Important key aspects of the bookCarter Smith covers all different kinds of gangs within and out of the military from the revolutionary war to the present. Many researches look at the start of gangs and where they were originated. Reading this book you see that gangs started within poverty levels and expanded in outer cities to go globally as a smaller gang within the bigger ones.
This causes troublesome for law enforcement within the boundaries of those smaller cities the gangs are now residing in. Criminal Justice Scholars call this activity crime displacement. Many gang members can not hold a paying job because they do not have the education or have met the right criteria’s in order to get a good paying job, so they fall into the gangs where they can make the money they need/want. Those that are able and can hold a regular paying job, to them the gang will always be their number one. If the gang needs them to handle something while they are at work, work will no longer mater to them, the gang does.
Some military recruit gang members in the hopes of them giving up all the information they know on the said gang, because they believe that the military would mean more to the gang member then the gang. The military fails to let the gang members know that at some point they will be released back into the community. Once released most of those ex gang members will get back into the gang because it was the only thing they knew before joining the military where they were no longer accepted. This causes more military trained gang members into the community and daily workplaces. Eastman is a good example, he was a criminal before the military, created an alias and joined in the World War, once released back into the community he continued to be a criminal until he was murdered. His burial was recognized and was done with full military honor. You see after the Civil War as well as after World War II that veterans get bored of their lives so they form motorcycle clubs, which eventually they get into criminal activity. Gang members have three reasons for joining the Military: one, to gain tactics to use within the gangs.
Two, for medical skills, it will benefit the gangs when their members get hurt. Third, for weapons and supplies, it benefits the gangs to have them to use against law enforcement and rival gangs. The Oklahoma City bombing was a turning point for military investigators; the bombing brought a lot of attention nationally to trained military personnel who leave the military and reenter into the civilian world. Juvenile gangs in the late 1990’s became a big deal on base. They were bringing their criminal violence on base and committing crimes within military grounds. Existing knowledge on practices with the gangsDuring the wars you see higher hierarchy taking in new gang members under their wing to teach them the ropes and how to be a big deal within the gang trade. You hear how Johnson took Lucas under his wing to teach him the strings so he would be able to take over Johnson’s heroin business and make it better then it was as time went on. You still see gangs run like this today.
Today you hear about how gangs use their gang members to transport their drugs to different locations in order to sell to a larger community. The Cartels move theirs from Mexico to the United States, in the book you see that they use Military planes to transport the drugs and distribute it from there. The criteria for understanding a gang from the revolutionary war is not much different then the criteria we see in today’s gangs. The only difference is there was more piracy back then, today we see more violence.
Law enforcements knowledge with gangs and how to handle them have become more intelligent then it was back in the day during the older wars. The military knew there was a big problem with gangs within the organization but did so little to handle it then. All the history with gangs in the military and being able to get away with criminal act while being in, the military caught on and now conduct body checks every so often to make sure these military individuals are not getting tattoos that are gang related. It keeps them in line and to make sure there are no ties to gangs within the forces.
