This fascinates, and scares me. I’m not kidding when I say I expect many of these kids to end up enforcers for the state someday. Nor do I believe that the particular peculiarities of this “gang” came solely from teen brains. Get to know Straight Edge:
You wouldn’t expect a splinter faction of teens that rejects alcohol, tobacco, drugs or promiscuous sex to be an active criminal street gang, but in Washoe County that’s exactly what’s happening, authorities say.
In March — following a six-month investigation — Straight Edge was officially classified a gang by the Regional Gang Unit. Nearly every week, gang officers investigate Straight Edge crimes or harassment that doesn’t seem to subside following arrests.
Authorities describe Straight Edge attacks as random, opportunistic, violent beatings that can be spurred by minor comments from nonmembers. Members — who sometimes use bats, shovels, knives, brass knuckles and Mace — don’t engage in violence unless they can outnumber their targets, police said.Straight Edgers tend to attack other teens who are publicly engaging in activities Straight Edgers don’t agree with, such as smoking or drinking.
“It’s ironic and disappointing that otherwise good kids are committing crimes to promote their own personal philosophy,” said Lt. Doug Cardwell of the gang unit. “We’ve had more crime attributed to Straight Edge than any criminal street gang this year.”Police acknowledge that not every student claiming to lead the Straight Edge lifestyle engages in criminal activity. About 20 boys and young men so far have been identified as violent Straight Edge members, authorities said.
Efforts to interview Straight Edge students or parents through phone calls were unsuccessful. Those who were contacted didn’t want to talk for this article because they feared retaliation.Edgers not involved in criminal activity — whose exact numbers here are unknown — are not considered gangsters, police said. Some teens who believe in the philosophy also have branched off into their own groups and go by different names. Punk rock music initially is what bonds Edgers.
Parents, gang unit officers said, need to be the first point of defense in stopping this violence.“We hope parents take the time to ask their kids the right questions and make these kids realize how easy life can change with one swing of a bat — they could be facing murder charges,” Sgt. Rick Bjelke said. “Good kids will be spending their life in prison for what? Someone was smoking or drinking?”
Several Straight Edgers in Washoe County are being prosecuted in juvenile court for separate incidents this year, including random beatings and intimidation of non-Straight Edge students and property destruction.Gang members who are prosecuted for gang-related crimes face sentencing enhancements, which automatically double their punishments. Most are also court-ordered not to associate with other members.
Zero Tolerance
School officials and police say Straight Edge students are enrolled in all district high schools. But most of the violent Edgers attend or have graduated from Reed High School.
“We have a zero-tolerance policy to gang activity on or around campus,” said George Hardaway, Reed’s vice principal of discipline. “Those leaders or members of groups who polarize themselves, label and categorize themselves are individuals we notice. They stick out like a sore thumb.”School officials took note of some Straight Edge members’ escalating violence and, earlier this school year, held group and parental meetings as well as anger-management classes, Hardaway said.
He said parents of Edgers who are involved in gang activity at school have argued their children have been unfairly punished for school incidents.“But we don’t profile and we treat everyone the same,” he said. “It’s a battle.”
Washoe County School District police said most Straight Edge incidents have been off school grounds.
“It doesn’t make sense to promote having great values by enforcing it with violence,” said Lt. Dale Richardson of the school district police. “If students are harassed, they need to report it to us so we can take care of it. We want a safe learning environment.”A movement
Utah law enforcement classified Straight Edge as a gang several years ago, following members’ involvement in a 15-year-old’s death and beatings similar to those that have been seen in Washoe County.Detective Lex Bell of the Salt Lake Area Gang Project in Utah thinks Straight Edge is popular there because of the strong Latter-day Saints’ influence, which mirrors the group’s core beliefs.
“When these kids are raised with these beliefs and they get to high school, they are exposed to more people and cultures and some get dogged for being LDS,” Bell said. “They can grab onto something like Straight Edge that they think is cool and still represents their beliefs.”
