Gang Banger Sign Language Interpreter?

[faustulus]

Nope, wasn't there, but I sure do find it funny when a bunch of folks have a thousand dollar gun they can't figure out how to use properly and know enough of the language to have been here a day and a half. Usually successful folks in this country have to have some kind of grasp on how to communicate in the lingua franca to make money honestly. A Python isn't a necessity of life by any means, so it would be wise to conclude these folks weren't living hand-to-mouth as farm workers. I then ask myself how they got enough dead presidents together to buy such a righteous gat. I don't like the answer that comes to mind.

What's wrong with construction work? Why don't you like that answer? A lot of the immigrants in our area make a good living working hard -- at jobs most "americans" won't touch. They live within thier means and can afford many things I can't. When you don't have a car payment, or rent or the 1000 other bills americans think are needed to live you can actually put back a good sum of money quickly. I find it humorous that the one lesson no one seems to learn in life is not to judge a book by its cover. It doesn't matter if the teacher is Mom or God, few people take it to heart.

 

[Sisco]

My boy once got a dress code violation at school for having "loose shoes". Couldn't figure that one out so I had a chat with a teacher. Turns out that depending on which shoe has loose laces, which way the ball cap is turned etc is gang language so they just made "loose shoes" a violation.

Also related to the present converstation;
Friend of my daughter has the spiked hair. Some days it's green, some days it's blue. Multiple piercings and tattoos. Kind of kid you give funny looks to and avoid.
Doesn't drink, smoke or do dope. Goes to church on Sunday. Never heard him curse, he wants to be a cop.
Three other friends of hers that generally matched the same description are now in the service; one on a destroyer in the Persian Gulf, another one is probably scoping Bagdad out for rad places to try out a skateboard.

After meeting these young people I realized what some parents must have thought of me when I was 17 and had hair to my shoulders, wore frayed bell bottoms and an torn Army jacket with a peace symbol sewn on the pocket.

 

[Ol' Badger]

Should of told them to look down the barrle to see if its unloaded

 

[Don Gwinn]

Sure, stereotyping is a good thing--until it happens to you.

Guess most of our grand talk about freedom, individuality, and fairness is just talk.

I repeat, my friend is an honest man who makes an honest living, has a nice girlfriend, and happens to like tattoos, hydraulics on cars, and loud stereos playing rap music. If stereotyping is "a good thing" then I guess it's acceptable that he gets treated like a criminal.

Heck, let's use an example closer to home. How many of you would tell ArmySon to his face that decent people don't act like he does? He's got dragons tattooed all over his body, he drives a hot Mustang, and he carries multiple full-size 1911's under his expensive clothes. In other words, he matches the stereotype of every Asian gang member established by many years of Hollywood movies.
He's also a college graduate who is currently serving with the Rangers in Korea, having voluntarily re-enlisted right after 9/11 after he'd served his time honorably in places like Yugoslavia. Last time I'd talked to him before that, he'd been mulling over going back to get a degree in physics so he could do some teaching.

Just another thug.

 

[Joe Demko]

Many of you have apparently learned everything you think you know about gangs from TV and movies. For 15 years I have worked with kids who are in gangs. In Texas, they were in hispanic gangs such as the Royal Aztecas, the Rancheros, the AV's, and others. In Pennsylvania, they have been members of the Crips and Bloods (actually local gangs that were absorbed by these "mega-gangs") and LAW, among others.
Please, let me assure you that everybody who dresses in "street style" isn't a gang member, so you don't need to go rocketing into "condition chartreuse" or whatever color code you prefer every time you see a kid in baggy clothes. Some of the real gang members do dress that way, many do not. In this area, at least, territories are stabilized and the gangs aren't as obsessive over their colors as they typically were 10 years ago.
As for the kids with the Python, maybe they were, maybe they weren't. They could just as easily been "regular" kids who had dad's gun or an older brother's gun. Maybe one of them even did buy the gun for himself "off paper." I've seen more than one member of this board make preening references to owning guns that the gummint doesn't know he has.
Since, judging by this thread, stereotyping is not only okay, it's actually a good and useful thing, I think I'll indulge in a little. You all are the most frightened, ignorant bunch of white guys I've ever run across. Clutch your weapons tight, boys, 'cause the world is full of dusky skinned goblins wearing baggy clothes and gold chains.

 

[zahc]

LOL@ Golgo

damn gun owners they're all the same aren't they. Buncha wackos

 

[David]

Where these the hand signs?

 

[Oleg Volk]

Last time I ran into "gangbanger" types, they turned out to be civil and decent folks. The time before that, they really were gangbangers. I didn't much care about the hue of their scales...just actions.

 

[CZ-75]

You are judged by the company you keep. In this case, trying to emulate a thug gets you treated like one.

Oleg said that he judges people by their actions. Fine. From the sound of the description, these guys seemed to act the part. I guess we'd have to wait for them to "bust a cap" into Porter to be certain, though. Had they said "gracias" or "thank you," as the case may be, we could assume they just like a "hip-hop" look and were polite and decent. Copping hand gestures and the like sounds more like a thug, though.

