Hispanic Gangs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Hispanic Gangs - Essay ExampleDuring a time of recession, this information sheds to a greater extent light on the impress crime has on our society. Combined with the very real struggle law enforcement agencies face to retain employees and maintain budgets, the report signals a very serious promoter degrading our communities. (US Crime Affects Economy, 13 bump into 2009).There are about 500 Sureo Hispanic factions in Los Angeles County representing over 50% of the gang memberbership. They are more geographically distributed throughout the region and are found in significant numbers in the San Fernando Valley, San Gabriel Valley, the Beach communities, Long Beach, Compton and South Los Angeles. (Hispanic Gangs in Los Angeles, 13 March 2009). The 18th passageway gang is very popular when it comes to Hispanic gangs in LA. The number of members of this gang range between 8000-15000 gang members. It is believed that this gang originated from the Clanton 14 street gang, the gang is fur ther subdivided into 5 parts in rule to ensure a better utilizationing of the gang. Most of the members belonging to this gang are of the Mexican origin and it was initially decided that only Mexican citizens would be allowed to join this gang, this was however altered later on. The gang does not have a primordial leader and it is fair to say that it is loosely structured. There is no leader to lead the gang and to take care of the smooth functioning of this gang. The members of this gang function individually they however join hands when a rival gang attacks their gang. The members of this gang are easily identified by the tattoos on their body. Every gang member has the tattoo of no 18 on their body in order to make the identification process easier. Some estimates of the 18th are as low as 8,000 members. The notoriety of the gang is based on four distinct barrios, three near downtown Los Angeles west of the Staples Center and the 110 Freeway, and angiotensin-converting enzyme in the West Adams area. (18th Street Gang in Los Angeles County, 13 March 2009).The no 18 is displayed with the help of a tattoo and it is unremarkably in roman numbers. There is another tattoo that is mutually exclusive to this gang. Most of the members have the tattoo of BEST on some part of their body or the other. The intelligence information indicates that their gang is the best in the vicinity or may be the best in the world. The gang members have to follow strict rules in order to be gang members, they are restricted from making use of any hard drug like crack cocaine. If the gang members violate the rules of the gang, they are usually beaten up for 18 seconds for minor offences and executed for serious breach of the rules. The 18th street gang recruits young children and this practice is really bad in short term as well as long term. Thus this gang is often called Childrens Army because of their practice of recruiting young children. The gang members expertise in drug tr afficking, making illegal documents, exchange of arms and other serious criminal activities. US lead in terms of the financial loss incurred by a country because of criminal activities. There are so many gangs in the US which operate depending on the area