Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Chapter 3
This chapter was by far the most interesting chapter in the book so far. I was extremely shocked when the book explained the whole drug organization. I never would have thought that drug dealing was run like a true organization. It shocked me that these gangs have a central organization where if you are the main guy at one region you could eventually be promoted up to the top. I thought that these gangs were only regional but this explains the amount of power that gangs have since they run nationally. It baffles my mind though how the foot riders are willing to take on the risk of being killed just to be paid 3.30 an hour and have the slim chance to be promoted. This opens my eye to how truly hard it is to grow up and live in this type of environment. The fact that these kids would risk their lives just for the slightest chance of an opportunity shows that there needs to be something done about this. The book explained how most of the people who live in these areas would be willing to take a job anywhere, but that they would never have the chance to be employed. Basically, this chapter went from being extremely interesting to very upsetting just because of the hardships people living in these areas face. Later in the chapter the book talked about the cocaine craze in the 1970s. The book explained how Oscar Blandon was protected by the CIA when distributing all this cocaine. Right when I read this it made me think of the movie I just saw which was called American Gangster. This movie is also about the sellin g of cocaine in the 1970s in New York City. This movie was based on a true story and the movie implied that the United States Military helped this one man flourish with his cocaine selling. The cocain would be transferred from somewhere in Asia to the United States by military planes. This is a very scary issue to deal with. Cocaine is one of the main reasons that our society has become more dangerous and there are numerous stories out there which explain that the government is one of the drivers in this. Overall, I can’t really get a grasp on the main point of this chapter. It seems at the end of the chapter they explain that the crime rate since then has decreased and that the next chapter will explain this. I’m assuming the next chapter will tie in with this one and I will be able to understand what the main point is then.
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3 comments:
Its funny I mentioned American Gangster too! I guess I should have realized tehy were structured like a corporate structure, but it was hard to see that because you feel they are just criminals. MS13 a prominent hipanic gang appears to be structure similiarly. The structure gives them a hierarchy which is essential to maintaining order. It funny how gang structures are very similiar to military structure.
As I mentioned in my posting on ths chapter,this was too good of an opportunity for that researcher. Yes, these groups do have a strong sense of organization and I'm sure there are some out there who do such things. How unlikely is it that a top-tier researcher would just wander into the 'hood and stumble across one of the super-rare instances of a drug-dealing gang thay was dumb enough to document its financial history? It seems a little too perfect to me! I understand these things and this is HIGHLY unlikely.
I also thought that is was interesting that a drug dealing gang acted like a civilized organization. I suppose that I thought a gang would be complete chaos. Well, I guess that it is organized chaos.
I was also shoked that foot soldiers would risk their lives for just a chance at the gang "big time". It is truely said these guys believe that making their way to the top of a gang is their idea of success. I wish that there was more support in areas such as these to promote other ways to be successful in life.
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