Austin & its gang life... (San Antonio, Round Rock: fit in, sales, homes)

[johnnyz]

Originally Posted by jamesia

Violent crime is basically nil here... I was worried too, when I moved from the north. I kind of assumed that most places around the border had Latino gang activity. It's actually a hell of a lot safer here than where I'm from.

Good to know....I may be moving there (Austin) within the next three months, along with my wife and kids.

[b. frank]

Originally Posted by CptnRn

It also describes the criteria used to determine if someone is a gang member. Which includes hearsay. It sounds like if I sport a red bandana while working in my yard, the cops can add me to the list of gang members.

It's true. The cops keep messing with me when I'm doing yardwork just cuz I've got MS-13 tattooed across my stomach.

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by b. frank

It's true. The cops keep messing with me when I'm doing yardwork just cuz I've got MS-13 tattooed across my stomach.

So this Mara Salvatrucha, is she a real hotty?

[austinite45]

Originally Posted by 3 Seconds

Are there a lot of latino gangs in & around Austin?

depends on how you define gangs.

there are a lot of Mexican/latino illegal immigrants in Austin, most of whom don't speak English and tend to stick to themselves. Some of their kids attend schools but are mostly poor performers academically.

My impression of the criminal dockets has been that the majority (over 50%) of the offenders arrested/prosecuted are Hispanics.

[BentBow]

As far as Austin, the East side and the Southeast, Dove Springs area and then part of North East are gang riddled.

[b. frank]

Originally Posted by CptnRn

So this Mara Salvatrucha, is she a real hotty?

Dunno. I wanted some big letters tattooed across my abdomen so I went to a tattoo shop and just picked something off their sample wall.

[doctorjef]

I am a psychologist who formerly lived and practiced in Austin for 19 years, ending in 2004. While I'm not up to date on what's happened there in the past five years, I can give you benefit of my experiences doing frequent psychological assessments for the Travis County Juvenile Court. IME, juvenile gangs - Latino or otherwise - actually declined in Austin between the mid-1980s and the early years of the present decade. Further, almost all really serious (homicides) and habitual (serial burglaries) crime was almost always perpetrated by kids largely acting solo and not in a gang context (whether they had any accomplices or not). Gang activity tended to be that of wannabes and was secondary to adjustment problems that included substance abuse, chronic truancy, UUMV ("joyriding"), and small time property crime. I did see many kids in detention with one or both parents being Mexican immigrants (whether documented or undocumented). I got the sense that the parents were so preoccupied with their own economic difficulties and had so little understanding of the larger society in many cases that they just didn't have the wherewithall to exercise any controls over their kids. Most of these kids, Hispanic or African-American were from a poverty culture and very few from fully intact marriages. Paternal absence was a frequent correlate. The Anglo kids I saw were rarely involved with gangs but had the same sort of dysfunctional family backgrounds and ran the gamut in terms of the seriousness of their offences.

To the extent that there is real, organised gang activity in greater Austin, it is likely to involve primarily persons in their early twenties, who would be prosecuted under the adult Criminal Justice system, and although I had professional involvements with that system as well, the kinds of offenders referred to me were not in the gang subculture and I'm hence not very informed regarding the young adult cadre of gang members.

[ATX53]

The texas Syndicates headquarters are in AUSTIN TEXAS...they do not play. Watch gangland kiddos, or...you could live here. Drive to dove springs and say something stupid.and yes Travis county does not play, they throw your ass in jail and pretend they loss the key

[AGA]

Oooooohhhh Gangland is an eyeopener for sure no matter what area you live in!

[centralaustinite]

Crime in Dove Springs is down! Way down. Front page in article in the Stateman about it, maybe two weeks ago. I'll look for the link.

Can't post the link but the article was dated December 29 and was titled "Renewal in Dove Springs" it noted that the area was a hotbed for juvenile crime and wanna be gangs in the 1980s and 90s but that coordinated efforts by police and community have changed the situation dramatically. The article included a crime map and Dove Springs now experiences less crime than almost anywhere east of I-35 and less then the downtown area!