[url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34894815/ns/us_news-life/]Sooce[/url]
[quote][b][i]But first you have to sign releases warning of potential danger
[/i][/b]
Only miles from the scenic vistas and celebrity mansions that draw sightseers from around the globe — but a world away from the glitz and glamour — a bus tour is rolling through the dark side of the city's gang turf.
Passengers paying $65 a head Saturday signed waivers acknowledging they could be crime victims and put their fate in the hands of tattooed ex-gang members who say they have negotiated a cease-fire among rivals in the most violent gangland in America.
If that sounds daunting, consider the challenge facing organizers of [url=www.lagangtours.com]LA Gang Tours[/url]: trying to build a thriving venture that provides a glimpse into gang life while also trying to convince people that gang-plagued communities are not as hopeless as movies depict.
"There's a fascination with gangs," said founder Alfred Lomas, a former member of the Florencia 13 gang. "We can either address the issue head-on, create awareness and discuss the positive things that go on in these communities, or we can try to sweep it under the carpet."
Several observers have questioned the premise behind the tours, and some city politicians have been more blunt.
"It's a terrible idea," City Councilman Dennis Zine said. "Is it worth that thrill for 65 bucks? You can go to a (gang) movie for a lot less and not put yourself at risk."
Gang hangouts
More than 40 people brushed aside safety concerns for Saturday's maiden tour to hear how notorious gangs got started and bear witness to the struggling neighborhoods where tens of thousands of residents have been lured into gang life.
On an abbreviated advance tour Lomas provided for the news media, his unmarked chartered coach wound its way through downtown. The first sight was a stretch of concrete riverbed featured in such movies as "Terminator" and "Grease," where countless splotches of gray paint conceal graffiti that is often the mark of street gangs and tagging crews.
After that, it was on to the Central Jail, home to many a thug, past Skid Row's squalor and homeless masses and into South Los Angeles, breeding ground for some of the city's deadliest gangs.
Motoring through an industrial area, the bus enters the Florence-Firestone neighborhood, close to the birthplace of the Crips and current home to Florencia 13, a Latino gang that was accused by federal prosecutors of racist attacks against black residents.
Gray warehouses soon merge with single-story stucco homes as the bus heads south. Few gangsters risk hanging out on street corners, as local rules mean they could get arrested even for congregating, but graffiti on walls, road signs and convenience storefronts betray the presence of Florencia 13 and other gangs.
Creating jobs
Lomas, 45, a respected activist who has worked with the faith-based Los Angeles Dream Center to distribute hundreds of tons of food to low-income families across the inner city, left gang life about five years ago.
He stresses the aim of his nonprofit company is to bring jobs to communities along the route and to reinvest money through micro-loans and scholarships, though he's not sure how the tour will accomplish that. He also eventually wants to start a gallery and gang museum.
He said the tour will create 10 part-time jobs, mainly for ex-gang members working as guides and talking about their own struggles and efforts to reduce violence. The tour is initially scheduled to run once a month.
No tour quite like this runs elsewhere in the country. Chicago has a prohibition-era gangster tour, and another Los Angeles group buses people to infamous crime scenes, including the Black Dahlia murder.
Lomas faces a quandary as he tries to show the troubled history of the area once known as South Central, before politicians renamed it South Los Angeles in 2003 in an attempt to change its deep association with urban strife.
The tour is billed as "the first in the history of Los Angeles to experience areas that were forbidden." But tour leaders don't want it to be voyeuristic and sensational.
"We ain't going on no tour saying, 'Look at them Crips, look at them Bloods, look at them crack heads,'" said Frederick "Scorpio" Smith, an ex-Crip helping narrate, who helped broker the cease-fire among the Grape Street Crips, 18th Street, F13 and the East Coast Crips.
No photos, please
Out of sensitivity to residents, passengers are banned from shooting photographs or video from the bus. The only place that is allowed is near the end of the trip, when they can step off the bus and film an outdoor area where graffiti is allowed.
Stretches of the tour have almost nothing to do with gangs, but instead exploit famous chapters of violence in the city's history, such as a deadly 1974 shootout between police and the Symbionese Liberation Army and the site of the riots that followed the acquittal of officers in the Rodney King beating.
If done right, the tour could highlight the decades-long struggle to solve the gang problem, said civil rights lawyer and gang expert Connie Rice.
Gang crime has fallen in recent years, but groups continue to grow and gain influence. Over the past quarter century, officials in Los Angeles County have spent $25 billion fighting gangs only to see the number of gangsters double to as many as 90,000 and a six-fold increase in the number of gangs.
"If it is carried out well and carefully and carried out with the consent of the community, it could teach people about the very entrenched culture that gangs now have in Los Angeles," Rice said.
