Understanding the Gang Warfare in South Central Los Angeles

[helicopter] [siren] [gunfire]

[police radio transmissions] Man: There's a war going on in South Central. [sirens]

[Taser fires] [gunfire] Second man: These Crips and Bloods have been

warring for 30-odd years, one of the longest-running wars in the history of this country. Third man: There can always be someone outside that's ready

to kill me because of where I live at. We go over there and kill one of them, and they come over here and kill one of us.

Fourth man: It's like we born into it. You can't dodge or run away or get out of this. This is what it is.

Operator: 911. What's your emergency? Second man: Over the past 20 years alone in L.A. County, there's been over 15,000 gang-related deaths.

[siren] Fifth man: If you had 15,000 people killing each other in any other country, there would be diplomats,

there would be mediators. It would go to the U.N. Sixth man: I grew up in the hood. I was born in the hood. I was raised in the hood. I'm-a die in the hood.

I didn't choose my destiny; my destination chose me. [wind blowing] Whitaker: In the southern portion of the richest city

in the richest state in America lives a cluster of neighborhoods, their streets and boulevards laid out in a grid

between concrete ribbons of freeway. Ten miles to the west is the Pacific Coast Highway and the beaches of Santa Monica.

Five miles to the north is Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. Seven miles to the east is the corner of Hollywood and Vine. 25 miles south lays Orange County and Disneyland.

Surrounded by the California dream, this region has its own legacy. On its streets erupted

the country's most violent outbreak of civil unrest not once but twice. It's also the home of America's

two most infamous African-American gangs, the Crips and the Bloods, whose bloody, 40-year feud has taken 5 times as many lives

as did the long-running sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland, yet whose devastating body count continues today.

But in South Los Angeles, life wasn't always this way. Male singer: ♪ 1, 2, 1, 2 ♪ [Echoing]

♪ Hot ♪ ♪ Hot ♪ Whitaker: In the 1950s, 3 friends from South L.A.--

Ron, Bird, and Kumasi-- grew up reaching for their piece of the American dream. Male singer: ♪ Hot ♪

The most significant thing was when I went to join the Boy Scouts. OK, the Boy Scouts of America?

My mother takes me up to the Scout troop at Goodyear rubber plant, where the original blimp-- and from 1933 to 1983

parked in our neighborhood right there. So, I go up there to join the Boy Scouts. My mother takes me up.

The scoutmaster... uh, he was nice. But he tells my mother, "Well, I don't know, but some of the parents might object."

'Cause it was a white troop. See, they say, "Be prepared. "Do a good turn daily.

"A scout is--is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, "courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, brave, clean, and reverent."

See, that's the Boy Scouts of America: a bunch of racists. Kumasi: We couldn't be Cub Scouts, couldn't be Boy Scouts, couldn't be Explorer Scouts.

We couldn't get involved in organized activity that would take us anywhere that would bear us any kind of good fruit, you see?

So, we built an auxiliary alternative. Whitaker: With names like "The Businessmen," "The Gladiators," and "The Slausons,"

black teenagers began forming their own street-front fraternities. Our neighborhood was situated in an area where we were assigned

and designated to a little, small park on 62nd and Hooper called Slauson Park. That's where our name comes from.

Whitaker: The Slausons would evolve into what many consider to be L.A.'s first modern African-American gang.

Kumasi: But we never called ourselves a gang. That was something that the city and the police would describe us as.

We were clubs. Wilkins: What drew me to Slauson was that they mirrored who I was, and it made one feel like one had some status.

And you had an identity now, an identity that you didn't have anywhere else. There's a sense of family.

There's a sense of acceptance. You also have a way to wield some power because now you've got numbers.

Kumasi: We had rivalries among ourselves, and then we had rivalries with people in other neighborhoods. You had Slausons and Gladiators, or Slauson and Watts,

or Slauson/Compton. Kumasi: But our ring was on the sidewalks and in the parks and in the alleys.

That's where our rings was. See, in those days, we'd give you an appointment for an ass-whupping.

Oh, you had to be there, because everybody else in town knew about it. They'd say, "Bird, how good are those things?"

I said, "These things right here?" I'd say, "I will beat your hairline "all the way back to the center of your head

and whup your sideburns off, beat all the eyebrows off your forehead." That's what we call "woofing," though, you know.

But, yeah, I was good with my hands. That's why they'd say, "Man, these are guns!" You know, and you looking for somebody,

say, "Tell 'em I'm gunning for 'em!" But it wasn't really about destroying somebody. It was just a competitive thing, you know,

just competing with each other. [sirens] Officer on radio: 127, this is Unit 16.

We have... Bird: I used to get stopped by the police all the time. My mother always said, you know, "What did you do this time?"

I said, "I didn't do anything," you know? See, people, including parents, could not believe that the Man just stopped you all the time.

Young black men in this society have always been represented as the most threatening figures across the board. Horne: They're viewed as being people

who will commit crimes. Whitaker: From 1950 to 1966, the Los Angeles Police Department was commanded by Chief William Parker.

Boyd: Chief Parker ran the police department like a military unit, and the people who bore the brunt of this

were the black residents. Shut it off and get out of that car with your hands up!

Get your hands up, I said! Drop that purse and get your hands up. Boyd: And so the cops were treating these young black men

as though they were enemies, as though they were in warfare. Get 'em up! Get your hands up and go!

[Officer saying commands] Officer: Right this way. It was an open secret

that one of the tacit duties of the LAPD was to make sure people were in the right neighborhoods at the right time.

And Alameda Boulevard was "the White Curtain" in L.A. You didn't cross Alameda for no reason at all. Wilkins: East of Alameda, these were white areas.

Lynwood, South Gate... we couldn't go there. You had cops that didn't want you there. And blacks that deigned to cross the line

were quickly put in place by police officers. Kumasi: There are barriers, invisible barriers, social barriers,

and their job is to reinforce that barrier. Wilkins: We'd get stopped. We'd get harassed. "What are you doing here?

You're supposed to stay in your neighborhood." [tires screeching] Bird: One time I was walking down the street

on 77th and Central, and, uh, the Man said, "Hey, you?" I heard him, but I kept walking.

He said, "Hey, you?" And they ran on the curb, jumped out the car and said, "Didn't you hear us calling you?"

I said, "I heard you say 'you,' but my name is not 'you.'" So, you know, "Get up against the wall," and such and so on. And they tell me I look like I've been robbing.

I said, "Well, how does a robber look?" He said, "He looks just like you." Wilkins: And so you feel this sense of alienation.

You're culturally disoriented. You don't have a sense of identity in terms of who you really are.

Horne: So the idea was to create not only a segregated society, but the idea that those of darker hue were inferior

and should be treated as such. [Camera shutter clicks] Wilkins: And after a while, you begin to internalize this,

and you develop a deep-seated self-hatred because you see yourself as having almost no value. Up against the wall! Don't move!

