One of these days I’m going to write a post in here about how this state has had substantial problems with gang activity for… decades, I want to say (at least the section of it that I live in), and how Texas’ response to this has been not to mention it or do anything about it for nearly that whole entire time. We’ve had no shortage of emergency proclamations signed by the governor about COVID-19, hurricanes, the Robb Elementary School/Uvalde shooting, even “the southern border” — something else that I could devote a completely separate post to, and think that I will at some point — but have yet for there to be a single emergency proclamation even remotely addressing the gang activity that is widespread in this state. The last time any major studies were done on it, we were at approximately 100,000 known and confirmed gang members — not supporters, but actual full-fledged members — with there being significant numbers of Tango Blast members, Crips members, and Bloods members, to name just three. Even people who have lived in this state for as long as I have, if not longer than I have, aren’t well-informed about what gangs actually do, and many of them choose to look the other way blaming what gang members actually do on anything else that they can, or want to, circling back around to surprise when it can’t be blamed on anything else but… wait for it, gang activity. Some of these misconceptions are deeply rooted in racism, too (“the only thing gangs do is kill poor Black people”). Other people think that if you can survive the Grand Theft Auto game of your choice, you’re good to go in the real world, smack dab in the middle of Texas. How I wish that were true.

Just by living where I do, observing what goes on around me, and keeping my mouth shut, I’ve at least learned enough about this area — and the falsehoods that people in this area regard as gospel — that I think I can put something together for the sake of this blog. But I draw the line at teaching the police force.