The Gangs of L.A.

Los Angeles, California is known as the gang capital of the world, with an estimated 127,000 gang members operating in the region as of 2007. I once had the opportunity to interview five former full-fledged gang members in California prisons in an effort to find out more about recruitment, how gang life has impacted them, their recommendations for youth thinking of joining or leaving a gang, and their own personal experiences after breaking away from gang life. Below is my first interview with T.T., currently serving a life sentence in a California state prison.

Moving to Los Angeles in 1972, T.T. became involved with the gang-banging culture when he was 11 years old. His brother was shot several times from a rival gang at the time, which set off what he calls his “revengeful spirit.” He recalls an incident when he was in junior high standing in front of his school and being shot at by a rival gang member. Gang violence was commonplace and he had been kicked out of every junior high school in the district. He began selling marijuana and crack cocaine in high school and by the time he was 19 he was sentenced to a life sentence in prison for killing a rival gang member.

Q: How did you become involved in organized crime/gangs?

Becoming involved with the gang culture of the Los Angeles areas initially came about as a means to combat the racial prejudices we faced as a minority ethnic group. The late 60's to early 70's brought a great migration of Samoan people to the coastal cities of California — mainly San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego. It was during this time from my perspective on giving an account of the events that transported leading to the culmination of the Samoan gang/click that I was associated with. Because of the prejudices we faced from ethnic groups that were already here with established gangs and clicks –Samoan youths indoctrinated our own version of a gang. Members consisted of Samoans only. To give a brief account on some of the ethnic prejudices we faced with other ethnic youth of the time — I can recall the names and slurs that were thrown at us in school such as cannibals, head-hunters, head-shrinkers, fresh off the boat, coconut tree jumpers, and spear chucker’s. I can recall being chased home on numerous occasions after school from Black, Mexican and White youths all taunting us with those racial slurs.

We were fighting all the time with these groups on numerous occasions; thus the indoctrination of our own version of a gang. One of our primary focuses was to establish a reputation for Samoans as a force to be reckoned with. And that was something we did with ease as far as violence was concerned.

Q: How old were you?

At the age of 11 years I became involved when an older brother of mine was shot several times by a rival gang of different ethnicity. It was pretty brutal what they did to my brother who wasn’t even involved with the gang scene. Just being Samoan back then was a good enough reason to be the victim of a rival gang. My brother was pretty much left for dead after that, but by the grace of God he is still on earth today.

Q: Did you have to go through an initiation process? If so, what was it?

From the experience of my brother getting shot in 1978 that built in me a revengeful spirit that led to my involvement with the lifestyle. The initiation process for us was to walk the line.

This process involved current members standing in two lines facing each other with just enough space in between them for the initiate to walk through. The initiate had to walk through this line defending himself from swinging fists and kicks yielded by the members of both lines. If the initiate made it through to the end of the line still standing they became a member.

The reason for this initiation process was to see if the prospective member could handle his own in gang battles — basically, to see if he wasn’t a coward who would run from a gang fight, should one ever occur.

Q: Tell me what a typical day looks like while you were in your previous life.

Hung out with the girls, getting high, and selling drugs at one of our spots. At night we’d seek revenge on rival enemies — going through their “hoods” just straight banging and representing our set. On the weekends we’d all meet up at the kick back spot and party till wee hours of the morning.

Q: Why do you think youth join gangs?

A lot of youth join gangs or are associated with them because of their being raised around or in that environment. I mean if you grew up in the ghetto chances are that you will become involved with the lifestyle in that environment. Poverty is high in the ghettos therefore criminal behavior and activities are much more prevalent. Gangs and clicks are formed in every ghetto because of the poverty rate being high and other factors that apply.

Most gangs are into pushing some sort of drug as a means to “come up” out of that poverty state. The fast money that’s made attracts the attention of a lot of youth. In this way, or should I say, youths are lured by the material things that can be obtained by this fast money such as cars, clothing, jewelry, etc. In this way they fall into the false security that gangs offer.

Then you have those youths in the ghettos that are raised in dysfunctional families such as families raised where their fathers are nowhere to be found and if they are, they are in and out of prison or in and out of their lives or are strung out on some type of drugs. In these types of situations youths are drawn to the gangs looking for a sense of belonging.

I guess you could say that some youths could be attracted to gangs basically by the excitement of the lifestyle that gangs represent — fast money, material gain, parties, drugs and the violence associated with the pushing drugs agenda.

Q: What, in your opinion, can be done to prevent youth from joining gangs?

I think first and foremost prevention from youths joining gangs begins in the home. Parenting skills and living skills need to be implemented for young parents — especially if they are single mothers raising their children in poverty-stricken areas. This at least would give some young parents the tools to work with raising their children on a more balanced perspective as opposed to a conditioned state of being raised in the ghetto environment.

Even if we came up with all the answers, measures, and steps in order to prevent youths from joining gangs it would still be next to impossible, but possible to prevent — reason being the “lifestyle” is glorified by the music and film industries, and because of this, one can say that our youths are being conditioned to view the lifestyle as an acceptable way of living.

Q: What can be done with those who are already involved with gangs?

Intervention by all means is what I would recommend. If it takes a parent going down to the hang-out spot every day to embarrass and bring their child home, so be it. If it takes picking them up from school all the time and monitoring their whereabouts constantly, so be it — whatever measures of intervention is necessary; just don’t give up.

Q: According to your own experience, please tell me the obstacles you have had to overcome leaving the gang life and its associated barriers. How difficult was it to leave? What was the biggest challenge to overcome and how long has it taken to transition to where you are at now?

I think one of the main obstacles I’ve had to overcome in leaving the life was the relationships that I’ve built over the years with some of the homies. In a sense they became like family to me. On the other hand, I would have to say another obstacles was me — worrying what the homies would think, especially since my reputation was one to be reckoned with.

Then there’s the fast money associated with pushing drugs. I think this was the biggest challenge for me, because the temptation of making quick and easy money versus working an eight-hour job that pays once a week or once every two weeks. Pushing drugs, especially weight, you can make in two weeks or less what the President or top executive job pays in a year.

The transition of leaving the lifestyle hasn’t been easy, and one that has taken years to get to where I’m at mentally with. All I can say is that life is behind me now. With continual maintenance I will never fall back into it. It’s a process that I have to put work into, and believe me, I’m willing to run the race and be crowned a prince in the end. It wasn’t an easy thing, but my awareness sets the tone — I know where I come from, I know where I’ve been, and I know now where I need to go.

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Lauren Casey, PhD, is an award-winning author, speaker and international recovery coach. She has been published in several peer-reviewed academic books and scholarly journal articles. She is currently writing her memoir, expected to be published in 2018.