I don't doubt that construction work pays well, but illegals who do it really don't earn that much, as opposed to legal immigrants and citizens. And, yes, I'm assuming they're illegal because construction is the kind of job where few questions are asked and a guy can pick up and leave before folks become suspicious. Guys getting exploited working construction for less than minimum don't buy Pythons in most places.

Oh, and even criminals work honest jobs occasionally. Construction by day and gang-banging by night aren't too far out of the realm of possibility.

Golgo,

Nice attempt to make this about race, but I am also suspicious of white guys who look like you describe. Same for white guys who fit the "outlaw biker" image. Folks with spiked, colored hair, and a face that looks like it should be a tackle box they have so many hooks and piercings don't set off my danger meter, however. Neither do any racial groups dressed nicely in "normal" clothing.

-A Scared WASP

 

[Joe Demko]

Nice attempt to make this about race

Right. When you see white kids at the mall dressed in street fashions, you get exactly the same adrenaline dump black or hispanic kids wearing baggy clothes seem to cause in our esteemed members.

Neither do any racial groups dressed nicely in "normal" clothing.

How convenient for you that the bad guys where you live adhere to a fashion code that makes them easy to identify.
TV. How would we know who to fear without it?

 

[OF]

Please. If you choose of your own free will to dress like a thug, talk like a thug and act like a thug don't be surprised when people treat you like a thug.

Welcome to planet Earth.

It has nothing to do with race for crying out loud. Golgo, you have ZERO evidence that anyone here is commenting on race, yet you ascribe racism to everyone but yourself, although you're the only one who brought it up. Funny that. You just keep on looking down your nose at everyone here like you have since day one. WTMKF, buddy.

- Gabe

 

[pax]

Hey guys,

Some of you need to dial back the rhetoric a bit. Remember the "no personal attacks" rule?

Disagree as vehemently as you wish, but keep the personal attacks and ad hominems to yourself.

pax

Personalize your sympathies; depersonalize your antipathies. -- W. R. Inge

 

[CZ-75]

When you see white kids at the mall dressed in street fashions, you get exactly the same adrenaline dump black or hispanic kids wearing baggy clothes seem to cause in our esteemed members.

Nope, I don't. However, a lot of these white kids, so-called "wiggers," do have gang affiliations, usually as suburban branches of the Crips or Bloods, so it isn't like I blow them off as no threat.

How convenient for you that the bad guys where you live adhere to a fashion code that makes them easy to identify.

Yes, I automatically assume that some guy dressed in "dress casuals" is going to lift my wallet. Usually, most of the folks who I expect to take it look like they need the money. The rest I expect to do it for the thrill, such as gang-bangers.

Subtlety isn't these folks strong point and gang-members dress the way they do for a reason: identification. They know who is in their set and who isn't. That people not in gangs have done this too is too bad, but not my problem.

 

[jmbg29]

Golgo-13

Since, judging by this thread, stereotyping is not only okay, it's actually a good and useful thing, I think I'll indulge in a little. You all are the most frightened, ignorant bunch of white guys I've ever run across.

What is it with the liberal obsession with fear? Adrenaline dump? What the hell are you talking about? Fear loser punks? Why would anyone do that?

When I see some kid that is dressed like, acting like, and talking like a punk, I think punk. Nothing else. For 95% of those kids it's just a phase they are going through. Sooner or later, they are going to figure out that if they want to do things like, say, have a real job; that they will have to act, dress and talk like decent human beings. Otherwise, they might wish to get used to asking "Y'all want a McDizzle wit' yo mizzle?" Or whatever the current slang is that the latest crop of societies losers use.

In the meantime, if a bunch of kids want to insist on being, or merely emulating losers, I will honor their wishes, and regard them as losers. To act otherwise is to damn those kids into thinking that they can continue to act in the fashion of a loser, and actually get away with it in real life.

 

[BerettaNut92]

He's got dragons tattooed all over his body, he drives a hot Mustang, and he carries multiple full-size 1911's under his expensive clothes. In other words, he matches the stereotype of every Asian gang member established by many years of Hollywood movies.

But does he know martial arts and one-handed Beretta field strip takeaways??

Minus the tattoos I have a friend like that except he's a local cop and is going the way of the HK instead of the 1911.

 

[CZ-75]

I'm going to follow jmbg29 on this one about looking and acting like a "loser."

I have known a few suburban white and asian kids trying to affect a "gang-banger" facade. "Loser" is an apt term for each and every one (One, the Vietnamese kid, eventually joined the Marines, so I'm guessing he's got his life together now.). I wasn't afraid of them, per se, but I was worried about their friends, who were more "hard core," than they were. The rest aren't dangerous, just bums who have several illegitmate children by different women, unskilled jobs, no education, booze and dope with regularity, etc.

I think it is hard not to act like a screw-up when you look like one. Either way, all of us are talking from anecdotal evidence.

 

[Joe Demko]

Oh dear!!! Look at all the defensive posturing and angry feelings because I stereotyped you and you aren't like that at all!

Thus endeth the lesson.

