| To the adult world the casual violonce of gang life was horrifing
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| But in the distorted world of gangs risking death by getting shot was one sure
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| way of winning a gangs respect
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| I was shot when I was 15 or 16
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| (shots fired in the area gang fight in the parking lot)
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| When my longs collapsed uhm. |
| the the 22 is still lodge in my chest to dis day
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| See getting shot and livin was more for my ego it was more for my image
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| I could now I could walk around like supeman. |
| Id been shot I’m you know I’m I’m
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| the great I am now in my chest at that?
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| They show off their scars the way war veterans display purple hearts.
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| I got shot in the heart and um…
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| These are other scars that Ive had from other neighborhood fightings and doesnt
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| stop
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| Do you get used to death? |
| Do you get used to the fact that you could die anyday?
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| (Do you get used to it?)
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| See i dont worru bout that till you get hit by dat bullet, see like thats just
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| like when people steal cars they dont worry about getting caught till they get
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| caught right? |
| Same when we shooting at a person i dont think about getting
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| caught till i get caught
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| The explosion of gangs in the last to decades of the 20th century grew under a
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| much larger problem. |
| The rise of a social under class and americas failure to
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| provide hope. |
| The children bored into a world of disitigrating family life and
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| grinding poverty. |
| All though there small successes with programs designed to
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| create a future for some of those children, no one came up with a large scale
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| program that delt effectedly, with the forces of dispare and alienaion that
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| promted some many young americans to look for their identity and theit self
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| asteem in the world of street gangs. |
| (street gangs street gangs street gangs
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| street gangs) |