 “Gangs continue to expand, evolve, and become more violent. The FBI, along
with its federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement partners, strives
to disrupt and prevent their criminal activities and seek justice for
innocent victims of their crimes,” said Assistant Director Kevin Perkins,
FBI Criminal Investigative Division." (2011 National Gang Threat Assessment
Issued by FBI National Press Office, Washington, D.C, October 21, 2011)
Gangs are plagues in the large and small cities across America. In Chicago
in 2011 some were calling for the National Guard to be called by the
Governor because of the increase in the number of murders that year in the
city. Gang members are often cited as being responsible for high rates of
crime where they inhabit the area. The gang hierarchy is constantly on the
lookout for new people to bring into the organization as gang members. Large
cities and poor neighborhoods are prime locations to recruit new members.
Various forms of activities are used to recruit new gang members. In an
account of a personal journey into the street gang, Dr. Mike Carlie
presented five (5) ways a person is sought after to join: Seduction,
Subterfuge, Obligation, Coercion and Self Recruitment. (From Into the Abyss:
A Personal Journey into the World of Street Gangs, by Mike Carlie, Ph.D.)
Gangs will create a myth about how great they are and how great it is to be
a part of the gang. This tends to draw young, impressionable people into the
ranks. The gang will misrepresent what the gang actually stands for, and the
new member does not discover the real reason until it is too late. The gang
will often do acts of kindnesses to young people in an effort to draw them
in to a feeling of obligation. Physical harm is sometimes perpetrated upon a
person along with threats to force them to join. Finally, according to Dr.
Carlie, people will decide to join through their own efforts.
Gangs have been around for as long as people have roamed the earth. It is
little wonder that King Solomon, a Hebrew King, wrote in his Proverbs to not
be enticed by the gang's methods and fall prey to their lifestyle. Solomon
wrote in the first chapter of Proverbs,
"My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.
If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily
for the innocent without cause:
Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down
into the pit:
We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil:
Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse:
My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their
path:
For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.
Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.
And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own
lives.
So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the
life of the owners thereof." (Proverbs 1:10-19; King James Version)
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 Remember that Solomon was writing to extol the virtues of Wisdom
and understanding, a moral understanding. He is now contrasting the
righteousness of Wisdom to the diabolical practices of gang
behavior. He uses the word "sinners" as a person who is missing that
moral mark. Indeed, the implication is that this sinner is one who
has not only missed the moral mark, but one who is in revolt against
authority and demands to continue to live in rebellion against that
authority. This sinner is likely a member of a gang of robbers,
thieves and murderers.
Solomon used the word entice to mean that this sinner is trying
to have the person engage in the same kind of sin. Up to that point
the person may not have committed the same sin, but with the help of
this sinner the person can fall into the same lifestyle of sin. The
obvious path of action for the person who is confronted by a gang
member who uses enticement methods is simply not to go with that
sinner.
These sinners are entwined together to plot some evil activity and
want the person to follow in their footsteps and "lie in wait" as
the evil plan is carried out. The plan looks like a misadventure of
violent bloodshed that will be carried out exactly as the plan has
laid it out. The person who follows the sinners through the
enticement will be ensnared in the murderous activity and be as
guilty as the original sinners.
Innocent people are caught up in the sinner's trap. As they lie in
wait, secretly remaining hidden until the trap is sprung; the person
who is caught in that trap is a harmless person who happens to be in
the wrong place at the wrong time. This activity will ensnare the
follower of the sinners and lock into place a permanent position in
the gang. Bringing harm to the innocent person through this act is
"without cause" except as it is an act that cements into place the
sinner's follower, and makes it difficult to ever leave the gang in
the future.
Verse fifteen (15) is the pivotal verse that gives the clear warning
and plea to the would-be follower of the gang's sinners:
"My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from
their path:"
The path that Solomon describes is the path of a life-style of
living a life of crime, murder, robbery, kidnapping, killing, and
destruction of others' lives. Do not even start down that pathway
because once moving in that direction with the sinners, each evil
deed will solidify the hold the gang will have on the life of the
follower.
In the end the gang members will simply become blinded by the evil
they inflict upon others. The life-style will become so embittered
with evil and heinous acts of harm against others in the community
that they will eventually devour themselves. They will become like
hungry ravens that fail to see the danger of a net or trap, but are
so hungry for the food they fly directly into the trap. The gang
will become so hungry for the evildoing that it becomes ingrained
into the fabric of life, and the company kept, that they too will
dive headlong into the trap of misery and destruction.
Hundreds of years before Jesus came to the earth Solomon, a wise
King of the Hebrew nation, saw the effects of gang sinners and urged
those who sought Wisdom to avoid associating with gang members. In
our modern age those who are considering joining ranks with the gang
sinners would be wise to turn their eyes toward Christian living and
avoid stepping on the pathway to gang membership.
[By JIM KILLEBREW]
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