Today we’re talking about criminals and gangs.
Gangs come in all shapes and sizes, and you can hardly compare MS-13 to a bunch of middle-class
guys that hang around skate parks and occasionally sell dime bags of weed.
We’ll discuss all kinds of gangs though, big and small, in this episode of the Infographics
Show, Why Do Gangs Exist?
First of all, gangs have been around forever.
Groups of people ganging up together to defend each other and sometimes hurt others is in
fact the nature of the human beast.
Just read about ancient Rome, not the nice parts, but the underbelly.
The dark streets, the poverty, the violence.
Read the grim poems of Juvenal, where the dimly lit streets were full of dangers and
roaming gangs.
But then look at the stories of heroic outlaw Robin Hood, and his band (or gang) of supposedly
merry men.
Did such a noble outlaw exist?
It’s doubtful, but we mythologize such outlaws because we often detest the cruelty of a sometimes-greedy
establishment.
Remember that Pablo Escobar was seen as a hero by some, in spite of cutting up his enemies
at times.
To the poor people he helped, he was a modern day Robin Hood.
Other criminals and gangs have similar origins- the Italian Mafia for instance started when
peasants rebelled against feudalistic oppression, and so its origins could be said to be noble
– depending on what literature you read.
So, when we ask why gangs exist, we should be careful not to judge.
We might look at many African American gangs in the United States, that have perhaps shed
blood and caused misery, but maybe we should be asking, why they came into existence in
the first place.
These lines by old school rap group Public Enemy might make sense to some people.
“Truth decay brush up on your facts.
All you gotta do is check them stats But what sense is a census
When they just miss us.”
In this case, the rap band was referring to disenfranchisement of some African Americans.
Tupac Shakur writes, “Born black in this white man's world,” and he’s also referring
to seclusion.
If you are secluded, it often happens that you join others that feel the same way, whether
you are a Sicilian peasant or a young man from Compton that grew up in hard times surrounded
by violence.
You could even in some sense compare the 1992 LA riots to the Peasant Revolt in England
in 1381.
These things don’t happen in vacuums, and while many involved may act despicably, the
anger has a genesis…and a fuse.
The catalyst of the formation of a gang might be oppression.
Sometimes we mythologize those gangs because we love an underdog, many years after the
fact usually; look at Dick Turpin, the gentle highwayman…and murderer.
Gangs may also exist purely through greed and a wantonness to cause fear and harm.
What we are trying to say, is that in understanding gangs, we have to understand the catalyst
of why they exist in the first place, but be careful not to mythologize them.
Criminal gangs often prosper only through cruelty, and the cruelest, while not always
competent, often rule.
Though that’s not always the case.
As you saw in one of our previous shows, the richest gang in the world, The Yakuza, is
perhaps the most noble and peaceful criminal syndicate in the world.
Gangs might be complex social groups that require an initiation, or just a bunch of
people that hang out together and maybe call themselves something like the Parkway Posse.
Let’s talk about the latter.
These smaller gangs might appear in more affluent areas.
You’ve probably seen the likes...often they have some kind of fashion statement that represents
their gang.
In the UK, mainly in the 70s and 80s, you had what were called football hooligans.
You didn’t usually need to go through an initiation, you just had to fight for your
crew and support the same team.
These teams would have certain “outfits”- a hooligan arm that supported the team.
You’d hear names such as Chelsea Headhunters, Leeds Service Crew, Hull City Psychos.
These were not all poor young men fighting oppression, although some experts argue that
lack of opportunity and frustration played a part in some of the gangs.
Gang members might just talk about the excitement of a running battle with another 100 men in
an opposing firm.
But an important part of why this existed was of course to feel you were part of something
bigger.
It’s herd mentality, and also forming close bonds.
Psychologists have talked about how people lose themselves in the crowd, how they become
not an individual but part of this bigger thing.
And this can be exhilarating.
Being part of this larger gang can give someone purpose and a feeling of belonging, and while
some hooligans went on to commit larger crimes, it was this belonging to the group that for
them was the lure.
Those pitch battles often resembled medieval battlegrounds.
To win or lose, life had purpose.
