Background of students in Alternative Education: Interviews with a selected 2008 cohort

4. The influence of gangs in students’ lives

Nearly a third of the young people we spoke to had experienced life in or around gangs. Being raised in a gang family had particular influences, but did not necessarily result in the young person wanting to become a gang member. This was frequently due to some form of intervention from a family member, or a conscious choice on the part of the young person to avoid that lifestyle. For some, involvement in gangs was a personal choice, while for others there was an expectation or encouragement from family and/or peers to join a gang. For most young people gang life involved a mix of violence, drug use and other anti-social behaviour such as tagging/bombing. Criminal behaviour (drug dealing, robbery, burglary, assault, etc) was only mentioned by two participants while others spoke more generally about their gang related activities. Some young people attempted to keep their gang related activities separate from school life, whereas for others, gang related behaviour was present in both their school and wider lives. Gang membership or association was spread across a variety of gangs in all the different regions in our study.

While most of these young people were involved in youth gangs some were also connected to larger, more established gangs such as the Mongrel Mob. While not a new phenomenon, youth gangs⁶ are becoming increasingly prevalent worldwide and this trend is reflected in New Zealand. Established gangs such as the Mongrel Mob, Black Power and the Nomads⁷ target and recruit young people (‘prospects’) yet are largely comprised of adults. It was quickly apparent that these young people were aware of the factors that influenced their connections to gangs. Some saw their involvement as a continuation of family membership to a gang, while others had chosen to follow a particular family member or group of friends, which led to a gang connection. However irrespective of how they had become associated with gangs young people told us that leaving that way of life was difficult. It involved breaking connections with groups of friends or family, and changing behaviours which was hard to initiate and maintain without support from family or friends not connected to gangs. In this chapter we will explore the ways that young people talked about their involvement with gangs and how that impacted on their lives.

Being raised in a Gang household

Several young people had grown up in gang households where one or both parents (caregivers) were gang members (in some cases their wider whānau as well). However this scenario was not always an accurate predictor of young people’s involvement in gangs.

One young woman recounted how her mother tried to protect her family from such an environment by keeping them separate from gang activities or associates.

Mum brought us here to get them away from the gangs. Mum was frightened because my brother started getting into drugs and alcohol. Mum stayed away from it and wanted to get us away from it. Dad was Black Power, I was with him all the time—I watched him with drugs. It was fun but drug people are not fun. I’ve seen Once were Warriors and it was like that. [GenuisOne]

Another young woman found that stories of her father’s involvement in gangs had encouraged her to avoid becoming involved in gangs.

When I first moved in with dad, I could understand where my anger was coming from, because he used to tell me all these stories about when he was my age, he used to be really angry, in a rage, in a gang. And I don’t want to turn out like that. All the yuck stuff they get into, gangs and bullying. He’s settled down because he’s got his kids now. My sister used to say he was never usually home. [Jessica]

The next young woman described how things in her household had changed when her mother made her father keep his gang participation and activities separate from the family’s home life.

When dad is at home he is a home dad. It used to be an issue—but he keeps home and gang separate now. Gang members used to come over home a lot—not so much now. My family smoke and drink when they are out. But my mum won’t let my dad do things at home like what he does when he goes out with his gang mates. [Lush]

Some of these young people talked about how it was difficult to avoid becoming involved in such a lifestyle. One young man told us that his experiences had normalised gang life and culture to him:

All the whānau are connected to the gang. I see gang life every day cause my brother is a patched member and lives with us at the family home. It [Gang life] doesn’t bother me, it’s just life [Reuben]

He went on to talk about telling his father that gang life wasn’t for him and that he didn’t intend on becoming a patched member in the gang. He had seen what that life was like and had made a decision to choose something different for his future. In this situation the family was willing and able to support his decision by keeping him removed from any gang activity or information.

Sometimes hard to do things differently to family—they stick to their thing and I do my own thing. They don’t bring their stuff to me. If something goes down they don’t talk to me about it. I don’t want to be like them but it’s hard to avoid gang life. My dad knows that I don’t want to be a patched member and doesn’t push me into it—same with the rest of the family [Reuben]

Another young man had extended family in different gangs and voiced a desire to stay away from gang life as a result of what he had seen.

Too much gangs here—Black Power—down my street—I want to be out of it. One of my cousins is in one gang and one is in another—they don’t come round home with their patches. I’ve seen it and don’t want to be round it. The Mongrel Mob came round with no doors on the car and shot—nearly got me. My uncle got done over in these streets here. [Robert]

Jerry told us that he was already a gang member but had made a decision to limit his involvement, despite some of his extended family being full gang members:

I’m with the Savage Minors mob but I keep to myself—I’m not going to get patched. Most of mum’s family are in the Black Power up in […region]. [Jerry]

For other young people from families with generational connections to longstanding gangs such as the Mongrel Mob and Black Power there was rarely a sense of choice about their future membership. For these young people it was not easy to see a way out of being involved in a gang. This young man found it hard to see a different outcome for himself and was somewhat fatalistic about his future gang involvement.

