East Los Angeles

In Sanyika Shakur’s memoir, Monster: The Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member, the audience follows the events that transform Monster Kody Scott into Sanyika Shakur. While writing his memoir from prison, the book starts in 1975 with his graduation from elementary school and initiation into the Crips. His initiation included a brutal beating from fellow Crips members, which immediately followed his first gang shooting against the Bloods. At the age of thirteen, Kody Scott earned the nickname…

1. There are many different reasons why individuals might join a gang. According to organized crime, we all have what is called cognitive R.A.M. or random access memory. It is the ability to process information just like a computer. Therefore, everyone is programmed differently and has different ways to process information in this world. Furthermore, how we process information is mainly determined how we were raised. Those particular individuals who are raised around gangs such as the Mafia…

There have been many conspiracies on whether gun violence should be treated as a public health issue or not. With gun violence on the rise, it is only necessary to take an alternative route when dealing with guns. Gun violence should be treated as a public health issue, especially in today’s society since more and more people have their own gun(s). The number of gun violence related crimes can be prevented and or diminished just like any other public health issue. Most of these gun violence…

According to Pitts (2008), the UK and the USA have seen dramatic changes in the economy which have greatly affected many families residing in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. In particular, the BME community has seen an increase in their young males left redundant and stagnant at the bottom of the social class ladder and excluded from the values of society. In their response to their lack of status, respect and power with frustration, black youths have ostensibly resulted to anger and also the…

Over the past 100 years, government officials and scholars in search of a definition for organized crime have performed numerous investigations and studies. According to the textbook “Organized Crime” by Michael Lyman, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), define organized crime as: “Any group having some manner of a formalized structure and whose primary objective is to obtain money through illegal activities. Such groups maintain their position through the use of actual or threatened…

contains information over body appearance. There are two rival gangs in the same town: Los Vatos Locos and Los Tres Puntos. You can tell a gang member apart from the other by their body appearance. Both gangs mark themselves on their left hands with a placazo (tattoo). Los Vatos Locos mark themselves with a “VL” tattoo, and Los Tres Puntos mark themselves with a “3P”, so everyone already knows which gang they clique with. Los Vatos Locos can also signal each other for whatever reason by using…

“We have to clean up our neighborhood, too much trouble prevail. You can hear foul language, you can hear people yell. We have to clean up our neighborhood, violence is all around. So many are fighting being knocked to the ground.” These are words from a poet by Sandra Juanita Nailing entitled “Cleaning up the Neighborhood”. She gives a detailed describtion about her neighborhood, and how it is full of violence and there needs to be a change. Which is true, the changes she includes is…

The book was a very interesting and informational read. The main character’s name is Sudhir, who was a student at the University of Chicago. Sudhir was a sociology student who wanted to research the projects and find out about the harsh conditions the people there deal with. The first time he goes looking for information he stumbles upon a high-rise building that seems to be deserted. Sudhir soon finds out that the building is in fact filled with people. After being interigated by many different…

Value, trust and power are the three factors that can permeate in almost every public encounter. In this dispute the value driver the community had was availability, commitment, and longevity. “Our values tell us how the world “ought to be”. They are standards by which we judge events and the behavior of other people and by which we decide what is worthy of our support and what deserves our condemnation” (Carpenter & Kennedy, 1988). The community wanted to see the police was available to the…

documentary of street art that focused on the two street artist, Banksy a secretive artist who never revealed his identity, and Thierry Guetta a French immigrant from Los Angeles whose passion is film making and became an overnight sensation. Before gaining Thierry’s fame as an inspiring artist he became Banksy’s guide in Los Angeles when he need somebody to help him find walls to do his art, a film documentarist, and an inspiration to create his own art. Because of Thierry’s enthusiasm of…