Think there are no gangs in the suburbs? Think again

[Blue_Tires]

Source: Star-Tribune

When Jim Swearingen left an inner-city school for a job in Chaska -- the self-proclaimed "best small town in Minnesota" -- the last thing he expected was to be breaking up fights fueled by gang rivalries.

"My friends used to tease me that I was going to come out here and just sit in my office and drink coffee," said Swearingen, now an assistant principal at Chaska High School. "I assumed life was idyllic in the suburbs. That was naive."

Last month, Swearingen helped quell what police describe as the worst fight they've seen at Chaska High. Nine boys, including one gang member, were in a brawl precipitated by students flashing gang signs, police say.

The dust-up was the latest indicator that gangs are moving beyond inner cities and first-ring suburbs to more quiet surroundings such as Chaska, Eden Prairie, Shakopee and Northfield. The migration comes as no surprise to experts: Minneapolis and St. Paul police have worked hard to push gangs out of their cities.


Read more: http://www.startribune.com/local/west/44332242.html?elr=KArks:DCiU1OiP:DiiUiacyKU7DYaGEP7vDEh7P:DiUs

[Gidney N Cloyd]

1. Real gangs? Or mostly just dopey suburban kids emulating urban gang styles?

[YOY]

2. Acting all tough until someone risks going to jail...then it's back to reality.

n.t.

[Dogmudgeon]

5. Real gangs. With real guns.

An old girlfriend of mine called me up in a panic one night. Her idiot younger brother had been in a gunfight and had crawled into her apartment brandishing a weapon and scaring her daughter half to death.

Within an hour, the apartment was beset with his various pregnant girlfriends weeping over him like an episode of "Rock of Love". He was like Jesse James with a boombox.

And of course, he was a low-level drug dealer ("strickly meth") and otherwise clueless "wigger".

It took him about five years to clean up his act, get another girl pregnant out of wedlock, become a born-again Christian and start lecturing everyone about their bad habits.

--d!

[pokercat999]

10. Are you aware of the meaning of the term "wigger"?

I don't think it something to be used in polite conversation and you might want to reconsider using it anywhere ant any time. That is unless I misunderstand the term.

[Catherine Vincent]

14. I agree. I wouldn't use it either. nt

[SheilaT]

17. I have never come across that term before

so I, for one, am totally unoffended. And honestly have no idea what it refers to. I can guess that it's somewhat derogatory, but sometimes ignorance is bliss.

[Echo In Light]

20. I first heard it back in the 90s when white, suburban kids adopted the 'gangsta' affectation

...via Empty-V.

Think of the term 'nigger,' and now replace the N with a W to signify 'white.'

[SheilaT]

21. Oh. Thank you.

How even more astonishing that I've never come across it before, if it's been around for ten years or more. Obviously I don't hang out with the right (wrong?)crowd.

[bobbert]

22. I don't think it's offensive at all

It's just a term to make fun of people who are complete posers. They become complete ass-kissers when meeting a person actually from a big city (and usually they act more intelligent than the wigger). Requirements of having that term even used on you is your parents making more than $100k/year and living in a rich nighborhood (black kids can be wanna-be niggers). I guess there could be some racism tied to the word, but then I always just think of the Chris Rock black people/niggers skit and I realize that these people are just going through extra effort to be complete douchebags.

I was in high school in the 90's when it first started becoming a more common term and I don't think anyone my age takes offense to it, unless they are being called it, but at that point it's the same as calling someone a douchebag to their face.

[Liberal_in_LA]

27. The offense is in the assumption that white kids r gang posers & brown/black kids are REALLY BAD

Back in the day it was "boys will be boys" with regard to white kids and off to jail for black/brown. I don't like these assumptions, when discussing gangs and crime, that the white kids are just emulating the blacks and latinos as if whites don't participate in crime without following the lead of the 'bad' minorities.

[Echo In Light]

28. The corporate marketing relies on the white, well-to-do demographic

They suspect they're lame cause TV told em so, and is then reinforced by their peers who likewise take their behavioral cues from TV. Hence the need for uniformity, and to adopt the tough, street wise affectation. And you're right, as the underlying assumption that the young, white demographic goes away with is, yes, they want to be like the images on the boob tube, cause they don't quite distinguish reality from media-induced "reality." Tis the American way on many counts...