Kumasi: In a free society, I'm walking down the street, police got the nerve to ask me, "Where you going? Where you coming?"

"Ain't none of your damn business where I'm going! "It ain't none of your damn business where I came from! The fuck you talking about, "Where are you going"!

He gonna ask me, "What are you doing here?" "You go anywhere and ask anybody else what they're doing there?" Do you stop and ask anybody else in this society, man,

"Why do you exist?" You understand what I'm saying? But you got the nerve to ask me that all day, every day?

Now, what do you think that does to me psychologically? What does that tell me? What message am I being fed every day?

See, he don't understand that every day he's feeding me a spoonful of hatred. Every day, that's my diet: a spoonful of hatred.

You see? And it's just a question of, when is this going to erupt and upon whom is it going to erupt?

Am I going to attack myself? Am I going to attack my brother? You understand?

Am I going to attack my own image in the mirror, or am I going to eventually attack the cause of my anger and my frustration?

But the point is, I'm a walking time bomb. I'm gonna go off someday, somewhere on somebody. The question is, upon whom?

[helicopter] Whitaker: At 7 p.m. on August 11, 1965, near the corners of 116th and Avalon,

21-year-old Watts resident Marquette Frye was pulled over by the California Highway Patrol on suspicion of drunk driving.

A routine traffic stop, until police insisted on impounding Frye's car despite being less than two blocks from his home.

Frye's mother, Rena, who owned the car, joined the rapidly growing crowd, who along with Marquette, grew increasingly belligerent

over what they felt was the heavy-handed police response. LAPD reinforcements were called in, a scuffle broke out, and Frye, his mother Rena, and brother Ronald

were all taken into custody. [siren] The squad cars rolled away, but the crowd continued to swell,

as word of the incident swept through the neighborhood. When I walked up 115th and Avalon, Charles McWhorter from the D'Artagnans...

I said, "Man, what happened?" He said, "They jumped on Marquette." [crowd shouting indistinctly]

Wilkins: We just got more and more upset. It was a cumulative thing. It was one racist traffic stop too many.

[siren] Whitaker: By 8:15, over 1,000 Watts residents were surging up and down Avalon Boulevard.

[indistinct shouting] But by 1 a.m., despite 29 arrests and sporadic reports of vandalism,

the situation was assessed by the LAPD as being under control. Officer: Clear the sidewalks up ahead. Please go in your homes.

Please go in your homes. Whitaker: Thursday morning dawned tense but relatively quiet.

At 2 p.m., a meeting was called at a neighborhood rec center, assembling representatives from various community groups: elected officials, the LAPD, the media, and even Rena Frye.

I think that we must stay off the streets. I think the Civil Rights drive in America has demonstrated that violence will never be the just end

to the grievances we have. Whitaker: But cutting through a call for order came a voice that only the night before was raised by thousands

in the street. See, and I'm gonna tell you something. Tonight, it's gonna be another one, whether you like it or not.

[crowd clamoring] No, no, wait, wait, wait! Listen, listen.

We, the Negro people down here, have gotten completely fed up... [audio track speed slows] Kumasi: Our elders felt you should bite the bullet,

suck it up. "We know it's wrong, but you can show that "you're greater than oppression by outliving it.

Show that it doesn't work, it doesn't destroy you." [people shouting] "And in the process, we will take the beatings."

Their parents are coming from places where black men are expected to step off the street and say, "Yes, sir" to a 12-year-old white boy...

where black men are lynched with regularity. And so from their perspective, Los Angeles looks wonderful. They're certainly aware of the flaws,

but they recognize it's such an improvement. Their children, however, have a very different perspective. Kumasi: We come along and say, "We ain't gonna take shit.

You took it, and we're not." [siren] [overlapping police radio transmissions]

Whitaker: By that afternoon, crowds of African-Americans again fill the streets... but this time facing over 200 LAPD

and deputy sheriff officers. So here we are in a crowd at night on Imperial and Avalon.

Things were in such disarray, and we're facing cops in the street. [siren]

Bird: And they went to move the crowd back. See, so when the Man moved on us, we moved toward 'em. [indistinct shouting]

Wilkins: And so you're looking at one another and you're reading the eyes of people in the crowd. There's the body language that says, "Let's go and do this."

[single gunshot] And then they fired some rounds into the crowd. [two gunshots]

Said, "All right, it's on now." [gunfire] [alarm, siren]

Officer: Get on the ground! Get on the ground! Everybody, back up! Back up! Leave it! Get on the ground right now!

You're under arrest! [indistinct shouting] [helicopter]

[man groans] Wilkins: We were throwing rocks at the police who were in the street,

and they were taking position up behind their cars and firing. [gunshot] And I said, "Damn, they-- they're shooting at us."

The cops have weapons, and they had a law behind them. The citizens don't have anything behind them but their own heart, their own desire, their own determinations,

and they're really fighting to survive. Kumasi: And you cannot whup us. We're already dead. We're already beaten down.

We've been beaten down for 400 years. We've already got the wounds inside and outside our bodies. How you gonna hurt us?

You cannot threaten us. You cannot frighten us. We live in the most frightening places under the most frightening conditions.

We are immune to fear. We are immune to harm. You see what I'm saying? You have stepped into a cesspool.

You the only one gonna get infected. [indistinct shouting] Whitaker: By Friday morning, additional police were called in

from all points of L.A. to squash what authorities were now terming "a full-scale riot." Bird: They said they called it a riot.

It was no riot. We knew what the hell we were doing. [sirens] Man: What you're seeing is guerrilla warfare,

but the reason that you can't see it is because you never gave the so-called Negro credit for having enough intelligence to be strategists enough

to practice guerrilla warfare. [siren] [gunshots]

[helicopter] Horne: But then what happens is that it becomes a big newspaper story,

which increases political pressure on the authorities to do something. Kumasi: And then they brought in 16,000 National Guard

who don't know the terrain. Horne: The National Guard, in particular, is not necessarily trained

to engage in civilian crowd control. Wilkins: We wanted to drive them out. And so the question then is, "What do we do?"

Kumasi: And we were opportunistic fighters. We didn't need stockpiles; we got dilapidated buildings. Here's a brick pile just waiting to be thrown at your ass.

There's a dilapidated building; ain't nobody living there. You didn't fix it. You didn't remove it. OK, it ain't nothing but a pile of bricks anyhow.

That's coming at you. That whole building, brick by brick, is coming at your ass. That's what we're throwing at you: the building.

The bullshit, the rubble, the rubbish that we live in... that's what's coming at your ass. Those are our weapons.

The filth, the funk, the shit you can't stand, that you defend, that you put a barrier between us and yourself--

that's coming at you. It's coming at you. Guardsmen: 1, 2, 3, 4! 1, 2, 3, 4!

