We have an over abundance of street gangs in this country who’ve staked out certain areas of many communities as their "turf".  Battles over "turf" seem stupid to me but so do many other gang related things.  I’m really not interested in all of the excuses made by society that try to explain membership in these groups.  I’m trying to understand how you can casually walk down the street and kill someone for no reason other than as part of an initiation rite for membership.  And thanks once again to the History Channel for making it a regular program available to millions of our kids.  Gangland is the show and it’s a damn disgrace.

The more I learn about gangs the less I understand.  One thing I seem to hear quite often is the word "dis".  He "dissed" me in front of my friends.  He "dis"respected me so I came back later that night and shot him. As I was growing up I can honestly say I never heard that word ever used.  It’s only in the last fifteen years that it seems to have become part of the lexicon in this country.  How is it that a small innocuous three letter word has caused the deaths of so many.  How is it that a small three letter word which has been in use for decades has been turned upside down and now becomes a reason to kill.  Many words contain "dis" but don’t require deadly action to defend.

…disbanded
…discharged 
…discouraged
…discriminate
…disenchanted
…dismembered
…distressed
…distrusted

None of these words need defending at the cost of a human life.  Maybe it’s just a convenient excuse or rationalization by these gang members for committing violent acts.  Maybe it eases someone’s guilt feelings by using the word to convince themselves their protecting their gang.  Maybe it’s the gangs peer pressures and fear of exclusion that make a thirteen year old kid turn into a killer.  It might even be fear of reprisals that force these violent acts to take place.

I must sound vaguely like some of the so called dumb-ass experts making excuses for their bad behavior.  Maybe it just comes down to the basics.  If you don’t like school, other people, the government, the police, your parents and you do like drugs, violence, murder, and prison.  Your destined to be a gang member.

Believe me I have no answers to this problem but I’m sure sick to death of seeing it broadcast on TV over and over again.  The program Gangland needs to be discontinued.  In it’s own weird way it’s romanticizing the gangbanger way of life like nothing before.  I can just see groups of gang members bragging it up that their gang was mentioned on TV and really showed the world what a bunch of bad asses they are.  It’s probably one of their best recruiting tools these days and it costs them nothing at all.