BLOOD HOUND

The Bloods and Crips are two of South Los Angeles most notorious African American gangs. The documentary Crips And Bloods In America addresses gangs , segregation, racism and more. While many people cannot understand the decades of long cycle of destruction that has come to many daily lives the individuals who join each gang are not mindless, gun-toting thugs, but real people with real families who have become caught up in a struggle from which the only escape is often death. Crips And Bloods Made In America reveals the turf wars, hierarchy, family structure, gun culture, and interviews with gangsters past and present, as well as experts, activists, and academics.
I think this documentary gave off a positive and negative affect to the watchers. The film was very descriptive and showed us vague incidents and brawls. For example one positive thing i liked about the film was the interviews with fellow gang members. They were able to make a picture in my mind of what they went through. One negative thing i did not like about Bloods And Crips Made In America was the beginning of the movie. I did not like that because the past usually dosent interest me then future refrences. In the beginning the movie explained how years ago "gangs" did not fight to kill, to sell drugs, or to rep and be known as #1.

I strongly disliked another main thing in the documentary. During all of the interviews with previous gang members all of them did not stand out as being a con for gang violence. None of the gang members warned the watchers that being in a gang was not the right choice. Although they showed vague events in their life and showed severe violence they werent such good role models.

The film flowed all the way through in an orderly way. It showed chapters in the past and present years. The scenes were not disjointed and were not unexplanitory. Each gang member showed a time in their life where they encountered violence. After showing the event they witnessed they showed the set they were joined in. The summary of the documentary was very clear. Each event that the gang members witnessed left a thought in my mind which made this movie very clear.

Overall i liked this movie because of the vague descriptions. One example that I liked in Bloods And Crips Made In America were the interviews with the people who lost family members due to gang violence. This part of the film was very inspirational and brought tears to my eyes. This movie should be watched by many teens so that they can learn that violence is not the way to solve problems. Violence will only cause death and will not make our world better.

DECISION MAKING AND MORALITY

Decision making is very crucial to life. It's important to distinguish between right and wrong decisions for the sake of ourselves and others around us. Our decisions not only affect but affect the life of others. Some decisions are more important than others because some decisions may affect us for the duration of our lives. Making the right decisions and knowing what the right decision is very signifigant because all decisions have consequences. The fact that all our decisions have consequences is a great reason to understand why its important to always try to make the right decisions.

One time i had to decide whether to stay in a relationship or not. The problem with this situation was that our relationship had many struggles. At many times we would fight over the same things even after we forgave eachother earlier. Since i was younger i always felt that if something is meant to be it will always find its way. My decision was to wait and see if we were able to work things ou in a way where we faught less. My solution would tell me if we were meant to be depending on if she came back or not.

In Down These Mean Streets, we see Piri deciding to go to the transvesties apartment. Piri was accountered in peer pressure and decided to take a big step into being a follower. What led Piri to this decision was not only peer pressure. He felt that going to the transvesties house would make him seem as a bigger person. Piri wanted to fit in and be known as the tough guy who takes risks.

Making the right decisions can have a very important impact on your life. Sometimes people should think twice before making decisions because the first choice you pick might not be the best one for you. As people get older they will gain a better knowledge of making the right decisions due to the fact that they will experience more problems and situations.

Lawrence Kohlberg and Theory of Moral Development

Lawrence Kohlberg (October 25, 1927 – January 19, 1987) was an American psychologist born in Bronxville, New York, who served as a professor at the University of Chicago, as well as Harvard University. Having specialized in research on moral education and reasoning, he is best known for his theory of stages of moral development.

Stages 1. Obedience and Punishment (How can I avoid punishment?)
2. Self-Interest (What's in it for me? You do for me, I’ll do for you. You do that to me, I’ll do that to you)
3. Interpersonal Accord and Conformity (Conforming to the will of the group. Peer Pressure)
4. Authority and social-order maintaining orientation (Law and order morality. You do something or don’t do something because the law/rule/religious text says so)
5. Social Contract (Laws are regarded as social contracts rather than rigid dictums/rules)
6. Universal Ethical Principles/The Golden Rule (Principled conscience/commitment to justice, equality and respect…think Jesus, Dr. King, Ghandi)


> your caught by the cops with weed because your bestfriend was going to get caught by there parents. In order for yourself not to get in trouble with your parents and law enforcement do you rat out your bestfriend?

: (1). ill rat out my bestfriend
: (2). ill tell the cops because i know i wont get in trouble
: (5). i cant because i might get beat up
: (4). i can't not tell the cop's i need to do the right thing. what would the world be like if innocent people get in trouble.
: (3). im not telling the cops because i know i wont get beat up
: (6)

RACISM

g9One day when i was going to school on the train there was a lot of cops by the train station. They were standing infront of a table and they were doing random searches. Both of the cops were white and they kept telling the black boys who walked in to come to the table. They searched their bags but they didnt stop any white people and they did not stop any girls. This is racism because the search is supposed to be random and the police arent supposed to be racial profile.





prejudice- to pre judge a person or a group ( race, gender, sexual orientation, or a group )



racism- One race thinks its better or more superior then another race.



discrimination- a person or a group unfairly treats another person or group based upon their race broup sexual orientation.