Horne: At that point, they went to the other extreme, which was the iron fist, the iron hammer. [gunshot]

And this leads to a virtual free-fire zone, where people could be shot... [man shouts indistinctly]

for making the wrong turn at the wrong intersection. [gunshot]

The claim by police is that these were looters that were refusing orders to halt. The autopsies clearly show that people were shot in the back.

[indistinct P.A. announcements] One has to really question whether or not a human life is worth a bottle of beer or a case of beer.

That is to say, people were being killed for what, in retrospect, were the most trivial of offenses. [gunshot]

Boyd: The looting didn't undermine anything, because we're talking about desperate people. We're talking about people who have nothing, who see no hope.

[glass breaking] [indistinct conversations] Yorty: This is a criminal, a lawless element

with which we're confronted, and that the only thing they understand is force and power. [excited chatter continues]

[gunshot] Wilkins: That's been the one taboo, is that black people and other oppressed people in this country

are never to use violence to achieve what it is they want. But this country uses violence whenever it chooses, and then it legitimizes the violence.

[camera shutter clicks] When you send me the message that my life is of no value, then and how can your property,

how can your society, how can your civilization, how can any of the mores or the rules or any other monuments...

how can any of that be of any value to me, when all it has on the door for me is a rejection notice? I'm not allowed to look. I'm not allowed to touch.

I'm not allowed to partake. I'm not allowed to participate. All my life, I was rejected before I was born. I am the most rejected.

Nothing is open to me. And every time I knock on the door and get rejected, it takes a little something out of me.

So how does it mean anything to me that I should try to salvage it or I should respect it or I should try to preserve it?

It stands as a barrier before me. It was there when I was born; it will be there when I die. Boyd: The fact that it took them 5 days to shut down something

they thought they could shut down in a day, is a testament to that revolutionary spirit. Singer: ♪ All our love... ♪

Wilkins: And so there was this sense of pride that we had taken a stand, and that we had sent a message out to the world.

Singer: ♪ It's a small step for man ♪ ♪ But it's a giant leap for all mankind now ♪ Wilkins: The newspapers in Europe

and other parts of the world carried the story, carried these images. And so in a sense, it unmasked this country,

showed this country for what it really was. Prior to the 1960s, race riots, as they existed, were really riots of white people marauding through

neighborhoods where blacks were living, and attacking blacks. The riots of the sixties-- Detroit, Chicago, New York, L.A.--

these riots are completely different because they're really manifestations of black anger, black hostility, and that's very new.

[indistinct shouting] Singer: ♪ Declare peace... peace and happiness ♪ ♪ Change for us all... ♪

What distinguished Watts from the riots in Chicago and Detroit is that nobody thought it could happen here. Boyd: The whole environment of L.A. was supposed to be

so much nicer than other parts of the country, but yet that image of L.A. that's in the public mind had nothing to do with the large numbers of black people

living here in segregated conditions. Singers: ♪ Peace and happiness ♪ [Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground" playing]

Wilkins: The other thing that the rebellion represented for us was it helped accelerate our consciousness.

From '65 until about '71, gang activity in L.A. was at an all-time low because so many young people were joining organizations like

the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, like the Panther Party. Wonder: ♪ People ♪

♪ Keep on learnin'... ♪ Whitaker: This growing black pride movement saw the development of dynamic African-American organizations

committed to instigating change from within. Wonder: ♪ World ♪ ♪ Keep on turnin' ♪

♪ 'Cause it won't be too long ♪ Whitaker: Former street fighters like Kumasi, Bird, and Ron now fought the power rather than other gangs,

working alongside groups like the Black Panthers on civic programs that ranged from free breakfasts to neighborhood restoration to political activism.

Wonder: ♪ Believers ♪ ♪ Keep on believin' ♪ Kumasi: All them youngsters

were busy trying to rebuild their communities, trying to build their future, trying to figure out, "Where the fuck do we go from here together,

and how do we give ourselves some kind of a future?" Wonder: ♪ Gonna keep on tryin' ♪ ♪ Till I reach the highest ground ♪

Whitaker: But this new black power structure quickly found itself in the crosshairs of government agencies like the FBI.

According to recently declassified documents, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover launched a covert counterintelligence operation against the Black Panthers...

an organization he described as, "The greatest threat to the internal security of the country."

[gunfire] Wonder: ♪ Powers ♪ ♪ Keep on lyin' ♪

They turned around and squashed those movements. Wonder: ♪ While the people ♪ ♪ Keep on dyin' ♪

Whitaker: Former Slauson and Panther chapter founder Alprentice "Bunchy" Carter and John Huggins were gunned down

at a UCLA Black Student meeting, while Black Panther founders Huey Newton and Bobby Seale faced arrest and lengthy jail sentences.

Wonder: ♪ Oh, no ♪ ♪ Till I reach my highest ground ♪ [gunshot]

Whitaker: Within a few short years, many of America's most influential, iconic black leaders had either been incarcerated...

or assassinated. [gunshot] They ran 'em down.

They chased 'em down. They hunted 'em down. They murdered everybody that they could, and made everybody else either go to exile,

or they locked 'em up in the penitentiary. And when all that was over with, a new element rose up called the Crips.

You see? And the shit started again. The original Crips came out of our neighborhood.

They were the children we passed by every day and paid no attention to, but they watched us. We had the generation our parents came from,

and we had the great personalities of their generation to connect with. We had something to attach ourselves to; they didn't.

They were born in a state of suspended animation. They were totally disconnected and disenfranchised. They're like a planet out of orbit.

Whitaker: In the late 1960s from the blacktop playgrounds of Fremont High School emerged this new order,

led by South L.A. teenager Raymond Washington, generally credited as the Crips' founding member. In response, a number of rival gangs formed an alliance,

calling themselves "Bloods," a moniker adopted by African-American soldiers serving in Vietnam.

With the opposing armies now in place, battle flags were raised: blue for Crips, and red for Bloods.

And exactly which set or neighborhood drew first blood and why may never be known. Much of the firsthand knowledge has been taken to the grave

by gang leaders like Raymond Washington, who was shot and killed on the corner of 64th and San Pedro. Guys don't fight anymore.

We used to fight, but they don't do that anymore. Guns! All about shooting, taking 'em out.

Part of the mechanics of oppressing people... is to pervert them to the extent that they become the instruments of their own oppression.

[gun cocks] [gunfire] Whitaker: Over the next 4 decades,

warring Crip and Blood sets would carve the streets of South L.A. into a grid of rival territories.

Today, these fractured communities are home to 5 generations of urban soldiers. These are Crips and Bloods of all different eras and ages,

from different neighborhoods, loyal to different sets, yet they share one thing in common: all have grown up at war on the streets of L.A.

If you ain't from where I'm from... fuck you.

That's just how it is where we come from. That's just the old motto: "Kill or be killed."

Gee Active: Once you go to enemy turf, anything can happen to you. You come across Normandy, you die.

