Slouching Donkey, Lying Elephant: Gang Violence as Terrorism

S-Train poses an interesting thought: if the world wants to know how to fight terrorism, they should ask former gang members.

Rico and I were enforcers in the gang we belonged to. And he's right. We know all about terrorism. We didn't use bombs but we had our weapons of choice: intimidation, physical brutality, and the willingness to go there. For those who don't know what that means, I'll make it simple: doing things that other people can't or won't do. And that's what terrorists do. They go there. They escalate to higher and higher levels of violence and intimidation

So how do you fight those who are willing to go there? Well, you can escalate also to higher levels of violence and intimidation towards them. And I can't knock it. It's an instinctive reaction. But many times that leads to a circular pattern of destruction. Incident, retaliation, and counter-retaliation is par for that course. But you know what stopped gang enforces like Rico and I? It wasn't the rival gangs. It wasn't necessarily law enforcement. It was the community. When they stood up to us, we faded. When 25 - 30 hard workin' men and women from UAW Local 22 showed up when we were "roughing up" a couple of drug addicts that owed money, we stopped in our tracks. And what made it worse for us is that they marked us. They got our nicknames and gang affiliation. We were basically screwed.

This means that Iraqis who are upset about terrorists bombing their own people need to stop harboring them or looking the other way. I'm sure it's tempting to cast your lot in with foreign terrorists who also want the Americans out of Iraq, but they're not helping your cause--they're hurting it and killing you. Your lives mean nothing to them when weighed against their need to make a political statement through murder.

This means that the United States government needs to take a good, hard look at a great many of its policies in the so-called "War on Terror", and decide whether the degree to which they help remove opportunities and resources from terrorists is outweighed by the degree to which they exacerbate the problem and incite recruitment. We need to be engaging the world instead of alienating it, reaching out to the people of Arab and Muslim countries instead of providing them with unnecessary motivations to blow themselves up.

It means, above all, that the people of countries like Syria, Palestine, and Saudi Arabia need to realize that terrorism is a dead end. It is a tactic employed by the powerless against the soft underbelly of the powerful--its propoents will take no territory, hold no ground, and win no wars. The only thing it can accomplish is the sowing of fear and the strategically useless deaths of innocents. And it will end not when Osama bin Laden is dead, not when al Qaeda is gone, not when Israel and Palestine have their own states, and not when the US Military rolls into Damascus or Riyadh. It will end when the communities from which terrorists are recruited decide that it is no longer an acceptable or necessary option.


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	March 15, 2004


	Gang Violence as Terrorism

	S-Train poses an interesting thought: if the world wants to know how to fight terrorism, they should ask former gang members. Rico and I were enforcers in the gang we belonged to. And he's right. We know all about terrorism. We didn't use bombs but we had our weapons of choice: intimidation, physical brutality, and the willingness to go there. For those who don't know what that means, I'll make it simple: doing things that other people can't or won't do. And that's what terrorists do. They go there. They escalate to higher and higher levels of violence and intimidation So how do you fight those who are willing to go there? Well, you can escalate also to higher levels of violence and intimidation towards them. And I can't knock it. It's an instinctive reaction. But many times that leads to a circular pattern of destruction. Incident, retaliation, and counter-retaliation is par for that course. But you know what stopped gang enforces like Rico and I? It wasn't the rival gangs. It wasn't necessarily law enforcement. It was the community. When they stood up to us, we faded. When 25 - 30 hard workin' men and women from UAW Local 22 showed up when we were "roughing up" a couple of drug addicts that owed money, we stopped in our tracks. And what made it worse for us is that they marked us. They got our nicknames and gang affiliation. We were basically screwed. This, I think, is a brilliant insight. It's not so much that the Spanish community, for example, could've prevented the bombings--although a few people on airplanes willing to risk their lives by standing up to the hijackers could've made a real difference on 9/11--it's that the real death of terrorism will come when the communities from which terrorists are recruited stand up and say "enough". This means that Iraqis who are upset about terrorists bombing their own people need to stop harboring them or looking the other way. I'm sure it's tempting to cast your lot in with foreign terrorists who also want the Americans out of Iraq, but they're not helping your cause--they're hurting it and killing you. Your lives mean nothing to them when weighed against their need to make a political statement through murder. This means that the United States government needs to take a good, hard look at a great many of its policies in the so-called "War on Terror", and decide whether the degree to which they help remove opportunities and resources from terrorists is outweighed by the degree to which they exacerbate the problem and incite recruitment. We need to be engaging the world instead of alienating it, reaching out to the people of Arab and Muslim countries instead of providing them with unnecessary motivations to blow themselves up. It means, above all, that the people of countries like Syria, Palestine, and Saudi Arabia need to realize that terrorism is a dead end. It is a tactic employed by the powerless against the soft underbelly of the powerful--its propoents will take no territory, hold no ground, and win no wars. The only thing it can accomplish is the sowing of fear and the strategically useless deaths of innocents. And it will end not when Osama bin Laden is dead, not when al Qaeda is gone, not when Israel and Palestine have their own states, and not when the US Military rolls into Damascus or Riyadh. It will end when the communities from which terrorists are recruited decide that it is no longer an acceptable or necessary option. Posted by Catsy at 11:46 PM \| Comments (0) \| TrackBack (0) Comments: Post a comment Name: Email Address: URL: Remember personal info? YesNo Comments: