1101-391 Language and Identity.

Pavel Nunez

Dr Carrie Hall

English 1101

10/27/18

                                                              Hi Gangster

Ever since I moved to the bronx, I’ve seen things that people shouldn’t do. It was either spitting on walls, break peoples window, or just fight over the pettiest things(I was at McDonalds and this girl wanted to fight an employee over not doing her job right). But what people shouldn’t do is try to be a gangster. Trust me, don’t try to be one or act like one, because it won’t do you any good in the future of your life. You will either die or get arrested living the life of a “gangster”.

I’m going to start off by saying what is a gangster. According to urban there are two different type of gangsters one is “A wannabe thug, often illiterate and an inhabitant of a downtrotten ghetto that hangs around in “gangs”; largely associated with the African-American subculture. These try-hard wanna be “gangstas” attempt to make themselves appear like real criminals by graffiting buildings, smoking/selling drugs and trying to looking all “bad-ass and macho an’-shit, yo”. An utter degradation of what true gangsters represent (see below), and street wannabe “gangsta”-types don’t hold a candle to what real gangsters are.  The other definition is The *real* gangsters are those behind organised crime; most notably the Mafia. Responsible for blackmarket trade, epsionage, organised beatings/assassinations, etc. “The Godfather” portrays the archtype of true gangsters, showing the brutality of mob beatings, shootings, running rackets and abusing woman, alcohol and everything in between. The real gansters are *not* to be confused with the aforementioned definition, commonly used as it might be.

 

Now that we know the definition(s) of the word gangster, lets get into the most famous gangster in history. A good example of a famous“gangster”  would be Pablo Escobar. He was one of the richest gangster who made money running his own cartel(Medellin Cartel). He would sell and transport Cocaine to the U.S. People report that Pablo Escobar was worth approximately 25 billion dollars. But in the end he was imprisoned, escaped the prison and then got killed. This is what happens to gangster, do illegal things,then go to jail or die.

But in the past year my community has been doing a good job from keeping these “Gangsters” away from the blocks where I live. When I first moved in in 2009 there would be a bunch of guys outside wearing certain colors to identify themselves in a gang. Sometimes throughout the year I would hear gunshots and cop sirens turned on 15-30 minutes later after the shots have been fired. The next few days I would see a portrait laying on the wall on the building of the person that got shot and died,Later the person who commited homicide was later caught and sent to jail. It was very sad to see that it was one of my neighbors living across my front door. Some people just don’t know when there gonna meet the end of their life and this was one of the unfortunate ways to meet it.  After that tragic incident I see gangsters as ruthless people who do whatever they want whenever they want, even though they know the consequences Just remember to appreciate your life because you will never know when it is gonna end. But as of now, my community has a lot less “gangsters” in the streets, I actually never see one nowadays unless I go into a another neighborhood. But that doesn’t change the fact that gangsters had always been around since the late 1800’s and still doing the same acts for 3 centuries(stealing,killing etc.). One of the first gangsters to be known in the 20th century

An incident that occured earlier this year was a gang member of the “Trinitarios” was responsible for the death of the 15 year old boy who got stabbed to death in the bronx. The  Trinitarios The Trinitarios  are a violent New York-based gang composed of Dominican Americans. The name Trinitarios comes from three main Dominican revolutionaries of the Dominican War of Independence: Duarte (Juan Pablo Duarte), Sanchez (Francisco del Rosario Sánchez), and Mella (Matías Ramón Mella).The Trinitarios were established in 1989 within the New York State prison system and has since spilled into the streets, with chapters in all five boroughs of New York City. Reports of Trinitario activity have also been made in several US states, Spain, and the Dominican Republic. Although the 15 year old kid was mistaken for someone else, this is what gangsters do to to deal with things (or people coming their way) and they up getting in a lot of trouble. Some gangsters do it another way, They send people to do their dirty work for them so they don’t have to do it themselves.

You may be thinking “so what” about the this word. But “gangsters” are messing up places economically like mexico for example. Because of the  gangsters and cartels in mexico Homicide, for example, had a total economic impact of $52 billion in the year 2015. The direct costs of homicide were estimated at $4.6 billion (63.1 billion pesos), indirect costs at $43.8 billion  and the multiplier effect at $9.2 billion. And violence alone has a cost. The report pegged it at $3.6 billion (49.1 billion pesos) in 2003, growing to $3.9 billion (54.1 billion pesos) in 2015.

 

Also they are messing up communities and cities like in Cleveland. The video stated in my sources says that” Dont slow down in east cleveland or you’ll die”. Also based on the other sources the eastside of cleveland are known to have varius gangs and high crime rates which disturbs the people’s peace of mind. Although you might not live in a dangerous area with gangs and gangsters you should feel bad for the people going through violence and crime like it is an everyday thing. But in the end gangsters have no real purpose in communities and in society other than cause harm to others and kill people.

 

(Ferreras, Jesse. “Mexico’s Drug War Has Hurt The Economy Just Like It Has Hurt People.” HuffPost Canada, HuffPost Canada, 3 May 2016, www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/05/03/mexico-drug-war-economic-costs_n_9825538.html.)

 

bishopvids. “Hastily Made Cleveland Tourism Video: 2nd Attempt.” YouTube, YouTube, 30 Apr. 2009, www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZzgAjjuqZM.

 

“Gangster.” Urban Dictionary, www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Gangster.

 

CBSNewYork. “Reputed ‘Trinitarios’ Gang Leader Arrested In Connection To Slaying Of Junior Guzman-Feliz.” CBS New York, CBS New York, 3 July 2018, newyork.cbslocal.com/2018/07/03/junior-guzman-feliz-ninth-in-custody/.