In the news today, a gang’s attempt at public relations:
Sorry, we murdered the wrong guy.
That’s what members of the deadly Trinitarios street gang told grieving relatives of Lesandro Guzman-Feliz — the 15-year-old Bronx teen dragged from a bodega and slaughtered like an animal on the street, the family said Saturday.
“I’m sorry,” one of the messages from a “top leader” said, according to Derek Grullon, 19, the boyfriend of the victim’s sister, Genesis.
“I know it doesn’t mean a lot. It wasn’t supposed to be him,” the message continued.
And as if it was any consolation, the gang-banger affirmed in the two-minute Snapchat recording that the savages responsible have been booted from the notorious Dominican crew. NY Post
The following is from a non-referenced undated article about MS-13 in The Subway News: 13 Things You Didn’t Know About MS-13. The One Of The Most Dangerous Gangs In The World. Origins, Rituals And Facts. If half, even a quarter, of what it says about MS-13 is factual, it shows that the gang is as ruthless as Trump and others say it is.
It appears to be as difficult, or more difficult, to join MS-13 than it is the Marines. Still, young people do it. Why is this?
Consider:
Decker and Van Winkle (1996) view joining youth gangs as consisting of both pulls and pushes. Pulls pertain to the attractiveness of the gang. Gang membership can enhance prestige or status among friends (Baccaglini, 1993), especially girls (for boys) (Decker and Van Winkle, 1996), and provide opportunities to be with them (Slayton, Stephens, and MacKenna, 1993). Gangs provide other attractive opportunities such as the chance for excitement (Pennell et al., 1994) by selling drugs and making money (Decker and Van Winkle, 1996). Thus, many youth see themselves as making a rational choice in deciding to join a gang: They see personal advantages to gang membership (Sanchez-Jankowski, 1991).
Social, economic, and cultural forces push many adolescents in the direction of gangs. Protection from other gangs and perceived general well-being are key factors (Baccaglini, 1993; Decker and Van Winkle, 1996). As noted above, some researchers contend that the "underclass" (Wilson, 1987) status of minority youth serves to push them into gangs (Hagedorn, 1988; Moore, 1978; Taylor, 1989; Vigil, 1988). Feeling marginal, adolescents join gangs for social relationships that give them a sense of identity (Vigil and Long, 1990). For some youth, gangs provide a way of solving social adjustment problems, particularly the trials and tribulations of adolescence (Short and Strodtbeck, 1965). In some communities, youth are intensively recruited or coerced into gangs (Johnstone, 1983). They seemingly have no choice. A few are virtually born into gangs as a result of neighborhood traditions and their parents' earlier (and perhaps continuing) gang participation or involvement in criminal activity (Moore, 1978). From an excellent article about youth gangs published by the Juvenile Justice Bureau in 1998 but still relevant today.
MS-13 would need to hire the best public relations firm and advertising agency to turn the attempt to demonize them by President Donald Trump to their advantage. Their ultimate goal would be to burnish their image as a viable, positive lifestyle for rudderless young Hispanics, both male and female. It would be a recruitment tool, not that they need it. Trump is providing all the advertising for them that they need.
They understand that their primary appeal to youth is that they offer the three F’s: family, friendship, and fun. This appeals to youth who are feeling, with much justification, that their future is bleak.
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It happened in a park at night. Three gang members kicked and punched me all over my body — my arms, my back, my stomach, my hands, even my groin. Nothing was off-limits to them. They beat me for exactly 13 seconds, while one of the gang members kept time in the background, counting slowly.
I was 16 and had just been initiated into the most powerful gang, MS-13. I gritted my teeth so I didn’t scream out in pain while they beat me. Moments later, I was in so much pain I could barely stand up. But eventually I grew to enjoy beating others.
Hurting others made me feel invincible, like nothing is against you. If you have sadness inside you, it makes you happy.
The gang knows your weak spot. They understand you. They hear you. When they find your weakness, they go all the way in.
I was pretty weak when I first met them. I was also pretty much alone.
My family came from Guatemala, and I lost my mother to cancer when I was 6. My father died of cancer when I was 14 going on 15. My younger sisters — they were 10 and 14 at the time — were put in foster homes. I barely saw them. I lived with uncles and aunts. I was back and forth between their houses and after a while, I just really wanted to be alone. That’s when MS-13 said, “Come join us.” from “I was an MS-13 gang member — and got out alive”
Being seen in a negative light because of having inadvertently killed civilians would be the major hurdle in image making for MS-13. Unlike Trump, MS-13 should be willing to apologize like the Trinitarios street gang did when they make a huge mistake.
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I don't think many people are bothered by criminals killing other criminals and even criminals exacting retribution against the families of other criminals.
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The MS-13 leaders are as savvy and intelligent as anyone who has risen through the ranks of an organization to be a boss. They know that many of their members have no compunctions about murder, but I think only a few of them relish killing for killing's sake.
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The image Trump is trying to create of them is that they are bloodthirsty
brown-skinned animals who wantonly kill innocents. Trump wants to make MS-13 into
Willy Horton times 10,000, a tool as shameless as it is obvious to rally racists to support him and the GOP.
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The simple facts:
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