Los Angeles...

[max_tranmere]

I watched 'Ross Kemp On Gangs' tonight on Pick TV and he was in LA doing a feature about gang culture there. It was quite shocking. You have Latino and Black gangs and they hate each other beyond words. Latino gang members were saying that if any black people entered their neighbourhoods they would be shot on sight and the Black gangs were just as hostile to the Latino's. Both more or less said it was a
defence mechanism because the other side was so aggressive to them. These gangs are huge and one gang member said tonight that the city is 'at war'. Let's hope London never ends up like that.

[Arginald Valleywater]

And it's getting worse. Huge tracts of US cities are no go zones. Go Obama!! Total failure as a president.

[David Johnson]

Of course there were never any gangs before Obama became President. Wasn't a problem at all.

"Huge tracts of US cities are no go zones.!"

Do you think that Bush's policy throughout his time as President to have tax cuts for the rich and cuts in welfare for the poor might have something to do with the problems?

Cheers
D

[lloyd42]

I think the problem goes back even further than Bush.

[David Johnson]

"I think the problem goes back even further than Bush."

It certainly does. What a lot of people don't realise is that America is a country of extreme capitalism. If you are a winner in that war you have fantastic wealth. If you are a loser, you may as well be living in a third world country because that will be your standard of living.

I remember doing a contract in New York in the mid-nineties and got on the subway to take a look at some of the parts of town outside Manhattan. The subway went through the Bronx and it looked so scary just from the train, I didn't even want to get off. Mile after square mile of burnt out buildings and derelict blocks. It looked like a full scale war had taken place and the government had retreated completely from the area.

The roots of this gang culture, as you say, go way back.

Cheers
D

[frankthring]

Dear Max - Since I lived and worked in this biz from 1997-2004 in L.A.
just a few points of info. Firstly LA if one includes its extension over
the Hollywood Hills into the San Fernando valley is a vast vast
metropolis of about 200 by 200 square miles. So the idea that a city
is controlled by gangs is tripe because the black and hispanic (and
asian) gangs make war in their own poor working class neighbourhoods.
Almost all of these are in south central L.A (the old city). The affluent
middle class and rich either live in nice gated communities in the Valley
or in areas like Brentwood/West Hollywood/ Pacific Palisades all to the
west of (by about 15-30 miles + ) from the violent areas. Needless to say,
these wealthy communities have a huge police presence (it made me
uncomfortable as a Brit but it must be said that it keeps crime way down).
Britain simply does not have the size of ethnic communities, the free n
easy access to guns, or a vast uneducated hot-blooded negro/hispanic
underclass to create this kind of gun-gang culture. Be careful on the
streets but be assured that L.A. Society and British Society are a million
miles apart.