Mr. De Sanctis
CLU 3M
November 11, 2013
There are a variety of gangs in the city of Toronto including the bloods (whose color is red), crips (whose color is blue), Punjabi mafia, ms-13, etc. These gangs can be usually found where the government provides public housing to the community. Places like Rexdale, Jane and Finch, Scarborough, Malvern, Region Park are the hosts to many of Toronto deadliest gangs, coincidentally these areas are the areas where most of the immigrants in Toronto can be found in. So what really is a gang? A gang is a group of recurrently individuals or close friends with identifiable leadership and a internal organization, identifying with or claiming control over territory in a community, and engaging either individually or collectively in violent or other forms of illegal behavior. Some criminal gang members are “jumped in” or have to prove their loyalty by committing acts such as theft violence or in some cases murder. A member of a gang is called a gangster and the gang he represents is called a set. In this essay we will look at the fact that gang violence in Toronto, and the irony of gangs from two different areas in Toronto who “rep” the same gang, for example crips have developed rivalries. We will discover why the youth in Toronto join gangs. Also go in depth in the rivalry between the prominent gangs in Toronto, the Jamestown crips vs. Mount olive crips and Driftwood crips, and Malvern crew vs. the Scarborough Galloway boys.
There are various reasons why youth in Toronto join gangs. Poverty, protection, influences, are just some of them. Gangs are usually people of the same ethnicity, blacks from gangs with other blacks, the same goes with Hispanic, Indian, and White. A gang is formed to make it easier for individuals to carry out illegal activities such as drug trafficking, robbery, break and enters, ect. It also makes it easier for them to control the area where they sell their drugs. In