September 12, 2007

  • Hell On Earth

    I know that a lot of people think that Los Angeles is a cool place to live. They base this from receiving postcards, watching shows like 90210, and knowing that a lot of celebrities live there. There may be hundreds of other reasons. However, there is an unheard of, or rather, another side of Los Angeles that gets ignored. I've met a lot of people that think that the scourge of gangs is highly exaggerated. I have a few friends that I've met in this state that seem so damn sheltered. Square. To them, everybody is good...even if it's "deep inside." I try and ignore them when I hear things like that. I guess it would be unimaginable for someone who hasn't seen things as they really are. This is a clip from Court TV. It's one of those things that were "caught on tape." The thing is, that no matter how incredible this may be to you...it's actually quite common. In fact, I bet that most of my old associates see this as "justifiable." Life was lost because of a slight bump.

    So the next time you feel like visiting Los Angeles, keep this in mind. Be careful. There are thousands of ruthless people like this. Growing up around this was a motherfucker! I'd never go back and live their for anything.

    Thoughts??? 

Comments (29)

  • LA is a huge place. people can live there in one of the ultra expensive parts of town, and the only contact they have with the bad parts of town, is when their gardener shows up. Not that they would actually talk to the gardener or anything like that. They send their kids to $30,000 a year private schools and they have no contact with the world you grew up in. So they tell us that LA is a great place, it is so beautifully from behind a guarded gate, off of Mulholland Dr.

  • It seems that Las Vegas is not such a great place ether

  • I grew up in the country in the UK.  I have no first hand experience of anything like this.  It is terribly sad that people accept this as normal.  What is the answer Miguel?  How do you change this sort of behaviour?

  • Yeah, it's a video from Las Vegas, but the majority of the gang problem is in LA.

  • I didn't realize how  "real" gang life was until I moved out to CA. I got lost one night in LA. One of the scariest nights of my life. I saw things I will never forget!

  • All I read was the first sentence.  And I disagree.  California scares me and it is probably the LAST place that I would want to live.  Now I will go back and finish the post.

    That's all for now.

  • When I lived in that area we actually lived in Anaheim in a neighborhood where things like that didn't happen. I love to visit family in California but would never want to live there again. I heard on the radio the other day that the city with the highest crime rate in America is Dallas.

  • Ok, I read it.  And have nothing further to add to my previous comment.  =)

  • Some places in NYC are like this. Whenever I see this kind of person on the street I hurry up and cross. I try to be alert to my surroundings. I stay out of certain neighborhoods (although my neighborhood isn't the safest ever). You have to be really careful.

  • I will stick to the Eastern Sierra and the Yosemite Valley when i go to California!
    I have enough gang banger bullshit with my nieces and nephews in the city here on the East Coast.

  • When I hear "Hollywood" I think of celebrities and mansions. When I hear "LA" I think of gangs, drugs, and dirty streets.

    That's fucked up...over just a bump. If I lived with that kind of zero tolerance, I would have shot tons of people by now.

  • I've never really wanted to live there.

  • I'm from Detroit; L.A. just seems bigger and more up it's own ass about itself. Of course, all these years in Ithaca have probably made me soft from the hardcore Motown streets.

  • honestly... i think los angeles is an arm pit. i like some of the surrounding beach towns, but even those towns are tainted with crap.

  • San Diego's fine.

    That kind of shit where teh dood gets shot for punching some other dood is justifiable in GTA: San Andreas.

  • Yeah... I've never had any desire to even go to LA. Now I don't want to go anywhere where I don't feel I could 100% protect my daughter, and I'm not so sure I could do that in Los Angeles.

    Not that you can always do that anywhere, but I like to keeps the odds as much in my favor as I can.

  • Shit, I'd be dead 100 times over then. I'm always bumping into people.

    Seriously though... scary. I live in a pretty rough neighbourhood, but it's paradise compared to LA.

  • You dont have to go all the way to LA. A kid from our school was found in freaking Libertyville, IL with a bullet in his head.

  • Wait a minute, the background of your xanga says 18 st?

    That video mentioned something about 18th st gangmembers...

    *puts two and two together*

    You're from 18th?!

  • Life feeds on life. All are ruthless.
    If it's not those who wield guns...
    Then it's those who wield armies...
    Or those who wield finances...
    Sure 'it's just business' but business is often cut-throat. Pure-business can also leave everyone without the 'golden parachutes' without jobs, money... or recourse to much except desperation...

    There is no difference between the people on one side of LA and the people on the other - except some people see their victims bleed red, while other people see their victims bleed green.

  • Been to the airport , actually the only places I've been to in CA are airports, on the way the PI, Korea, Japan. Being white bread suburbia I had never seen anything like that until I went over seas.

      Glad you got out

  • It's very sad.  I've been to L.A. only to visit, and didn't see anything like this....I must've not gone into the bad neighborhoods. 

    Someone said it above already-- there are many parts of NYC that are just like this.  When I was younger...I got lost for a little bit (lost in life...with a bad crowd), and spent MUCH of my time in horrible buildings in Harlem.....I now realize how lucky I am to still be alive..... the little blonde haired girl going into buildings and putting myself into situations that seriously could have killed me (in fact, besides the 2 boys I used to go in there with....I think I was the only caucasian in the entire place)...but everyone was nice to me.  Rough, rough, bad, bad, troubled people....but maybe because I am a girl and I was respectful of them, they gave me the same respect.

    I didn't know L.A. was bad.....when I think of BAD in Ca. I always think of Compton (or is that part of L.a?) NWA gave me this feeling about Compton.  We used to listen to NWA all the time (and I'll secretly admit, that I still do and have the Straight Outta Compton album on my ipod, because....it reminds me so much of my youth)....and there were so many of my stupid friends who swore they were going to move to Compton one day.  Crazy people, eh? 

    I grew up...

    Thankfully.

  • I hated LA the first time I drove over those forsaken roads when I was truck driving.

  • The reality of what really goes on in the world can be quite disturbing. People walk around with blinders. It is good to be reminded once in awhile, but so sad a life can be wasted for... no reason.

  • "To them, everybody is good..." it's because that's the life they know.  It may be naive, but it's what they've experienced, and violence like that is fathomable only on TV or the big screen.

    You've lived a very different life, and " everybody is good..." is as unfathomable.

    I'm just glad you're alive to talk (er, blog) about it!!

  • I was raised in Long Beach and it was horrible as a child. I was in danger of my life on 3 occasions. I will never go back for any reason. I live in Ore. now. It's very different here.

  • He was stupid to have made such a big deal out of the bump.  Damn.  Oh well.  No he didn't deserve it surely but he lives there and knows what it's like.  When I hear about LA I think of Ice T 20 years ago calling it "home of the body bag." 

  • Honey aint no way I would ever live in that mess.   I visited there when I was younger and thought the shopping was great but the driving and the overcrowding stunk.  I hear something everyday on the news with guns, drinking and driving and somebody f***ing the other.   They can keep it.   Also earthquakes and your breakables getting broken, naw..

  • Morning Miguel.Hope that you are off to a good start to the day and weekend. I am off to wald my 2 miles .

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