You can never have enough...

[Oh_hunnihunni]

The thing about gangs is they exist because they fill a need. In order to do so they find ways to fund their operations and provide for their members, just like any other human community. If the government really wanted to 'smash' them, it could eliminate those needs by providing adequate affordable housing, accessible and appropriate education, parenting support, and jobs. But making their unique clothing illegal is easier, policing is easier, and throwing illiterate, poorly supported, socially maladjusted young people in jail is easier. Easier because our government doesn't have to exercise imagination or work to solve the problem permanently. You know, the way they each promise they will do every election time.

Yup. Smashing it, guys...

Yeah, but those things make sense. AND deprive govts of that ever so handy target...every damned election (& in between times) its always the gangs & the criminals thy're going to 'get tough' on - remember Judith Collins being called 'Crusher Collins" because she was going to smash the boy racer's cars years ago. I think one did get crushed eventually.

Fixing things to have a fairer society is apparently far too hard...

And on the subject of those illegal clothes - somewhere, I suspect thast some bright spark is even now busily designing a not gang insignia which looks very, very like a gang insignia...

Like an old lady doing a bit of political embroidery on the back of her denim cutoff jacket?  Must say I enjoy it when the underlying message gets read by a passing pair of eyes...

I'd quite like to be arrested wearing it too.