Gangs

"The Cat's Alleys," the Degraw Street Gang, the Sackett Street gang, "The Harrisons," the Bush Street Gang, and 21 other boys' gangs were the subjects of a report of the New York State Crime Commission which told, last week, of its findings in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn. The Red Hook section was chosen because the percentage of juvenile delinquencies is five times as high there as in any other Brooklyn territory.

The boys who comprise the gangs have to undergo rigorous initiations before being qualified for membership. In one of the more exclusive gangs initiates, usually aged about nine, have to drink twelve glasses of dago-red wine and have a revolver pressed into their temples while they take the pledge. Another gang demands that all members swear vengeance upon anyone who shall wrong a fellow constituent--an oath which is carried out.

Most of the gang members range in age from 9 to 16. Italian boys form their own gangs. Irish, German, Swedish boys run together indiscriminately. Syrians keep to themselves. Porto Ricans will not associate with Negroes, and Brazilians will not associate with Porto Ricans. Racial friction is an outgrowth of ancestral antipathies, since most of the young men's fathers, who are universally engaged in the stevedoring business, do not care to mingle with foreigners.

The lads amuse themselves throwing rocks, shooting craps, fighting gang against gang with clubs, stones, bottles, telling jokes, holding a section of street against invasion by a rival gang, stealing, cop-baiting, hanging around poolrooms, attending cheap cinema shows, begging pennies, playing poker, drinking liquor, accepting the solicitations of older uptown girls.

Roll call is taken at meeting time after school, and anyone failing to answer is denied membership privileges. Most of the organizations plan to keep about 20 active members.

The greatest single endeavor of all gangs appears to be chasing and running through the streets. They never meet indoors. Misbehavior is entirely traceable to the youths' environment--lack of play facilities. They have no equipment or room for sports and games. A ten-cent rubber ball is used for a football with the lamp posts for goal lines. A stick becomes a sword to be jabbed into someone. Grimy little fists poke into forbidden places and come out with articles of value. That is their fun.

Respectable Brooklynites grew vexed at the slurs which the Crime Commission made on the Red Hook children. Said a priest of the neighborhood: "When I look at these beautiful innocent little children, so quiet and nice in manner, I have a feeling that they are entirely too gentle and soft for the rough world that awaits them."