Word: gilberts
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...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...
...clenched fist and like to cry "Yo, f___in' yo!" Researchers believe the gangs were formed when Maori people moved into cities, away from their village culture. "Groups of young men founded gangs as a replacement for the loss of family and purpose that traditional life provided," says sociologist Gilbert, who is writing a Ph.D. thesis on the gangs. Members are quick to agree. "I identified with the people in the gang, who were good people when I joined. I enjoyed the prestige that came with it," says Te Kotahi, 37, who has been a member of Black Power...
...Sociologist Gilbert, who has spent many hours with gang members and inside clubhouses for his research, is another who thinks gang violence is overstated. "An objective observer would see that the pattern of gang violence was at its peak in the '70s, '80s and '90s and is on the decline now," he says...
...That the murder rate is so low, say many observers, is not necessarily because the police are in control but because pistols are so hard to come by in New Zealand. "It's a blessing," says sociologist Gilbert. "These kids are going into battle armed with knives and anything they can pick up off the street. If they could pick up a handgun it would be different...
...Kevin Durant: It's no harsh feelings between me and Portland. Not at all. I can't give them a Gilbert Arenas and say I'm going to have 50 or 60 on them (laughs). I can't do that...