In praise of gang leaders

Yes, their business is crime, and yes the safety they offer is at the expense of others, and yes, they wreak havoc in this country, but they are exemplary in their ability to identify a resource more important than oil, a resource that society ignores or scorns: our teenage boys.

Gang leaders are father figures to young men who have no father figure — young men who have not been able to find a father figure among all the “decent” men in this country.

Sure, there are some men on our side of the fence who step up to the plate, but gang leaders don’t discriminate. They accept everyone who wants a chance to survive.

They take teenagers that schools have deemed uneducable and provided a hands-on education for them. They give jobs to teenagers society can’t fathom how to educate, train or employ.

Marginalised and scorned by Trinidad and Tobago society, these young men flock to gang leaders who make them feel human; make them feel important; make them feel like they are somebody in their neighbourhood.

Outside of these neighbourhoods, society sends a clear message: You are nobody. You have nothing to offer this country.

You are no good. So teenagers find someone who provides meaning for meaningless lives.

These teenagers will trade longevity and security for a few short years where they can feel powerfully alive and loved by someone.

They don’t pick up guns because they are evil or lazy. They were not born defective. Their poor self-images are gifts from society.

Gang leaders are among the most perceptive people in this country; masters of psychology who recognise admirable qualities in at-risk teenagers and young men that society fails to recognise, namely trust and loyalty. If you want to see the meaning of these two qualities, speak to a gang member or go into prison.

You will find young men who are willing to die — not just for the sake of money or a life in crime — but for the aching need to please a father figure.

From the time these young men struggle in school where they try to make sense of an irrelevant education to the time a gang leader provides on-thejob training, these young men search for a way to belong to this country.

You lament the lack of respect teenage gang members display and point out their total disregard for life, but gang leaders command respect in their communities.

You say gang leaders succeed by instilling a sense of fear in these young men. No one — not even the police — instils a comparable sense of fear in these teenagers.

No, I’m not romanticising gang leaders. Gangs have killed people I know. They have hurt people I love — including my own son. But I can’t hate gang leaders. Knowing society has failed so many teenagers and young men while promoting gang leaders to their lofty positions, I am reduced to praising them for their ability to function in a dysfunctional society and their ability to nurture trust, love, and loyalty among young men.

Across the fence, in their world, we fail; gang leaders succeed.