Word: gangly
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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This is not the first time the nation has been shocked by the scope of its crime problem. In the middle and late 19th century, sudden prosperity, immigration and the dislocations of the Civil War produced several crime waves. In 1855 the gang population of New York stood at 30,000, and one gang posted notices that any policeman wandering into its neighborhood would be shot. At the turn of the century, Chicago saloonkeepers could expect to be held up every three or four days. Innocent gas-meter readers were being shot by paranoid householders. Newspapers observed that there were...
...Bartender is intelligent and knows it ("I used to see the brothers writing graffiti on the walls-spelling names wrong. I decided I wanted to help them"). He makes $121 a week as a porter at Kaiser Foundation Hospital, but his real life belongs to the Piru, the street gang of about 150 members who hang around Compton's Leuders Park taking drugs, playing basketball and planning robberies and burglaries. "I do my share," acknowledges Bartender, explaining: "People be broke." But mainly the Piru plots, attacks and defends itself against its hated enemies, the local chapter of the Crips...
...rivalry between the two gangs started with fistfights four years ago in the high school cafeteria. Then someone brought his mother's gun to school, and the killing started. Now the battles are called "gang-bangs," and they are often settled by blasts from sawed-off shotguns and .38s. Police estimate that about ten members of the Piru and the Crips have been killed to date. "People get high and just don't care sometimes," Bartender explains. "Somebody says go do something, and everybody is game for it because they don't want to look like they...
...came from marijuana, cocaine, acid, "whites" (amphetamines) and "reds" (Seconal). They are still easy to get and so are guns. "You can get any kind of a 'roscoe'-twelve-gauge shotguns, four-ten shotguns, 9-mm. pistols, 38s, .357-cal. Magnums. I remember one person outside the gang even had a flamethrower...
...first time answerable for his crimes as an adult, Bartender sometimes talks about quitting the Piru. "This year I have a job. Next year I'll have a car and a pad." But in the next breath, he talks of his loyalty to the gang, the fact that if he were to quit, "there's more chance of those left getting downed [killed] quick. Besides, I live in Crip neighborhood-I'd still get messed with when I got to my pad. The only way to stop is to get out of Compton, and that...