Profile of a street gang member

One of your old friends has seriously changed in the last months. He has a specific dress code, consume alcohol and drugs, have problems with the cops, etc. Here is a profile of a street gang member to see to recognize is your friend is really involved in one of those gangs (I'm sure I won't happen with some of you but mostly in poor neighbourhoods):

Common personality traits of street gang members:

More often than not, the emotional, psychological and social needs of street gang members are often unfulfilled. Some of these traits can be simply natural in teenagers. However, it is important to observe the behaviour as a whole and if these traits are exaggerated, it is worth looking more closely.

Behaviours problems (violence)
Low self-esteem
Need for glorification
Rejection of standard

These indicators must be considered together to be deemed meaningful. Some of these behaviours may just be the usual signs of teenage hood.

The teen:

Seems to dress according to a specific dress code (specific clothing)
Wears clothing or owns items that he or she could not normally afford to buy
Has less and less interest in school
Has lost interest in former friends and activities
Has new, older friends identified by nicknames, whom the parent has never met
Consumes alcohol and drugs
Goes to street gang Internet chat sites
Uses hateful or racist language
Has been the victim of crime or fears being victimized
Has had problems with the police
Owns a weapon

You can now distinguish a usual teenager from a dangerous gang member. I hope you appreciate the topic and hope you learned something from this post. If you see these signs or behaviours in someone, try not to be too close of him if he's just someone you barely know or if he's a friend, ask for help.

Los Angeles gangs vs Montreal gangs

We certainly have our share of problems with gangs these days in Montreal but it is nothing compare to LA gangs. Walking alone in a gang sector can be scaring in Montreal but do the same thing in LA and I'm sure you will think that Montreal is like a walk in the park compare to LA gangs. In the year 1992, according to the Los Angeles police department, they were 9522 different crimes including, Homicides, rapes, robbery, etc. In 2006, they were over 7,300 different crimes. They were 271 murders. These numbers have decreased in the last few years due to the prevention of street gangs. They still have a big problem but they are fixing it because their problem didn't starting in the past years, it was there since at least 30 years. They are realizing that their city will benefit from this decreasing violence.

But just to show you how big this is, I will compare it with Quebec province. In 2006, approximately 70 people died in Quebec. It has a population of 6 millions compare to 4 millions in Los Angeles and the statistics I showed you with LA is just street gangs. Imagine all combined together. They have a big problem with crimes and I'm happy not to live there.

In Montreal, it's the opposite of LA gangs. The numbers have increased. We have see some LA members (9) in the region recently and the police was preoccupy by their visit. They argue that they were in vacation but Montreal's police is sure that 2 of them where there for drug deals. This is scaring because Montreal gangs are starting to identify their selves with LA gangs and if they come here, the problem will just become bigger and uncontrollable

How to prevent street gangs

http://video.canoe.ca/?fr_story=bc826a079339ba115491532810b9eb15b39d11b8&rf=sitemap

The priority for Montreal police is to fight street gangs in 2008 especially since their crime have increased. In 'La Maison Cote-des-Neiges" in Montreal, a place for young teenagers, they do prevention on street gangs occupying their free time. They have a pool table, a ping-pong table, they are playing soccer with other teenagers and police officers, a musical comedy, meetings with real prisoners, well everything to distract them from street gangs. It makes them understand the risks of succumbing to the charm of street gangs.

They interview two young teenagers on how they perceive street gangs after all these activities. They are two young black teenagers that could be perfectly dressed as street members but in reality, they are two young guys who are simply realizing what gangs are. They are conscientious about what it is and they don't want to be involved in it.

Not only they do activities but they also visit prisoners who can tell them what it is like to be in street gangs and how you have constantly risking your live. I think this is important to make young teens to really understand what it involves. It's with this kind of effort we will fight this phenomena and by increasing the funding, we will win this war against street gangs. After, we see some statistics about street gangs. The total homicides due to street gangs have increased from 12 out of 42 in 2006 to 14 out of 41(2007) homicides in the city of Montreal. Then, attempted murders have also rise form 42 out of 136 in 2006 to 54 out of 99 (2007) due to street gangs. You may say these are just statistics but the danger is real and alarming.

The video is just showing the positive side of the House. I'm sure some young teenagers are not as happy as the others and that they are frustrated. We just see some happy young guys and we assume that everything is perfect which I'm sure is false. I would have like to see a bad side of this video.

Article Response

Le Devoir newspaper
Réal Ménard, Deputy of Hochelaga and spokesman on justice for the Bloc Quebecois
http://www.ledevoir.com/2008/01/03/170481.html


The main purpose of this article is how Montreal fight street gangs and if it is effective or not and the opinion of Mr. Ménard on street gangs. First of all, he argues that street gangs in Montreal are more violence than ever. Crime in general has decreased but they are more violent. Today, they have closer links with the adult organized crime and they have a more prolific use of firearms.

"Les causes de leurs affrontements se sont déplacées: à l'origine axé sur l'antagonisme ou la vengeance, le mobile des gestes violents est aujourd'hui la rentabilité dans le cadre du contrôle de marchés criminels."

According to Mr. Ménard, street gangs were using antagonism or revenge as an argument to fight. Now, it is base on how much money they are going to make in criminal markets.

Also, he describes how we fight street gangs through justice. He clearly disagrees with how the Police Service of the City of Montreal handles the situation with their conservative way of fighting it and finds it inefficient. He argues that millions of dollars could be use in another way to fight street gangs.

I agree with Mr. Ménard on how street gangs are processing these days. They are more violent and they just mainly want money. They were once attacking each other due to their differences and because someone killed one of their gang member but we have see some normal persons being killed for the only reason of money. Also, the way the police deal with the situation is a problem right now. I agree with him that their method is inefficient and the problem is far of being solved. The city needs more money to deal with street gangs like he states because the police needs more resources but what Mr. Ménard didn't say is that money is starting to be a problem in Quebec's society with the increasing cost of health care. However, he is right and I'm sure there is still some money left in the city budget.

Street gangs

One of the biggest problems in today's society. The phenomena have involved quite a lot in the past few years with new gangs in the street. We have to understand that most of the street gangs are in big cities. It really started in the US first in Los Angeles back in the 20's and 30's. Most members of these gangs were African-Americans. But has the years passed, the problem became bigger and bigger. I really want to know more this subject due to the constant increase of his effect in today's society. I want to understand why this problem has increased so much in the past years and why these people get in these kind of gangs. Also, why there is an increase of violence in these gangs.

The information has been quite easy to find due to the large amount of articles on it. The phenomena have been quite urgent to solve the street gang problem because it will be out of control if we don't solve it now.

Quebec is not different than in the US. We are also having big difficulties with street gangs. Our gangs are similar to US gangs. The Bloods and The Crips, who are well known in the US, are two of the biggest gang in Montreal. I would say that the phenomena in Quebec is been a problem that the police is really working the last 4-5 years because they saw the problem what bigger than they thought.