how old is Dashaun?
I think he said he was 28 during the interview.
Re: What Howie said, I think it's nearly impossible to accurately describe where gangbangers are coming from and their mindset without providing plenty of details. And of course, no one wants to read a book about an OG without the gory details. I mean, would you rather hear about the drive-by or the dominoes match after the drive-by?
Anyway, Dashaun's story is no different than plenty of my former students and Howie's and Determinator's and GHGut's students and your fellow classmates from high school. Lack of parents, lack of guidance, and terrible role models is the breeding ground for gang activity. The real horror is the recruitment of elementary school kids (Dashaun was in 5th grade when he pulled the trigger on his first drive-by) to murder people. Like Dae said, the recruitment of child soldiers is a part of the creation of remorseless monsters that we see amongst the tribal warfare in the Congo, Somalia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, and other parts of Africa, as well as in Brazil and exemplified in the excellent film 'City of God'.
I briefly taught 7th/8th grade in South Ozone Park Queens. I had a few Bloods in my self-contained class (lockdown) and by that age, most of them were already impossible for me to get through to. One of my former students/bloods was a 14 year old kid who used to threaten to "smoke me" and "burn me" named Shamel Hollenquest. He is now serving 2 consecutive 50-year terms for shooting two men in the head and killing both of them as they sat in their car.
Dae's spiritual advisor and "father" now is none other than T.Rodgers, the founder of the Bloods from LA.
