close your eyes and imagine yourself cruising along the streets

of Oakland. You are driving and the light just turned yellow, you

stop at the stoplight. You see a little kid walking towards you,

while he crosses the crosswalk. You take special notice of him

because he was around the age of about 11 years of age, but

had a thick gold necklace around his neck. He looks at you, you

smile politely at him as if to give a small "hello". He gives you a

smile in return and within that moment out of nowhere a gun.

What do you do? Its too late...........

How does gang membership become a problem to society? That is the question that most people do not really think about. When people think about gangs, it is assumed that they are a bunch of young people engaged in drugs and violence. People tend deny the fact that gangs is an issue and tend to not want to deal with it because they think it doesn't concern them, but eventually it will. Gang membership has become a problem to society.

Gangs can be defined in many different ways; most people interpret it as a group of people involved in sex, drugs, and violence. The California Penal

In 1993, the California Department of Justice estimated that there

Yes, I strongly believe in that. I guess it really depends on how close the person is to you. Depends if the person is an acquaintance or a friend. If the person was my friend, I'd ask who did it and then bring it out, if they're just an acquaintance then I'll just tell them to try to work it out.

"According to the U.S. Department of Justice, everyday in the United States, ten kids age sixteen and under are killed each day by handguns."(Silverstein 9) "In urban neighborhoods about 80% are killed by shootings."(Atkin 34) If we do not show our concern nor address the issue, especially with teens today, the effect will be drastic. Gangsters hurt people like you and I and our families. Schools, found that school-aged children were at a higher risk of suffering from violence in school than any where else*. Far from remaining "neutral turf" , schools not only suffer from gang-related violence "spilling over" from the streets, but are themselves rapidly becoming centers of gang activities, functioning particularly as sites fro recruitment and socializing("dig99.html"1"Bodinger";"99.html"Arthur).

Childhood development also has a lot to do with the membership of gangs. When asked about how he felt about schools being the location for gang recruitment, he says, " Its true. But its not like they target schools or something, its friends. It's the friends that you know."

You moved away for a reason. Wasn't to leave everything behind you and start a new life?

It was kinda rough. Where I was living, I didn't have a place to stay. I had to worry about food, a place to stay and money. I was the oldest son in my family and I didn't really get along with my dad. He didn't even want to go to my graduation. It hurt, but I didn't care because I proved to him that I could do it.

Of course. If you don't plan to follow that dream then why have one.

Yeah. I made the decision even if its wrong. At least I know that I took that turn and that I'm man enough to handle the consequences. If I took a fall, I know I can get back up.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Vietnam United, Department Justice, Justice Network, Nature Nurture, Gangs I'd, Code Section, Police Department, Rodriguez Kinnear, Gangsta Rap, Opposing Viewpoints, join gangs, gang membership, commit crimes, crowd i'm human, i'm human friends, percent homicides city, kids join, juvenile gang, gangs join, walk street, family didn't, dad didn't, human friends support, respect don't mean, worry food,
Approximate Word count = 2355
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)