Around the country, Straight Edge is typically associated with a positive image of clean living and punk rock music.
Bell said his experience is that Straight Edgers don’t consider themselves a gang. He said they pride themselves on being part of a worldwide movement with no official leader.
What is Straight Edge?In a 1983 interview with the Washington Post, punk rocker Ian MacKaye discussed his song “Straight Edge” which described the philosophy of punks against drugs and alcohol. MacKaye, then 21, was the lead singer for the band Minor Threat.
In the article, he discussed his fascination with nonviolent gangs and his disapproval of people choosing to “mess up their lives.” His influence is reportedly how the Straight Edge doctrine of clean living took off across the world.Gang officers said many Edgers attend local venues for concerts. Some display “X” and “Poison and Drug Free” tattoos on their bodies and wear dark clothes and bandannas.
Gang officer Cardwell said most of the violent Straight Edgers here grew up together and remained friends in high school. No one member appears to lead the group.What separates the mostly white Straight Edgers from the 20 mostly Hispanic street gangs the gang unit monitors are that its victims are often unknown and randomly targeted based on lifestyle observations, Officer Paul Adamson said. Victims of other gangs are usually known due to a rivalry or debt, he said. Traditional gangs take pride in their criminal image, not for abstaining from substances.
“Typically the gang activity we see here are from kids who come from underprivileged backgrounds whose families work a lot and don’t have a lot of means,” said Roy Stralla, a deputy district attorney who has prosecuted some Straight Edgers.
“But these upper and middle-class kids think the gang lifestyle is a glorified status,” he said. “They have more money and more means to commit acts of violence.”
Stralla said Straight Edge crime appears limited to school issues, such as problems with other students, and has not bled into committing burglaries or selling drugs.
Purity gangs are nothing new, and generally most of the kids grow up to be the people they’re rebelling against in this phase. What is bothersome to me is that these are richer kids, kids with families who are politically connected and who can protect them from the legal difficulties of such youthful follies. But in truth, I’m most worried that these kids are being trained for careers in law enforcement and Blackwater, and my foily mind has little doubt that there are adults involved in the development and propagation of this gang’s philosophy.
Front page
child warriors
are much valued by tyrants. they are obedient, and certain, and merciless…they are our equivalent of the islamic shari’a police…
Me? A Quick Study, But A Slow Learner
made in the USA
straight edge didnt start that way. i’ve watched it progress. what a shame. sort of predictable, tho…
growing up in a gang culture (america and i dont mean urban america, i mean the USA with all her ganglord intntl policy and media worship), how else do groups of young people know how to display power? our culture sez Might Makes Right. and so the children learn well.
___________________________
.delusions of un mundo mejor.
But you see, we don't have a police problem in this country.
That’s why these are acceptable behaviors among those who would have law enforcement and neighborhood Straight Edge members know their community.
To suggest otherwise is to advocate civil war. Which we don’t have in this country either.
Resistance is futile. It says so, right there in the Straight Edge creed. You will submit to being tasered, it causes no pain. That’s why they use them.
Who am I to dispute these Truths? Now you know why I stay anonymous, cd.
No Hell below us
Above us, only sky
"Randomly targeted based on lifestyle violations...."
By rich kid fucks with protection.
How encouraging.
We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan
It's not unlike the Junkers who joined the SA...
From a 1999 show on ABC’s 20/20.
Morality police, by any name they choose, are by definition totalitarian.
Me? A Quick Study, But A Slow Learner
I've known some straightedge kids
What I find especially ironic is that half of them take Adderall. They really are being trained to enforce the whims of the corporate government. Beat to death anyone you see smoking a harmless plant, and then take powerful stimulants two or three times a day. Granted, none of them were this violent breed, they were just freaked out by someone they knew having problems with addiction. But they’re still being misled.
But I still believe
And I will rise up with fists!!
...and of course, Adderall is amphetamine.
It’s okay, though, unlike meth, because the police have no problems with it.
