Gangs Of New York Movie Analysis

In the city of Nashville, Tennessee juvenile violence and gang-related crimes continues to rise, and nearly fifty percent of gang members are under the age of eighteen (Sanders & Moore, n.d.). Furthermore, in 2005 gang prevalence became immediately apparent in Nashville, and in 2011 gang-related crimes increased by approximately twenty-five percent state wide (The Tennessean, 2012). Additionally, from 2005 to 2011 the entire state of Tennessee had a one hundred and ten percent spike in gang related incidents (The Tennessean, 2012). Gang-related incidents have become so significant in Nashville that the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department’s Specialized Investigations Division has developed a continuing initiative labeled Operation Safer

How well Wes Moore describes the culture of the streets, and particularly disenfranchised adolescents that resort to violence, is extraordinary considering the unbiased perspective Moore gives. Amid Moore’s book one primary theme is street culture. Particularly Moore describes the street culture in two cities, which are Baltimore and the Bronx. In Baltimore city the climate and atmosphere, of high dropout rates, high unemployment and poor public infrastructure creates a perfect trifecta for gang violence to occur. Due to what was stated above, lower income adolescent residents in Baltimore are forced to resort to crime and drugs as a scapegoat of their missed opportunities.

Also, from my observation of the author’s interaction with the gang members, he acted in a way, that was out of respect, and in no way condemning of the gang members or their culture. He befriended them and truly showed great interest in their personal lives. He also knew that he couldn’t’ approach these gang members in a hostile manner, as he learned this from a gang member, who stated that “You can’t just walk into the neighborhood and act like a tough guy, you get beat up.” Moreover, I also observed that the author seemed mild mannered, and certainly did not come across as this know it all, arrogant researcher. I can only imagine how scary this entire experience may have been for him, but nonetheless, he allowed himself to “hang around” the gang members as they drove him around their dangerous neighborhood.

The idea of a biker gang in the 21st century seems insane. How are there “turf” wars? Hasn’t all of the turf in the USA been divided, divvied, and assigned? Not the case, according to the article America’s Biker Gangs published by TheWeek.com. The article, published in June of 2015, details the history, growth, and continued issues associated with the deadly gangs in the US.

Crime was very popular amongst these gangs because they saw it as a way to get ahead. During this time period the tension between the immigrant and native gangs began to grow and the Irish were the dominant force followed by the Welsh, Italian and Jewish gangs. As a whole the strength of a group of people in the major cities was reflected through their gang and the public displays of violence and wreaking havoc on

In the United States, every year there are around 2,000 gang-related homicides and in the realistic fiction novel, The Outsiders, by S.E Hinton, it explores the issues of gang violence, and teenagers in gangs. Around 40% of all members in gangs are teenagers, who are getting involved in some dangerous things very early in life. In the novel The Outsiders, the “Greasers” which is a gang of all teenagers, fight other gangs and commit serious crimes such as murder. We as a society need to pinpoint why teenagers join gangs and stop them beforehand. We also need to help people get out of gangs if they are already in one.

The film is a myriad of deconstruction of the mafia stereotype; it does not gratify gang life of any form. In fact, it tries to subvert several of them. First is the inclusion of Michael, the oddest of the family, a college educated war veteran with a normal girlfriend. He is the anti-thesis to another anti-thesis, which is Vito Corleone. Vito, the father of the family, is not the typical ruthless crime lord; instead, he is the role model of the family, honorable, smart, sociable and very kind.

By the preliminary year of 1990s, the crack period that engulfed New York City in the 1980s was on the path to failure and delinquency percentages were correspondingly decreasing. But Randol Contreras noticed something special on the roads in South Bronx community where he grew up. Randol observed how his drug-distributing friends were no longer making money from retailing crack, but were revolving to mugging other dealers for a progressively deteriorating segment of the drug domain. Randol Contreras wrote the book, The Stickup Kids: Race, Drugs, Violence, and the American Dream. Randol shadowed a unit of Dominican males from streets of New York who were born at the end of the Crack Era.

In Chicago, and all over the nation, the effects of gang activity have been displayed, specifically in low income and poverty torn communities. Poverty is measured depending on a family’s annual income and determining if the amount falls below the poverty threshold for the family’s size. If the annual income does fall below the threshold, then the family and every individual in it is considered to be in poverty. Gang activity is more visible in the areas specifically in major cities similar to Chicago where poverty is a commonality in communities. although gangs might add structure in order where the government fails to do so in the projects and and similar low income communities the negative effects such as the distribution of drugs, violence,

During his time studying these boys, he found that most cases of conflict were resolved without the use of weapon(s), but rather with “harsh conversation”. This observation highly contradicts the typical view of gang members who are commonly stereotyped by their local community and justice system in Oakland. Rios describes how the boys “Conversations often involved references to guns as analogies for resolving conflict and demonstrating manhood”. The fact that most conflicts are dealt with in non-violent ways, highlights the negative role

Gang Definition and Classification Classifying gangs is no simple task and to begin you must thoroughly understand the definition and requirements of being classified as a such. There are multiple definitions of a gang, according to The Modern Gang Reader but the one I will focus on is “A street gang is any durable street-oriented youth group whose involvement in illegal activity is part of its group identity.” Now that the definition has been identified it needs to be broken down further to clearly differentiate why this definition is essential.

The New York Draft Riots were one of America 's most decimating mobs. It started as a gentle rally against the national draft, however, turn took a more terrible as it turned out to be all the more a racial battle. In the book, The Gangs of New York, Asbury gives an exceptionally top to the bottom depiction of the New York Draft Riot. As indicated by Asbury, "The battling seethed through the road of New York City from Monday to Saturday, it had started as a dissent against the Conscription

The successful bootleggers at the time were able to capitalize on the high demand for alcohol. “Through the criminal experience gained and the political connections established in gambling and prostitution rackets in the early 1900s, gangsters had become well prepared for the exploitation of Prohibition.” One could argue that these gangsters may have only been successful from an economic standpoint and that their lives seemed more glamorous then they truly were. Many of them died terrible deaths but the fact is historians and society will forever be fascinated with these figures and their lifestyles. Through my research, I have determined that it was more than this; these successful gangsters had very similar character traits and childhood

The film Boyz N the Hood is a story about life in South Central Los Angeles. The film was wrote and directed by John Singleton in 1991. I chose this movie because of its relevance to the course and how it reflects pop culture in that time period. The opening line in the movie “one out of every twenty-one Black American males will be murdered in their lifetime” really catches the audience attention (Nicolaides & Singleton, 1991). This movie goes into detail and shows the life of three young males living in the hood of Los Angeles battling a life surrounded by drugs, violence, and questions of race.

The intent of this movie was fulfilled by showing the audience the points he was addressing. The writer showed the cruel violence that was happening in Los Angeles and how no one on the outside seemed to know or even care about what was going on in the hood. The way the movie was produced showing a majority of the focus from Tre Styles point of view was helpful in letting the viewers understand how it is to live in the hood from someone’s perspective. There was two particular scenes in the movie that I felt was key to the development and understanding of the film. The first one was the scene where Tre’s dad Furious Styles takes him and Ricky to this billboard that is advertising “Cash for your home”.