You come across Vermont-- pssh--I feel bad for you. James: When I was gang-banging, if you wasn't from my hood, you don't come to my hood.

If you come to my hood and you don't know nobody in my hood, then you die. Young Dre: West side of us is Bloods;

on the east side of us is Crips. We're just surrounded in a box, you know what I mean?

We're surrounded by-- by enemy sets. This was created over 20 years ago to where the geographics

in the neighborhoods have been separated by gangs. Nikko De: Certain streets, certain alleys, certain stores, certain schools, certain parks were claimed as turfs.

Bow Wow: You can't go to this gas station and put some gas in your car. You can't go to that Burger King over there

'cause you in the wrong neighborhood. [helicopter] You got some motherfuckers that'll ask you

"Where you from?" and you would tell 'em, you know, "I ain't from nowhere, homey." You know what I'm saying?

But you got some motherfuckers that won't ask you shit, just blow your head off just 'cause where you at. I done been jammed up, guns all in my face.

"Where you from?" I had to tell 'em. You know what I mean? Told 'em where I was from, and the guns come down,

and I'm out of the situation. B-4: I wish I can just go and just be wherever I want to chill with, man.

There's other girls in other projects, man, I just want to go through and just see, man. You feel what I'm saying?

My little, young hotties, man. I can't even go there and see my young hotties. No everything.

I can't, man. You can't do it. [siren] My little brother walk out the door to school,

6:00 in the morning, and they shoot at him as he's going to school. So you got to think--

we talking about sick motherfuckers in this world be up that early in the morning just--you know what I'm saying-- to do some cruel shit like that.

[indistinct shouting] Young Dre: When we've been burying one of our friends, one of our comrades,

and we've had shootouts at the funeral where another one of our homeboy gets killed, at the funeral!

You dig? [gunshot] So as we live amongst each other,

there might be one street-- it might be one gas station that service 2 or 3 different gangs. Well, when I get to the gas station,

I have to find out, what are your intentions with me while I'm pumping gas? So I cannot turn my back and allow you to shoot me

or hit me in the back of the head. I have to look you in your eyes and see your intentions. And when I look you in your eyes,

I'm looking to see if you're a wolf. If you're a wolf, and I'm a wolf, then we need to come to some sort of agreement

so we can both get out of here peacefully. And if you're a pork chop, I'm happy. "Let me go on and get my gas, pork chop.

I appreciate you being here." When I was in the communities talking to guys in the gangs-- in Watts, in Compton, in Inglewood--

that so many of these-- particularly the younger guys-- had never seen the Pacific Ocean. In a gang-infested community, there are situations

where people will not leave a given 10-block radius for years. Put it like this, man-- for those that don't go nowhere,

they got a fucked up attitude about a lot of shit. Why? Because they don't know nothing else. Kumasi: And he's been taught, man,

that if you ain't quick, you're dead. It's what they call "slipping." "Don't get caught slipping."

"Slipping" means relaxing, being off-guard, not on point. Not always hostile, hard, ready to do and die, and be the one who does instead of the one who dies.

Scrap: You can't have hope living there. You have to be on your toes at all times, man, because anything at any time can happen to you.

Interviewer: Wait a minute. You--you can't have a heart? No, no, no. You can have a heart, but you better not show it.

It's sort of never letting yourself be weak, never letting yourself be seen as someone with feelings, emotions...

except for brutal force. In the ghetto, you will be taken advantage of. You will be targeted.

Sharks will just eat you up. So out here, in the concrete jungle, you got to be respected as a man.

But in most cases, respect is actually fear. "You better respect me." No, you better fear me.

Famous: You want to have that hard look; everything is hard. You want to be in that right state of mind. If you feeling good about your dress code,

you gonna represent to the fullest. Feeling good about your dress code...state of mind... You feeling good about your dress code...

dress code. You don't want to dress like no sucker, not out in the world, not in a gang.

Famous: [echoing] State of mind. B-4: And that's all we know, man, is looking good... Famous: Feeling good about your dress code, dress code.

And doing whatever it takes to look good. Famous: Feeling good about your dress code... Ha! I was on book tour,

and two guys were with me in San Francisco to be interviewed. I knocked on the door of their hotel room,

and they said, "Come in." Singer: ♪ What's up, yo? ♪ Leon: And here are two

of the most hardcore gang members, and one of them has got his ironing board out, and he's got his traveling iron,

and he's ironing his clothes. [spray bottle dispensing] Flipside: It's the look, man, you know?

We just get some starch and we iron our shit. It was like fashion, to make your pants stand up in the corner

with nobody in 'em. Ha ha ha ha! What about that! You know what I mean?

[helicopter] [indistinct chatter] Interviewer: For somebody that has no idea

why a young man would do it, what is the allure and stuff? I joined a gang not only for the protection,

but for the love, for the unity, to be a part of a family. [indistinct chatter]

James: If you living in a ghetto and you living in an environment where you're being assaulted like I was, I just got tired of being a victim.

It's like either you're the victim or you're the victor. B-4: You raised into it.

It's not like you're gonna get out of it some way. You raised into it like this is what they teach you at a young age.

Bandana: I was really a good dude. Then, you know, getting chased out of schools, getting shot at all the time, and you like, "Fuck it.

I'm damned if I do, damned if I don't." Man: Compton...fool. Caddy: I didn't get jumped in this; I grew up in this.

My mom grew up in my neighborhood, my dad from my neighborhood, all my uncles from my neighborhood.

So I don't look at it as, like, no gang thing. It's just family. [indistinct singing on soundtrack]

Gee Active: Looking up to all my big homeys and shit, they look down on me and bless me, you know? They give me what I need.

Singer: ♪ Before long, before long, before long ♪ ♪ Before long, before long, before long, before long ♪ Bandana: And that's why when he's hooked up with his crew,

they feeding him, they looking out for him, they putting clothes on his back. "OK, but now it's time to get in this car

and go get these niggers that's just shot up my house." What you gonna do? What you gonna do? You obligated to.

That man just fed you all month. So how can you say no to that? "Let's go kill these motherfuckers

because, man, shit, you feeding me." [guns cocking] Interviewer: How old were you when you first got a gun?

Gee Active: My first gun? I was, like, 10. I probably was about 12. Man, I got my first gun when I was 13 years old.

We got guns just to go to school, you know? If you don't have one, you got to be around somebody that got one.

I carry 2 or 3 guns. 'Cause if I run out of one, I have another one.

I got a backup. Naji: The AK-47, the Uzi, the MAC-10... you got big guns.

You ain't got .22s, .38s no more. These cats pulling out 9-millimeters with 16 bullets in 'em.

Come on, man. How you gonna survive that gunshot? [gunshot] Big Girch: My generation was the last that fought.

After my generation, it was gun play. There was no such thing as fighting. The kids today came right in the game with guns.

That's why there's so many murders. T. Rodgers: That's made a 12-year-old, a 13-year-old king for a day.

