Small Town Gang Violence: Wannabes or Real Deal? Pt. 1

Before I fully dive into this subject let me begin with the following DISCLAIMER:

I am in no way attempting to promote gangs or gang members, or to contribute to the silly aura that the media and Hollywood contribute to daily. In fact, I see members of gangs as weak-minded joiners with missing brain cells and multiple complexes including daddy issues and sciaphobia. In other words, gangs and gangsters are sissies in all forms. If one wants to join a gang with any street cred they need look no further than the U.S. military in my book.

Growing up in suburbia in the 90’s I was exposed to quite the eclectic mix of kids. Now I went to a high school where you could count how many black kids there were on two hands, and the number of Hispanics on one. So maybe not such an interesting dynamic to many. Myself being sort of apolitical and apathetic on most topics (hard to believe I know), I could relate to almost all except the social outcast “wannabe white gangsters” (whom we had choice nicknames for that would not appeal to this forum’s audience). The thugs were a small group of 5-6 white kids, who wore baggy clothes, sideways hats, and drove cheap cars with rims and stereo systems worth more than the cars themselves. When encountered, these gents would claim to be part of well-known gangs such as the popular “Bloods” and “Crips” gangs. Nobody took them too seriously, at least not until one of them proved his "worth" by shooting a local farmer point blank with a 12-gauge shotgun.

So was this just a group of small town posers or were they a bonafide gang with the stones to commit some big time crimes?

This brings me to the reason I have run on this tangent in the first place. This evening I was checking my local rag, the Sierra Vista Herald, and I came across some astonishing news not typical of a small town. Immediately upon reading this article I found the details to be rather disturbing. One count of murder in the first degree, one count of kidnapping, one count of aggravated assault, and ten counts of sexual assault. This is quite a list of charges for anyone let alone a 17-year-old kid to have. What I found ridiculous yet typical of our local, podunk newspaper was the lack of depth to this story. There was nothing beyond the kid's name, (Theodore R. Ramos) age, and charges. In just a few minutes I located the perp's picture and gang affiliation. Additionally, I located the perp's girlfriend's (victim perhaps?) information, and fellow gang members' information. Initially I laughed at Ramos' gang banger photo, and chalked it up as another small town wannabe. That was until I did a bit more research...

"I bang IGD if u dont know wat that is u dont need to know i luhh the gurls and they bodies."

In visiting Teddy Ramos' Facebook page, I found the above quote in his bio information. Now I'm no cop, and I don't claim any sets as a current or former gangbanger but I am intelligent enough to understand what "bang" means. "Bang" is slang for member of a set or gang. The term "gangbanger" has various definitions, but none more precise than urbandictionary.com:

A person belonging to a gang. Usually not able to "man up" and stand on his own, therefore has to rely on others for support. Sometimes referred to as a pussy.

I digress. Through some digging, I found that IGD stands for the Insane Gangster Disciples. Although they are not one of the more prevalent gangs in American rap culture and Hollywood, the IGD and the better known Black Gangster Disciples and the larger Folks Nation are a very well known and well respected gangs throughout many cities in the U.S. In fact, Folks Nation has greater than thirty thousand members. But you don't have to take my word for it. Just visit the Folks Nation website! As unbelievable as it may be, gangs have launched websites, entered social media, and are using these means to broadcast their message and recruit nation and world wide. Thehoodup.com offers a medium where gangsters from across the U.S. can represent their gang and trash talk each other from the comfort of their own prison cell or home (same difference?). Most of what I found on this site was primarily banter on whose gang was more prevalant and trying to decide who could use what symbol, number or color while representin'.

Through my research I found that the IGD was founded primarily as a spin off of the more hardcore Black Gangster Disciples. The IGD for many years was primarily white suburbanites who were intially known as "wannabe gangsters." However, as these IGD bangers started to earn their street credentials by robbing and murdering folks they became well respected in the gang and prison world. They also offered a unique ability that other gangs could not. Since members of the IGD were primarily white, and subordinate to the Black Gangster Disciples, they could cross the seldom traveled racial divide in the gang and prison world. Some believe this is what led Black Gangster Disciples founder Larry Hoover to develop the Folks Nation.

The Folks Nation was formed from an Illinois prison cell by Larry Hoover in 1978. Hoover brought together gang leaders from black, white and Latino street gangs, with the goal of unifying the street gangs of Chicago, and subsequently ruling over all of them. Although Hoover did not accomplish his goal of ruling over these Chicago gangs, his influence is widespread and he still manages, from his prison cell, the 30,000 plus membership of the Gangster Disciples conglomerates.