Do you get bums like these in the US? (violent crime, home)

[stevebri]

Chavs sound a lot like goths with the exception that most goths in the US are peaceful types looking to draw attention to themselves by what they wear and how they talk.

No one has mentioned skinheads yet. Skinheads are generally associated with neo nazi groups in the US, or the Clan.

Ku Klux Klan this is more of a white power group. They are a gang with a mission.

There are also very many militia groups in the US that act similarly to gangs, but usually with a mission of not paying taxes at all or similar goal.

We also have gangs like the bloods or the crips

Bums, generally are not dangerous, but can be under certain circumstances. Bum is also more of a general usage term. For example, it would not be uncommon to hear a woman refer to a ex boyfriend or husband as a bum. This does not generally mean he is homeless or harmless. It is a derogotory term for a man who acts badly. This may or may not include violent acts.

[20yrsinBranson]

Yes, they are everywhere in the US. In cities (aka "urban" settings) they are most likely minorities, however, not exclusively so.

In rural environments they are usually white trash. We also call them meth-heads if they are involved in drugs.

What a tragedy to know that no place is safe from this swill. What a sad testament to humanity.

20yrsinBranson

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Monkey10

Just to summarise:

Nearest thing to chavs / neds in the UK seems to be a cross-over (either below or over their toughness rating):

The less harder type:

- Killos; Unemployed teenagers with almost no education that live in urban high rises. They have a subculture that borrows from skins, gypsys, urban tribes.
Just empty headed pill heads. Aren't these just Gypsy's?

You asked about the American/Canadian equivalent to chavs/neds. "Killos" means nothing here; I believe the person who brought it up said it was a Spain thing.

Originally Posted by Monkey10

OR

Wigger (racial word?); they tend to be wannabes who aren't as tough as they'd like to be. What exactly is this type of group?

When I see video footage of your stereotypical chav, "wigger" is the first word that comes to mind. "Wigger" is a portmanteau of "white" and "n*gger," the latter being a derogatory word for black people that is so taboo that you can't even spell it out here without using substitute characters to avoid the forum's auto-censor feature. A wigger is a white youth who adopts the mannerisms, clothing style, speech patterns, cultural tastes, etc., of black urban street culture. That said, they are usually not as tough or violent as your average black street thug or your average chav -- it's mostly an affectation.

Originally Posted by Monkey10

OR

Gang-wannabe Whites / Hoodlums - in the suburbs (not as menacing as chavs/ neds) but most are suburban, from wealthy white families and are just putting on a phoney "tough image".

Pretty close -- see above. They're not necessarily from wealthy white families, but usually from middle-class or lower-middle-class families, but in either case they have no business co-opting the nihilistic themes of the truly disaffected black culture they emulate.

Originally Posted by Monkey10

OR

Most North American Caucasian fights involve emo skater dudes hugging and rolling slowly on the grass. Are these not Gang-wannabees / Hoodlums?

Eh -- the whole "emo" thing someone laid out earlier is a bit of an exaggeration. There are some genuinely tough white dudes you don't want to mess with, but they tend to be good ol' country boys.

Originally Posted by Monkey10

Gangs in the US (the harder type like Chavs / Neds):

Antisocial thugs / Gangbangers (lol) - They don't merely beat each other up, they shoot each other. Mostly made up of African American & Hispanic youth circles of US inner cities. Fights involving American black and Latino gangs are often as brutal as white Euro fights however. Are these considered Wiggers?

This pretty much sums up America's gang culture, minus the "wigger" part as explained above. The true "problem" gangs are generally not white and generally very serious about imposing a level of mayhem that would send these Glasgow ******* running home to hide under their beds. Imagine if brawling chavs and neds had free and ready access to handguns and had few qualms about using them. If you can imagine that, then you'll start to get a feel for what much of urban USA is dealing with.

Originally Posted by Monkey10

Other:

Bums = Homeless / Beggers

In American parlance... yes.