Oh, my God, put you in a whole 'nother state. [gunshots] Man: Oh!

Just the sound within itself said that you cleared the block. Pow! Pow! Pow! You cleared the block.

People close their windows, shut their doors. Car alarms go off. The dogs and cats run, ain't no rats.

I mean, you cleared the block. And you standing there, 12, 13 years old, with the pistol smoking.

And you stick it in your pocket and you walk on home. Shaka Blood: I think it's very hard to use a gun against another individual or a human being,

but once you block that part of your mind out, it becomes very easy. You can watch 'em: they become numb.

The first time, they're jittery. You can just see the nervousness in 'em. And you come back and look at that same person

after being involved with the hood for a year, and, I mean, they soldiers. They're ready to get down.

Pete: These wars go farther back than most of these kids been around. A lot of 'em are not sure about why the war was going on,

but they started doing what was being done. Caddy: Don't nobody like us, but that's even before our time.

Before I was born, it been like that. So I just grew up into making more enemies. We at war with a lot of people right now.

But being who I am and the shit that I've been through, I got a lot of love for being a real motherfucker out here. And that has saved my life many times.

You know what I'm saying? But at the same time, it's another generation that don't know me

and feel like they can get a stripe if they get rid of me. You see me, you give me a pass. I see you, I might give you a pass.

Depends on how I feel. Don't give me a pass, then you already know what time it is

next time you see me. Nikko De: The game is to hunt your enemy, and whatever they do, you counterattack.

They write on the wall, you write on the wall. They beat up somebody, you beat up somebody. They shoot somebody,

you shoot somebody. [sirens] They come over here and shoot one of us,

we go over there and shoot, like, 3 or 4 of them. Operator: 911. What's your emergency? We got to shoot back.

[gunshot] We got to do what's necessary to survive, and it became a dog-eat-dog war.

[siren] When one of your loved ones get killed, then what you expect to do?

You got to retaliate, because your heart is broke, not theirs. You know what I'm saying? You in tears at the funeral, not them.

So now you got to make them feel the way you feel, and this is a vicious cycle. It just goes over and over and over again.

[tires screech] [gunshot] [police radio transmissions]

[siren] Dispatcher: Two suspects. Suspect one: a male, black, black hair, dark eyes.

Dark complexion and medium-length natural. Suspect two: male, black... [transmission continues, indistinct]

White t-shirt. No further description. Big Girch: Even though I'm in the game I'm in, I pray. Interviewer: But how do you deal with the moral argument, man?

I ignore it. I don't pay attention to it. There's really no room in this--in this world

for soft motherfuckers, man. Soft motherfuckers don't eat. I wrestle with my moral issues a lot, man,

because I know that, ultimately, this ain't the way that God, or society, intended it to be. So a lot of times, man, I know morally, I'm a good individual.

But sometimes I got to put that moral state of mind behind me and become an animal. [film projector reel spinning]

[singing spiritual on soundtrack] Prior to World War II, 85%, 90% of the black population in this country lives in the South.

[singing continues] Boyd: Black people had primarily lived in the South because of slavery, and the South was a rural agrarian

or farm economy. [singing continues] [whistling]

Sides: World War II ushers in a series of transformations that radically change the nature of black history in this country. Blacks, for the first time, are invited en masse

to work in America's industrial arsenal for democracy, building those tanks, building those planes, building those ships.

Between the 1940s and 1970s, you see over 4 million African-Americans leave the South in ways that had never, never occurred before.

Head for New York, head for Chicago, head for Los Angeles. For the first time, they were integrated into the American work economy.

They were earning enough to be lower middle-class homeowners in L.A. and to establish, if not exactly,

a very close similarity to the American dream. L.A. didn't have the overt history with racism that one had in the South.

Sides: There were no laws that said blacks had to ride on one part of the bus. There were no laws that said blacks

had to be in certain schools. There were, however, an extremely exclusive web of racially restricted housing covenants that kept blacks

in particular areas and out of other areas. Whitaker: These covenants mandated the sale of real estate along racial lines in an effort to keep traditionally white

neighborhoods free of non-desirable homeowners. Sides: Sometimes "non-desirable" meant Latino, sometimes "non-desirable" meant Jew,

sometimes "non-desirable" meant Asian, but it always meant black. And so those racially restrictive covenants,

which didn't disappear until the late forties and early fifties, essentially kept blacks circumscribed

in a very narrow portion of the L.A. County region. Boyd: Black people were sort of forced to live on top of each other

because it just wasn't possible to live where you chose, even though you might have been able to afford it. [horn honking]

Whitaker: South L.A. residents responded by transforming their allotted territory into a thriving cultural hub, with Central Avenue developing

into a sort of Harlem West. [woman laughs] Sides: West Coast's best jazz clubs,

dozens of black businesses lining the street, people dressed in their Sunday best on the weekends. A period during which the most affluent and the poorest blacks

live, essentially, side by side. Whitaker: And then with World War II's end, L.A.'s wartime economy adapted itself

to a booming automotive industry, with major corporations like GM, Chrysler, Ford, Goodyear, and Firestone

all establishing factories in South Los Angeles. Boyd: You work in a factory, you got good benefits. You could buy a house. You could buy a car.

You could raise a family. You could live a working-class or lower middle-class life. Sides: It was a moment of unprecedented black prosperity

in which the trajectory of black America was on the rise. People were getting jobs. People were buying homes. People were buying cars,

sending their kids to colleges. It was a moment of real optimism. Horne: In the late 1950s, you begin to get the first wave

of what came to be called de-industrialization. The American economy is changing. We're moving from an industrial economy into an economy

based on service, based on information, rooted in technology. Sides: That is, it's high-skilled, high-wage,

high training on one hand, very low-skilled, sweatshop labor on the other hand. Blacks find that their skills don't fit

into either of those demands. They don't have the education or the skill or the training because of historic discrimination

to work in aerospace. On the other hand, they don't feel any desire or need to go into the low-skilled service-sector jobs

like hotel cleaning, like sweatshop work in downtown L.A., because they don't perceive that as jobs that American citizens should have.

Boyd: We're not talking about people who had careers. We're talking about people who had jobs. If you have a job, you are dependent upon that job.

So when that factory closes, you are, in essence, ass out. Sides: By the late sixties, you see those plants beginning to disappear.

When they disappear, there is virtually nothing left in their wake. And so it leaves a gaping hole in the economy of that region...

[crows squawking] with consequences that are just enormous. Generationally, in America,

it's supposed to be about the American dream. People are supposed to move up. They're supposed to elevate. We're talking about a situation where, in actuality,

it went in reverse. The children, over time, began to do worse than their parents. Whitaker: In 1975, "The Los Angeles Times"

sent reporters into the streets to assess progress in the city's black communities 10 years after the Watts rebellion.

"The fearful live "behind protective bars and double locks. "High schools are graduating functional illiterates.

