Word: ganged
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...ninth hole was surprised to see a squad of riflemen in the brush beside the fairway, muttered something about their ruining the rough. As the golfers prepared to tee off, there was a burst of rifle fire. The soldiers had come upon a long-sought hideout of the Ampang gang, a Communist military unit which once spread terror and death through Kuala Lumpur. In a brief fight three terrorists were killed. "It's shockin'," said a bald-headed British major. "I might have sliced one into the beggars' camp...
...meet their real or imagined needs, most gangs develop bold and ingenious theft techniques. One gang used to walk into five and ten cent stores wearing baggy, long-sleeved coats. One of the boys would sidle up to a counter and, standing not five feet from a clerk, would cram everything he could lay his hands on up the sleeve of the coat. Another gang pretended to collect newspapers and went around ringing doorbells until it found an empty house to break into. No matter how dumb these boys may appear, it is important to remember that they are trained...
Pure want cannot explain most of the delinquencies. A gang leader from Banks Street told of breaking into a fifth floor room in Adams House one summer and stealing 85 ties. These did not have a great resale value, and the leader obviously had no use for all of them. Here the search for excitement played an important role, for as the leader said, "it's pretty scary business rummaging through someone's room...
...street corner flipping a coin in the air for fifteen minutes. He then let it drop to the sidewalk. Another boy standing nearby bent over to pick it up for him, and promptly received a kick in the face from the flipper. "That guy was real mean," a local gang leader reminisced later. "He was sort of insane. Playing football, he used to bite guys and wouldn't let go until he drew blood. He was sure a good 'jammer', though." (A jammer is a street fighter who can use his legs and arms and anything else effectively...
Many experts had believed, for example, that membership in a gang was a primary cause of juvenile delinquency, but the Gluecks discovered that nine-tenths of the delinquents show their earliest anti-social symptoms before the age of eleven, whereas boys do not usually join gangs until they are in their teens...