gang activity/ guns

i've heard gunshots before. 3 people got shot and killed and one fatally stabbed last night, I do believe others non-fatally as well. This is a fairly normal thing to see in the news pretty much daily. Doesn't really affect me, those people that got shot were i'm sure involved in all the wrong things. I don't live in the 'hood', but I wouldn't call it the safest area either.

I guess it's relative really to what you consider to be a dangerous area but I used to have a job as a salesman where we would carry a bag of items, and walk the streets all day, giving our sales pitch to everyone we saw on the street. My team often preferred to pitch in the ghetto, and you would often see signs on the walls with a picture of a little boy saying "Don't shoot, I want to grow up!", and signs saying "stop shooting" and such. I never understood why they wanted to try to sell in these areas, like they thought those people had money or something. Only thing is, for some reason those people were more likely to actually listen to your sales pitch, as opposed to nicer areas the people were more likely to completely ignore you and not even look at you walking by.

 

i guess it depends on what you were selling. if it was rims, that was probably a smart business decision.

 

It was mostly shitty perfume and cologne that was probably counterfeit that we would try and convince people went for like 100 bucks in a department store, therefore they were getting a "good deal" if they ,would buy 2 bottles for 50 bucks or similar scheme, seemingly lowering the price and increasing the amount of bottles they are gonna buy to sweeten the deal essentially ripping them the fuck off basically. We also sold some watches and stuff. I think that whole thing was a pyramid scheme, and I got recruited into it walking down the sidewalk while fucked up one morning, coming back from the liquor store with a bottle. Pretty sketchy, but I needed a job. I got out once I started classes.

 

I'm watching the wall and I swear everything you just said is equally bizarre.
But now I'm thinking that isn't surprising at all, thats just the world we live in. Guh.

 

Ha, I remember those guys from when I've been in cities.... like the ones who walk up to you with a tray of ten dollar oakleys and rolexes and headphones and shit, and if they have a good pitch you can't help but do some haggling and walk away feeling like a gangster in your new counterift schwag

They also hang out around train stations and such, to get tourist country-boys. The type who might like counterfit sunglasses.

 

I lived in an all black area for several years. I was the only white dude, and I can say that even though many folks had knives and/or guns - I never was shot or stabbed. And I was a night person. Hated to go out during the day. I stayed in the area because I had a fantastic rent controlled 1 bedroom apartment. I moved after I started going to college. I still miss that apartment big time. Nicest (and cheapest) place I ever lived. And the people (for the most part) were cool.

QP

 

I'm sorry you have to live in that neighborhood! Although since you've lived there all your life I'm sure you're used to it. I can't imagine living in a neighborhood like that, honestly. I grew up in the country where the only times I would hear gunshots is when people were hunting.

As sad as it is that, yes, people die from guns, I don't think they deserve your sympathy. I think they know that guns are going to be a part of their life as soon as they decide to join a gang, and I'm sure they know that inevitably they are going to be wounded or fatally wounded by a gun. You shouldn't be sad and depressed over it, though. Maybe the reason they don't have obituaries or Facebook pages is because nobody cared about that. That is harsh to say, but how many gang members probably left their families and friends who cared to be in gangs and do drugs?

It is sad that innocent people get caught in gunfire and die, but I don't think that stricter gun laws would be the answer to stop it. I am in favor of guns, and I think when used correctly and at the right times can save people's lives. If guns were banned, then other weapons will be used and crime will go on. It may help a little bit, but innocent people will always be killed as a result of violence. And if you don't have a gun to protect yourself at the right times, then what's going to happen?

 

that's my life right there.
i actually might be moving. to grand rapids. big jump, if i think about it. moving to a place i've only been once (yesterday) not that big of a deal, if i don't think about it. much cheaper than chicago, plus more plants for me to grow and places for me to work at.

the thing is though: growing up in an area like this, and NOT joining a gang, is a sign of disrespect, and a sure way to get killed anyway. (unless they're uninterested in you joining them, like me) protection is almost necessary, the way it works. so if you don't like the gang that wants you, you have to join another one to protect yourself from them.

and honestly, when people say 'it must be so dangerous there' it makes me think of the middle east. we have a similar conception of that area, of how dangerous it must be living there. but i hate hearing how dangerous my life is. this is my way of life. i've always lived here, never known anything different really. and yet here i am today, all in one piece. and so i imagine they must feel the same out there, when it comes to tourists and such.

 

dude how is living in Camen working out for you? Ive spent, sadly, a lot of time there and that place is a straight up third world country if you make a left after getting off the ben franklin in NJ

 

I did door to door sales for two whole days, and I found this to be true too. We walked in the sketchiest part of town and then we walked in a nice middle class area and the people in the ghetto were a hell of a lot nicer.
I think they were just respectful of someone doing a job, whereas the middle class people looked down on us.