City Councilwoman Jan Perry said she would rather tourists see the development potential in the neighborhoods that make up part of her district. About two years ago, she organized her own tour in the area for about 200 real estate agents and business representatives, resulting in the development of buildings with homes and businesses.
"I'd prefer we focus on showing the community in a positive light," she said.[/quote]
[quote]'Mommy, what's [I]that[/I]?'
'That's a Crip, son.'
'And that?'
'Oh, um, that's Jeremy, my employer :blush:'[/quote]
Inb4 people taking the tour just to shoot at gangs while on a steadily moving bus.
what the fuck? i go by these areas all the damn time, it's not like you're going to die. they're gang members, not a highly advanced criminal organization. why tour? jeez.
[QUOTE=aznz888;19668951]what the fuck? i go by these areas all the damn time, it's not like you're going to die. they're gang members, not a highly advanced criminal organization. why tour? jeez.[/QUOTE]
Son, 'chu doin' round mah hood?
In other news, I'm going :biggrin:
When you live in NJ, these things really don't faze you... Camden really isn't that bad, and Newark's slowly improving. Asbury Park is ok during the summer and there isn't much activity out in the west part of the state.
Imagine a "chav tourism" company... :ohdear:
[QUOTE=Musicfreak59;19668986]When you live in NJ, these things really don't faze you... Camden really isn't that bad, and Newark's slowly improving. Asbury Park is ok during the summer and there isn't much activity out in the west part of the state.[/QUOTE]
Lately, Camden and Newark are fine... in the day. Go there at night and you'll be scared shitless. I was with my friend going to my other friends house and there was a shootout :O
Is the bus bullet-proof?
[QUOTE=Doug52392;19668996]Imagine a "chav tourism" company... :ohdear:[/QUOTE]
I prefer a chav hunting safari.
[QUOTE=lmaoboat;19669927]I prefer a chav hunting safari.[/QUOTE]
Gangland hunting safari would be great too, take a look at the local wildlife, and hunt it.
Would be in huge armored vehicles so they wont get shot back at.
Shit I thought of gangbang land.
Pay $65 to end up in the middle of a shootout.
:downs:
I can imagine all the soccer moms with fanny packs walking around with big cameras in Compton taking pictures of black people like they are animals... real fucking brilliant idea.
[QUOTE=Nyaos;19671403]I can imagine all the soccer moms with fanny packs walking around with big cameras in Compton taking pictures of black people like they are animals... real fucking brilliant idea.[/QUOTE]
That's why they banned cameras from the tour.
Do i get a discount if i bring along my own glock?
Because getting shot at is totally worth $65.
[QUOTE=lmaoboat;19669927]I prefer a chav hunting safari.[/QUOTE]
Good luck getting a suitable rifle in England.
This is actually a smart idea, maybe all this money can go towards something good.
[QUOTE=Splode a Pinga;19673086]Good luck getting a suitable rifle in England.[/QUOTE]
Shotgun, a bow and a air rifle. All i need.
This is not a new experience to me. I am thoroughly disappointed.
Sounds like those Russian somalian pirate hunting trips minus the shooting of people.
[QUOTE=Splode a Pinga;19673086]Good luck getting a suitable rifle in England.[/QUOTE]
Bah, throw shit at them, they will complain about their hair.
I think people believe the areas are much worse than the actually are, and as such this man is exploiting what people expect.
What they'll see is hoodlums on street corners.
It's really not that dangerous. What reason would people have for shooting at a bus full of people that is simply driving through their neighborhood?
[QUOTE=Doozle;19683362]I think people believe the areas are much worse than the actually are, and as such this man is exploiting what people expect.
What they'll see is hoodlums on street corners.[/QUOTE]
If it is during the day all you will probably see is run down neighborhoods and if in East LA some beautiful murals and graffiti art(along with some not so beautiful gang graffiti).
Night time is where the places start to get dangerous.
[QUOTE=Skippy!;19684203]It's really not that dangerous. What reason would people have for shooting at a bus full of people that is simply driving through their neighborhood?[/QUOTE]
Some parts are well known for constant car-jacks. Although I doubt any gang member would have the nuts and stupidity to hijack a bus full of people.
[img]http://skujins.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/img_03201.jpg[/img]
Look, son, that's an Urla!
I dunno I still think it's stupid. Rather insulting to turn a gang into a tourist attraction.
People underestimate these gangs. You really don't get how intricate some of them are until you spend a few years in the ghetto. MS13 wouldn't dare hi-jack a car of tourists and put'em up for ransom? Riiiight. They may not be up to the mobster level, but those Colombians are fucking insane, man.
[QUOTE=MachiniOs;19672308]Do i get a discount if i bring along my own glock?[/QUOTE]
Its called a gat when 'chu in dah hood nigga.
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