Myspace used for gang recruitment

COPPERS AND HACKS in Atlanta are issuing warnings that the social notworking site Myspace is being used to recruit kiddies into gangs.

CBS has run a yarn claiming that gangs "have a new way into readers' homes and gang leaders can be recruiting your children right now". Not that it is interested in scare tactics or anything.

The article goes on to ask parents if they know what their kids' Myspace page looks like and "what a gang’s letters looked like if they were staring you in the face".

All this was based on the experience of a CBS 46 News hack who apparently saw a Youtube video made by local gang members who claim to control Buford Highway.

Note that the Youtube video has nothing to do with Myspace.

Next was the "shocking figure that coppers in Gwinnett have identified between 175 and 200 different gangs" in that county alone. "No community is immune", spits the story.

CBS 46 quotes John Houston, an FBI agent, who has apparently found the wherewithall to breed and is now a parent. He is apparently concerned about gang activity spilling into the schools, ultimately affecting his children and "your children".

He warned that gang recruitment has stepped up in regard to use of the internet technology. However Houston failed to mention Myspace, Facebook or email. Instead he quoted some "notebook pages" that were seized from Fulton County Middle School students. Apparently it was not "harmless doodling" as the notebook had the letters RSL all over it. RSL apparently stands for a local gang, although it could also mean Resource Specification Language if the doodler was a geek.

One female student wrote in a notebook, "I love the red. Will die 4 the red" . The coppers and CBS 46 say that red is her gang's colour. She also drew a picture of "a gang member smoking marijuana". Horrors. Surely there can be nothing worse than a chilled-out gang member rampaging through town looking for a super-sized pizza.

Coppers know the drawing was of a gang member because he had a red bandana with the Roman numeral 14, her gang's number. Sheesh gang members who can count now and have a classical education, what is the world coming too?

The coppers have also been quick to say that gang items have been collected from various schools in the county. However the schools mentioned in the article say that there are no gang problems and don't know what the cops are banging on about.

However, despite CBS hysteria, no link between gangs and Myspace is mentioned in the article. It looks like the hacks decided that it was better to opt for the "blame Myspace in a story that does not really mention the social notworking site" angle. µ

L'Inq
CBS46