Hamilton County Sheriff Tells Gangs Where To Go

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Maybe Sheriff Hammond mentioned race somewhere, but the linked article made it sound like he was speaking about youth gangs but he didn't mention color?

Googled a couple of articles on Chatt gangs. Don't have time to study up on it.

One article from 2008 which may be out of date now. It quoted statistics saying that there are more hispanic gangs than black gangs in the usa, and that black + hispanic gangs account for 80 percent of the usa total. I haven't the foggiest idea if that is true, but if so, wouldn't the remaining 20 percent be primarily split between white and asian gangs?

I saw a TV show about an american indian youth gang, but surely there couldn't be enough american indian youth gangs to amount to even 1 percent? Heck, maybe there are even rare examples of eskimo or hawiaan polynesian youth gangs? If any rare american-pakistani or american-arab youth gangs exist, then perhaps they would just be classified as white? If remembering correctly, at least the paks and asian indians are anthropologically classified aryan in the same group with europeans-- Shared physiological traits except that skin color is darker. But dunno if physical anthropology would have any bearing on crime demographics classifications.

That 2008 article went on to say that in Chatt most youth gangs are black. I don't recall it quoting a percentage, and of course maybe today the mix has evolved. Dunno.

Unless Hammond specifically mentioned race, then maybe NAACP agrees with that newspaper article's claim that most chatt youth gangs are black? Or is La Raza gonna get upset too? I'm not ragging on NAACP. Am guessing that if the gang problem doesn't eventually burn out and fall out of fashion, then eventually the racial mix will be pretty even? Dunno but there's gotta be at least a few young white gangsters in town? Hammond hopefully wouldn't treat young white gangsters any differently than young black or brown gangsters? That wouldn't make any sense.

The only reason was thinking MAYBE youth gangs could fall out of fashion is because it has happened before? There also seemed to be urban youth gangs in the 1940-1950 era. Either the 1950's youth gangs fell out of fashion, or maybe the masses just quit being alarmed about it?

When I was a white boy in 1950's Atlanta and in 1960's St Louis and New Orleans area, there were a few kids of all races who fit the gangster definition. The old West Side Story type of gangster, with greasy ducktail hair, peg leg pants, pointy shoes and switchblades. New Orleans public high schools could be pretty dern risky places.

I'm ignorant of history, but were there other youth gang cycles that came and went in cities according to each new immigrant wave?

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Makes me curious about the current status of non-youth gangs in town. Or looser small groups of hoods, young and otherwise, all races? There was a pitiful white kid who grew up down the street. He sometimes seemed pretty smart but got into a lot of trouble. He hung with a group of young hoods. Eventually committed suicide. That kid went to jail multiple times for the stupidest stuff. Drugs and petty crime. One time he got sent back to the slammer for shoplifting a 6 pack from the golden gallon! I mean, if he was gonna risk going back to jail you would think the boy would at least try to steal more than a six-pack?

Just wondering where the line is drawn. Was the neighbor kid and his group of dummass buds a gang?

When I was playing music was on speaking terms with a couple of chatt mafia characters. Typical sterotype, sharp suits and big tippers. Real friandly as long as you didn't give em any carp. I was told they were mainly into organized gambling and heavy-weight drug dealing. Dunno what else. Wonder if that kind of gangster is still in biz around here?

Also, there was this morbidly obese hillbilly looking gangster I'd see waddling around accompanied by a couple of big redneck bodyguard goons. Dunno what his angle was, and wasn't curious to find out.

Edited January 25, 2012 by Lester Weevils
spelling and grammar

[mikegideon]

boy if that ain't the pot calling the kettle black, I sure as hell don't know what is. you're unbelievable. you chastise me for legal defense tactics that hold up in court, but when it's someone else you support the same thing you have criticized me for. WOW!

Dang Earpie. I just read that other thread. I'll have some comments if David reopens it. For now, I'm just gonna suggest that you come off your high horse a little.

[Lumber_Jack]

Does that pretty much cover it? .

I think so.

Earp, I tried to give you the benift of doubt, but you keep opening you mouth and digging your own hole.

