Once upon a time...
I used to visit Juvenile Detention Centers. The who what when and why of me doing this is not important.
There was a young man that had been in a gang since he was young. Real deal, serious gang, and he was most fascinating. He and I hit it off and got along.
I was not a cop, not part of the system, and ...
Some serious had gone down and he had chosen to ...let us say this was akin to a witness protection deal. Meaning, he was going to get a chance to have a life, a legit one, in return for righting some wrongs.
He gave some talks, one in particular to employees of the JDC, invited folks, and families.
Un edited, raw, telling it like it is.
I mean he got into the face of teenage kids and in no uncertain terms explained to teenage girl what her initiation was going to be if she chose to be in a gang.
Her mom freaked, and this youth basically told her to shut up and pay attention to reality as he continued.
A teenage boy, had an attitude during this part of his talk and when finished about girl stuff, totally come down hard and fast on that wannabe teenage boy.
Teenage boy had to excuse himself, as he peed himself.
All the youth did was use his hands to replicate a gun and again, in no uncertain terms ( language) replicated a deal one his gang did to a wanna be punk one time, with a honest to goodness "nine" as they had robbed a Nat'l Guard Armory.
He also spoke of Gun Control.
"We like gun control areas, easy prey, we have enough sense to not go to pro gun places, because folks will shoot your arse".
That is the gist of what he said, edited of course.
There was another talk along this same line to some youths inside.
I was allowed to be a part of this talk as well.
Some youths, were at a point in life, they could go either way.
I kid you not, some of the folks that thought they were bad, or would be career criminals got a serious dose of reality.
Some of these bad boys and girls were looking my way. I was not a cop, not part of the facility, not a lawyer...still some looked at me with the wrong look.
Like maybe I might be a good target.
Youth speaking was watching for this, as I said we had an understanding , and earned respect if you will.
He made it real clear I was cool, and he said he still had eyes and ears on the streets, and if anything happened to me, there would be hell to pay.
I was in a small town, near this JDC, about a month later, and it was about 10pm when I arrived and stopped to buy gas.
A car pulls in with some youths and look my way.
I am being sized up...
"Dude is cool and off limits" I hear from a youth.
This was a brother of one in the JDC. (don't ask, just I know).
Youths would come down to smaller towns, thinking it would be easier pickings.
That night I said in a nice even tone "gentleman, the State and County boys down this way, are not going to put up with anything. In fact, they do have practiced plans".
That car went back up to the bigger city.
Seriously this small town had some plans. More than once some youths were rounded up, and escorted back to the county line.
"You get one free pass, then its hell to pay down here".
It was not the WalMart, instead the bowling alley where bowling leagues played and these youths were checking out the cars and the folks inside where on one occaison a number of units, from city, county and state rolled in fast and hard and there was a convoy back to the county line.
Another time, the little league ball field.
Funny how all the exits were blocked and the youths could not evade when these roundups occurred.
You do not want to be a wanna be gangbanger , and find yourself face to face with the real deal.
Reality is Real.
