Bastards of the Economy
Peace,
Last night, I watched Bastards of the Party,a gripping documentary by Athens Park Blood Che ‘Bone’ Sloan on the history of Black people in Los Angeles & the development of the Bloods & Crips. One thing that stuck out in the movie was the role of economics & social policy in the events that led to the B’s & C’s ubiquitous role in L.A. Culture. If further illustrates the reality that gangs don’t develop in a vacuum; they form according to external as well as internal factors.
It got me to to thinking… How many jobs are created/maintained by the presence of gangs and/or pervasive crime? For a basic list, I noted the following:
- Police (Uniform, TASK, SWAT, etc)
- Lawyers (District Attorney, Public Defender, Legal Aid, Criminal, etc)
- Probation/Parole Officers
- Liquor Stores (White T’s, Bandannas,etc)
- Black Funeral Homes
- Out-of-state gun shops
- Paraphernalia Stores
- Corner Stores/Bodegas
- Social Workers
- Transit Systems (I was in NJ this weekend, & the bus to Northern State Prison was packed)
- Phone Companies (That bill has to be paid for)
In reality, this is only a cursory list; I didn’t get into the other tentacles that connect to street life (Car Dealerships, Cell Phones, Barber Shops, etc)… When you look at it from this perspective, we have become the bastards of the economy; a group of people who are the growth engine for thousands of jobs across the country, while still failing to get collective entry into the most menial of legal industries. Those of us who know better have to create alternatives as well as do a better job of educating the next generation about their role in feeding the families of others while they go to jail for 10 years trying to feed their own.