[mstnghu2]

Originally Posted by scottyr

generally, "emo" is a term that describes "emotional-themed punk rock"...but the emo scene familiar to most Americans this century is more like "emotional-themed pop-rock"....fans of such music often wear their hair dyed black, and swept to one side, and boys tend to wear tight jens designed for women. The "anorexic-look" has also become part of their style.

Modern emo culture may glorify suicide and constant whining over the miniscule details of teen life.

Emos are often seen as wimpy, whiney, weak, as well as possibly homosexual. Emos differ from Goths in that emos often embrace more childish, light-hearted cultural elements such as hugging Teddy bears, playing old super mario games, retro converse sneakers and general childish nonsence, rather than the quasi-Satanic, horror-influenced, industrial rock-heavy culture of the Goth clique

This may very well be the best description I've ever read to define the term "emo". Very good!

[ABQConvict]

Chavs, Neds, Scangers are the equivalent to Wiggers, Guidos, Cholos, etc. in America. Basically, teenaged and early 20-somethings who are given to emulating or adapting a stereotype of hip-hop and 'gangstah' culture and posturing in public places to seem tough. Some of them actually are and engage in petty crime like drug use, thievery, and beatings, but some of them are middle-class suburbanites trying (in their misguided way) to earn some respect.

Tracksuits and other sportswear, gold chains, and an appreciation for lame hip-hop blasting out of economy cars modified with cheap spoilers are some of the things that link them across different cultures.

Every country has them.

[Observation]

No, Bums in the US are transient people with no money and no homes. Most are peacefull and not prone to violence, they are just really poor and can't find work.

Those kids in those videos you posted look more like what we would call thugs or gangstas here in the US, but those kids seem very tame compared to the US counterparts. Fighting and stabbings are only common amongst pre-teen thugs in the US. Most thugs over the age of 15 own multiple firearms, rob people, and sell dope to make ends meet. US thugs are all pretty much career criminals from a very young age and it's not uncommon for thugs in there 20s to own Tec-9s AK-47s, bulletproof vests, and be convicted felons with drug, robbery, and violence convictions stretching back to there early teens.

As for white gangstas. Texas, California, and Chicago all have very serious, violent white gangs that consider robbing people, selling dope, pimping, and shooting people just normal business, and most Black and Mexican gangs (especially homegrown owns) have certified members that are white.

However most gangstas (regardless of race) in the US are not actually in gangs, but are gang affiliated, meaning that they don't necessarily represent a certain neighborhood or set, but they buy dope from, and occasionally clique up with actual gangmembers when business calls for it.

In the south your average everyday gangsta has drug connects and homeboys in both the bloods and crips as well as folk.
The south also has TONS of homegrown gangs meaning that, they are a gang but the gang is not nationwide and only consists of people who grew up in a certain neighborhood or have close ties with that neighborhood. Most of these gangs are affiliated with larger nationwide gangs and use them for a dope supply, etc. Only the most powerful dangerous local gangs ever go to war with nationwide gangs, usually the local gangs are cool with mostly everyone else and will only react in violence against other gangs when a significant portion of there money is being taken, occasionally these small gangs will become a set in a larger gang like the bloods when a nationwide gang invades the neighborhood as a means for survival.

A drug crew is different from a gang in that it may only have 5 or so members that are close friends that grew up together that look out for each other and expand there drug trafficking operations together. Crews don't usually have clear cut leaders or strict cult like rules members must follow and be willing to die for.

Gangs are different from drug crews in that they are larger, have leaders, and have a cultlike religious doctrine surrounding not only there criminal practices, but the overall mind state, behavior, and traditions of individuals in the groups.
Bloods differ from Crips like Muslums differ from Christians.
Being in a large organized street gang is like being a part of a religion.

Some gangs even have there own Gods and doctrines and people that there members worship as divine.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Observation

As for white gangstas. Texas, California, and Chicago all have very serious, violent white gangs that consider robbing people, selling dope, pimping, and shooting people just normal business, and most Black and Mexican gangs (especially homegrown owns) have certified members that are white.