Best let it lie. I'm begining to question the whole "roommate" issues now.

[TMF]

Just wondering where the line is drawn. Was the neighbor kid and his group of dummass buds a gang?

I would say that the term "gang" carries the connotation of an organized criminal element that exists for the purpose of consolidating power for the purpose of criminal activity. A couple of dirtbags that get together to rob some convenient stores probably wouldn't qualify by those terms. A long term group of individuals that has an organized chain of command, task organization, actively seeks to recruit new members and is primarily involved in criminal activity would be a "gang" in my book. I know that I just described the Democratic Party but you get what I'm saying.

I think the NAACP is getting involved because they're trying to read between the lines here. I don't know the demographic that makes up gangs in Hamilton County, but perhaps the NAACP is just making the assumption he is talking about young black people. I don't know the goings-on the the NAACP, but I do know they lose their relevance more each day, so promoting racial issues where they don't exist further justifies their presence and cash flow. I doubt folks like Jesse Jackson want to see an end to racism... it makes them irrelevant and puts them out of a job.

FAIL.

I know I’m wasting my time, but I don’t have anything else to do right now.

I chastised you for starting an email to a black man who is a City Councilman and a Pastor, with Hey (N-Word), filling it with ignorant rants, ending it in a threat, a signing it “Noah of Godâ€. All over something as silly as the hours at a race track and all while thinking your identity was safely protected by the internet.

Now you are here, unrepentant and even arrogant, blaming the victim, and suggesting that he had some agenda for calling the Police and suggesting that your attorney would attack his credibility.

But then again, maybe there still is relevance to the existance of the NAACP.

Edited January 25, 2012 by TMF 18B

[Guest Lester Weevils]

I would say that the term "gang" carries the connotation of an organized criminal element that exists for the purpose of consolidating power for the purpose of criminal activity. A couple of dirtbags that get together to rob some convenient stores probably wouldn't qualify by those terms. A long term group of individuals that has an organized chain of command, task organization, actively seeks to recruit new members and is primarily involved in criminal activity would be a "gang" in my book. I know that I just described the Democratic Party but you get what I'm saying.

I think the NAACP is getting involved because they're trying to read between the lines here. I don't know the demographic that makes up gangs in Hamilton County, but perhaps the NAACP is just making the assumption he is talking about young black people. I don't know the goings-on the the NAACP, but I do know they lose their relevance more each day, so promoting racial issues where they don't exist further justifies their presence and cash flow. I doubt folks like Jesse Jackson want to see an end to racism... it makes them irrelevant and puts them out of a job.

Thanks TMF 188

Good points. Unless Hammond singled out black youth gangs, it might indicate that NAACP fully recognizes that IN CHATT it is primarily a black problem. If that really is the case. Have only read a few news articles, and news articles can be notoriously inaccurate, especially if you happen to disagree. If one doesn't trust news accuracy for instance on politics or guns, then it might be inconsistent to give credence to the accuracy of an article just because it gores someone else's ox.

The term gang has been used in so many contexts, old west outlaw gangs of misfit cowboys, prohibition era street gangs, 1950's punk gangs, motorcycle gangs, skinhead gangs, etc. That neighbor kid's group of doofus buds may have been "organized" to the best of their ability, but their ability was woefully lacking. Am not saying that little group of punks were excusable or harmless. Just pitifully incompetent at the "dr evil" game. Even doofuses sometimes make a big mess.

The "competently organized" might be a good way to determine what is and is not a gang in modern context. OTOH, a successful parasite or disease microorganism manages to prosper without killing the host. The excessively-virulent diseases do not prosper because they kill off the host too quickly to propogate.

If the youth gangs were "competently organized" one might think they would make as much money with as few waves possible and fly under the radar so as not to trigger a community immune response?

[Guest RevScottie]

Interesting because here is another quote from the Times Free Press

"The county does not deal with the vast majority of the gang issues, which mostly fall to the Chattanooga Police Department. City police have documented an estimated 44 gangs and 1,100 members. The Hamilton County Jail routinely has about one-fifth of its estimated 500-man population made up of gang members, said Hamilton County Lt. Gene Coppinger."