"Some black people have got businesses; "some professionals have gotten into significant jobs. "But if you talk about the masses,

"or that guy who was in trouble in 1965, it is more difficult now." "For the black in the ghetto, the goal is survival."

Singer: ♪ California love ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ California ♪

♪ Knows how to party ♪ ♪ California ♪ ♪ Knows how to party ♪

♪ In the city of L.A. ♪ ♪ In the city of good old Watts ♪ ♪ In the city, city ♪

♪ Of Compton ♪ ♪ We keep it rockin', we keep it rockin' ♪ Can I ask you a few more questions?

Yeah, definitely. Hold on. Let's just let this settle. I don't want to lose what you say.

[helicopter, sirens] Huh. Sirens, huh? How about if they're going on all night and all day?

All night...all day. Singer: ♪ Doing your own thang ♪ Second singer: ♪ One day ♪

First singer: ♪ Doing, doing, doing your own thang ♪ Second singer: ♪ One day ♪ We've had Hurricane Katrina going on right here,

been going on. Gang of refugees, if you want to call them that. We're displaced like a motherfucker.

[siren] [fire truck horn] Skipp: A helicopter flying overhead

might not be acceptable in Brentwood. However, it's something that occurs every 2 or 3 hours in my community.

Basheer: In the South Central community, basically what you have is empty fields, broken-down businesses, if you have any businesses.

Kal Boneski: Every corner, you got a liquor store. You got all the different things that help make you less stable. Take a walk down Adams Boulevard from Crenshaw to Vermont,

and you tell me the opportunities that are available. Low-income housing, 5 or 6 churches,

gang violence, crack. Singer: ♪ One day, one day, one day... ♪ Whitaker: The introduction of crack cocaine

onto the streets of L.A. in 1981 proved to be a major tipping point for an already vulnerable community.

[siren] Scrap: When cocaine came into our area, it broke up a lot of homes.

You know, a lot of people just thought crack was the way out, you know, without even thinking about their kids. You know what I'm saying?

That what broke a lot of homes up. If that crack would've never came, you'd probably still have nice little homes and nice little families, you know?

But when that came, that, like, tore everything apart. Interviewer: But let me ask you, man. Did you have a conventional childhood?

Hell, no. Dysfunctional ass family. Can you tell me about it? Pssh. Fucked up.

Father? He out of here. He been gone since '93. I was raised without a daddy, basically.

So I had to be a man on my own, take care of my mama and shit: my Gee-moms, my family, my little brothers and sisters.

See, I had to do this shit by myself. How do you advise your little brothers and sisters? Pssh. "Do what you do."

What else can I tell 'em? Look at me. James: I grew up watching my dad beat the hell out of my mom. I watched my father-- an alcoholic--

and I smoked PCP with my mother. You know, I mean, I grew up on drugs, man. I mean, you know, I got kicked out of tenth grade

for selling weed for my mom. My mom was on drugs. You know what I'm saying? Now she cool, you know, but back when I was younger...

My dad--he in a federal penitentiary 12 years, you know? I grew up in a house where my grandmama, my uncle, everybody was selling drugs.

You know what I'm saying? I grew up to where, when the police raiding, they handing me drugs to hide and all this old stuff.

Skipp: I grew up in a home where my mother worked 2 jobs but had 3 boys. So you can imagine we were unsupervised,

so I found my supervision outside of the home. She was too busy making a living... than to love me.

Even though she tried and did the best that she could, it was not enough. I could say that my whole life,

I was trying to figure out why my mother didn't love me, or why my mother didn't show me love. If she could say it, she couldn't show it,

meaning that she never once gave me a hug or a kiss... it'd be $20, because she would have to go somewhere. But all the while, I saw her chasing other men, other people,

and giving them the love I thought I should have. It made me act out. It made me resent her in a certain way.

Only because I could've resented my dad, but he never showed me the negative imagery. He just was gone.

So all I had was a thought of who he was, and who am I? Big Chan: There was a lot of black kids in the neighborhood

that just went the opposite way. Or when the gangs was outside, they didn't come outside. You know what I'm saying?

They had some parents that, "Get in your books," and stayed on 'em. But if everybody had that,

then a lot of things would've been different, but that wasn't the case. A lot of minds are messed up

because they don't have that support. They don't have no one that really got their back. They don't really have no one who understand them.

You got the homeys down the alley drinking some 8-ball, and they tell you, "You are something. We love you, and you can be a part of this,"

then where you gonna go? Kumasi: The common thread throughout all of these conversations

and throughout our community seems to be, for the most part the absence of a father, a male figure, a father figure in the home.

I wasn't taught at all about manhood. I was raised by my great-grandmother, my grandmother, and my mother.

There was no male figure. There was no role model for me. So if you come up in a home when there is no male influence,

there's no strong male influence, then, uh, everything is going to be out of whack. The people that taught me taught me wrong.

Taught me how to be hard, taught--taught me how it was about being tough. You gonna teach me how to be a man by just fighting.

You tell me to fight somebody or go shoot somebody. That's the way they taught me being a man. Brown: You have a subculture of young black men

pretending to be men by killing each other. Or by standing up in a bravado manner. But they're misguided.

Well, I'll sit here and I'll tell you that I didn't become a man until I was 38 years old. Because I had to hold the hand of a man.

It was just that simple. A man had to stoop low enough to take me out of the gutter and say, "Hey, this is the way to go.

This is what you do. This is how it's done." Nowadays, the fathers, or the black men my age, are either dead or in jail.

And one of the problems we have is if they're going to try to arrest the problem, that means they're putting all the black men in jail.

Whitaker: A 2003 Bureau of Justice report reveals that 28% of African-American men, more than 1 in 4, will be jailed or sent to prison in their lifetime.

[heavy door slams shut] We have engaged in this country in an absolutely historically unprecedented experiment in mass imprisonment.

We now have an imprisonment rate that is 6 to 7 times higher than it has ever been before in our history. Singer: ♪ It's a hustle called capitalism ♪

♪ Got my niggers in prison or stuck in the system, yeah ♪ Whitaker: In 2007, California's governor announced plans to spend $7.4 billion

to build 40,000 new prison beds. Singer: ♪ I'm from a place ♪ ♪ Where the fuckin' Terminator is the governor ♪

Boyd: You look at the population of the people in the penitentiary, particularly from the 1980s going forward,

black men are disproportionately represented. That's the new cotton field right there: the pen. Singer: ♪ Concrete slave ships never move ♪

♪ Where niggers like us get used like a mule ♪ ♪ Don't let 'em catch you, arrest you ♪ ♪ Strip and undress you, throw you in a cesspool ♪

Gilligan: What this means is we are breaking up even the possibility of there being intact families with a mother and a father present,

raising a child together. Singer: [echoing] ♪ The nigga trap ♪ Gilligan: Because we are sending the men off to prison

at unprecedented rates, usually for nonviolent offenses. Singer: ♪ The ghetto is a nigga trap ♪ ♪ Take the cheese ♪

♪ Soon as you do it, here come the police ♪ ♪ Invented and designed for us to fail ♪ ♪ Where you gonna end up dead or in jail... ♪

Whitaker: Even with time served, many of those determined to start a new life find little freedom in their release. I go to get a job.

