Gangland is a 2007 documentary TV show that airs on The History Channel, with reruns showing on Spike TV. It explores the history of America's toughest gangs, starting with the Aryan Brotherhood.
Not to be confused with the computer game of the same name.
Gangland provides examples of:
- All Bikers are Hells Angels: Averted, the one percenters are shown as just that; a minority.
- Body Horror: One of the survivors of a shooting has a metal leg and his intestines are now in a bag MADE OF HIS SKIN...and it hangs outside of his body.
- The Cartel: Practically a given. Notably averted by Friends Stand United which often attacked drug dealers and had a straight edge ideology
- Dark Action Girl: One episode discusses female gang-bangers.
- Enfant Terrible: A lot of gangs recruit very young, and the show often features interviews with gang members or ex-members who started as young as nine.
- Equal-Opportunity Evil: The majority of gangs shown are divided along racial lines, but there are a few gangs that are more inclusive.
- The most diverse is probably the Asian Boyz, who accept all non-Chinese Asian ethnicities (unlike the vast majority of Asian American gangs, who are very ethnocentric) and even some black, white, Hispanic and mixed-race members.
- The Aryan Circle is the only gang to have women as equal members to men, and the Bloods also have female members on a much more equal footing with the guys.
- Evil Parents Want Good Kids: A reformed skinhead in the episode focusing on white supremacists decided to leave the movement after he saw his young son yelling racial epithets at the TV and suddenly realized what white power looks like from the outside
- From Camouflage to Criminal: The episode "Basic Training" is about the gang presence in the American military.
- Gangbangers: Obviously. Of the street level gangs, Crips get most attention, with their sets spread in unlikely places such as Anchorage, Alaska, Salt Lake City and London.
- Gangsterland: It's a given considering the name of the show.
- Glamour Failure: A meta-example. Anyone who sees criminal life through Hollywood's eyes gets a quick wake-up call when they watch this show.
- Hardcore Punk: Friends Stand United notably grew out of the Boston hardcore scene with their founder having been in numerous bands over the years.
- Heel–Face Turn: The show often features former gang members who've turned their lives around, sometimes with their identities censored to avoid retaliation from their old gangs.
- Idiot Ball:
- Several current gang bangers appear on the show and brag about violent felonies of have videos waving enormous amounts of drugs. With their identities uncensored.
- The Aryan Circle decided that their signature tattoo would be a small plain circle in an unobtrusive spot on their body to make them hard to identify. Every member showcased, including the guy who came up with the idea, has his circle surrounded with swastikas, Nazi eagles and other well-known white supremacist symbols.
- The Klan: The Imperial Klans of America are featured in an episode
- Magical Native American: Averted by the Wild Boyz, a reservation based Native American gang, who are violent criminals just like the other gangs.
- Obliviously Evil: The original founder and Evil Matriarch of the Aryan Circle are shown to be stunned that a white supremacist prison gang ended up attracting bad elements.
- Persecution Flip: In the multiple episodes devoted to the Crips and Bloods, a key theme is that on the East Coast the Bloods hugely outnumber the Crips, who are constantly on the defence; while the dynamic is completely flipped on the West Coast.
- Straight Edge: Friends Stand United
- Tattooed Crook: The slideshows of gang-related images tend to showcase gang tattoos, and the show logo is shown tattooed on a man's back.
- Those Wacky Nazis: The Aryan Brotherhood, the Aryan Circle, the Nazi Lowriders, skinheads, the White Knights, the ABT, etc. Averted with Friends Stand United, a gang that was founded to fight Neo-nazis and white power gangs and Dead Man Incorporated, formed as an alternative to White Supremacist prison gangs.
- The Triads and the Tongs: Many Asian gangs are connected to these groups.
- White Gangbangers: Dead Men Inc., Friends Stand United, Hell's Angels. Mentioned but not featured white gangs include the Gaylords, Simon City Royals, and Harrison Gents, who are mentioned in the Maniac Latin Disciples episode.
- Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: To what extent the white supremacist groups, or the Straight Edge gang Friends Stand United are actual organized crime groups is debatable.