PQP

Dear Piri,
I enjoyed your writing in "DOWN THESE MEAN STREETS". Your writing was inspirational,vague, and creative. Some examples that you used that were composed with those 3 elements was the visit to the transvesties apartment, and the incident in the shower. The writing was very interesting. I liked that you used the word "corazon" often because you showed me an idea of what you meant by having heart.
As i read more of the book I wondered why you didnt include your brother's more in the book. I thought that your brother's would join you into the gangs and be your bestfriends as you grew older. Another question I have is why did you feel the need to be vague with chapter 6.
I suggest that you remain to write books the way you wrote "DOWN THESE MEAN STREETS". You were able to grab my attention and make me interested in what was going on. Your words were inspirational which showed me a lot of comparison on how your life is compared to many teens today.

reflection #2

Two things i learned in class were to import pictures to my blog and how to maintain a well organized blog.

Importing pictures was important because it makes my blog look better and it grabs peoples attention.
Maintaining a well organized blog is good because it makes things less complicated to find.

MY QUESTION/COMMENT FOR CHAPTER 6

One question i have for chapter 6 was what influenced Piri and his friends to go to the transvesties house?
One comment i have is that Piri had matured because i thought he would have wanted to fight the transvesties.

CHAPTER 6 RESPONSES

1. According to Piri to have corazon ( HEART ) means to be a strong person, to "throw a first punch" to "make people bleed there own blood" to be a known person in the "hood". The first time Piri thought someone had heart was the Italiano's. He realized Rocky had heart when his boy beat him up and Rocky walked him back to his house for saftey.

2. The illustration on pg 50 shows that gangs are very fierceful. They look for fights and fight with no limits. The illustration shows me that gangs use any kinds of weapons as a way of defending themselves. In the book im able to tell that Piri's gangs that he joins (TNT) are always determined to win their fights.

3. Piri feels very intimitated and grossed out by the transvestites in the apartment. Piri feels that he is going to get touched and had second thoughts about going to the apartment. But Piri is forced to go into the apartment or else he wont be able to stay in the gang.

4. Piri's attitude changes due to the fact that he is so high and drunk. Piri is touched and is very disgusted by what happened and rushes to leave the house.

5. Piri accompanied his friends to the apartment in the first place because he says " cause we wanted to belong, and belonging meant doing whatever had to be done. He felt that if he stoock up to going to the transvesties house it would make him look a lot better. If Piri did not go he would not be able to be in the gang.

DO"S AND DONT"S IN THE STREETS

DO'S
- respect your main leader
- show pride in the hood

DONT'S
- fight with a person who's been in the neighborhood for a long time

REFLECTION #4

While reading DTMS i was thinking about how interested i was in reading this book. I havent read a book since JHS and i was so hooked on to reading the book. I couldnt put the book down and finished almost half the book.

"Lit-Log #1 DTMS"- Down These Mean Streets

Piri is a very weak young boy who lives in Spanish -Harlem. Hes not like all the other boys in his neighborhood because he is Spanish. The other boys are known as "Italianos". This part is very realistic because Piri faces every day life problems that are faced today all around the world.

He is encountered by a bunch of kids who pick on him all the time and treat him differently because he is not there type. All over the world kids are threatened and hurt by other teens due to racism. Piri overcomes his fear of being bullied and joins the group of the Italian boys.

intro to down these mean streets

The opening pages of Piri Thomas's novel, Down These Mean Streets, show us that Piri dosent feel that his father loves him the same amount as he loves his other children. Another concern is the neighborhood bullying. For example, Piri tries to show his father how long he can hold his breath under the water in the bathtub. His father walks out the bathroom and Piri feels that hes not important to his father. He dosent understand because he was the first born child and feels like he should be loved more by his parents. Piri walks through his neighborhood scared to get beat up by the "italianos". Everyday the italianos pick on Piri because he is a "spic". These details illustrate that Piri is very self conscious about himself and always puts himself down. One reason Piri shows that he dosen't stick up for himself is because he lets other kids pick on him. He should feel happy about being Spanish and should stick up for his nationality other then letting people walk all over it.

GANG VIOLENCE

A gang is a bunch of people who organize a group that form violence. Many gangs hang around eachother and commit crimes which include gang colors,gang names, and gang apperals.

