uch atrocious crimes. Leon Bing, said that although youth often try to emulate what appears to be glamorous forms of gang life portrayed in movies and the media, there is not much that separates a wannabe gang member from a true gang member. "Gangs are the real deal," Bing said. "That's what the movies are made about. ... A wannabe is what it is, a wannabe. But it doesn't take much to push a wannabe over the edge," she said. Bing noted that wannabe gang members often throw signs to represent the gang they belong to. In fact, other gang members may take their actions more seriously than the wannabe gang members believe. "If they throw it at the wrong person, they can get killed for their trouble," Bing said.
             The very fact that a kid is in a gang means that something is missing. So many of them are functioning illiterates. So many of them come from abusing backgrounds. The hardest cases were probably sexually molested or they were routinely beaten - probably both. Depends on what kind of father influence was around the house. If any. You find a gang member who comes from a complete nuclear family, a kid who has never been exposed to any kind of abuse; I'd like to meet him. Not a wannabe who's a Crip or a Blood because that's the thing to be in 1990, I mean a real gangbanger who comes from a happy, balanced home, who's got a good opinion of himself. I don't think that kid exists. (Bing, Leon. Do or Die. New York: HarperCollins, 1994: pp.14-15)
             The reality is that the Black urban centers today have become war zones where dope dealers and gang leaders are respected and the gun is often the final arbiter of conflict. Notwithstanding the impact of larger politico-economic forces that have given rise to urban violence (not to mention the criminality of the perpetrators themselves), one could argue that it is the absence of the Black power activists that has allowed the same streets they once ...