My real dad is involved in the gangs and my step-dad is in the mob. Most of my family are in the Mob. It’s hard to be different. My cousins, dad and uncles are in it. I can imagine when I’m older, I would be in jail. I will try to control that, try to change. But it’s hard because it’s the way I’ve been brought up. But if I do go to jail, I’ll see my real dad in jail. I haven’t seen him since I was 11. [E-Rep]

Older brothers in gangs

Several young men we interviewed spoke of getting involved in gangs through their older brothers. In most instances the parents in these families were not involved in gangs and in some cases were unaware of their son’s participation.

Mum and dad didn’t know I was in a gang when I was at school. I probably would have got a hiding if they had found out—they wouldn’t have been happy. [Max]

Some young men spoke of their desire to emulate their older brothers while others felt they had become involved by following the choices and behaviour of siblings rather than making decisions themselves.

I was getting into trouble outside home. Drugs, alcohol, assault. I was in a gang. It’s pretty hard to get out of the gang cause I know a lot of them. All this was happening while I was at mum’s place. Everyday I would go down to town, getting drugs and alcohol. Not at school. My older brother was a Blood⁸, looked up to that. He’s still involved but I do my own thing more now. [Nate]

Just having brothers involved in gangs could also create trouble for young people. Prior to joining a youth gang this next young man told us that having an older family member involved in a gang resulted in others making assumptions about his association.

My older brothers are in gangs and had history at the school. My oldest brother set up one of the first gangs there and had done a lot of fighting so they [school and peers] saw me as being the same. They thought I was the same as my brother…Near the end of 3rd form another gang started to get agro toward my group of friends… they thought we were a gang even though we didn’t have a crew name. We were just a bunch of mates that hung out. Some younger members from established gangs started fights with us and we would retaliate. [Max]

Peer pressure as a way of joining a gang while at school

Young people also told us that friends were also were a factor in getting involved in gangs. In the last decade or so overseas gang culture has had a particularly strong influence in the development of youth gangs such as the Crips, the Bloods, and more recently the Killer Beez (which is a youth focused offshoot of the Tribesman motorcycle gang⁹). Several of the young people who spoke to us about gangs did not become involved with them until intermediate or secondary school. In these cases participants described how friends were the main influence in their joining a gang or a group of young people closely linked to gangs.

When I was first attracted to these friends in gangs I was at Intermediate. Then the crowd I was hanging round with at secondary school got into smoking drugs, gangs—I didn’t really care about education at the time. I had a mind set about who gives a shit, sorry, care about this and that. My identity, I didn’t know who I was really, and I thought smoking drugs made me feel cool and it calmed me down….There was this gang of Young Eastsiders and we used to hang around with them and then they started getting us into smoking dope—we used to look up to them. [Sam]

At times young people were connected through school friends but kept their gang life separate to school.

I started in a gang in second year at intermediate. But I was still going to school. Nothing was happening at school but gang stuff was happening outside school. [Nate]

Two young men we spoke to had joined gangs as a result of the groups of peers they chose to associate with. Neither had family members involved in gangs yet there was an attraction to what these groups of young people were doing. The first young man joined a gang through his friends at school. He liked what he had seen of the gang lifestyle; in particular the fighting and socialising that went with it. At the time of the interview he had been making attempts to improve his behaviour yet found it difficult as he was still hanging out with the same group of friends.

Dad doesn’t like me hanging out with my mates cause they are in gangs. Big thing at my College—Mongrel Mob and Black Power are around. When I first came here I thought it was cool to be in a gang—fighting and stuff, I liked the fighting and bullying. [Colin]

The second young person had initially made his gang connections outside of school. He shared a passion for tagging with several of his friends and they started a gang at the end of primary school to pursue it. Since that time he had developed a reputation as a skilled tagger and was seen as a leader by his peers. His involvement in gangs led him to drug use and fighting while he was at secondary school. At the time of the interview he was a member of two gangs; one for bombing/tagging and the other for fighting.

All my mates from X school went to Y school. Good thing. Tagging stuff came up at X. I started doing it first then others followed. Things started to go off there. I got kicked out and stood down for fighting and smoking weed and sniffing glue. Everyone was trying it so I thought I would and then I got addicted…I’m Leader among my mates, it comes natural, I don’t really choose it. I’m involved in gangs, chose it on my own. It’s for whoever. We got a fighting gang and a bombing/tagging gang. Started at X. I’m still involved in gangs today. [Method]

Gang Life

The young people who were involved in gangs told us a variety of stories about what gang life entailed for them and their peers. Gang participation seemed to be mainly a male pursuit, as there were only two young women who mentioned gang membership of any kind in their interviews.