I'm working for Xerox, and I lied on the application and they found out I was on parole, and I lost my job. I used to be jealous of my wife

going to work every day. This is my wife-- a woman that stood by me, grew up with me, been with me

ever since we was kids. And she would go out the house and go to work, and I would be mad at her, because she could go to work and I couldn't go.

I would be mad because she was paying the bills and I couldn't pay the bills. Man. I felt like, man, we over here, man,

we locked in a box, man, no matter what we do. You get a record--pssh-- you not getting nothing. I just got out the pen.

They don't want to hire me 'cause I'm a parolee. So what I'm gonna do? Just sit out here and be broke? Stop it.

Either I'm gonna sell some weed, some dope, some crystal, some heroin, or I'm gonna rob.

Interviewer: To make ends meet? That's the bottom line. I'm not gonna see my nephew, my son,

my mama, or nobody's daughter, because these motherfuckers won't give me no job.

So I got to do what I know how to do. There's never no cycle to get us out of this.

There's just a cycle to get us back into it. So, of course, people are going to behave in ways that are anti-social,

if we don't let them behave in pro-social ways. Tony Muhammad: When you hear America saying, "There's going to be a war on crime,"

to a black person, that means that's a war on black people. Maniac Bey: When they say, "a war on gangs,"

I say, that's a war on me. When they say "war on drugs," I say, that's a war on me. Every war they got is a war against me and my people.

We need to come in here and solve this problem, not attack this problem, 'cause here's a people that's already angry.

I don't have nothing to lose if you attack me, sir. I'm being attacked every day, anyway. I'm being shot at every day anyway.

So you shooting at me, you putting me in jail don't mean nothing to me. Hayden: That's where the "gang problem"--so-called--is.

It's been redefined as a crime problem and a gang problem. But it's really an issue of no work and dysfunctional schools, and so on.

Gilligan: We know that what we've been doing to deal with gang violence isn't working. But we just keep doing the same thing over and over again.

And then we say, "Well, the fact that it isn't working "doesn't mean that we're acting out of ignorance," or, "Maybe we need to learn something."

We say, "It just proves that these kids are unredeemable." Hayden: It's a belief that our society

did not contribute to the formation of this problem. It's the story of the scapegoat. The gang member is the scapegoat.

Nothing's our fault. It's their fault. We didn't create them. They're inevitably incorrigible.

[sirens] Singer: ♪ Hit it, hit it! ♪ Whitaker: This continuing atmosphere of denial

virtually guaranteed that history would repeat itself. On April 29, 1992, 27 years and 5 miles away from the flashpoint

of the 1965 Watts rebellion, rioting again broke out-- the most violent, costly outbreak of civil unrest in U.S. history.

Singer: ♪ I got so much trouble on my mind ♪ ♪ Refuse to lose ♪ ♪ Here's your ticket ♪

♪ Hear the drummer get wicked... ♪ Whitaker: The explosion of angry protest was touched off by the outcome of the controversial

Rodney King/LAPD police brutality trial. Singer: ♪ Man, I've had it up to here ♪ Wilkins: The message to the community is that

the system does not deliver justice. It does not work for us. So we have to find our justice on the streets.

Singer: ♪ My home is your home ♪ All: No justice, no peace! No justice, no peace! Singer: ♪ But welcome to the Terrordome ♪

Different singer: ♪ Yeah! ♪ [sirens] ♪ Come on down ♪

[overlapping samples] Whitaker: But unlike the '65 rebellion, which was primarily contained to Watts,

the flames of '92 burned their way to the very doorstep of bordering affluent communities. Singer: ♪ Uh! ♪

Different singer: ♪ Would you join me, please ♪ ♪ In welcome-in-ing ♪ Marcus Garvey used to say that when all else to fails

to organize the people, conditions will. Kumasi: And therefore, in 1992, the reasons all clustered together, and it happened again.

Singer: ♪ Uh ♪ [laughter on music recording, overlapping samples] [indistinct voices]

Whitaker: In the aftermath of '92's uprising, a high-profile, private sector initiative was formed to create Rebuild L.A. The $6-billion investment program defined its goals

as "long-term, systemic change," and promised to create 74,000 new jobs within the riot zone over the next five years.

At the same time, a tentative truce between several Crip and Blood sets, helped establish a tone of optimism

For South L.A.'s war-weary community. [indistinct cheering] Whitaker: But just one year later,

with many South L.A. neighborhoods still in ruin, Rebuild L.A. quietly closed its doors. Hayden: A young generation of kids heard about this promise.

They momentarily got their hopes up. They committed to this peace treaty. And instead, they learned that it was just another

fork-tongued promise of the Man. [explosion on soundtrack] It failed.

We should have known what the future would be in other cites from here to Baghdad. Singer: ♪ Compton! ♪

Different singer: ♪ Straight outta Compton ♪ Whitaker: Gang warfare would resume and for the next 15 years continue unchecked

with almost no effective outside intervention. Singer: ♪ See, 'cause I'm the motherfucking villain ♪ ♪ The definition is clear ♪

♪ You're the witness of a killing ♪ And you know what? Everybody looks at them and says,

"You're the worst motherfuckers in the world. "We don't like you. We don't want you. "We don't even want you to survive.

We want you to go away. We want to pretend like you don't exist." Singer: ♪ I'm comin' straight outta Compton ♪

♪ Compton ♪ Different singer: ♪ When something happens ♪ ♪ In South Central Los Angeles ♪

♪ Nothing happens ♪ ♪ It's just another nigga dead ♪ [echoing] ♪ Dead, dead, dead... ♪

This is my grandson. His name was Mark Cornelius. He was 17 years old, a very promising young boy. And in 1996, he came here to Los Angeles to visit me.

I begged my son to allow him to come from Yuba City, California, to visit me.

He was here 3 weeks. And he was shot and killed 10:30 in the morning walking across the street,

headed for Dorsey High School. He didn't have gang colors on. He didn't even know too much about the gangs.

As a matter of fact, he said--to him-- when I warned him about where to go and where not to go, he said, "Grandma,

"this is America. "This is where we're supposed to be free. This is where we're supposed

to be able to walk down any street we choose." And the next day, he died doing what he thought was his right.

Pete: Death is a way of life now in our communities. Muhammad: Can you imagine a society

where mothers are burying their children instead of their children burying their mothers? Pam: It's OK to cry. You have to cry.

I have to cry in order to-- to keep going. I have to cry

'cause if I don't cry and I keep all the anger up in me, I may do something. You know, people say, "Oh, you can get over it."

