My Life as a Gang Member

by Hector Preciado

It was the beginning of a new year. I was moving into Berkeley, and was wondering what the experience would be like. I had a cousin who they called Ghost. He was living in Berkeley, and told me he would let me stay with him and show me what the city was like. I was surprised to see what he had become, since the last time I saw him we were just kids. Now he had become a gangbanger and was already one of the top leaders in the gang.

I came to this city to start new. As I started hanging with my cousin more and more his type of lifestyle caught my attention. The respect people had for him, it was like he could do anything. I asked him to show me his ways and in time I became a member. The more I hung out with the gang the more and more I found myself getting into problems. The adrenaline from fights and the crazy things we did made me realize that from then on I would dedicate myself to nothing but the gang. My cousin, being one of the leaders saw this and decided to take me somewhere to have a serious conversation.

My cousin and his right hand man went with me and explained, “We all see that you’re a member that we can trust. We are willing to take you under our protection. Also we will grant you membership to a bigger organization that runs out here in the street’s, but you have to recognize the consequence’s of the decision, that is death or life in jail, are you ready?”

His right hand man started talking, “Once you join, you’re going to have to forget about your freedom and anybody else. The only family you got is your gang.”

I took my time to sink this in and thought about what my decision would be.

“Yes,” I replied.

It must have taken me about ten minutes to make this decision, but I was sure about it.

What I thought was a regular gang ended up being something bigger. As I talked to my cousin, he made me realize that this was a multimillion-dollar drug trade enterprise. They needed people who are ready to kill or do anything to help keep it running. This is what I had to be read to be a part of.

One day my cousin and I spotted a former member selling his products on our territory. My cousin said he would like to go for the hit, but he thought it was too risky because of all the police around. My cousin needed to go to the restroom so I waited outside for him. While I was waiting outside I heard a gunfire multiple times.

My cousin ran out in curiosity, “What was that?”

None of us knew where it came from, later on we found out that it was the person we were planning to shoot down I got mad because nobody had given out the order to kill, and we all knew it was a amateur move. Sine we were the only gang that was around at the time the police would suspect us, so we had to be careful because the police were on us.

This incident made the gang lose trust in each other, and everybody was on their toes.

A few days after that, the gang gathered up to have a meeting and talked about what had happened. My cousin was late so I asked where he had been, but he never answered. He was talking to the members of what he thought we should do, but everyone looked at him in surprise and confusion. He suggested that we should lower the activity in the drug business, and we all knew that could not happen. If we did that we would lose power and the whole organization would go down. I looked into the eyes of some of the other members; they had a stare of confusion. I’m pretty sure they all had the same question.

“Why would one of the most involved member be saying this,” I asked myself.

After the whole incident I started seeing less and less of my cousin.

I was driving home one time and saw a stranger walk out of my house. I stopped a block away and decided to wait and follow him. I followed him to his destination, and was angered to see him enter the police department. I drove home full of anger wondering why my cousin was talking to this person. I entered the house and looked at my cousin who was sitting on the couch.

“What are you doing talking to that person? You know he works with the police!” I screamed.

“Nothing, nothing,” he replied in fear.

“Don’t lie! Tell me what’s going on right now!” I demanded.

He took a deep breath and explained that the murder that recently happened was him working with the police. He gave the location and person, in a way to frame the gang. He explained to me how he thought the gang was a horrible idea and that he is trying to break up the organization in order to leave the lifestyle; he didn’t want anything to do with it.

What he had told me violated the rules of the organization and he knew what he had done. I knew what I had to do to. I looked away to give him a chance to get away. He fled but I knew that he couldn’t fun for that long.

I couldn’t carry out the hit myself and now the same faith was waiting for me. It was all a matter of time.