One young woman told us she was a recruiter for a gang:

I had connections with gangs—I used to work the buds—recruit for the Mob. [Tweety]

Another young woman had become involved in a cultural group at school that ganged up against other groups.

We were all in cultural groups and we were always fighting—we were in the newspaper—our school was not a good school. I got in fights there. Got frustrating and after school we would have fights. Students didn’t care what the consequences were. [Lush]

Sometimes gang association was decided by a young person’s race or culture.

At my school all the Tongans were Crips and the Samoans were Bloods. People had to choose what they wanted cause other people would think you were in one of the gangs, no matter what. [Max]

At times participation in gangs had a direct impact on young people’s learning. One young man had attempted to stay focused on his school work but was unable to, due to his association in gang activities whilst at school:

Once all the gang fighting and stuff started I tried to keep up with my work but it didn’t work out… We used to have massive rumbles in PE and other classes—all the kids had their gang colours and that would start it. [Max]

Gang rules

In talking to us about gangs one young man explained some of the rules about gang members socialising. It was possible for members of different gangs to associate in certain situations if certain rules were observed:

It’s all about respect, for example, if my brother was Mob, and I have another patch [from a different gang], I have to take it off. I can still hold it in my hand but not put it on. E-Rep]

Perceptions of gangs

Two young men told us how they had experienced people judging them due to their family’s involvement in gangs. The first young man recounted how his teachers treated him differently after learning his father and brother were gang members:

If dad or my brother came to pick me up from school it would cause issues at school—kind of intimidate people at the school just by who he was. Once people [teachers] knew, I got treated differently, like I was some kind of piece of shit. They would only be there to pick me up—didn’t even come into the school. [Reuben]

The second young man found that the reputations of his older brothers influenced his treatment by school management, after getting into an altercation with gang members in class:

My older brothers are in gangs and had history at the school. My oldest brother set up one of the first gangs there and had done a lot of fighting so they [school and peers] saw me as being the same. So they thought I was the same as my brother. I was organised to have a fight with two Tongans in one of my classes and I threw a chair at them and the teacher thought I was throwing it at her. If you do something to a teacher, that’s it. She didn’t believe me that I wasn’t throwing it at her. Cause of my history and not getting along with that teacher they didn’t believe me. That’s what got me excluded for the last time. [Max]

Alternatives to gangs

Within the overall discussion of becoming involved in gangs and all that that entailed, two of the young people we spoke to had severed, or found ways to limit, their gang connections, largely as a result of their involvement in Alternative Education centres (see chapter 6—“Young People’s AE Experiences” for further discussion). One young man spoke about his reasons for removing himself entirely from gangs and some of the difficult things about that decision:

Deep down inside myself I thought I don’t really want to do this stuff—I feel like running away now—it’s just not me. I wanted to step out—I don’t want to do this kind of stuff. But I was scared of what my boys would think. Pretty weird now—they still do the same things. They’d ask me to come and smoke and drink and when I say no they didn’t think I was serious and they started laughing, and I was real hurt, aye? But I realised they really need to change—they are in the same place where they were 3–4 years ago. They are going nowhere. [Sam]

The next young man explained that he knew that people were attracted to being in a gang but wanted to make it about socialising and friendship rather than conflict and fighting. He was hopeful that changing his actions might influence his older brothers as well:

I’m only in a NC [No Colours] gang now, trying to stop all the fighting and stuff—I’ve had enough. I’m sick of it all and getting kicked out of school. I’m trying to get people to get into it to avoid gangs. It’s not a gang that will go and fight other gangs; people like to be in a gang so it’s a way to get people to join. My eldest brother is still in gangs though. I want to show my brothers another way so they can change as well, but it’s hard as I’m the younger brother and if I try to tell them anything they just give me a hiding. The only way to stop them is for me to stop and try to make something of myself. My family are happy I’m not in one of those gangs anymore. I don’t have any gang patches or colours anymore. [Max]

Summary

It was clear from these young people’s stories that in some regions secondary schools are facing the growing influence of gang culture, particularly that of youth gangs. In several cases young people described widespread gang participation at their schools and frequently a high level of involvement by young Māori and Pasifika men. Two young men from an urban region advised that gang membership or association in their schools had tended to be split along racial or cultural lines. This could escalate the situation and make it difficult for young people to opt out or avoid gang involvement as there was pressure on to ‘choose a side’ particularly if you were Māori or Pasifika.

Footnotes

6. Youth gangs have existed in New Zealand in some form since the 1950’s. Pg 8: ‘From Wannabes to Youth Offenders. MSD Research report on Youth Gangs in Counties Manukau (2006).
   
7. Sourced from New Zealand police http://www.police.govt.nz/service/cib/organised_crime.html
8. A Youth gang.
   
9. P12 ‘From Wannabes to Youth Offenders. MSD Research report on Youth Gangs in Counties Manukau (2006)