Too many gang tagging and Shows about Gangs: I'm scared

[quietGuy13]

Hi all.

How do you deal with this? my city is not even big and i live in an ok neighborhood but lately i've seen more stuff happening. a lot of tagging keeps popping up, even if people erase it.

 

We had it in my house too.(inside the property area as opposed to in the front of the house)..i keep seeing how kids in highschools are mean and start doing bad things and forming gangs..

 

Then there's shows like Gangland in discovery channnel/History channel which keep saying how the gang problem in CA is really huge and how there's places like Oakland which is like a warzone.

 

I feel scared. we've even been robbed here in my house(garage broken into) like 3 times in the past.

 

I feel scared all the time.

 

How should i feel better about all this?

 

And then it's also sad i have foreign friends studying in my city and they could even be hurt.

 

Now the gang activity here is pretty controlled. it's not that crazy but still...

why can't we ever get rid of gangs?

 

THe only people that enjoy no tagging and almost no gangs is in the super rich people's neighborhoods.

[Ross MwcFan]

It seems the only thing you can do is move to a nicer area.

[Woggle]

Legalize drugs and you take away their main source of revenue and they will no longer fight over drug turf.

[Nikki Sahagin]

Long term plan is to move to an area where you feel safe - although I don't think any neighbourhood will be completely safe from crime.

 

Short term plans.

* ensure that your house is alarmed and that your door has at least two locks. Also ensure rooms inside the house have locks and windows also

* get a big dog (if you have the finances to do so and can actually care for it). This will make you feel VERY safe

* don't advertise your wealth or your home

* have neighbours or friends nearby you can trust in an emergency

* try to ignore sensationalizing/scare mongering

[whichwayisup]

Keep things in perspective. Life is messy, dangerous, scary, negative, awful things sometimes just happen! You can't let fears of the 'unknown' and the what if's hold you back from living.

 

*You can cross the road carefully and be aware. That goes for anything in life, just pay attention to your surroundings but don't let 'fear' or 'worry' take over.

 

You might benefit from CBT.

[Eddie Edirol]

A wimp like you QG? Theres no way for you to feel better about this. You have to keep moving. if you live is a neighborhood where the rent is relatively cheap, you will always have these problems. Gangs are like locusts, they will eventually devour the town, so you better leave.

[Eve]

I have concluded that in every area there are good and bad streets, regardless of the socio-economics of the area. This observation has come from living in poor areas when I was growing up and now even in a highly affluent area.

 

In total, gangs exist in different forms. The area you live in seem to have the messy types who do things on the street. Telling you now, even in affluent areas the same dynamic exists, it is just more covert - especially dysfunctional families and drug culture! Don't be fooled OP.

 

Our answer has been to live as remotely as possible!

 

Seriously though, move to a good street. Find an area, go visit it at night to see what it is really like and do all you can to move there. When we had to live nearer to people that's basically what we did, with the main priority being to be as far away from social housing as possible. I know there can be perfectly good people who live in social housing but a lot of the time this is not the case.

 

Take care,

Eve x