Gang Culture: The New Ethos

Gang culture, if not the gangs themselves, is pervasive. It’s on our streets and in our schools. In some ways it’s Clockwork Orange come home to fester, no fiction now.

Old-timers in prison lament that young people don't abide by the inmates' code. Probably when these old-timers were young, their old-timers were whining the same lament about them: The times, however, they are a-changing. Now it's every man for himself, or for the special interests of his gang.

The evolution, expansion, and diversification of street gangs exacerbate the dilemma. Today's law enforcement needs more than an Eliot Ness, a J. Edgar Hoover, or a Sam Spade. It needs flexibility, and it needs money. Mostly, in my view, it needs divorce from self-aggrandizing politicians, who too often tailor legislation to serve their own interests rather than those of their constitutents. Indeed, our political environment is a key factor in the fruition of these gangs.

As the bad guys get older -- if they survive -- they get wiser, wealthier, and more powerful. Incarceration, as noted in my article, is no big deal to the leadership because power is as much a lure to gang life as money. So is security -- a gang is a regular Band of Brothers.

No one reckoned on the strangling grip drugs would take on the throat of North America. As far as organized crime went, law enforcement was pre-occupied with destroying the Mafia, Cosa Nostra, Unione Siciliane, Black Hand - whatever one chooses to call it. Success left a vacuum which has been filled by biker gangs, ethnic gangs, prison gangs, and offshore gangs like those emanating from Nigeria.

On another note, check out my newest poll.

And, finally, a story that might leave readers pondering the wisdom of the courts. Year in and year out, a Toronto man deliberately ignored paying court-ordered support payments. Year in and year out, he would be sentenced to 30 days in jail for contempt of court. And year in and year out, he took his holidays from work to coincide with the jail term. For him, the sentence was a State-paid, all-inclusive vacation. He always came back to work refreshed. So it goes.