
As a kid growing up in East St. Louis, IL I developed a active curiosity for gangs. Through my eyes gang culture was art and a lifestyle that existed on the edge of imagination and chaos. Gang art spoke to me. It was more than a gang tag is was an energy. That energy pushed the needle and brought a fifth demension to our urban experience is the Roman built environment.
My nieghbor was Crips and GD’s or Gangsta Disciplines. The code of the Folks, GD’s and the events I wirnesse they demonstrated, were events I will never forget. I was introduced to gang culture before I was really interested in girls. I saw herion in middle school and most of my peers saw it before they got their first triple fade. In junior high I remember walking through St. Louis Union Station one summer afternoon, skipping school, and seeing my homie while his set was taking drill line orders from his Folk lieutenant. I saw him but he did not see me. Not because I was out of sight but because he was someone else at that moment in time. I felt the first time - civilian regret. I was heavily impacted by that moment. I wondered what he felt at that moment in time. We both eventually become victims of America urban warfare.
One year during a summer camp in Chicago I found myself in the middle of a gang war before I entered the eight grade. These were large Highschoolers. Most were top gang members. I had no idea what was going on. But The People Nation gang new where I was from. The Peoples Nation is an American gang alliance associated with the Chicago area. This was a Black P. Stone Ranger who gave me no other choice but to initiate. The P Stones were new to me and this set was ran by a kid who was black but looked Mexican to me. He was undoubtable both. We had several violent interactions. In all honesty it could have been much worse, perhaps for another kid. The highlife of this summer lifestyle was weekend and Friday night’s. Which often consisted of liberating Arab conviennent stores of snacks. We could grab about for 3 or 4 grocery bags full of snacks in less than 45 seconds. We walked about 30 minutes across town away from the college and hotel dorms. These snack runs consisted of our lady co-conspirators graciously flirted with the manager on duty while we took care of the dirty work. Stoning and Bricking police cars and city buses at stop signs and stoplights sounded exciting on the long walks back - but I was also smart enough to know I would be headed home before that was demanded from my list of young G skillsets.
This was a 90´s summer that ended with machine gunfire on a Chicago basketball court - and my partner from St Louis attempting at what seemed like - him throwing a kid through a glass window on the xteeth floor of the Hotel. But I was there. It was after he was sent home that I experienced being strangled until I passed out - in an elevator with a large pool tile around my neck why another gentlemen was gracious enough to stop the elevator mid-floor as not to let this scene become a public embarrassment for me. It was our little secrete. It was only years later on summer trips from Atlanta to East St. Louis I would realizing I had not left that world. Some seem to smell it on me. These were World’s I had learned and processed but were never taught to me.
The Gangster Disciple Nation (often abbreviated as the GD's; formally, GDN), also known as Growth & Development, is an African American street and prison gang founded by former rivals David Barksdale and Larry Hoover; in 1968, the two came together to form the Black Gangster Disciple Nation (BGDN).
GD Allies — Sureños 13, Folk Nation, Simon City Royals.
The origins of the Gangster Disciples began in Englewood (in Chicago, Illinois's South Side) in 1964. 13-year-old Larry 'The King' Hoover joined a small street gang called the 'Supreme Gangsters'. For years, the Supreme Gangsters had a outstanding war with the Black Disciples Nation, led by David Barksdale.
In 1969, Hoover and Barksdale agreed to a truce. This resulted in the creation of the Black Gangster Disciple Nation. By the early 1970s, the BGDN ran the Chicago gang scene. Barksdale passed of kidney failure in 1974, at the age of 27. Following his death, Hoover assumed full control of the Black Gangster Disciples.
Shaming the true reality of the world it birth as it depends upon unraveling synchronize the faith in its oppressive trust.
“According to Acting U.S. Attorney Christine, the charges and other information presented in court: The Gangster Disciples are a national gang with roots in Chicago, Illinois, dating back to the 1970’s. The gang is highly structured, with a hierarchy of leadership posts known as “Positions of Authority” or “POAs.” The gang strictly enforces rules for its members, the most important of which is “Silence and Secrecy” – a prohibition on cooperating with law enforcement. Violations of the rule are punishable by death. Evidence at trial showed that the Gangster Disciples were responsible for twenty-four shootings from 2011 through 2015, including twelve murders.”
