more visible in the media. Sadly it’s not just “gang war” but also innocent people are becoming the victims of these attacks. And where is it that is getting all of this attention? Nowhere other than South Auckland, of course.
Having lived in South Auckland for 7 years you’d think that I’d know a lot about gangs. But you’d be wrong. I know as much as or as little about them as everyone else. I gather opinions from what I’ve seen on the news or read in the newspaper, very rarely have I witnessed anything first hand. Ok, sure I’ve seen countless amounts of people walking around shouting “crips” or “bloods”, and that was just at high school. But it’s not these occurrences that are dragging South Auckland’s reputation through the mud. It’s true that living in South Auckland has had an impact on me; I don’t feel anywhere as near as safe as I did before I moved here. When I lived in the Bay Of Islands I felt a lot safer, but I recently found out that a prominent New Zealand gang, the Killer Beez now have a swarm, if you will, centred in Kaikohe! It seems there is no escaping this phenomenon, right?
But that’s certainly not for lack of trying! The district of Waikato has passed a law to ban all kinds of gang insignia. But really does anyone think that will work? I agree with the people who believe in order to eradicate gangs we need to delve deep, into the root of the problem. In order to know how to deal with the problem we must first know why the problem exists, right? For example, The Killer Beez were said to have formed after the Housing New Zealand Incident in which HNZ tried to evict the gang leader’s mother from her house.
However not everybody thinks gangs are a real threat to society. For example the Maori Party Co-Leader actually thinks gangs are a good thing for the youth of today, that they give young people with little or no family or friends somewhere where they can feel like they belong. But recently 19 supporters of the Killer Beez were in court for possession of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of P and stolen cash… Not really a good influence if you ask me.
The whole “gang scene” doesn’t just exist on the streets anymore. Pages dedicated to gangs or made my gang members are now visible on social networking sites, such as Bebo. However, judging by the few I’ve seen, the comments left are more often from people who disagree with the gang rather than people who support it. Maybe they see this as the only “safe” way they can express their feelings to gang members.


References:

Binning, E. (2008, January 31). Residents fear for safety after latest gang violence. Retrieved 2008, from nzherald.co.nz: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=30&objectid=10489793
Bradford, S. (1996-2005). Sth Auckland gangs are the children of Rogernomics. Retrieved 2008, from The Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand: http://www.greens.org.nz/searchdocs/PR9334.html
Collins, S. (2008, April 15). Gangs 'part of solution to youth violence'. Retrieved 2008, from nzherald.co.nz: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/story.cfm?c_id=217&objectid=10504156
Dubner, S. J. (2007, August 6). Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Street Gangs (But Didn’t Know Whom to Ask). Retrieved 2008, from The New York Times: http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/06/everything-you-always-wanted-to-know-about-street-gangs-but-didnt-know-whom-to-ask/
Editorial: Gang patch ban taking it too far. (2008, March 20). Retrieved from nzherald.co.nz: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/story.cfm?c_id=217&objectid=10499239
Gower, P. (2008, January 19). Gang presence growing since early days in Otara. Retrieved 2008, from nzherald.co.nz: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10487652
Hopkins, S. (2007, August 19). Fears gang merger will create new army of thugs. Retrieved 2008, from Sunday News: http://www.stuff.co.nz/sundaynews/4169964a15620.html
Koubaridis, A. (2008, May 7). 44 arrested in police crackdown on gangs (+photos). Retrieved 2008, from nzherald.co.nz: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10508408
Scoop. (2008, April 26). Scoop: 17-year-old left brain dead after South Auckland gang-related hit and run. Retrieved 2008, from Scoop: http://www.scoop.co.nz/multimedia/tv/national/7398.html
South Auckland Gangs. (2008). Retrieved 2008, from Bebo: http://www.bebo.com/CZMUP-BITCH

Introduction to Gangs

I don't really know where to begin with this topic because its such a broad one. To me, gangs are a personal issue because I have been living in South Auckland for about 7 years now and I'm sure everybody has heard atleast a little bit about South Auckland's reputation for crime. Before I moved here I used to live in the Bay of Islands and gangs were'nt really an issue to me at all. Whether this was because I was naive to their existance, or because they were'nt as prominent as they are nowadays is unknown to me but I have definately been hearing more about them over the past few years.
Another reason this has become a personal issue is because, not that long ago, friends of mine were "jumped" by around 15 men who claimed to members of a well-known South Auckland gang known as The Killer Bees. Luckily they were just after money and didn't physically harm anybody.
Even so, just hearing about things like this make me that little bit more scared and wary of the people around me.

Does anyone else have opinions or personal experiences relating to gangs?