Gangs in New York City

Gangs are a reality in most cities and neighborhoods. To a large extent, gangs thrive on membership – effectively meaning that they strive to recruit new members and ensure that those within the ‘family’ stay. Towards this end, gangs have been known to prey on various targets – including second-generation immigrants and high school/college students - in an attempt to soar their membership and protect certain interests. New York City has a rich history of gang activity. This text concerns itself with gang activity within New York City. In so doing, it will not only give a concise description of the origin of gang activity in the city, but also highlight key facts relating to gangs in the city.
Discussion
From the onset, it is important to note that today, gangs can be found in almost all five boroughs of the city. In seeking to chart gang activity in New York, it would be prudent to first give a brief history of gangs in the city. According to Asbury (2016), gangs in New York appear to have originated in the 19th century. Indeed, in the words of the author, “although the members of the gangs at the time were often youths, the actions of these gangs of New York had greater effect than just the areas they lived in” (Asbury, 2016, p. 97). As the author further points out, places like the Lower Manhattan had gang-infested streets. To a large extent, most street gangs in the city were categorized on an economic or ethnic basis. Although there were many popular street gangs that emerged in the 19th century, some of the more popular gangs at the time included, but they were not limited to, the Bowery Boys and the Dead Rabbits. Most of the gangs at the time were largely territorial, i.e. gangs keen on defending their turfs from outsiders – especially from new immigrants as well as other neighboring ethnic formations. According to Asbury (2016), by the 1970s, a vast majority of gang members were Hispanics and African-Americans.
Today, most gangs in New York have structural features that are largely distinct from those of gangs popular during the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Watkins (2019) points out that today’s gangs “overwhelmingly consist of young teenagers, with allegiances that are tied to housing developments and individual blocks, rather than to national or regional groups.” To some extent, these could still be likened to pockets of traditional turf gangs. This is, however, with the exception of gangs that have morphed into economic enterprises - as opposed to mere social groups. These gangs spread beyond neighborhoods, race, as well as ethnicity. This is more so the case given contemporary gang involvement in drug trade. Further, there has also been an increase in smaller and somewhat informal formations known as ‘crews’ (Mangual, 2019). According to Mangual (2019), the said crews could be defined as “smaller, less formal groups of youths, with membership usually based on a block or building.” Rivalry amongst these formations are rather common and could prove fatal in some instances. As Watkins (2019) observes, some instances of violence in some New York boroughs such as Brooklyn has been driven by the said rivalries.
According to Mangual (2019), there are major achievements that have been made in the war against gangs in New York within the last few decades. As a matter of fact, as Watkins (2019) points out, shootings and murders (and related gang violence) has been on a downward trend in New York over the last few decades. However, a look into individual years within the last one decade reveals that there are some years with a spike in gang activity as other years register a decline in the same. For instance Chapman (2019) observes that despite a drop in overall crime rates in 2019, gang activity contributed to numerous shootings across the city. This was largely aided by illicit drug trade. Mangual (2019) is in agreement that there are still significantly high crime rates driven by gangs and the smaller somewhat informal crews. A significant percentage of the said crews have their operational bases at the public housing projects of the city, and as Mangual (2019) further points out, a recent New York City report by the Citizen’s Crime Commission clearly pointed out that it is in these housing projects where approximately 20% of all shootings across the city take place.
In the past, there have been well-defined efforts to reign in gangs in New York. The said efforts are inclusive of efforts by both the state government and non-profits. Non-profits include the Save our Streets and City for Unity. The City for Unity formation employs various strategies in an attempt to ensure that kids are kept away from gangs and gang-related activities. It is however important to note that in the past, various stakeholders have differed on the actual situation on the ground in as far as gang activity in New York is concerned. For instance, while Bill de Blasio – the City’s mayor – has in the past pointed out that one of the main threats to public safety in the city is gang activity, various organizations such as Brooklyn College’s Policing and Social Justice Project are adamant that the situation is not as bad as it is made to look, and that gang presence and activity in the city continues to be not only demonized, but also overstated by both the media and the police (Mangual, 2019).
References
Asbury, H. (2016). The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the Underworld. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.
Chapman, B. (2019). Shootings Rise in New York City, but Overall Crime Stays Low. Retrieved from https://www.wsj.com/articles/shootings-rise-in-new-york-city-but-overall-crime-stays-low-11567633762
Mangual, R.A. (2019). No, NYC can’t afford to stop tracking gang members. Retrieved from https://nypost.com/2019/12/24/no-nyc-cant-afford-to-stop-tracking-gang-members/
Watkins, A. (2019). Why Violence Is Spiking in Pockets of Brooklyn, Even as the City Gets Safer. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/29/nyregion/murder-rate-nyc.html