What do you think of the representation of the gangs in the TV show The Shield?
For those who don't know, The Shield is a drama about a special unit of a LA police (made up district), specialized in drug and gang stuff. I love that show because it looks way more realistic than all the other I've seen.
So the gangs in the show aren't real ones. No Crips, no Bloods, no 18th Street,...
But you still have gangs for each communities.
Hispanics
25th Street Coronas
Byzantine Latinos (Byz-Lats)
Los Magnificos (Los Mags)
The Toros
The Torrucos
Los Profetas
El Salvadorans
Farmtown Mijos
Blacks
Compton Crowns
E-Park Johnnies
One-Niners
Farmtown 12
Splash Posse
Spookstreet Souljahs
Asians
K-Town Killer
Whites:
The Horde
From Europe:
Russian Mafia
Armenian Might
First, I like the names! Byz-Latz, Los Mags, One-Niners, that sounds really nice I think. Some things are well thought, even though it can look logic: the One-Niners for example will put some graffitis saying "19". I like how things roll.
Salvadorans are specialized in grenades (and machete I think), Armenians on cutting the feet of the victims.
The Byz-Latz and One-Niners are probably the two we hear the most about. Maybe there is the lack of a big rival for the One-Niners (to refer to Crips vs Bloods). There is a Byz-Lats vs Salvadorans rivalry at one point.
A lot of these gangs are talked about for one or 2 stories (which correspond to a few episodes, from a couple to 10-12).
I personally like how this is represented, I think they did quite a good job. We don't see enough the colors of the gangs (they say 1-9ers is in purple, but it's very rare to see the colors represented, while IRL when you see a Crip or a Blood you see immediately the colors). Probably because they didn't wanted to take chances to have the colors of a real gang? Or maybe I didn't pay enough attention
What are your thoughts on how it is presented, the organisation, the activities, the rivalries,...?
PS: do you know a TV show centered on the gangs? Maybe even more than The Shield (which has a lot of non-gang things)?