Gangsters!

[mr mistook]

Assuming my current WIP ever get's published, the sequel will involve gangs.

My book is 'urban fantasy' with the fiction taking place in my own home town. The gangs in town feature in the background of the story, and occasionally come into the main plot. It's not a big deal for this story, but the planned sequel will feature the gangs in depth.

I plan to have a superhero type in town, who is actively battling all gangs. I've done a lot of research on the gangs of my region: their colors, methods, slang, and especially their graffiti. If I were to write this next book, the hero would be actively "dissing" all these "real" gangs from my town.

This may sound like a stupid question, but do I DARE portray the real gangs, or should I start right now, in book I - creating fictional gangs with fictional graffiti, ect.

[Fresie]

I wouldn't if I were you :D

Besides, wouldn't it be more fun to create your own? (Only on paper, of course!!!)

[Maryn]

In my city--not known for its poverty or violence--the gangs have long memories. Grudges carry over for many years, and if a gang can't act against the 'enemy,' they seem to have no qualms about acting against their family instead, including kids or aging parents.

Since you're in the business of making stuff up, I'd fictionalize the reality of the local gangs and their members. Use the truth as a springboard only. It's safer.

Maryn, scaredy-cat

[mr mistook]

Yeah, I should probably proceed cautiously with this one.

[preyer]

what are they gonna do, read your book, hunt you down, burn your house down, kill your dog, rape your girlfriend, and drag you around town behind their rides until you're dead? of course, using real names and shedding them in a bad light is grounds for a lawsuit, so clearly that's out.

so, what's the superhero do? pit the gangs against one another in a bloody showdown of gory death? cool. burn down a few crack houses? right on. make a few carefully planned assassinations and plant false evidence? hell yeah.

[katdad]

do I DARE portray the real gangs?
I suppose you're asking whether it's safe to do this, or are you risking retaliation, right?

If you have a concealed carry license you're probably fine, though. (ha ha)

Seriously, you may wish to modify some of the gang colors or taggings slightly, or make up your own that are blends of several real ones.

Myself, I faced a similar concept in my Houston-based mystery novels. I wanted a nearby suburban town that was wide open, corrupt, and a breeding ground for biker gangs and such.

So I created my own township, Mid City Texas. It's a small municipality on Spencer highway, right between the cities of Pasadena and Deer Park, two real cities just southeast of Houston. Except that these two actually meet flush with nothing in between. So I invented Mid City, and put it between the two.

You may wish to try a similar method.

[sc211]

If you're going to be putting down the gangs, saying they're stupid thugs who deserve to be beaten and so on (which isn't always the case), then yeah, it wouldn't help to make a line-up of the area's gangs.

The problem is that no matter what colors/graffiti/slang your fictional gangs use, any gang member reading it is either still going to think you're writing about his or her gang, or simply identify with the fictional gangs 'cause they're in your town and getting a raw deal. (And while it's unlikely they will happen across your book, it would likely appear in the local library, or word of mouth about it as a local book focusing on gangs will get a copy to them somehow.)

What I'd do is approach a gang member, to get the inside view, and have your hero bash up the other gangs, or simply invent a gang so awful, committing such a harsh crime right up front, that no gang member would want to identify themselves with it and actually want them taken out.

[mr mistook]

Well, my plan was to have the hero invent his own "tag" or sign of graffiti, for starters, and then he'd go around marking his turf just like they do, and dissing their tags - crossing them out or painting them upside down just like they do to each other.

Now in reality, to flash a gang sign in the upside down position to a member of that gang is enough for them to kill you. Likewise, dissing one of their symbols is enough to get yourself killed.

In the story, the hero isn't afraid of being killed, because he's "super" after all. He fights all gangs equally. In his eyes they're all the same - just thugs shooting up the streets, terrorizing the neighborhoods, selling drugs, and so forth.

Anyway, I don't think any gang member would take much notice or offence to this hero battling fictional gangs. Afterall, each gang hates all other gangs. It's the "dissing" of their own specific symbols that really irks them.

