311 impacts of gang lifestyles after awhile with the

3.11 IMPACTS OF GANG LIFESTYLES
After awhile with the gang, living a life of murder and mayhem, gang
members can suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as it is
most commonly called. They lack the ability to feel emotion for killing
someone. It becomes a norm and a fact of life as they live it. A gang
member once said to me, in complete disgust, when I asked him how
he felt about killing a man, “Why should I feel anything for him, he
ain’t nothin’ to me.” It can become surreal to them. Many of the youth
gang members I knew came from broken homes, domestic violence,
and/or homes where it was the norm for members to go to prison and
to belong to a gang.
Gang membership is passed down in families. It is a tradition. Gang
colors, tattoos, and other identifiers are all part of this tradition. It is pos-
sible that some gang-involved families could have probation, parole
and children or social service workers passing each other on their way
into or out of these homes. There is likely to be information that each
public sector agency could legally share with each other, in order to
truly put together a plan to assist members of this family, especially the
children.
Gang membership begins most often with an initiation, usually a
beat-in for a male and sexed-in for a female. There are some variations
to this depending on the level of violence of the gang. Members don’t
34 Gangs and Law Enforcement

automatically get their “colors” upon initiation. They have to earn
them. Usually they are told to commit a crime. As they rise in the ranks
from foot soldier to enforcer/assassin to the management level, they
are now coordinating the crime from behind closed doors. They’ve
done prison time probably more than once and don’t want to go back
for another count. They use the new gang members to carry out the hits
and conduct the criminal activity.
3.12 GANG GRAFFITI INTERPRETATION
Gang graffiti has gone through some changes since I learned how to
interpret it in 1989. But, the major gang symbols and hand signs have
not changed. A major change has been an effort to hide their gang’s
symbols in other artwork. I first saw this happening in juvenile correc-
tional institutions in the artwork created by the inmates in the institu-
tion-provided art classes. They were then allowed to hang their work in
their dorms or cottages. Violence followed. I was asked to tour the facil-
ities and found that rival gangs were housed in the same dorms/cot-
tages. Their artwork was an attempt on the part of each to claim that
area as the turf for their gang. Most often it was the Gangster Disciples
(set of the Folks) disrespecting the Vice Lords (set of the People). These
are Chicago gangs that have managed to spread through anywhere
from 30 to 45 states.