The Youth Gang Culture - Get rich or die trying

Gangsta Rapper 50 Cent was once quoted as saying that he was the type of guy who would swallow his blood before he swallowed his pride.

This quote more or less summarises the “gangsta mentality”, which has infected the minds of youth in New Zealand who have integrated themselves into youth gang/street gang culture.

 

Power, wealth and prestige are what these youth are desperately seeking. The hallmarks of the gangsta rap-lifestyle, which glorifies and glamourises violence, drugs and misogyny played out by their beloved rap idols, signals to them that emulating the lifestyle may be just the ticket to success.

Some rap stars are just manufactured commodities bankrolled by multinational record companies, which in turn exploit their image for huge profits. At other times, the life you see played out through their music videos is in fact a sad reality.

Sad realities

Rappers such as The Game and 50 Cent rap about worlds where criminal activities, broken families and poverty are the norm. Young people who hail from similar backgrounds within the New Zealand context, especially Maori and Pacific Islanders, naturally identify with this music, because it expresses a way of life they easily relate to.

Inspector Jason Hewett, the man in charge of addressing South Auckland’s gang problem, understands why this is so. “Because most of these American gangsta rappers come from ethnic minorities themselves, this music provides Pacific and Maori youth with a sense of belonging, a feeling of kinship,” he said.

Negative messages

However, it also entices impressionable minds into thinking that if they only sold drugs or lived a life of crime, peppered with violence, all the material wealth portrayed in these videos would then become accessible. This is when the problems begin.

Mr Hewett said some South Auckland gangs looking to recruit know only too well the powers of glamourising the gangsta rap lifestyle.

He said he knew of one gang, which had taken young men to motels and supplied them with copious amounts of alcohol and provided prostitutes for them.

The message to the young men was clear – all they had to do was sell drugs and this type of lifestyle would be theirs. “For someone who has no shoes and didn’t have breakfast, you can see how alluring this could be for them,” Mr Hewett said.

Taking a stand

Papatoetoe High School Principal, Peter Gall, has taken a bold stand against gangsta rap and its culture.

In August, the school won a competition, which would have meant a visit from gangsta rapper, The Game, while he was on tour in New Zealand.

However, Mr Gall told the New Zealand Herald he had declined the visit, as he believed the gangsta rapper’s image and music sent a negative message to students.

“I have nothing against him but I am very much against what he has done in the past.”

The Game openly admits his gang affiliations and has even admitted to selling crack cocaine and marijuana while attending high school. He was also accused of pulling a gun on an opponent last year, during a basketball game in Rita Walters Educational Complex in Los Angeles.

Looking the part

Stylised clothing plays an important part for youth trying to emulate the American gangsta lifestyle.

In this way, gangsta rappers also take on another role, serving as fashion icons to youth who are eager to buy into the sub-culture’s ideologies.

Oversized clothing, flashy jewellery (bling), low-rider pants, basketball caps and bandanna(colours) are all common features of the standard youth gang uniform and more and more discount shops around New Zealand seem to be stocking these types of products.

Last year, Northland police officer Alison Ealam appealed to shopkeepers to stop selling bandannas to prevent children as young as six wearing gang colours.

Affiliations

Ms Ealam told the Northern Adovocate newspaper that the sight of young “bandanna clad youths” was unacceptable.

“They’re so young. It’s scary they’re afflilating themselves with gangs through their coloured scarves.”

Mr Hewett described the issue as “vexing”. ‘We live in a democracy so everyone has the freedom to express themselves.” However, he said if certain types of clothing supported intimidating behaviour, he believed “tools”, that would aid Police in eliminating this, would be most welcome.

The Internet - networking

The explosion of the gangsta mentality is no more in evidence than by a quick look at the social networking site, Bebo.

Scores of pages with colourful imagery and language invade the screen as youth gang members pledge their undying allegiance to their gang of choice.

Most web pages are dedicated to either the American-styled gangs the Bloods or Crips where hand signals, colours and gangsta rappers who identify with the gangs are a common feature.

Posted video clips of real-life fights, gang members posing with weapons, drugs and money, and insults traded between rival gangs help reinforce the menacing gangsta mentality.

War of words

Police inquiries into a recent fight between a 15-year-old Auckland Girls Grammar student and another girl found that the fight had been pre-arranged through Bebo.

During the fight, the Auckland Girls Grammar student was stabbed in the neck with a bottle. She was very lucky to escape without serious injury.

During another incident in September, police picked up eight youths after they attacked an Auckland secondary school student with a softball bat.

Radio New Zealand reported that during the attack, the name of an Afghan youth gang was yelled and it is believed the attack stemmed from a war of words on Bebo.

Recruitment processes

The Press recently reported that Bebo is used as an avenue to recruit impressionable youth. Dr Devon Polaschek, Associate Professor of Pscyhology at Victoria University in Wellington, an expert on youth offending, told the newspaper that gangs depended on recruiting young members to do their “dirty work” and the Internet was a way to contact youths who may not otherwise be readily accessible.

Dr Polaschek said the older gangs liked recruiting young members with no prior convictions because they received shorter sentences when they went to jail. It is known in Police circles that some younger members are set up to ‘take the rap’ for crimes they did not commit because they are under-17 and will be dealt with by the Youth Court.

If the older member was convicted of the same crime, they might have to do jail time. The younger member may be awarded their colours for such allegiance. 

Mr Hewett said Police were aware of the gang culture on Bebo and had a strong relationship with Bebo site monitors. “If we see any illegal material, all we have to do is call them up and let them know and they are really good at taking it down,” he said.

Police have also utilised the site for intelligence and profiling on a number of occasions.

South Auckland youth gangs

Mr Hewett said the South Auckland youth gang problem, which reached fever pitch in 2005, had definitely died down. He attributed this to a 26-point action plan set up in 2006. The plan is a multi-agency response to the problem.

Twenty-two youth workers and representatives from the Police, Ministries of Education, Justice, Social Development, Counties-Manukau District Health Board and other social agencies in the community are all part of the Auckland Youth Support Network Group, which takes an holistic approach to addressing the problem.

Mr Hewett said the plan was working well, but stressed that the positive results were down to all the different agencies doing their part.

“Tackling this issue is not something which can be handled by Police alone,” he said. “There have always been gangs and there always will be, but we all have to do our part in addressing the issue, and not pretend it doesn’t exist.

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