So, the more I think about this, the more I'm leaning toward developing four fictional gangs, none of which are specifically parallell to any existing gangs. Rather each one will borrow elements from all real gangs, and use symbols and colors that aren't in use.

---

Another thing - out here in the midwest, all gangs fall into two "leagues" I guess you'd call them: The Folks, and The People. This is analagous to The Bloods and The Crips on the coasts. I'll have to make up two fictional leagues as well.

I think I will look for two names that essentially have the same meaning (like folks & people) to highlight the absurdity of the rivalry - like, Humans VS Mankind or something like that.

[preyer]

i've worked with an ex-gang dude for years now. he belonged to the outlaws, dayton chapter. nice buy. just don't piss him off. seriously. he'll kill ya just as soon as look at ya. for some reason, me and these stripe of people tend to get along really well. i've picked his brain many a time for some insider information.

[novelator]

I'm in an odd mood tonight, but my first reaction was--which one of these gang members is actually going to read the book? And the only possibility that came to mind was one of them in jail--perhaps. Even in jail, these guys are busy.

Somehow, and I've dealt with gang members before, this struck me as incongruous. I'm sure they're out there, these reading gang members, but I can say, in all truthfulness, I've never met one. They're usually too concerned with petty retaliations and turf, or the business end of things to read.

Then my brain produced the image of little Tommy gangster, sitting in a corner of the crib, nose stuck in a book, YOUR book, while everyone else is loading weapons, or planning a drive-by, or packaging product, etc. He scowls abruptly and jumps to his feet, waving the stolen paperback, mad because gang life isn't accurately portrayed in these here pages. Now, do you think they're going to drop what they're doing to pay attention to the author, then one of them, Gangster geek perhaps, is going to be mad enough to get online and seek out this writer who dared impugn their lives. Or do you think they would look at each other and laugh, one of them tells the kid, they never get it right, then the rest of them continue with their activities?

Seriously, were it me, I'd change things enough to avoid conflict, but I wouldn't be all that concerned. Most of them are simply too busy to do something as peaceful as read.

Hey, that's just my humble opinion. I've been wrong before.

Mari

[mr mistook]

Well you have to understand. I'm writing about the town I live in. I'll probably live here my whole life. I'd be writing about gangs in my very town. If the book were published, it would probably get a bit of attention in town.

Again, the thing that irks them is when you disrespect one of their symbols. For instance, if I were to go into Ganster Desciple territory and spray paint an upside down pitch-fork on a wall, and they caught me, I'd be dead.

In the book, this exact thing would be portrayed. My character would be doing the dissing, but it's my name on the novel.

[mr mistook]

I just wanted to add that I had an opportunity today to look at some fresh gang grafitti. I work a maintenance job, and today some resident reported that a kid had vandalized the laundry room of a building on the property.

This was my first chance, since studying up on the whole gang scene, to see if I could decipher the symbols. I was (oddly) pleased to find that I could crack the code.

The vandal was a member of the "Insane Deuces". Their tag is a spade, emblazoned by the number two, with an I and a D on either side of it. All these symbols were upright.

There were several representations of the "Latin King" symbols being dissed - a king with a cracked crown. A king crying, being forced to eat a spade with a number two. An upside down number 5 - which is the number of the "People" Nation - to which Kings are a member.

Weirdly, the vandal also dissed the "Gangster Desciples" who are a "Folk Nation" gang. Apparently the Deuces are independant, but I hadn't heard that before, so now I'm curious to research it.

On the other hand, it could've been an amature just out for kicks. Either way, I primered and painted over the tags.

[preyer]

funny you should mention gangsters who read. the guy i was referring to is a voracious reader. he'd told me of a time he was hanging out with some biker buddies, picked up a book on the coffee table and flipped through to where there were some pictures, wherein there was a younger version of the psychopath who's house he was in. at the same time, i imagine there's quite a bit of difference between street thugs and biker gangs in a lot of ways. if you wrote about a biker gang, yeah, they're going to catch it, i guarantee it.