Our neighborhood gang

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In what universe are posts about musical theater on Broadway and gang activity in our neighborhood part of the same conversation? Well, not to be too fancy about it, but let’s start with graffiti like the drawing at left on some trees a few miles from our house.

Now, sometimes graffiti is art, displayed at the world’s finest museums, and sometimes it’s a federal crime. It seems to me that culture encompasses both uses or interpretations, and it’s certainly worth talking about in any case. At least that’s what I would hope to do on WashCult.

I got to learn about MS-13, the gang of choice in my Takoma Park/Langley Park neighborhood while doing a feature story for NPR’s Justice Talking, the show I used to produce with some very talented folks.

There’s immense frustration, of course, in boiling down everything you learn about a subject into a six minute radio report. I wanted anyone interested in more information to be able to hear more.

Here, for example, is the voice of Mario, a former gang member I talked with in the Langley Park offices of the Youth Opportunity Center. He pleads with the Anglo community not to automatically fear young Latinos.

Mario on fear, mp3

“Another thing I want to tell the community is that I see that many white people are afraid of young Latinos. Don’t be afraid of them because they don’t bother anyone. In many ways the young Latinos are afraid of white people. Why? Because if they don´t like the way we look at them they call the police right away. They are protected by the police. I see that many white people are afraid of Latinos and it shouldn’t be like that.”

And here Mario talks about finding God, and a job.

Mario on his new life, mp3

“Right now, thank God, it has been 6 years – since 2001 – that I have been on the right track. I’m not getting into trouble. I left my past behind. I have been in church. I have been a leader with the word of God, then I found the [Youth] Center which I’m part of it. Thank God now my life is different. I have a job in construction. I make good money working as a carpenter and now people look at me with love they don’t see me as they did in the past, as a challenge.”

But, for now, the most poignant bit of sound I had to leave out of the story was the first person reminiscence of Sergio, displaying his tatoo, above, who recounts his initiation into MS-13 in L.A. in the 1980s.

Sergio on being “jumped in” to MS-13, mp3