Imagine that you are a teen at home, your parents are hardly around, and you are very bored. You don’t want to go to school, because all the kids do are make fun of you. One day you decide to skip school and go to the mall. Outside the mall, in the parking lot, you see a guy wearing sunglasses, and lots of blue. He seems pretty cool, but you aren’t sure you should approach him. He sees you looking at him, and starts making his way toward you. You turn around to go away, but he stops you. “Hey!” he calls to you. You aren’t sure to keep going, or stop, but he seems friendly enough. “You need some money?” he asks. How do you respond to such a question? And who was this guy, why was he asking you if you need money? Before you decide what to say, he pulls out a big wad of cash and hands it to you. “Come on,” he says, “I’ll take you inside the mall,” and he turns around and walks inside. What should you do? Should you take the money and run? Or should you follow him? You decide to follow him, plus, you have no where else to go, and he seems like the best friend you’ve ever had. He takes you to the mall and buys you knew clothes, gets you something to eat, and gets you whatever you want. He never seems to run out of money, and acts like the best friend you’ve ever had. Once you have finished at the mall, he takes you back outside and says, “Okay listen, at 4 ‘o clock tomorrow, meet me over there,” and he points to behind the mall. With out waiting for an answer, he turns around and walks away. After thinking about it for awhile, you decide to come. The next day, at 4 ‘o clock, you went behind the mall where he showed you. As soon as he saw you he said, “follow me,” and led you around the corner where you would be hidden. There you saw a group of 4 or 5 guys, all wearing lots of blue. As soon as they spot you, they make a weird hand signal at you. “I’d like you to meet my homeboys,” he said, and names each one of them. “You hang out with us, and you’ll live like you did yesterday every day, you’ll be one of us. You’ll get power, respect, friendship, and money, plus we’ll back you up on everything. We’ll be like a family, always there for you.” After he finished talking, he hands you a gun. “Here,” he says, “it’s yours.” You look down at the gun in confusion. Why was he giving you this? “Feels powerful, doesn't it?” As you look at the gun you wonder, why would I need this, for protection? But then you think about everything else he promised, and it sounded tempting. The decision you faced in this story is similar to a decision many teens face when they want to join a gang, and let me tell you now, it is not easy. Gangs make life sound easy, fun, and thrilling, like a walk in the park, but let me tell you know, that it isn’t. If you are in a gang, you are in risk of death every day, and you put your family in danger as well. The way they drew you in in this story is very similar to what they will do to other teens every day. Especially when your family and social condition is bad, like yours was in this story, it makes it even more tempting. Trust me, joining a gang is a hard, life-changing decision.
Gangs