 

i delivered pizzas in the ghetto for a couple years, and in my experience they were in no way respectful of someone doing a job. they were probably more likely to listen to your pitch because they had nothing better to do when hanging out in the ghetto, whereas the middle class people didn't want to be bothered. plus, a lot of them were probably hoping to seduce you.

 

I used to live in a bad neighborhood or ward in Houston when I was younger, then went back a ward over (a worse one in fact) for college. Even though there was crime all around, it's pretty common in Houston especially in the wards. Hate to say it cause it sounds pretty inhumane but I rarely thought about the well being of others when I would hear gun fire. It was sort of just natural not to think about it, and it would probably be depressing if I did. Though it would be that rare occasion where a friend would get robbed and or a friend of a friend would get shot, then you sort of feel the full weight of danger in the area all at once.

I don't know if you feel that same way BabyJay, but having the sounds of crime be the wallpaper to your home is a bit surreal at time huh

 

It depends on the degree of ghetto, and wether it's that way because the people have nothing better, or it's that way because of ingrained voilent power structures and struggles and people who like the status quo.

There's "bad" neighborhoods where I feel totally safe, and there's equally "bad" neighborhoods where I do not want to go, at all.

But consider door-to-door people in general: they tend to not be respectful, you tell them you don't want their religion or product or whatever and they talk over you or tell you that you actually DO want it..... it's like a commercial that you can't turn off or mute, that jumped onto your doorstep, and won't stop harassing you.

Sorry, people who have done door-to-door stuff.... it pisses people off. I wouldn't mind if that was the way honest business was done like it used to be with peddlers (if you consider the word without negative connotations) and such, but nowadayss there generally won't be anyone knocking on your door with an honest pitch about a product you really need or want....

 

word

theres ghetto, then there are are areas that make that ghetto look like a high class neighborhood in comparison

 

I'd rather be in the worst ghetto in the US than be off the beaten path in Rio De Janeiro.. Or anywhere in the middle east for that matter

 

I've never really been in the ghetto. We have a "ghetto" in my town. I try to avoid it at all costs. People with guns, drugs, and babies everywhere.

 

augh when i delivered pizza it was in one of the richer neighborhoods around, and this is essentially what happened to me all the time. creeps in hotels ask me to come in the room. 'i'm naked under the blanket, so i can't come to the door.' augh frustrating.

i hear gunshots quite often. the only time i'm really alarmed by them is when i'm not in my neighborhood. it's uncommon to hear them in my friends neighborhoods, and i swear i have more sensitive ears when it comes to noticing gunshots. if i'm in this predominantly white idyllic neighborhood with different types of problems (domestic abuse, suicide, drug problems, etc) and i hear a gun shot, i point it out to my friends, and their sweet existence shatters for a moment. and they ask 'how can you handle that?' well, i dunno. i made a topic about it on hipforums once, i haven't really come to terms exactly with it, but its best not to dwell on it. i sort of think of it in passing, because i know there's nothing i can do.

of course. but the idea is the same. danger. living a dangerous life and not even noticing.
its just more apparent when you're surrounded by people who live what they claim to be a 'better life'. because that just rubs me wrong.

i hate to break it to you, but i'm fairly sure gun, drugs, and babies are literally everywhere. if only the criminals had guns, your nicer neighborhoods would be fucked. if there are bored people with money, there will be the select who use it for drugs (and they don't necessarily get it from the ghetto, i've known plenty of rich kids who sold quantity) and babies are also everywhere. condoms are free, and for some reason in chicago there's more white pregnant teenage brats than there are ghetto hood rats. :2thumbsup:

hell yeah they were. poor people have those minimum wage jobs where people walk all over you. middle class tend to have better paying jobs, in better work places. in the ghetto, there's only a handful of people with decent jobs, the rest work multiple minimum wage or tax-free jobs.

the system really doesn't work. unless its meant to keep the lower-class low. because then it works pretty dandy.

 

we had a regular customer who used to do this too. except he did it to the guys that delivered to him.

i remember one day i delivered two large pizzas to him, then about an hour later he called back saying that he had eaten all of it and i needed to deliver another pizza to him. i must have been his favorite.

 

eep. i had guys stick their heads out second story windows with the intention of getting my number. one shit thing about delivery is that sometimes you have to call them to let them know you're there, and in turn they have your phone number u____u

 

why don't you move to a better area...you don't have to leave the city, I'm sure you can find somewhere you like in the city that doesn't have so many problems. I know everywhere in chicago isn't ghetto. A large amount of Baltimore is ghetto and dangerous, boarded up buildings, but some parts are really nice too, like harbor east, fells point, federal hill, etc. My block is relatively safe, but 2 or 3 blocks up is an area that's basically a drug market, and sketchy.