The Truth about being in a Gang — Don’t Be Fooled

The Truth about being in a Gang

There comes a time in every teen’s life where everything seems to be going wrong; parents or guardians seem to be the force to fight, teachers become an annoyance like no other, decent grades become harder to achieve, and friends harder to find. It is during this time that you, the teens, are most vulnerable to either wanting to join a gang, or when approached by one are easy targets. However do not forget that like smart salesmen the gang members are selling only lies.

The “brotherhood”

You thought would leave you surrounded with a family that cares for you is simply a mask hiding the snakes that will do nothing but save their own backs and stop at nothing to ensure that they are safe, even if that means leaving you behind. Those so called brothers will be the ones who will beat you to a pulp as an initiation and will put that gun in your hand and force you to point it at someone else. They will be the ones to place those drugs in your hand and have you sell them to younger kids and give you young prostitutes to offer you some sort of artificial comfort.Yes, at first gang life seems like paradise to a teen that is experiencing a rough patch; friends, partying, girls, and even money in amounts never yet seen.

But this is a decision that leads into a vortex of pain, violence, and deeper troubles not only for you, the teen, but for all surrounding family and friends and even the community.

As a teenager are you prepared to do nothing but wince in pain as strangers continuously beat your body and ingrain a tattoo as if you were a cow prepared for slaughter?

Will you be ready to have marching orders consisting of stealing, lying, and cheating?

You think you’re tough enough to ruin others lives with one simple decision?

The glory that comes from being in a gang is not the same as some warrior returning from battle, it is a sick and twisted gimmick that you will force yourself to feel in order to avoid having to feel the guilt and pain. The guilt of having to hold a gun to another’s head, having to beat innocent people senseless and infect others with your perception of the “brother-hood”, is not a feeling easily silenced. Sure you can attempt to quieten it with repeated thoughts that you are on top of the world, that you are untouchable or even turning yourself numb and like a zombie, not feeling anything.

But sooner or later those feelings will come rushing back, whether or not you are prepared to face them. And the pain will be so deep rooted that it will spread through your body like the blood in your veins. It will be more that just physical pain, but it will be forms of betrayal from your “brothers” who may rat you out to save themselves, forms of loneliness that comes from losing your true friends and family members, and at last it will be a pain that no one can help cure for even those who believed in you most have turned their backs due to your foolish ways. The violence and suffering you throw on others will not be easily wiped of your conscience either, like ghosts in your dreams the faces of the lives you ruined will haunt you. Go ahead and try to block them out with alcohol and drug abuse, just remember there does come a time where absolutely nothing can silence the screams you caused.

The law will become your antagonist

you will feel that they are nothing but there to cause you trouble. Your cocky attitude will have you thinking that law enforcement is nothing but full of pigs that are messing around with your streets. Just remember who the pig is; while they are taking people like you who do nothing but cause pain on others OFF the streets, you are the one helping put them ON the streets. And if you think jail time is a walk in the park you are in for a rude awakening that will splash your face with a realization of how useless you truly are.

Those “brothers” of yours will NOT come bail you out of jail, they will NOT be visiting you, and most likely they will not even be thinking of you. If they do anything to get you out it is not for YOU, but is their façade to get you back into their grasp so that like the disease they created you can continue to infecting those around you.Your true friends will be long gone, and the family you had no matter how broken they seemed beforehand will be the craving in your heart that cannot be satisfied because you made them turn their backs on you.

So you will be left alone, with scars on your body and in your mind. From there it is a lot harder to get back on your feet and have things return to the way they used to be. The trust you broke with your friends and family is a bridge burned that can take years to repair and even then can be irreparable.

So before thinking that being in a gang is a glorious award, stop and consider all the truths behind those lies, and rather than turning to strangers who want nothing more than to turn you into a stealing, cheating, murderous puppet, turn to those who love you. Times may seem tough, but joining a gang is not as simple of a getaway that you think it is. It will only throw you into a spiral of darkness and pain that will turn you into a person you will not be able to face in the mirror in years to come.