What do gangs do?

Okay, I've got a character who used to be in a gang until certain reasons made her leave. The thing is, I have no idea what gangs do, besides sell drugs and fight with other gangs. There's more to gang life than that, right? Right?

Protection Racket, if we've got it.

"That's a nice [store] you've got there, be a shame if something happened to it" for protection money and the like.

Prostitution, illegal gambling, protection rackets, arms trafficking, human trafficking, illegal immigration (for those minority gangs), thievery and robbery, and kidnapping.

You name it, a gang would do it.

And sometimes, sometimes, genuine care for the people of their neighbourhood.

^HA HAH HAH HAH HAHH............no, who do you think they are selling drugs and extorting from?

^^ Just so you know, the Latin Kings in Chicago started out as that & arguably stayed partially like that if you believe some of the Kings.

The Black P. Stone rangers also turned into a political force.

Arguably the 'Nortenos' in California were something along that line.

EDIT: and Hmong gangs in Minneapolis started as such.

^HA HAH HAH HAH HAHH............no, who do you think they are selling drugs and extorting from?

Drug dealers who they tax for being in their 'turf' etc etc.

The thing is, I have no idea what gangs do, besides sell drugs and fight with other gangs. There's more to gang life than that, right? Right?

'Lowrider' culture and car modification for that purpose/working on your cars/showing them off at auto shows/etc.

BMX Biking & Skateboarding.

Drag Racing/Illegal Street Racing.

Hanging Out at bars/clubs/etc to discuss things with your gang brothers or pick up women.

Moped riding & Scooter riding/driving around (look up the 'Moped Army' - but Moped Army doesn't do illegal shit). Say, in other countries there might be a stronger prevalence of Moped gangs who do illegal shit.

The 'moped riding' fits in with biker gangs who form just to do stuff together with their motorcycles (bikeriding, showing off their bikes, modifications, helping each other fix their motorcycles)

Also just 'hanging out at the corner store'.

EDIT: naturally this varies based off the ethnicity - ive seen more black people BM Xing v hispanics (Even though im more used to/go in the black ghetto more so there is confirmation bias). More hispanics doing lowrider shit, etc.

And naturally this depends on regions - in california more people do lowriding and street racing vs those in other places.

(us centered POV as I live in USA).

EDIT 2: And yes, they do hacking. Either by themselves or they contract/get someone who knows how to hack to help them. Identity theft & whatnot.

EDIT 3: also graffitti tagging crews & gangs/street artists/street pharmacists who synthesize LSD & other drugs. Also see: chemistry students/engineering students who sell that.

edited 1st Oct '10 1:08:23 PM by BalloonFleet

It really depends on what kind of gang we're talking about, as it's a bit of a vague term. Some of them really do mostly just hang around, possibly sell drugs, and get into territorial disputes with other gangs. But it varies wildly, depending on how organized, numerous, and ambitious the group is. Drug dealing and prostitution are fairly easy for smaller gangs to do, but something like say, arms trafficking, or a lot of forms of racketeering, will likely require some better organization to work, and as such, that's getting more into "organized crime" territory.

As for what they do personally? Not everything is necessarily illegal. Probably not sitting around writing on internet forums, though. Likely a tendency towards competitive things, like gambling, or the afformentioned types of street racing. And of course, more benign things, like hanging out in clubs, or drinking.

Some of them might genuinely care about the people in their "territory", but I would guess it's not very common in any way that rises above personal or group self-interest. A number have started out with the whole "protect the neighborhood" ethic, but it's the kind of thing that devolves pretty quick. There are members of these groups which will claim that they do, but I would largely consider them to be Unreliable Narrators. They also aren't going to be upfront about their gang's activities.

The history channel occasionally has a program (I don't know if they still make it, or if it's all repeats) called Gangland, where they take a look at the culture and history of a different gang in each show (usually large scale gangs; bloods, hell's angels, etc), with interviews with former members, jailed members, or cops who have previously infiltrated them. Might be worth looking into to find some insight on the subject.

^^AFAIK they do make new ones. I enjoyed the ones they did on the Black P. Stone rangers, they got that doc relatively accurate. Or I'm mistaking gangland's stuff for another documentary etc.

EDIT:

>>Probably not sitting around writing on internet forums, though.

Just so you know, there are forums made by gang members & whatnot (think there was one named 'ganglife'). Not to mention shit like 'digitalgangster'/zoklet/old totse & whatnot that has a lot of graffitti crews on it & drug dealers.

EDIT: also there was a hacker who grew up in Bed-Stuy and ended up being a career criminal doing corporate hacking & crimes etc.

EDIT 2: Also graffitti crew forums & flikr accounts etc. Fits in w/the 'underground forums' like zokley & former TOTSE.

EDIT 3: Also, there's the whole 'use twitter/facebook' to send messages to your crew/organize. Remember rebels in the 2005 uprisings in France used text messages to inform each other of police movements.

>>There areLikely a tendency towards competitive things, like gambling, or the afformentioned types of street racing.

Yeah, this nigga kept asking me for money in HS for him to gamble with in the school bathrooms. He fleeced me of ~$20 over the entire high school career. "I'll pay you back, I swear....." fuckin' liar....

edited 1st Oct '10 1:09:48 PM by BalloonFleet

Smuggling, fencing of stolen goods, illicit gambling rings (big here in Hawaii) con games on the unsuspecting, pickpocketing, narc'ing on rival gangs. Yup, tagging crews (I had a friend who was a tagger) and... what everyone else said.

According to what I've read, gangs do often try to help the community. If the local residents like you better then the police, it's much easier to stay in business.

"If the local residents like you better then the police"

In most gang-ridden communities, that's not much of a standard. Often the police come across as real jerks there, due to a mix of burnout, feeling like they're in a war zone, classism, possibly racism and difficulty understanding the locals' perspectives (since most of them came from better environments).

Gangs are mostly for comitting profitable crimes. (There's a reason they're called 'organized crime', after all.) So protection rackets, drug dealing, prostitution, theft, etc. The violence and gang fights enter in mostly because of threats to the business - competition, someone betraying the gang, etc. Though they do have the occasional hired killer.

Incidentally, gangs do not take kindly to someone trying to leave. Usually, such people end up getting killed, unless they leave the neighborhood.

There really isn't much more to it than that. A gang is a group of people who control, through violence, a monopoly on the provision of a certain good or service (always one which is illegal) within a certain territory.

They may have certain rituals or codes of conduct, many of which will be superfluous to the actual purpose of the gang. Often, they will do things "for the community" to make themselves wanted, or at least to attempt to do so. Sometimes this will include protection against other gangs (or the police, who may act rather like a gang) for the families of their members, or those who pay a protection fee. And I'm sure you know about protection rackets, but those are less common today than they used to be.

But at their core, they are the merchants of prohibited goods who operate in a violent and territorial manner - nothing more.