No Hell below us
Above us, only sky
the enemy
Lordy lordy, if you exist at all, save us from the white devils. Perchance do these brainwashed fools style themselves the “counterforce” of the semirich white adolescent poseurs who buy up gangsta? Not a rhetorical question — fortunately I live in a white-minority society so neither the punk or the hiphop pose ever gains much traction. I can only gaze upon the schizoid growth of two “opposed” and equally repellant “lifestyles” with wonder. Americans, I’m tellin ya.
Onward Xian/Islamist soldiers. Over the cliff.
part of the problem is a
part of the problem is a few bad straight edge kids attracting negative attention to everyone else. the other part of the problem is terrible media that has no connection to or understanding of the straight edge subculture.
This is stupid
Straight Edge is not a gang, nor is it a religion. Straight Edge is just a way of life.
You can’t judge all Edge kids based on some groups actions.
and NO, Adderall is NOT okay. any Edge kids that take any kid of drugs are not really Edge and should just stop claiming right now!!!
Natalie xSTCx
STRAIGHT EDGE PRIDE
XXX
Morality Police, by any name you want, are still fascist pigs.
this is related to Sarah’s post on liberty today: Sure, straight edgers are entitled to abstain from anything they want (personally, i hope it’s from reproduction they absatain, but whatever). That’s their right in their ’pursuit of happiness,’ a positiv e liberty.
But I have the equal, negative right NOT to have these moralistic little shite-holes in my face when I am pursuing happiness in my own way.
Me? A Quick Study, But A Slow Learner
Judge a few, Judge them all?
I dont understand how all these negative takes on straightedge are being taken just because a few HARDLINE(NOT straightedge) Kids, and by few I am talking the 20 they said, are gouing to give tens of thousands of kids a bad name? Straightedge isnt a gang, thats just law enforcements ignorance at best. I dont fight people. I hang out with people that do drugs and drink, infront of me or not. We live and let live.
And woody, get your head out of your ass you cowardly pig. Youre getting your panties in a twist because this article scares you.
I do think that rhetoric is just a tad tired....
“Fascist pigs,” and all.
It’s interesting that on the one hand, we’ve got a vehement thread on police power in the context of tasering, and on the other we’re not looking with a very critical eye on a report from a Regional Gang Unit, presumably from the same police.
So, on the one hand, I’m at least reading about an uptick in violence directed at people like me (Randi Rhodes), and this story connects with that. On the other hand, none of us are immune to “moral panics” and I’d like to see hard numbers.
So, I’d like to know more…. And certainly a “no drugs, no alchohol” lifestyle has much to recommend it. Certainly, those desiring machines have much to answer for.
We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan
ubmitted by anthonyEDGE (not verified) on Tue, 2007-10-16 12:31.
Shitwhistle, you can come try me any goddam time you wanna…
Me? A Quick Study, But A Slow Learner
Aw, crap, now we've got the EDGE version of the MIAKAs
We can admit that we’re killers … but we’re not going to kill today. That’s all it takes! Knowing that we’re not going to kill today! ~ Captain James T. Kirk, Stardate 3193.0
Lb: As one who was nearly crushed by cops on horses in Grant
Park in Chicago at the Dem Convention in 1968, and who was later tear-gassed, shoved to the ground, had his neck stood upon by cop-goons; who later, in 1970, faced down Nat’l Guardsmen with fixed bayonets and was arrested protesting Cambodia and Kent State, I claim a droit du ancien to the ’tired’ rhetoric. It’s as fresh as yesterday to me, brother.
Me? A Quick Study, But A Slow Learner
Intelligent Discourse
Is why I come to Corrente.
Woody: “Fascist pigs…moralistic little shite-holes”
anthonyEDGE: “get your head out of your ass you cowardly pig.”
Woody: “Shitwhistle, you can come try me any goddam time you wanna…”
What with all that I feel so well-informed and uplifted.