When joining a gang it usually involves of a ten minute beating by a set number of members. The term of being beat in is refferred to being v'd in. Some gangs dont allow to be hit to the head because it wouldnt be easy to hide. Cops,teachers, and family members would wonder why there face was all beaten up.

some reasons why people join gangs; 1. IDENTITY 2. PROTECTION 3. FELLOWSHIP 4. INTIMIDATION

- protection from rival gangs

-family or friends are already involved

-prevent boredom

-exciting by taking risks

-PEER PRESSURE

-make others fear them

-children may feel they dont have a purpose in life and look for gang activites for self esteem.

WARNING SIGNS!

graffiti is a marking of territorial labels. sometimes the graffiti left are used to communicate messages between gangs. Teens hanging around public parks,highschools, fast food stands, and convenience stores that frequently use pay phones by people who actually recieve calls there.

Increase in crime(vandalism,assaults,burgluaries,robberies,and random drive by shootings.

"ATTENTION CALLS"

As a teenager I know how it feels to want to get attention and fit in with different groups of people. Many teenagers feel that using drugs or drinking alcohol solves a lot of problems. One major problem that a lot of teenagers fear are cutting themselves. I have witnessed many friends that cut themselves. I always try and help them by speaking to them and mentioning to go see a therapist. Many times my friends who are in there teen age years do not listen to other peers because to them “the feel of cutting themselves makes them forget everything that happened”. People need to find other ways to solve there problems so people are not in danger of hurting their bodies. I have witnessed various encounters where my best friend and girlfriend cut themselves. These two people mean a lot to me so helping them is always my main priority.
My best friend lives a hard life. She lives with her mom because her parents are divorced. She has been cutting herself for a few years and never was able to understand why cutting herself was such a big problem. One time I witnessed a horrific time when she decided to cut herself deep threw her arm in front of my face and her own girlfriend. The blood dripped onto the floor like puddles that only grew bigger when my tears collapsed as well. She did not only cut herself deeply she was admitted to the hospital to get stitches. My best friend and I had many talks because I don’t appreciate people that cut themselves. In my opinion, I think people cut themselves for attention.

DATING VIOLENCE

Sometimes relationships dont end up the way people expect them to be. what is really dating violence? dating violence has many different kinds of abuse. any intentional sexual,physical or psychological attack on one partner byt the other in a dating relationship. some threats in physical abuse include choking, slapping, hitting, and threatning with a weapon. There also is sexual abuse where a person is forced to have sex. Some people may even be on drugs while forced to have sex.

WARNING SIGNS !

* jealousy

*controlling behavior

*quick movement

*mood swings

*alcohol and drug use

*explosive anger

*shows hypersensitivity

*believes in rigid sex roles

*verbally abusive

EFFECTS OF DATING VIOLENCE

* LOW SELF ESTEEM

* FEELING CONFUSED CRAZY

* DEPRESSED SUICIDAL

* FEELS DISCONNECTED FROM OTHERS

* NEEDS CONSTANT REASURANCE

* FEELS LIKE A FAILURE FOR NOT BEING ABLE TO KEEP THE RELATIONSHIP HAPPY

DATE/RAPE/DRUGS

some common drugs used during dating violence are GHB, ketamine and rohypnol.

GHB is Gamma hydroxy butyrate

KETAMINE is a dissociative anesthetic

ROHYPNOL is a central nervous depressant
People take drugs when they're in an abusive relationship because if your getting abused you want to have that moment where you forget everything you pretend that its a dream and that this isn't your life. The drugs have the ability to take your mind off reality and even if its only for a few minutes, its still worth it. Wen your being abused and being told your not good enough and that your not worthy of being an equal person, drugs are the only thing that can get you through the day because you have nothing else to live for nothing to look forward to when you wake up in the morning.

BREAKING THE CYCLE/WHAT IS THE LAW?

{PEOPLE HAVE STARTED ALREADY ;WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.}

Vawa - violence aganist women act gives funding to domestic violence programs in every state.

To stop dating violence we can speak out &let our voices be heard, the more people the more effective our word will be. We can try to convince those in charge to pass more legislations &laws to punish those who use violence to control others. We can also have more programs in schools teaching students about the affects of dating violence and let students know they are not alone and that it is prevetable. In addition we can provide more counseling in schools for victims of dating violence so tht people can be more open and comfortable to getting help.

There are shelters, medical treatment and counseling for young people.

school fiqht

one chilly Winter day one year ago, at Murrow highschool the halls crowded up. The noise was like every other day. segragation on everyfloor hallway seperated the school as always. why was today so unusual?

as the day went on it was firing up. my bestfriend was having problems with her ex boyfriends new girlfriend. She talked trash all day talking about how big she was that she would be able to "kill" my bestfriend. Out of everyones mouth was "damn two spanish girls fighting is something i have to see". The day ended and everyones hair was going up. It was then time for the two girls to fight. Half the school was standing watching the "belle of the brawl".