[Echo In Light]

23. I was drumming in heavy metal bar bands in the 90s, and not many of em to be found there at first...

...but while running in those circles one is generally aware of what's what re pop culture in general, which way the ebb and flow of things is moving.

Coincidentally it was the more violent, drunken, jock-'wiggers' that grew to be a real problem for otherwise underground alternative and heavy metal bands playing the bar/club scene, in that they'd show up just to start fights in the mosh pit, get the cops called, invites all sorts of additional bullshit/hassles that no one wanted.

Like all blowhard dweebs, they're fairly harmless on their own, but get em in a group and add alcohol, and throngs of admiring girls who love that type of jerk, and it can be trouble.

[Dogmudgeon]

25. A derogatory term for white kids ...

... who style themselves after the stereotype of black gangsters in the drug trade.

Most of the black folks I have asked about it heartily approve of its use. They can't stand the gangster crap on the part of ANY group of people. Perhaps that is just local to the black people who live in my area.

I would not have used it if Democratic Underground was, in fact, polite company. After seeing paraplegics, epileptics, the mentally retarded, obese people, blonds, white people, (Asian) Indians, people who eat meat and/or abstain from meat, Jews, and the elderly being repeatedly bashed here at DU, in just the last few days, and in the ugliest of terms, I am not going to sweat it.

If and ONLY if this is a truly offensive term to African Americans, I will cease using it. My white liberal readers will just have to understand.

--d!

[NeedleCast]

6. The later.

[deadmessengers]

7. MS-13 has a pretty big presence here in suburban Atlanta. n/t

[Baby Snooks]

15. They are everywhere...

They are in every major city in the country. I forget how many members they are estimated to have. But at least 10,000 in Los Angeles alone.

Their numbers are growing as more and more illegal immigrants lose their jobs and find there are no other jobs and turn to crime to support their families. Reality is a bitch. That is the reality of illegal immigration. You take the bad with the good. And MS-13 is really bad.

MS-13 is actually from Central America, I believe they started in El Salvador, and is believed to be growing in Mexico and becoming part of the drug cartel armies. And they are armies. There and here.

[snake in the grass]

26. Actually, MS-13...

...did not originate in Central America, but rather in the Pico Union neighborhood of Los Angeles in the 1980s. The U.S. has been deporting these criminals back to their home countries where they start up new MS-13 cells and are spreading like wildfire. MS-13 is a U.S. export, not the other way around.

There is a fascinating documentary about them on YouTube and it's worth the watch if you have the time (about an hour).

[ourbluenation]

29. no - they started in southern california. n/t

[Javaman]

16. They are everywhere now. nt

[Echo In Light]

8. Thanks, Empty-V!!!

[RaleighNCDUer]

9. Play at gang banger around the wrong people

and it doesn't make a hell of a lot of difference.

since so much of gang business is tied up with drugs, and the suburbs have the money for those drugs, the gangs will follow the market - everybody knows there are more and better drugs in the suburbs than in the inner city.

[bobbert]

11. dopey suburban kids

Look at crime rates, hell just look at the police blotter. If there was even a gunshot heard and police were called in the subarbs it would be the biggest news for months in the town. The cops in the subarbs have so little to do, that you'll never see a murder or large gang fight without every single person that's the slightest bit involved being prosecuted.

They may be tied to real gangs in that they can have a constant source for drugs if they're dealing, but as far as the rest of the gang life goes, they know very little about it.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

24. The problem is dopey suburban adults.

Panicking at the hint of anything gag related.

[Stevenmarc]

3. and don't forget the drive-by cow tippings.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

12. And the Lawn Gnomes held hostage

Dangerous places these suburbs.

[kegler14]

4. I don't know about this story, but there are real live suburban gangs.

[DS1]

13. heh

[HughBeaumont]

18. OOOOOOZZZ !!1! I R zo SKEEERT!!!1!!!11!1!!

Feeeeeer tha Stuntaz!!!

Mooks, Guidos, Over-Testosteroned MMA Freaks, Douchebags and Wannabes = The New Mullets.

[Strong Atheist]

19. Old news to teachers/police/social workers. I live and work in the

suburbs, and we have had gangs here forever. I teach 6th grade, and some of them end in gangs every year...