Woody, dude, be a man. This is just a kid talking to you, take a deep breath and set an example of maturity and judiciousness. Or at least calm. You’re a better person.
Anthony, you punkass little shitwhistle, mind your mouth around your betters.
Sarah, please stop writing MI*KA or we’ll have them over here as well, thank you.
Bringiton, I will try to avoid enticing undesirables!
Woody: I was 10 years old when Kent State happened, and I ain’t over it yet.
But, dude, the guys NIXON thought were too bananacakes to let run loose are in charge now.
We need some new rhetoric.
We can admit that we’re killers … but we’re not going to kill today. That’s all it takes! Knowing that we’re not going to kill today! ~ Captain James T. Kirk, Stardate 3193.0
Right, Woody
But then when I ask you to actually do any writing about (say) your military history, you decline. So if you want to write about Grant Park, and your experiences, feel free. That’s what will give you cred, and not tired old catchphrases, which, though they may feel fresh to you, are not so.
Now, back to the discussion of how deeply OK and in fact, democratic it is, to taser citizens who videotape public servants in the performance of their duties.
As for the MIAs, hey: Hits count. All the kudos in the world to CD for writing that post.
We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan
Lambert: I wrote about my service experience a few weeks ago
They may no be ’fresh,’ but they’re still apt, in my book.
As I wrote previously, it was nothing extraordinary. Just your average white guy, trying to beat the draft in ’64. I dunno what else you wanna know, bubba…my service number? my dd 214?
USAF from Sept, ’64 to Aug, ’68: 8 mos. in training; two years, 6 months in Germany: arrived in early May, ’65, left in late October, ’67. I was assigned to a “Zero-Defects” team; we were essentially inspectors sent around to units in our command (USAFSS) to step into roles and assess how different units functioned. It took me to Peshawar, Pakistan, in Sept. ’65, when the Indians and the Pakis started their Air War. Dogfights and shit, in the skies over the Paki air-field. Everybody was flying US aircraft, which meant Indian F100s were skirmishing with Paki F104s…
(I learned to speak German whilst in Germany, so as to be able to seduce German girls. Having a car, and money, and speaking a little (well more than a little, eventually), I scored like a Mo-Fo. In summer, I’d drive my beater car down to the schwimmbad and invite the girls to go for a ride. German fellas my age were no competition, cuz mostly they didn’t have cars, or even drivers’ licenses. The Frauleins lurved me.)
The unit I was with was decommissioned in October, ’67. We all received Presidential Unit Citations. I went to Vietnam in Nov. 67 as part of a TAC wing, which flew f-105s. I was a rear-echelon motherfucker, involved in tactical comm and target ident; basically a paper shuffler and ’supervisor.’ I made all my rank in minimum time.
I was sent to a place called “Monkey Mountain.” It was also called “Marble Mountain” and, collegially, “Boom-Boom Rock.” (It’s “real” name, I later learned, is the Song Tra Peninsula.) It juts way out into the China Sea, overlooks China Beach and DaNang Airbase…but I never got to the beach cuz it was a couple of kliks down through “indian country.” The road was dangerous. The only safe way to get to the beach from where I was was by chopper and I didn’t have enough rank (E-4s have no pull).
It was called “Monkey Mountain” because a species of monkeys/apes—everybody called ’em “rock apes”—inhabited the slopes and foraged widely across it. Countless numbers of the animals were slaughtered by GIs who heard ’em in the brush, mistook ’em for Charlie, and opened up (can you say “free fire zone?”). Marines held the perimiter; each new company taking the duty would invariably have a “fire-fight” with the apes (which couldn’t of course shoot back, being simians, and unarmed, and all) their first couple of nights on duty. The ape carcasses were ALWAYS reported as dead VC.
