CA: 24 Members of Florencia 13 Gang Named in Rico Indictment that...

KIA is a term used for our Marines and service men that died for their country. Dont use it for some gangster. Although it is a waste of life to die gangbanging, it is should not be compared to service men who serve with honor. Gangsters only terrorize their own community and raza.

El Norte wrote:

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Good insight. I came out of that background, fairly hard core and was lucky to have people that cared enough to get my a$$ out (of LA) and into academics and sports. Later, after I got into college and found that many of my gangbanger friends - homies from the hood - had either been KIA, imprisoned, or on skid row, I was struck by how many of them had the potential to have become a Supreme Court Justice (well, maybe that is a stretch (chuckle) but perhaps), a Medical Doctor, or other professional, and how they have the same innate capabilities as anyone and everyone else attending a top university or running a successful business, that sort of thing.
Having had that background, I now look at some of the guys and I wish I could convey this to them, how they are on a dead end track and will be very, very sorry and have profound regrets later in life for not taking control and finding a positive direction, goals, to work towards.
Getting caught up in the gang life is like being brainwashed, very tribal, a very strong and resonant identity.
Someone caught up in that who can find the inner strength, will always (from all the former LA gangbangers I know, and they are many) thank their lucky stars they broke out and made a new life.

grow up litle boy

Hey El Norte wrote:

KIA is a term used for our Marines and service men that died for their country. Dont use it for some gangster. Although it is a waste of life to die gangbanging, it is should not be compared to service men who serve with honor. Gangsters only terrorize their own community and raza.
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That is fs not appropr sure,to insult those who have served is unacceptable.KIA is not appropriate.

That post came up wrong: it should read.
That is for sure, to insult those who have served is unacceptable. KIA is not appropriate to describe the killing of some scumbag gangbanger

Hey El Norte wrote:

KIA is a term used for our Marines and service men that died for their country. Dont use it for some gangster. Although it is a waste of life to die gangbanging, it is should not be compared to service men who serve with honor. Gangsters only terrorize their own community and raza.
<quoted text>

I am glad you pointed that out, an unintended literary slight made for dramatic effect. Truly, your point is well made

Jim wrote:

<quoted text>That is fs not appropr sure,to insult those who have served is unacceptable.KIA is not appropriate.

I am glad you pointed that out, an unintended literary slight made for dramatic effect.
Your point is well made.

Jim wrote:

That post came up wrong: it should read.
That is for sure, to insult those who have served is unacceptable. KIA is not appropriate to describe the killing of some scumbag gangbanger

I am glad you pointed that out, an unintended literary slight made for dramatic effect. Your point is well made. Thank you.

Wait until our service men and women war contractors are back on US soil. I think we are going to see a reduction in gang memberships.

Hey El Norte wrote:

KIA is a term used for our Marines and service men that died for their country. Dont use it for some gangster. Although it is a waste of life to die gangbanging, it is should not be compared to service men who serve with honor. Gangsters only terrorize their own community and raza.
<quoted text>

I appreciate your reaction to the term I used, as I have thanked you for bringing this to my attention. I noticed also that you have a simple label for something, an experience and circumstance that someone who has been born into a barrio would find a bit offensive as well.

You called it "gangbanging," which is fine, for your purposes. Yet I never referred to "gangbangers" specifically: I generally referred to people I have known growing up, intelligent, generous, likable people, the first ones to pull over and help you fix your flat tire, or mow your loan if you need help, and who come from families that are intimately linked with neighborhood identities going back three, four, sometimes even more, generations.

Many of the people I knew growing up were killed while getting caught up in social forces beyond their comprehension. Taking care of family, identifying with their "tribe" as I analogize it (especially since I have lived and worked with tribes in the Middle East and see many similarities in the processes of identity formation, social dynamics, between the barrio experience growing up and loyalties, and the cultural landscape of Bedouin and other Arab tribes I have worked with in Middle East countries.

There is an important distinction here, one that reminds you that "context is everything."

Again, thank you for your attentive remarks and please place in context the comparisons and contrasts with American servicemen for whom the DOD uses this term. Thank you, EN

edit:
It should read "help you... mow your lawn" not "loan," which is probably muscle memory and my motor skills being impaired from typing long emails back and forth about home loans. Sorry

Polish Mafia wrote:

Wait until our service men and women war contractors are back on US soil. I think we are going to see a reduction in gang memberships.

gangs have been proliferating through peacetime and while at war. The shocking truth: There are more than a few U.S. servicemen who are themselves from gangs. Marines, Navy, Army (few Navy and fewer Air Force) have within their ranks many current and active gangmembers.

They return home with skills.

El Norte wrote:

<quoted text>
gangs have been proliferating through peacetime and while at war. The shocking truth: There are more than a few U.S. servicemen who are themselves from gangs. Marines, Navy, Army (few Navy and fewer Air Force) have within their ranks many current and active gangmembers.
They return home with skills.

unfortunatley that is the truth.
You mentioned your Barrio upbringing,Does'nt it sadden you to see the cycle of violence that you have risen above?

ms 13

Jim wrote:

<quoted text> unfortunatley that is the truth.
You mentioned your Barrio upbringing,Does'nt it sadden you to see the cycle of violence that you have risen above?

That is, I think, what motivated me to post here, otherwise I would have just been a voyeur and moved on (chuckle). BTW, I noticed a couple of mistakes, inconsistencies in my other post (I did use the term "gangmember" when I said I had not, while I was trying to clarify another aspect of this issue; sorry for the confusing posts).

Having been very close to the situation we are talking about here, it is difficult to make a clear distinction about when someone "becomes" a gangmember.

The barrio neighborhoods of LA are especially coherent examples, yet I suspect similar/identical processes are at work in other ethnic enclaves - urban, suburban and rural. The process involves identity formation, something people are deeply programmed for, an inheritance of past lifeways stretching back through prehistory (this assumes at least some belief in genetic evolution).

Many of the kids I grew up with looked to each other for support, we were all like family, a clan; ultimately - and my experiences in the Middle East with marginalized tribal arab cultures (Bedouin) convince me of this - there are similar processes at work in American society, barrio-leading-to-gang culture, as there are operatively in tribal society.

I cannot post enough to do justice to the concept, but suffice it to point out that many of these are good kids, just caught up in circumstances, more importantly, cultural processes, that are beyond their awareness, yet that lead them inevitably to an extremely self-destructive identity, the kind that is not dissimilar from radical Islamists and those willing to destroy themselves.

man get a life you guys make mexicans look bad. you guys are weak by yourselves. you guys need an ass whooping as kids. oh yeah i forgot that you guys are need a man in the house. T.B.Z 13 HP CLICKA.

the bratz homie hp for life. you guys dont run nothing but you mouths. grew up and get a life fagetts.

Grow up, get a life...
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