Chapter one is "Initiation". This included getting
high with the other gang members, then getting beaten
by his new comrades, then going out with a 12 gauge
shotgun and ambushing a rival "set". Sets are subsets
of larger gangs like the Crips
or the Bloods. Most
gang violence occurs within these gangs between
neighborhood "sets". For example, Kody's gang, the
"Eight Trays" are Crips and mortal enemies to the
"Rollin' Sixties" Crips. Not only must each set fight
their neighboring rivals, but also they are expected to
respect the larger scale wars. If a group of sets
declare war on another group of sets then your set may
be expected to take a side. This can result in some
very awkward diplomatic situations with Crip sets
allied with Blood sets against Crip sets and their
allied Blood sets. At one point in the book, the Eight
Trays found themselves at war with a previously good
ally, because of these larger conflicts.
Kody took to the violence. He saw it as the step
from childhood into manhood. He was good at it and
soon received the gang name, "Monster". He willingly
and joyfully joined "Fly", "Tray Ball", "Huckabuck",
"Lep", "Crazy D" and "Gangster Cool". These youths
were very much aware of the gangster legends, who had
gone before them. This older members were mostly
either dead or in jail. They seldom appear in the
book, but when they do, there is respect and admiration
from the younger members. Kody's goal was to build
such a reputation. He even had a three point plan to
reach his goal. First, he had to build his personal
reputation by effectively using violence. Second, he
had to build his name in association with his set, so
that when his name is spoken his set is spoken of "in
the same breath". Third, he must establish himself as
a promoter of Crip.
Weapons were easily obtained from older members. 12
gauge, .44, 9mm, .38 were common. A "banger" seldom
moved about without being "strapped" with his "gat".
The war was financed by thievery and drug sales. This
was before crack and its associated money made full
automatic the weapons of choice. Kody would patrol his
neighborhood on his bicycle carrying a .44.
They shot their enemies on sight. I was frightened
at times by the fearlessness, ferocity and cold
bloodedness of some of the armed guiltless homicides.
Avenging assaults, initiation attacks and a peppering
of random acts of murder accompany this proclaiming of
manhood. One gang member, challenged to a private
duel, responded, "I'm a killer, not a gunfighter."
I have read quite a bit of military history, so I
was struck by the similarity between accounts of small
infantry units and these sets. I have read that
soldiers will sometimes take on the attitude that "I am
already dead" so as to lessen the effects of mortal
fear from interfering with their combat efficiency.
This same attitude was present in this book. Kody
quotes J. Glenn Gray, author of one of the best
accounts of men in combat, THE WARRIORS. "The more
lives the soldier succeeds in accounting for, the
prouder he is likely to feel. To his people he is a
genuine hero and himself, as well. For him, war is a
mission, a holy cause, his chance to prove himself and
gain a supreme purpose in living. His hatred of the enemy
makes this soldier feel supremely real, and in combat his
hatred finds its only appropriate appeasement."
Once, I had a conversation with a woman, whose son was
a LAPD officer for a year. She said that he had post
combat stress disorder when he returned home to Wisconsin.
From behind closed curtains, he would watch any strange
car parked in front of the house. He tensed up around
black people. He was easily startled to adrenaline by
loud noise. There is a war in this country, going on
right now! Kody believes that there are LAPD people who
are promoting the fighting between sets. He recounted an
occasion when police actually tipped him off as to where
his rivals could be located. Kody proceeded there and
attacked.
Monster's reputation built quickly. He was a very
effective killer. Kody found himself the target of older
gang members who wanted him dead. He was ambushed, shot
six times. He survived and went right back to banging.
It all seemed quite normal to him. He couldn't imagine
living life as a "hook", a civilian, a victim. He was at
war for control of the civilians, the hood, their turf.
Killing civilians was frowned upon. There was no glory in
civilians, too easy. Some civilians even welcomed and
protected the hood's bangers as defenders.
Later in the book, while in prison, Kody was recruited
into an army of bangers, the Consolidated Crips
Organization. That's CRIPS, as in Clandestine
Revolutionary International Party Soldiers, defender of
the C-Nation, unifier of the warring sets with claim to
the Crips name. The older gang members were very aware of
the need for more unity between gang members to reduce the
crippling infighting. There is much talk and effort
placed in creating a Gangster Syndicate. The primary
motivation to such unity was surviving the larger scale
wars. The Crips were allied with gangs of Southern
Mexicans against the Aryan Nazis with their Northern
Mexican allies. California prison reads like a race war.
This causes me to have nightmare visions of a possible
Earth, where the racial and tribal lines of loyalty and
disloyalty exists on a bloody worldwide scale. I took
comfort in the fact that this book is the story of
transformation, from a boy killer to a mature man.
Older gangsters set the example, cultivate and train the
younger boys, children. It's a good idea to save the
children from recruitment into this kind of street power,
political brinksmanship, butchering game for status.
Sanyika Shakur would probably agree, with the twist that,
these youth should be recruited into the black nationalist
movement that he currently advocates.
The gang membership
burns out without new recruits. Death, jail and maturing
take away available solders for the killing. At least
once in the book, peace broke out on the street because
all the solders of the authors set, the Eight Trays, and
all the soldiers of the enemy set, the Sixties, were
either in jail, in the hospital or in the ground. Maybe
a United Nation peace keeping force should be sent into
the area?
I date the beginning of Kody's transformation from
gangbanger to a day he was playing with his daughter. He
realized that he could not marry the mother or help raise
the child because the gang required most of his time. He
felt less of a man because he could not help bring up his
child. He started to have serious doubt about his
self-identity. He flirted with Islam, but despite the
fact that he has great respect for his Muslim friends, he
could not buy into their religion. He eventually made
contact with a black nationalist, who promoted his
education. Kody slowly withdrew from gang activity. It
is a tricky business to pull away from people you have
fought beside without seeming like a traitor. He took the
time necessary and with the final brake changed his name
to Sanyika Shakur.
Saving the children will not be easy. If you don't
believe me, ask Sanyika Shakur, his mother or his wife or
read this book.
Monster: Autobiography of an LA Gang Member
Review by Larry Taylor at: http://www.globaldialog.com/~larryt/monster.htm
This first hand account shows the cycle of violence
between gangs in south central Los Angeles during the
late nineteen seventies and eighties. From age 11 to
27, a young black man lived the life of a gangbanger.
Monster Kody, or more accurately "Monsta", repeatedly
killed his hood's bordering territorial enemies. As
Kody matured, he increasingly questioned this racial
suicide and eventually found a way out. Today, he is
a father, husband, author and leader promoting
Afro-American self-identity and unity.
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