I can't speak for Texas and California, but uh, who/what/where are these supposed "very serious, violent white gangs" in Chicago? What, the Wrigleyville Jets and the Roscoe Village Sharks?

[1208]

Originally Posted by scottyr

I think the main difference is that in the UK and Europe, you still have tough white urban gangs, but in the US, most of the tough kids with street cred are non-white. If you watch youtube videos of street fights involving white people, those from Germany, Uk and Ireland are often brutal and involve pounding heads on pavement, etc....most North American caucasian fights involve emo skater dudes hugging and rolling slowly on the grass. Fights involving American black and Latino gangs are often as brutal as white Euro fights however.

Of course, the US has its "Chav"-equivalents which are white wannabe gangbangers and hoodlums...but most are suburban, from wealthy white families and are just putting on a phoney "tough image", whereas many British and Celtic Chavs and Neds as well as skinheads (which are still hude in Europe) are actually from poor urban areas and get into rough soccer-related fights or execute brutal racial-related attacks on immigrants.

The toughest thing about many white Americans is the 12 gauge shotgun they may own or the 9mm they keep locked in their bedside nightstands.

This is dead wrong. There are white gangs, white people in mixed race gangs, and white people who are every bit as violent as anyone else here in the US. Lots of these young thug types are minorities but many are white, and definitely NOT from well off families.

[Widowmaker2k]

There are some pretty serious white gang bangers in California, but they tend to be of the Neo-Nazi variety. Also, don't overlook the biker clubs. Often their members are middle aged overweight white dudes, but they don't mess around. The Hells Angels would be an example.

The Aryan Brotherhood, which was founded in San Quentin (near SF), is often cited as the most violent prison gang in the nation. They are infamous for being 'blood in, blood out,' which means you have to kill someone (often a minority) to gain entrance, and can only leave the gang upon your death. According to the FBI, they make up less than 1% of the prison population, but are responsible for 21% of prison murders.

[scottyr]

Originally Posted by 1208

This is dead wrong. There are white gangs, white people in mixed race gangs, and white people who are every bit as violent as anyone else here in the US. Lots of these young thug types are minorities but many are white, and definitely NOT from well off families.

Yes, there are white gangs in the US, but they are nowhere near as much of a problem as nonwhite gangs. In cities like Chicago and Detroit, black and latino gangs execute drive-by shootings. muggings, and random violent acts weekly, if not daily.

I've never heard of whites, even Bikers, doing drive-by shootings or turning an entire city into a day-and-night warzone...there's really nowhere in the US where you have to fear for your life due to the constant threat of white hoodlums.

Most Biker gangs seem to operate a little more like the Maffia...more organized in their methods than the common black or latino gang....sometimes they do "hits" on people...but you don't hear about many random innocent people shot dead by Bikers or people getting mugged off the street by Bikers. They seem to operate within their own exclusive society, much like the maffia.

much of the Aryan/Nazi violence in the US takes place in prison...we don't have problems like Russia or other East European countries where walking down any given street as a minority is life-threatening due to white racists.

Im sure that since white people make make 70 percent of the US population, that there are bound to be some who are as poor and as violent as the worst of the black and latino gangbangers, but i remember a while back , somebody compared crime rates between white areas of the Northern states to white areas in bordering Canadian provinces, and Canada came up being more violent.

This may be a bold claim, but i believe that, as a whole, America's white population is less prone to crime and violence than the white population of Canada as a whole, and much, much more peaceful than the white population of Ireland, Scotland, Russia, heck, even of France.

I think white Americans have outlets for violence, which tend to be executed through institutional or authoritative power, such as police brutality or alleged violence against Iraqi and Afghan civilians or military detainees. But as for the typical white American on the street, or even in the countryside, they seem statistically less likely to commit violent acts, especially random ones, than their fellow whites in Canada and Europe.