KEEP SCHOOLS SAFE

 

March 31, 2009

 

 

WHEN CULTURES CLASH

 

Violence in the workplace- especially the school – is inevitable, even highly predictable, when you consider the diversity of cultures and belief systems that try – and sometimes fail miserably – to co-exists there. 

 

The two conflicting belief systems I want to talk about today are both monolithic in nature.  Each moves inexorably in its own way at its own speed and each has its own particular value system that nothing can sway or divert, least of all common sense and logic.  The two cultures of which I speak are our ancient and incurably incompetent school systems and the ancient and incurably evil gang culture that indoctrinates the thousands of young boys and girls who sizzle through the hallways, school yards and parking lots of our schools, and, almost without exception, who do little else in the classroom but occupy space and daily threaten classmates, security and teacher with mayhem and calamity.

 

Our school systems are not built, nor are they prepared, to deal with the latter culture or belief system.  But allow me to go into its particular value system in a later post, for until it fully understands the gang culture and the miscreants who teem like so many spores in a specimen-dish in our hallways and classrooms, the only thing that will change is there will be more violence.

 

MACHINE MENTALITY

 

I think of the mentality of the gang as the Machine Mentality because once a kid is plugged in to his gang he becomes a machine.  It might not happen right away – with some it takes a while – but in time it happens.  The gang – and when I say the gang – I am speaking with confidence that this applies to all gangs where felonious crime and violence plays a central role in their existence – has a Right of Passage peculiar to them.  A Right of Passage that is central to the “Machine Belief System” that makes the value system of our schools antithetical to the gang member.

 

MACHINE RIGHTS OF PASSAGE

 

A typical Right of Passage for most of us involves achieving some sort of religious confirmation, graduating high school, college, courting and marrying, raising children, etc.  With rare exceptions, in the gang culture, a member in good standing (there is no member in poor standing, Dog.  You either are in good standing or you are dead!) must achieve the following passage points:

 

• Fight.
• Fight and win.
• Fight and kill.
• Make Your Bones (by killing or by performing some other type of outrageous act)
• Fornicate.
• Fornicate on command.
• Get busted.
• Do Time.
• Always Be A Man (even if you are not.  No.  Especially if you are not!)

 

MACHINE MENTALITY

 

Last but not least is the mentality of the machine.  This mentality is consequential to consider because, if the dude is thinking it, the dude is doing it.  There is scarcely little filter in between.  Simply put, then, this mentality is a Have To Mentality.  Meaning, if ever the Machine is confronted with any words or actions by another person, irrespective of who that person is – teacher, security, Resource Officer, police officer, student, school principal, priest or parent – he will react with violence or an impulsive act that pretty much replicates violence because The Machine has no choice!

 

As a state parole officer I had the opportunity to talk with many a Machine after he had lit up some poor slob.  Now you must remember that the thug of whom I speak was on state parole and his conditions dictated Zero Tolerance for violence.  Screw the conditions.  I was his parole officer, and I had even less than zero appreciation for violence.

 

“So, Paco, I hear you lit up your boss pretty bad,.” I asked this one dude after I hooked him up and placed him in the transport.

“Yep, Hammer.  I torched him pretty bad.”

“You know this means a year, maybe two.  A very large taste of the Place (a long time in prison)?”

“Yeh, Dog.  I know.”

 

We were at a red light, so I turned and looked at him, all trussed up like John Fricking Dillinger, but for a second I saw this sadness wash over Paco.  For just a minute he looked like the kid he once was, way back before I got to him on state paper.

 

“Paco.  Dude.  Do you want to go back to The Wall (what they call the prison).?”

 

“Hell no, Parole Man.”

 

“Well, Paco, once again you have confused and outwitted me and the entire criminal justice system. So, as much as I hate to do this, I must ask you why did you beat up your boss until he looked like a bag of pork rinds?”

 

Paco, who at one time was Archie and a fairly decent running back in high school, looked out his window and absently shrugged his shoulders.  “You know.  Like, I had to.”

 

We were only a block or two from The Wall and the light turned green.  “You had to?” I heard Barry, a parole agent colleague of mine, ask Paco.  Barry was charged with guarding the prisoner as I drove.

 

“Yeh, man, you know.  Like when someone disses you, you got no choice.  He disses you, you got to light him up.  That just the way it is.”

 

I pulled up to the Intake Box just shy of the parking bay at The Wall.  I was about to push the “Talk” button and advise I had a new prisoner to unload when I heard Barry say, “What do you mean, you had to, Paco?  You didn’t have to do this.  Hell, you coulda’ gone and had you a tuna fish sandwich.”

 

“One prisoner,” I announced into the box.  Parole violator Archie James.  And, yes, two state parole agents, both armed.”

 

There was a staticky reply from the box.  I could have argued logic with Archie James.  Could have told him that his actions were not that of a man.  That it takes real strength and power to walk away when you think you are slighted or insulted (all his boss did, by the way, was to get on his back for being late for the third time that week).

 

But, then again, I knew The Machine, so I just pulled in to the parking bay of The Wall.

 

Next Post:  The Machine Goes Nuts at a Local High School.

Until Then.  Stay safe.

 

The Hammer

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