Taking Down the Gang Boss

[UrIn4It]

I have a friend who was kicked out of school, along with another person on drug charges.

Zoom forward 4 months, I started talking to him again and learned that he and the other guy are lower level 'footsoldiers' or whatever for the crips. He is also the guy they have been getting their marijuana from. So over the past few moths, Ive gotten a few more details, and frankly, none of it is kosher. In fact, its bullshit. not on this kids part, i trust him to tell me the truth and frankly, hes not a bad kid. hes been acting out and doing drugs as a result of family issues. but this isnt feeling right as to the parts to the whole 'gang' story. heres what i have

--lives in an upper middle class neighborhood (i know what neighborhood and have narrowed the area down to about .8-1 sq mile or abt 70 houses

--i have a first name, but a real estate search does not pull anything up in the area i believe he is in. (i was hoping i could cross reference any matches in real estate to inmate records for the state and county). but real estate records only list the name that the house is in, so its more than conceivable he is still in the area, but the house just isnt in his name

--i know he served prison time at some point. i have no clue for what

--i know he is trafficking high grade marijuana through his own house. unsure if he is dealing other narcotics

--i even have a fucking picture of him, albeit very low res (abt 70x100 pixels). i can tell he is white, and very heavy (260+ lbs). he may also be a decent height 5' 10" or 11" maybe... height is hard to distinguish in the pic

--i know his crips name.... if that even matters

my concern is not that some gang boss wannabe is selling weed out of his back porch, but that hes targeting 14-17 year olds to be his flunkies. im even worried he has nothing to do with the crips, but is some perv. plus, i just want to take the son of a bitch down. though i will admit i am biased. when i got the pic of him..... i became biased. because he looks like someone you would see on the evening news. hurray for profiling!

so, should i call crimestoppers with what i have, which isnt really much? should i stroll into the city police dept and demand justice cause this guy looks like he belongs in prison? or should i just let the guy go and hope he isnt a pedo?

[kdee]

my concern is not that some gang boss wannabe is selling weed out of his back porch, but that hes targeting 14-17 year olds to be his flunkies.

He's a criminal. What do you expect?

im even worried he has nothing to do with the crips, but is some perv. plus, i just want to take the son of a bitch down. though i will admit i am biased. when i got the pic of him..... i became biased. because he looks like someone you would see on the evening news. hurray for profiling!

so, should i call crimestoppers with what i have, which isnt really much? should i stroll into the city police dept and demand justice cause this guy looks like he belongs in prison? or should i just let the guy go and hope he isnt a pedo?

Is this drug dealer the same person as your friend? I lost you there a little bit....

If you go to the police, they are going to want you to write out a police report........which can only be done if you have very good reason to suspect that a specific crime was committed. You might tell them that you suspect drug activity at a certain house, but if this house is located in an area that has a lot of this kind of stuff, the police are probably not going to do a whole lot about it unless someone gets hurt because of it....

Frankly, I think you are becoming way, way too involved here. None of this was ever any problem involving you, and there is really no reason for you to become involved in it. The police have no respect for vigilantism. My suggestion is that you steer clear of this guy. He's a criminal, and so far has no relation to you......

Leave well enough alone.

[Malevolent]

I think you should mind your own business and try not to be a hero. Where I live, if you pull something like that off, somebody will eventually find out and you'll end up in the hospital with 5 broken ribs and only a few teeth left. Getting involved with dealers is a stupid idea. But that's what I've experience here, so I can't say anything for sure in your case. Just whatever you do, don't use your real number and be anonymous.

[custodis]

You really can't go downtown, as you don't have enough to even open a case against this man.
- You don't know his actual name.
- You don't know where he lives.
- You don't have an accurate description of the man, though you have a picture. And since you really don't have anything of which to open a case against him, police are not going to run biometrics on the picture.
- All of what you know is hearsay, and you're getting information from a known drug-user and possible gang member, which causes you to lose a lot of credibility. Especially since you think the 'gang leader' resides in a white upper-class neighborhood. Not racist or anything, but racial profiling still exists.

So, in my opinion, you should just stay out of it.

[3rd Rail]

I would say mind your own business. If this guy has connections to the Crips, you do not want to get on his bad side. At least in my part of the country, you cross a big gang, then your dead. We all want to be heroes, with our name in the paper and a parade named after us, but we also have to be realistic, this one guy, probabally sells weed to kids, but taking him out of the picture will only create a couple people to take his place, and most likely a hit list with your name on it. You could call it into the police without giving your name, but even that may be risky. When dealing with such large and highly organized gangs, it's safest to let the cops handle it, as it is thier job. I know in DC we have a large gang called MS-13, which does a lot of drug dealing and such. When a drug dealer is caught, they just bring up a couple new wannabies to fill his position.

[Sparticus]

Originally Posted by sYcHo uSeR

I would say mind your own business. If this guy has connections to the Crips, you do not want to get on his bad side. At least in my part of the country, you cross a big gang, then your dead. We all want to be heroes, with our name in the paper and a parade named after us, but we also have to be realistic, this one guy, probabally sells weed to kids, but taking him out of the picture will only create a couple people to take his place, and most likely a hit list with your name on it. You could call it into the police without giving your name, but even that may be risky. When dealing with such large and highly organized gangs, it's safest to let the cops handle it, as it is thier job. I know in DC we have a large gang called MS-13, which does a lot of drug dealing and such. When a drug dealer is caught, they just bring up a couple new wannabies to fill his position.

Well DC is a shithole and your cops are terrible at their jobs.

[3rd Rail]

Originally Posted by Sparticus

Well DC is a shithole and your cops are terrible at their jobs.

They are actually pretty good, the thing is most of what I was talking about happens more in Maryland right outside DC. Sadly their cops aren't nearly as good.

[Will~Ashlee]

look man call
they always say if indout go with your gut

[Troy]

I say leave it be. Your friend should come to his senses, and this "gang leader" is probably just some pussy.

Don't worry about it.

[3rd Rail]

Something else to consider- this "gang boss" may also be just some idiot drug dealer, who works with ther Crips as just that.

[guitarist]

Pardon my gang ignorance, but do Crips even associate with white people that much? Maybe he's just bs'ing about the Crip connection.

[madgeisgod]

I would maybe call an anonymous crime stoppers line because the police may keep a better eye on that location and such, but otherwise stay out of it.

[The Mysoginator]

Firstly, your assumption that he is a paedo is dubious at best. From my understanding young people are targeted by these gangs because they are still malleable enough to be turned into obedient footsoldiers; essentially the younger they are the more suggestible they are. Anyway, moving on...

There are good arguments both for and against tipping the police off.

For
If this guy is controlling the drug supply then it could be argued that you are doing the place a favour and regardless of your stance on drugs one less gang member can only be a good thing.

Against
I have my doubts that this guy is a major player and my reasons are as follows:

• I doubt that anybody stupid enough to traffic drugs through their own home would be considered a good candidate for promotion within the gang.
• It's a reasonable assumption that those at the top will want to keep their distance from those at the bottom. I doubt that anybody with much power would be dealing with low level footsoldiers.
• If this person were high up it's unlikely that your friends would be speaking about him so openly.

If these assumptions are true and this guy is low level it hardly seems worth the hassle that you would incur by reporting him. Sure, he might get lifted but somebody would replace him almost instantly and you'd be back to square one except you'd have to worry that somebody would know it was you that had ratted him out.

To conclude, in an ideal world if would be nice if you could take a gang member off the streets but you may find it causes you a lot of trouble for not much benefit. I strongly suggest that you stay out of the situation and possibly think about whether you want to be associated with gang members, friends or otherwise.