It's hard to walk down any street nowadays and not notice "*Insert Postcode Here* Rulez!" or "*Insert Postcode Here* Sucks!" tags scrawled onto any blank surface of a city wall. These are the Illawarra's gangs pride and joy, these small excerpts wrought with tremendous wit and insight.
So are these gangs as.....? I really don't care at all. They are crimes of a minature scale. All our local gangs seem capable of is vandalising shop walls and partaking in petty theft from supermarkets. It is of little harm to the community other than decreasing the aesthetic appeal of certain buildings. I've heard little to no stories of extreme circumstances. No murders, no muggings, nothing of great importance. Mostly the members of these gangs are just adolescents expressing their teen angst through scrawling their postcode in a public area.
It can get serious in some circumstances though.
In June of last year, a 17 year old was severely beaten with his face requiring reconstructive surgery. Even though this is incredibly severe, this seems to be the worst example of gang violence in the Illawarra.
Also, it is often the case that many gang attacks are provoked rather than random acts of violence against unrelated individuals. I honestly feel that the media exagerate many of their stories in order to provoke a reaction and sell papers.
True yellow journalism.
I truly believe that none of these gangs really are fully fledged gangs. They are just a group of teenagers with similar interests who perform miniscule acts of crime for the sheer thrill of it. Sure they may not be the smartest of people but who cares. I think the police are taking the matter too close to heart and should just leave these youths be.
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