The base was rocketed twice in the first week of Tet. I was there on those occasions. One rocket blew the shit out of the (temp) barracks my detachment shared with some NSG guys. Nobody was seriously hurt; some shrapnel scratches, a couple of purple hearts (not me). It redefined for EVER my idea of a sudden, loud noise. We were told to expect an attack, but it never came. I remember trying to sleep in slit-trenches, scared shitless, wrapped around a .30 cal carbine (we didn’t get m-16s; those were for the Marines’). I left RVN for CONUS in mid-March, ’68, when the unit was shipped back to Langley Field, where I was stationed until I got my separation papers on Aug 24, 1968. I left with the Marksman’s Medal (I shot expert with that ol’ .30 cal), the aforementioned PUC, the Good Conduct Medal, and the VietNam Service Medal.
Didn’t go to Chicago to be part of the protests. My grandmother still lived there, on Dorchester, about 1 mile south of the Grant Park, west of the Museum of Science & Industry. I got there on the 26th of Aug. I was en route to visiting her, when the protests broke out. I had become radicalized my last year in the war, and I was curious, so I went up on the bus to Grant Park, where I joined in the festivities, on the 27th (iirc). I remember Peter and Mary (but no Paul) sang at a rally I attended; Tom Hayden spoke. We were eventually permitted to spend the night in the Park. I shared a blanket/lean-to with a couple of guys—also vets—from Florida. The Hog Farm, or some such outfit was around to help feed folks, iirc. I stayed the day of the 28th in the park, but that night, after i nearly got trampled—i did get knocked down and kicked—by cop horses at a march during the day, I returned to grannie’s place, reeking of tear gas. I cleaned up and headed home to New Mexico the next day.
It was later that I faced the fixed bayonets of the NM National Guard, called out to quell a disturbance on the UNM campus, on or about May 5, 1970. As a veteran, and a member of VVAW, I volunteered as a marshall. As the Guard swept down the Mall, the distance between the protestors and the Guard was pretty fluid. There was a clash near me. A student had got bayoneted in the leg, femoral artery. His blood was gushing all over. Me and another guy, also a marshall, got a tourniquet around his leg, and carried the guy to an aid station that had been set up in case of just such eventuality. It was mebbe 100 yards from the Mall. Along the way, civilians—the good burghers of Albuquerque—who had come to the U to see us “dirty hippies” get ours (reports of the disturbance were all over the radio) from the State Cops and the Guard shouted curses and spat at us.
My respect for the “average American” did not survive that encounter.
So quick to judge
A lot of people have said that we don’t have a right to force our beliefs on people who drink or do drugs. I agree to some extent but you know what you buying drugs from dealers who sell in my neighborhood is not alright with me. You drinking then driving is not alright with me. You being strung out on drugs in public is not alright with me. PLus you guys are judgeing edge kids off a few. Everybody judges people, EVERYBODY. So don’t act like its just SxE kids.
And to say you have the right to not have us in your face when you try to pursue happiness your own way. I also have the right to not have you blow smoke in my face. I also have the right to not want kids on drugs around me my family and friends.
The more I read comments from most non edge people who blast us for being closed mined lame or whatever just makes me hate you guys more and prouder of my decision to be edge.
So John, your right to have what you want trumps everything?
Seriously?
’Cause, if so, you belong somewhere else.
This is America and that’s not how we do it here.
Got that?
This is NOT Burger King.
You don’t get to have it YOUR way.
We can admit that we’re killers … but we’re not going to kill today. That’s all it takes! Knowing that we’re not going to kill today! ~ Captain James T. Kirk, Stardate 3193.0
DARE = Fantasy
I don’t think anyone’s going to defend drunk driving, but has anyone had someone walk up to the street and pressure them to buy drugs? My god, I would laugh if that happened, or assume it was an undercover cop.
And being “strung out on drugs in public”? Whaa? What’s he talking about? Shooting heroin and then going for a bike ride?
The problem with the “edge” mentality is that they have no earthly idea why people use drugs, besides “they’re weak” or “they’re bad people” or “the pusher forced them to (!)” or whatever propaganda they’ve swallowed over the years.
(Do “Edge” kids eat sugar?)
But I still believe
And I will rise up with fists!!