Gang Life

GANG LIFE.


My name is Joey Gonzalez. Everyone calls me “strap”. They call me this because I shoot people. I’ve been part of the Bloods for 7 years now. I stopped going to school in 9th grade, that’s also when I got into drugs. It all started when I met Kyle Jones. He’s known as “Buddah”. Hes 17 years old, hes only 4’9 but he’ll shoot you before you know it. We started to hangout everyday and before I knew it I was serving 9 months in a juvenile detention center. When I got out he was right there and I moved in with him. We started to hustle weed and crack. We didn’t go to school so during the day we would sell drugs and at night we would rob houses and stores.
There were 34 of us in our gang of Bloods. Butt I only hung out with a few. The leader was called Gino. Nobody every messed with Gino. Every time our gang would go to parties Gino and us would always get into fights with the Crips. One night when I was in 9th grade, we went to a party and there were a gang of Crips, everyone started brawling and one of the Crips bricked Gino in his head, so Buddah shot him. It was the scariest moment of my life. I wasn’t instantly accepted into the gang, I had to “put in work”. When we would walk around they would make me beat up random people, but one day I got beat down. That’s why I started to carry around a strap. Your not accepted in the gang until you prove that you are loyal and down.
I proved one day I had my gangs back. Buddah and I were making a drug deal and the guy tried to rob Buddah, the guy said, “ Give me all the dope and all your money.”
Buddah said, “ No get the **** outta here.”
I saw the guy reach into the car and grab Buddah and as soon as I saw him do that I shot him 3 times in the leg with a 22 pistol so it wouldn’t kill him. And when he was on the ground we took his money and everything he had. I was so scared that I actually shot someone.
I have one older brother. We usually get along but there’s one problem. He’s a crip. We usually try to avoid each other but that doesn’t always happen. I’ve shot at him multiply times. Every time ive had to shoot at him ive purposely missed because I don’t want to hurt him. If my gang knew I tried to miss him they would kill me. Underneath all the gang violence, my brother and I have a good relationship. But that all changed when he got locked up for 2 years.
One day my brother decided to rob this house and when he ran away the police saw another member of our gang, named Lonnie. When they captured him the police men said;
“Do you know who robbed this house?!”
Lonnie said “ Yes, it was Joe Dirt(my brother)”
So the police found my brother and locked him. Every time we see lonnie we beat him down. I was with Buddah and we were walking around at the town carnival, and we saw lonnie. He tried to run but I caught him, when I did I pistol whipped him 4 times and Buddah slammed a trash can on top of him. I haven’t seen him much anymore, I think he moved. My brother was my best friend and now hes gone all because of him.
Buddah and I live on the suburbs of New York. We live in a horrible part of the town. Shootings and deaths are very common around here. Buddah warned me not to go outside alone but I did. My whole life changed on July, 5th, 2008. I went to see a movie with a couple friends and I was walking home around 10:30 P.M when a gang of Crips circled me. I knew I was in trouble and I left my gun at home. One of them walked up and punched me in the face, then they all jumped me. Everything was a blur after I get punched. The next thing I knew I was waking up in the hospital with stitches all over my body. I looked around the room and Buddah was sitting there with the whole gang. I was shot 3 times and stabbed 5 times. That’s when I realized I couldn’t be part of this gang anymore.
After I got home from the hospital Buddah was taking care of me. He would do anything for me. But I knew I had to tell him I didn’t want to be a part of the Bloods anymore. I didn’t know what to do, the gang was like my only family, if I left the gang I would have nothing. But 3 days later I said,
“Buddah I need to talk to you.”
Buddah said, “ okay whats up?”
I replied, “ this is hard to tell you, but I don’t want to be apart of the gang anymore.”
Buddah paused then laughed, but when he looked at me he realized I wasn’t kidding.
He said, “ you cant be serious, youll have nothing without me and everyone else.” “ and u no the only way out is in a box”.
I said, “ I know but I cant take all the stress of always being scared when I walk around or always thinking im going to get shot at. “
Buddah said, “ Where will you go?”
I replied, “ I don’t know yet but I know I need to stay here until im healed all the way.”
He said, “ no if your leaving the game you can get all your stuff and go right now, I cant believe your doing this to us right now.”
I had nothing else to say. I gathered up my clothes and left the house. There I was, with 3 bullet holes in my body on the sidewalk with no where to go. I started walking up the street and I saw a women. I walked up to her and introduced myself. She looked at me then said,
“ Are you okay?!”
I said, “ no not really im hurt pretty bad and I have no where to go.”
She replied and said, “ I have an extra room in my apartment if you would like to stay there for a couple days?”
I paused and thought about it then I said, “ yes ill come.”
When we arrived to her apartment she made me empty all my pockets and swear to her that I wasn’t going to do anything to her house or her. I promised. She asked me,
“ are you hungry?”
I said, “ not really thanks though.”
She said, “ could I get you anything?”
I said, “ no im good.”
I was sitting on her couch when I heard a knock at the door. She answered it and 4 men walked into the apartment. One said
“ what is he doing here?”
She said, “ calm down, he just needs a place to stay for a couple days.”
She went to go get a shower after they came in. The 4 men sat down around me and asked why I had stitches everywhere. I told them I got shot and stabbed. The man said,
“ who did this? I can get my gang to go after them.”
My heart dropped and I said, “ what gang?”
The men laughed at me and then they pulled up there sleeves and showed me some of there tattoos.
The tattoos said “ crips 4 life” on there arms. And then that moment I knew I had got myself into a lot of trouble. The other man asked me why I got shot. I couldn’t tell him that I got shot by a gang of crips because they would just hurt me. So I told them that I got hit in a drive by. By then the lady came back downstairs and the men left.
I asked why they were here and she said,
“ there my friends, they protect me from everything.”
I was worried about this because if they found out I was a blood they would try to get me.
They came back into the home one day and I was just getting out of the shower. My shirt was off and all my tattoos were showing. They saw that I was a Blood. When they did the leader told me that I had to be a part of there gang or they were going to kill me. I said “okay.”
Never in a million years would I think I would be a part of the Crips. But one day I was walking down the street with them and we saw my old gang. Before I knew it Buddah shot me point blank and my life was over.