No, poverty doesn’t make people violent criminals. There is a huge difference between petty thieves and violent criminals.
And you simply cannot deal with poverty while such violent gangs are the very active proverbial millstones hung beneath their neighbor’s wings, who constantly prey upon them and recruit their children into shorter lives of crime or else poison them with drugs. That’s because the gangs, like people rioting and looting in their own communities, are the “well bless their hearts” (used in the correct sense and not how many use it these days) kind of cause to increase poverty in any community.
People managed to be poor … really, really poor and not what we call poor in America these days … in the past while they remained honest and peaceable. This has been true in non-Christian communities too. It has been true in Africa as well a Europe (anywhere, really).
But what you cannot do is adopt angry and radical ideologies, ideologies of inherited suffering steeped in notions of entitlement, and not expect at least some people, poor or rich doesn’t matter, to become selfish and entitled pukes or even actual predators.
Gratitude for blessings cannot long endure feelings of entitlement. Feelings of entitlement are doomed by being truly grateful. Do you feed and nurture the wolf or the lamb? How people choose has far reaching consequences.
I think these things have in many instances actually predated the disappearance of fathers from homes, for by cause of them were many of those men unwilling to be fathers themselves made.
You don’t understand street gangs. You’ve obviously never talked to kids who live near them, or people who ve been in them and people who got out of them.
Gangs operate on a family dynamic and the trust that goes with it. A kid may not be a violent killer but they can turned into one in order to please/join the “family” aka gang.
Yes there are many in gangs that don’t need to be pressured. But that is not the norm.
I understand that they operate supplanting natural families with themselves. There is nothing unique or special about that dynamic. It’s how cults operate too, among others.
Have you never heard of the question asked: if men are natural killers why do they need to be taught to kill?
Of course boys have to be taught to be violent. Do you imagine I simply assume these children start bad just because of some fact about them? If so why would I even talk about them recruiting boys into their ranks?
There was a man named Terence, a wise and clever pagan once far better known than in these times, which is a shame, and among examples of his wisdom he wrote saying (the stupid profanity blocker is blocking an exceedingly innocent Latin term so I’ve added a dash): “Ho-mo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto.” which means “I am human, and think nothing human alien to me.”
This wisdom recognizes that there really are not special provinces of human existence / experience that flatly deny the ability of outsiders of sufficient wisdom to understand them, and the cause is simply because the outsider is likewise human and are not truly outsiders for what is fundamentally humane.
It simply isn’t the case that one need to have been surrounded by the gangs to understand what they represent, especially to those that they prey upon. I can’t even say these differ from the historical norms of thugs because proverbially befouling their nests seems to be how most violent habitual criminals (especially organized criminals) seem to have behaved unless they somehow manage to develop a criminal middle class that can find motive to terrorize the peasants beneath them into behaving a bit. Or at least behaving near where their betters actually live.
Again, we are talking violent habitual criminals … not some 50s lyrical toe tappers out of a movie or anything that vaguely resembles them … without the dancing and singing of course.
… or is that with some singing and dancing? Just not Broadway singing and dancing.
So everyone who is poor joins a gang? Or do you mean everyone who is poor wants to join a gang? Poverty is NOT the number one reason people join gangs:
Screwed up family situation or lousy parents and protection are usually the two top reasons, pretty surprised you don’t know that. From the last link:
“A sense of belonging, acceptance and loyalty. Gangs may offer a sense of identity to their members and a way to gain attention or status. Kids who do not have strong ties to their families, communities, schools or places of worship may turn to gangs for companionship and as a substitute family.”
All Gang members come from poor families. That poverty is caused by many factors… fatherless homes… lack of good paying jobs etc.
Middle class or rich people don’t join street gangs. Poverty specifically is a motivator for drug dealing… which is typically associated with gang activity.
I’ve actually worked with kids who either were in a gang, had a family member in a gang… or still in a gang. There are lots of kids who see drug dealing as a way to help mom out (single mother).
“A gang fills a gap in the lives of people when they’re not getting their basic needs met from their parents, their families, or schools (“Why Gangs). Young people feel they need to join gangs because they want to feel secure and protected and they think they will get that from their fellow gang members.”
Just because most gang members come from poverty that does not mean being poor is the psychological motivation behind wanting to join a gang.
Horse feathers