 

[tommytrauma]

Double-tap. Never mind...

This space for rent.

 

[CZ-75]

Oh dear!!! Look at all the defensive posturing and angry feelings because I stereotyped you and you aren't like that at all!

Really, I don't care and am unrepentant.

I just wanted to make sure you didn't bring this down to your level with race-baiting.

If you want to know why I react with more caution to minorities who look like thugs, I'd have to say that I think you and your fellow "educators" and their own "poverty pimps" have filled their heads with reinforcement for their feelings of resentment (justified and imagined) to the point that my skin color makes me a target of opportunity to "redress" those feelings, one white racist oppressor at a time.

I do so love the attempt to talk down to us. I couldn't have guessed you were an "educator" otherwise.

 

[tommytrauma]

Please. If you choose of your own free will to dress like a thug, talk like a thug and act like a thug don't be surprised when people treat you like a thug.

Welcome to planet Earth.

It has nothing to do with race for crying out loud. Golgo, you have ZERO evidence that anyone here is commenting on race, yet you ascribe racism to everyone but yourself, although you're the only one who brought it up. Funny that. You just keep on looking down your nose at everyone here like you have since day one. WTMKF, buddy.

- Gabe

Word.

:

I've got a friend who works hard to portray a 'biker' image. He's actually a clean cut, straight up kinda guy. Firefighter / paramedic with LEO credentials due to some of the haz mat enforcement stuff he does. But he bought a harley, and had a denim vest with a fire helmet wearing skull and a "smoke eaters" scroll on the back made to wear over his leather jacket. He works hard to portray a certain image. He is, however, aware that when you work hard to portray a certain image, you don't get to bitch when people take that image at face value. He knows that only an idiot chooses to dress and present himself like that, then whine "don't judge me by how I look".

How you choose to portray yourself has consequences, no matter how un-PC it is to say so.

 

[spacemanspiff]

i think its funny to see someone whos goes on like: "i am sooo not a racist, i have a friend whose cousins neighbors stepson is (insert ethnic origin here)."

so whenever i hear that, i say "yeah, i'm a bigot, not a racist, besides i have lots of friends that are white".

 

[tommytrauma]

i think its funny to see someone whos goes on like: "i am sooo not a racist, i have a friend whose cousins neighbors stepson is (insert ethnic origin here)."

so whenever i hear that, i say "yeah, i'm a bigot, not a racist, besides i have lots of friends that are white".

In reading these posts, it appears to me that the only people bring up race are the ones accusing others of racism. Have you checked your own assumptions lately? Seems to me that when someone is described as a banger, you immediatly assume they're black, and are being treated unfairly because of it.

 

[jmbg29]

besides i have lots of friends that are white

You are killin' me spiff! LMAO

 

[spacemanspiff]

actually tommy, it depends on location and environment. some might assume a 'banger' is latino, some might say its 'asian'.

where i live, our 'bangers' are usually filipinos, some samoans, a handful of latinos, some native alaskans, but very few are black.
our 'bangers' are more interested in being king of the 'hood', not dealing drugs or other illegal activities. oddly enough the biggest coke distributors up here are with the hells angels. marijuana is all home grown by local distributors mostly.

 

[Navy joe]

Ok, first off, there's plenty off stereo-typing going on here, both of "gangbangers" and "typical gun owners". Not everyone who thinks it's cool to dress like what they saw in a Eminem video is a thug, that is just the way to look if you are the urban 18-25 set it seems. I have talked to a number of fashionally challenged shooters at the range and by and large I find out that they are:

-Pretty decent folks.
-Just bought a gun and need help.
-Appreciate that help.

Conversely I ran into one very clean cut young man who was about to I thought commit a major safety faux pas. (Shooting a NIB SKS without checking for grease in the bore) Turns out he'd had the gun for a while, the bore was clear and he was just too cheap to get something other than its shipping box to carry it in. Well, he didn't really say that, I was dismissed in a rather foul manner, turns out I had met apparently the world's biggest black racist. As he proceeded to try for head shots on the white guy situational target...

So anyway, I've met plenty of clean-cut a-holes, lots of urban fashioned nice folks and some in the middle. Back to our supposed gang-bangers. So what if they were the biggest meanest most cold-blooded Crips every to walk South-Central? (Clue #1 Well they probably woulda re-loaded the Python and capped you fool) If you teach them how to shoot well it increases their chance of hitting their intended target(another gang member) and not some kid six blocks away? I don't see the problem in that.

Another example. I ran into a group at the range last week that I watched for a while carefully based on the fact that they were trying to be way too tactical. Pistol lanyards, HK pistols, 870 folding stock, Becker packs, short AR with every gadget ever made on it etc. Turns out they were pretty new shooters, wanted to do some matches and their only crimes were reading too many gun mags and having spare cash. Not the SEEL wannabees that I suspected, nice guys. Incidentally, the ringleader(Identified by coolest gear) was not only a Skunk lookalike, but was almost as tactical. Didn't see any carbonfiber though, but there is definitely some east coast competition.

Judge people, not appearances.