The 9 to 5 seemed futile in the face of that camaraderie and the excitement of violence.
On a smaller scale, those ketamine-dealing skaters in the park are also forging an identity.
Just as grunge fans did, or men that have decided to wear a man bun.
This is herd mentality, peer pressure, being part of a group.
Being an individual is hard work, it is a painful thing not to feel part of something
bigger than ourselves.
You might not call these people criminals, but it’s still part of the reason people
join gangs.
This is also why religion has worked so well.
You could call religions the biggest gangs in the world.
But just as someone born in one area might become a Crip and another area a Blood, many
people in one country are adamant their gang (or religion) is the right, true one, while
on the other side of the world, someone else is equally sure his or her gang is privy to
the indisputable truth.
We are seeing such divides in the UK and U.S at the moment over politics, the left and
right, and a schism with no solution in sight because everyone is sure their gang is right.
Gangs give us an identity, and it’s hard to let it go.
A gang can be our raison detre – a French word we use in English that simply means purpose.
Some philosophers such as Richard Rorty would say we should always be evolving and learning,
that we should always be re-describing what we think is the truth and our purpose.
But gangs want loyalty, an oath to a higher truth.
Kids grow out of being goths, but they join other gangs, whether political or religious,
as they get older.
We might also look at another reason for joining gangs: Boredom.
French novelist Louis Ferdinand Celine once wrote, “Life is a classroom and boredom
is the monitor.”
Young people want adventure for the most part, they want risk- after all, when we are young,
we often feel indestructible.
In many countries, there was a rave culture, which consisted of groups, or gangs, of young
people that attended massive parties listening to electronic music.
For a few hours, they danced almost hysterically, possessed by the music and more often than
not MDMA.
These were not criminal gangs for the most part, but people united who wanted to lose
themselves for a few hours on the weekend in between pushing paper in a job they hated.
And lastly, we come right back to the beginning.
Oppression and despair and making a buck.
Remember that every member of the Mexican Mafia was once a little kid who just wanted
love and attention.
Before Crips held a gun, they were little tots in kindergarten.
But when life seems hopeless, some people turn to gangs and crime.
For the money, the power, and for some mentally unhinged people, only to hurt others.
But this criminality was often borne of frustration.
Violence begets violence, and many gangsters had violent beginnings.
Or as you saw in our Yakuza show, the organizations started as outcasts.
They are now businessmen, just as the Mexican cartels are.
Greed and chaos pervade the drug trafficking scene in that part of the world, and here
we perhaps see the very worst of gangs.
We might judge individuals that join these associations, because many of us grew up with
opportunities, an education, some money, or if we were fortunate, supportive parents.
But you can’t choose where you are born.
It’s a controversial point, but perhaps for some, joining a gang was unavoidable.
Some are born in a bad place.
In prisons we often hear that some people join a gang solely out of fear, and needing
to feel they are protected.
The same can work on the streets.
Lastly, as a writer in The Guardian argues, the media does a good job in blowing gang
violence up.
The narrative sells papers and gets eyes on ads, said the writer.
But is it always a bad thing to be part of a gang?
“Young people join gangs because it is a crucial part of growing up,” says the writer.
“Gangs do not always revert to violence.
If there are positive, older role models involved with these gangs, they can hold the boundaries
essential to stopping them spiraling out of control and turning violent and crime driven.
This is key.”
We might argue that America’s war on drugs has been entirely unsuccessful and ruined
millions of American lives, as David Simon pointed out when he wrote “The Wire”.
He takes a more humanistic approach of depicting gangs.
If indeed, there is a part of the population who have been given little opportunity, perhaps
if those gangs acted nobly, we might not fear them so much.
In Simon’s view, many of those gangs were only practicing capitalism the only way they
could.
In the land of opportunity, drug illegality can provide much success…and your downfall
of course.
You might think otherwise though, and this is a very divisive issue.
So, what are your thoughts about the existence of gangs?
Let us know in the comments!
Also, be sure to check out our other video called Most Horrific Crimes of the Italian
Mafia.
Thanks for watching, and, as always, don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe.
See you next time!