Hell, no, we can't. We just get through it. Just get through it. We'll never get over this. You didn't take my dog. You didn't foreclose on my house.

You know, you didn't, you know, repossess my car. My son was murdered. He just didn't die. He was murdered.

Woman: So when I finally went back to school, I was always crying. And it was amazing-- all the kids,

I look around and they're like all, you know, a lot of the girls all teary-eyed and even some of the boys.

And then I would ask them, "How many of you guys "know somebody--an uncle, a father, a friend, a schoolmate who was murdered?"

And when at first I asked that question and 3/4 of the class raised their hand, I just broke down in tears.

[sounds of children playing] [sounds of sirens, police radio transmissions] Whitaker: A recent comparison of twin psychological studies

by the LAUSD and RAND Corporation, indicates that children in South Los Angeles are exhibiting greater levels

of post-traumatic stress disorder than children of a similar age in Baghdad, the war-torn capital of Iraq.

Vicky: And if they don't get resources for these youngsters, what's going to happen? You got another group of angry children,

another group of killers. Interviewer: If someone right now said, "What do you want in your life?

I'll give you anything you want," what would it be? Pssh. Man, one thing? Just one thing?

Freedom. Big Girch: My wish would be for Crips and Bloods to realize that everybody else is against us.

And if we don't come together, it's gonna be over for us. Interviewer: So if the resources were here, you're saying these kids wouldn't choose gangs?

No, man. No, man. You choose that 'cause there's no hope. You--you in-- you're in no-man's land.

There's no hope. People taking choices of going to college, and like, that's, like, making a choice.

Here, you ain't making no choice. There's no choice. It's like you waiting for somebody

to come save you, man. And you just ain't gonna never get saved, man. I did the gang-banging, the stomping out the sets,

the getting shot, the drive-bys, the getting shot in drive-bys, to going to jail-- to all that, right?

But had I had a chance or someone else tell me, "Fool, you playing the devil's game!" Since I been in the gang, man,

I done been to the county jails, to several penitentiaries and back and forth through war,

as far as gunfights and stuff. So this perception that gang-banging is wonderful, that it is the lifestyle to live,

it's no lifestyle to live, period. Your reward for gang-banging is to be crippled, lame for life?

Your greatest reward is life plus 40 years. Your ultimate reward for gang-banging is death.

And you don't come back from that. [sirens] Whitaker: Today, the streets of south L.A. have

given rise to a new sort of gang determined to fight not simply for turf or colors, but for the lives of the next generation.

Basheer: I work with about 400 or 500 high-risk youth every month. The first thing I do, I apologize to them,

because I have to let them know, my generation has failed you miserably. See, I'm 51 years old.

I've been through decades of this structure. So, let 'em know that, "Hey, we have done some wrongs

just like you doing wrong." Whitaker: These peacemakers, many of them former gang members,

have stepped out from behind the guns and are now standing between them, literally risking their lives

with the formation of street-level gang intervention organizations. Privately funded,

receiving almost no support from either state or federal governments, these grassroots movements are taking the first crucial steps

towards stopping the cycle of gang violence. Bo Taylor: People who care, who want to see a better community, who want to see a better country,

man, we got to start getting together and having some sit-downs so that we don't keep breeding generations

and generations who only think that that's the way to go. An alternative to that lifestyle has to be put in place. And if they want to see change,

then they're gonna have to be willing to invest in that alternative lifestyle. Man: One thing my son told me one day was, "Daddy?"

I said, "What's up?" He said, "I know how you get your money." I said, "How do I get my money, son?"

He said, "Them dirty people come up. You give 'em that white stuff, and they give you money." I said, "Is that right?"

So, he took off and rode off on his bike. And it set me--I sat there thinking and wondering, "Damn, my son really out here watching me

doing what I do." So, if I still continue on robbing-- whatever it is--he's going to do the same thing.

Right then, I made a choice in my life-- whether I was going to stick by them or stick by us. "Us" is meaning me and my neighborhood and my gang,

"them," meaning my kids. So I chose to stick with them. Turned around a little bit.

Now, I'm a coach, a role model, a proud parent. And I'm living. Skipp: I'm the one who prevented my own self

from going to different areas. I prevented it because of my mentality and because of what I did, how I dressed,

how I carried myself. If I went into an area and I'm dressed in all red, I'm looking for problems.

And I would be looking for problems. I'd be looking for the guys in blue. I'd be looking for the guys that look at me.

And when they looked at me now I'm ready to deal with this problem. I'm ready to show my anger.

I'm ready to show my ignorance, that I can get just as stupid as you. But when I stopped that mentality,

when I started dressing differently, well, I started thinking differently. I've increased my freedom to where I will go anywhere.

And when I get there and see certain individuals, they will say, "Well, that's Skipp from over there." And we go, "Hey. How you doing?"

And we can talk now. And it's not a problem. I go to everybody's neighborhood, and it's not a problem.

Interviewer: How do you like that? Love it. I love it. I truly enjoy it. [singing on soundtrack]

Gilligan: We are a democracy. We have the resources. We're the richest country on earth. It is absolutely outrageous,

it is inexcusable that we have failed to meet the most elementary tests of what it means to be fellow citizens

and build a community. [singing continues on soundtrack] Brown: See, the ingredient is to care about people

and to love them. That's the ingredient-- across the board, and to understand that they are human.

They're not gang members. They're human beings. [singing continues] The one thing you have to realize--

if you open them up, there would be a stamp under their shirt that says "Made in America," OK? Not no place else.

They weren't made in Taiwan or, you know, Indonesia. They were made in America. [singing on soundtrack fades]

[new song starts] Singer: ♪ See, I was manufactured and packaged ♪ ♪ An American bastard ♪

♪ Tragic born into rapture ♪ ♪ Story classic was blastin' ♪ ♪ Cadillac-in' was smashin' ♪

♪ Mama stashin' that cash in ♪ ♪ Hustlin', that's what was happenin' ♪ ♪ In '82, it was magic, rollin' ♪

♪ Back then, we had it ♪ ♪ You'd toke up, up in there blastin' ♪ ♪ Man, we'd rob tricks like mad... ♪

♪ Past me, disagree, can you imagine ♪ ♪ If I seen 'em today walk past me ♪ ♪ Wouldn't know 'em from Adam, Adam ♪

♪ From Adam, Adam ♪ ♪ Adam, from Adam, Adam ♪ ♪ Yep, I'm from a dysfunctional familia ♪

♪ 'Cause their mentality is my community ♪ ♪ Man, I kill ya ♪ ♪ Better hope it's homey I see ♪

♪ I was raised up on Welfare ♪ ♪ Parents spending food stamps in a store ♪ ♪ Even when the clerks stare ♪

♪ They ship for free to food banks and government Gs ♪ ♪ The county funded ♪ ♪ Dope fiends in every h-o-o-d ♪