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Members of the Kentish Town Community Organisation Ahmed
Mohammed, Omar Abdo, Mujib Miah, Mukhatrar Moalin, Muhamed
Aden, Abdullah Wahid, Jamal Miah, Kabir Ahmed and Mustafa
Ahmed |
Gang life has no glory, former Crip tells kids
Ex-gangster says he has only two friends
left alive out of 60
A REFORMED gangster transfixed youths at Queen’s Crescent
Community Centre on Saturday with stories of life on the mean
streets of Los Angeles.
Abu Jaffa – one of the original members of the notorious
Crips gang – told 40 teenagers from the area how he rose
from the south side slums of LA to a gang member with anything
he wanted.
During the 1970s and 1980s the Crips and their arch-rivals the
Bloods became notorious for their gang warfare which cost hundreds
of lives in shootings
He said: “For the first 13 years of my life I ate rotten
fruit and sour milk. I was beaten up by white supremists at
school for being black and by the blacks for being too well
spoken. I learned from an early age that fear is an effective
weapon.
“A few years later I had the latest Michael Jordans, the
fly car, 20-inch tyres, bouncing hydraulics, 1,000 megawatts
in my speakers – you could hear me coming from 50 yards
away.”
Mr Jaffa – who refused to pose for pictures – now
teaches sociology and the history of American gang studies in
Nottingham University.
He used a slideshow to explain how two warring factions’
– the Crips and the Bloods – started off as “community
action groups” living side by side in LA.
He told how they developed an intricate sign language and used
coded graffiti to reveal death threats and newfound alliances.
The organisers of the event, the Kentish Town Community Organisation,
wanted teenagers to see the brutal reality of street life glorified
in gangster rap videos.
Mr Jaffa, who has two friends left alive from 60 gang members,
said gangster rap wrongly glorified the life of a ‘G’.
He said: “This is no joke. None of these gangster rappers
is for real. Tupac was executed for claiming affiliation to
the Crips. Ganster rap glorifies gang life but any real gangster
would tell you they want out. It is something people fall into
because they have nothing else to do. It gives them a family.”
“All I can say to you here is that you have a choice. Life
is different here. You have good communities and the relationship
with the police is nothing like how it was in LA. You are not
segregated and you eat the same food as everyone else.”
After the speech, Jamal Miah, 20 – who used to hang around
in Queen’s Crescent but became a youth worker through a
Kentish Town Community Organisation scheme – said: “I
think an event like this really gets through to people.
“It shows people living round here a reality and that they
have a choice apart from drugs and fighting.” |
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