Word: gangs
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...With its remote location, small population and favorable international reputation, New Zealand is regarded as a pleasant and peaceful place to live. Yet this island nation harbors a small, unique and brutal street-gang culture that has defied authorities for more than 30 years and now appears to be nurturing a new, more violent mutation. Last month, the country's older ethnic gangs were involved in a series of tit-for-tat drive-by shootings that left a toddler dead; meanwhile the country's juvenile gangs have emerged as a new force in crime, linked to eight killings and many...
...Zealand has been home to ethnically based street gangs since the mid 1960s. The two largest-the Mongrel Mob and Black Power-between them boast about 2,600 members, gathered in 145 "chapters" that center on "pads," or clubhouses. Members trace the names to specific incidents. The Mongrel Mob got theirs the day a magistrate described them as a "pack of mongrels." Black Power say their gang was formed in response to a series of rapes committed by the Mongrel Mob. When the attackers demanded, "Who are you to challenge us?" the opposing men called back, "We are Black Power...
...Both gangs have a predominantly Maori membership and conduct initiation ceremonies in which potential members or "prospects" must prove themselves. The tests range from the revolting-drinking urine from a gumboot is one of the milder ordeals described by former members-to the criminal, such as committing a specific crime, being bashed by the whole gang or serving time in jail. Prospects are often required to serve a stint as the gang's errand...
...Once admitted, members are "patched," with the right to flaunt the gang's emblem on clothes or in fearsome tattoos on faces, shoulders and bodies. Sociologist Jarrod Gilbert says the latter practice grew out of a combination of jailhouse tattoos and traditional Maori moko. "They would be the only street gangs in the world to tattoo a patch onto their face," he says. Members tell of one Mongrel Mob initiate whose enthusiasm so exceeded his intelligence that he used a mirror while tattooing the gang's name across his own face-backward...
...gangs hold on to traditions that originated from a desire to shock the society that had shunned them. Mongrel Mobsters bark like dogs to show appreciation or enthusiasm, and use their hands to make the silhouette of a bulldog, the totem in the middle of their patch. Some wear German World War II helmets and use the expression Sieg Heil! as a mark of approval. Black Power members, who claim closer ties to Maori culture, always wear blue, salute each other with a clenched fist and like to cry "Yo, f___in' yo!" Researchers believe the gangs were formed when...