So my friend just got SHOT five fucking times in the chest and torso
 

Fucking Los Angeles, this god-damned town is ridiculous sometimes. I know too many folks with scars and even bullets remaining in their bodies..

This dude was not shot in the normal places you think of like Watts (up), South Central, Cudahy or Huntington Park..

now, this dude was shot five times by a machine gun in mid-class burb of Downey (which if your from LA you will understand how absurd that shit sounds, but actually, three of my friends were shot in downey, and the DPD killed my friend Gonzolo in 2002)

I have been involved in too much of this kind of shit, but it is often unavoidable, that is what happens in this town.




well, fuck em.



"I stand around a train station, waitin for my train, to take me... take me away, from this lonesome town.."

yes, by the grace of God, but it gets old you know?

"now freedom must be fundamental, in Johannesburg or South Central."

that shit is fucked up.

I have been to LA twice, and it is a horrid place. for an athiest like me to say that LA is soulless lets you know how bad it was.

ironically, I feel that if they had not built all this concrete Los Angeles would have become the North American Mecca or Jerusalem, a place of holy and spiritual pilgrimage, for there is a current of energy which is unexplainable which permeates this entire place and stems from the earth and the mountains. But alas, like most holy places included Mecca and Jerusalem, instead of giving spirit we chose to shed blood.

don't lose your hope...

I don't know L.A., but I live in Santiago Chile and 15 year old kids kill each other everyday for crack in the ghetto.

I think it's universal.

you think correctly, though to add more ironies, LA is exporting its gang problem across the Americas, so there is a good chance that some of those youth learned the ropes here :(

I don't ever lose up, I breathe hope and love, but this town can be something else sometimes.

Pray for me (e-40)

I doubt L.A. has any influence over south american riots.

I will pray for you.

That's terrible. I hope he's okay, man. I love parts of L.A., but it's got an awful side to it.

Though, I've never been keen on Downey. It's no Watts, but it's certainly not the safest area I can think of.

I've never been to LA but I'm sure, as i type this, something similar is happening in London.

I'd like to just tell you to stay safe, but we all know that sometimes stuff like that has nothing to do with wrecklessness on the part of the victim.

Either way, stay safe.

EDUCATED AS A GANG MEMBER IN LOS ANGELES

 

 

 

Tuesday, 11 September 2007 The Story Of A Chilean Who Grew Up In The L.A. Gang Scene

(Ed. Note: This article relates the life of a young Chilean who spent many years as a member of one of Los Angeles’ many gangs before being deported to Chile. The article first appeared in The Clinic earlier this month – and makes one think twice before heading to Valparaiso – where the former gang member now calls home.)...

The Story Of A Chilean Who Grew Up In The L.A. Gang Scene
Los Angeles needs to go global to fight gangs, says Rocky Delgadillo

Rocky Delgadillo, the Los Angeles city attorney, oversees the enforcement of 57 gang injunctions, including ones against the MS-13 and 18th Street gangs. In Opinion today, he talks about how combating Los Angeles gangs is not a local challenge, but an international one.

"The two fastest-growing and most powerful gangs in the world are homegrown products of Los Angeles. The Mara Salvatrucha gang, or MS-13, and the 18th Street gang, known in Central America as Mara 18, sprang up in Pico-Union and the densely populated neighborhoods around MacArthur Park. But unlike many local street gangs, these two were entrepreneurial: They recruited Central American immigrants across the city and then expanded farther -- throughout Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Conservative estimates put MS-13's ranks at 20,000 and 18th Street's at 30,000 worldwide.
"Stopping street gangs is no longer a local matter -- a point driven home to me during a symposium in El Salvador. During the conference, two points of consensus emerged. First, MS-13 and 18th Street have become an international concern -- indeed, even Interpol is now involved in the fight. Second, past strategies to handle these gangs have failed."

Read the full Opinion piece here.

How the Street Gangs Took Central America

Ana Arana
From Foreign Affairs, May/June 2005
Article Tools

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Summary: For a decade, the United States has exported its gang problem, sending Central American-born criminals back to their homelands -- without warning local governments. The result has been an explosive rise of vicious, transnational gangs that now threaten the stability of the region's fragile democracies. As Washington fiddles, the gangs are growing, spreading north into Mexico and back to the United States.
Ana Arana is an investigative journalist who has reported extensively on Latin America.

not necessarily:

Number of people killed by guns in 2006 in England & Wales (population 53 million): 46

whereas:

"In 2004, 1,145 residents of Los Angeles county lost their lives to guns." (from the Office of Health Information and Research, California Center for Health Information)
firearm suicides, or accidental shooting


I'd hate to say it, but gun violence is a bit more of an exaggerated problem here in Los Angeles, how many people do you know that were shot?

.

That sucks dude, hope he is fine though. Downey by the way is not a good neighborhood.

so what is a good neighborhood in Los Angeles?

beverley hills?

Central Los Angeles is pretty safe. The main area between the 101/10/110 I'd say is quite a bit safer than any of the areas surrounding it.

maybe

Although I'm sure you're right overall, the relatively small figures for gun related murder in the UK provide a false impression regarding the level of violent crime taking place within the UK right now (where guns are, after all, illegal). Either way, I'm glad your friend is going to be ok, and wish you and he a bullet free new year.

That's fucked up dude. If it were here it'd be all over the news and shit, but in LA and a lot of the USA, that's just life unfortunately.

move out?

there are many safe places to live in this country

my mom lived in downey.