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GANGS IN CANADA
Author: Jeff Pearce
In Gangs in Canada, Jeff Pearce draws a portrait of an epidemic spreading across the country and infecting our youth. But more importantly, he shows how police, ex-gang members and organizations are reclaiming our young people and showing them ways out of a violent, doomed lifestyle. This is the most gripping, up-to-date chronicle of what is happening on our streets and what is being done about it: - Walk the "Battlefield in Paradise," where Vancouver?s all-out gang war is getting international attention before the city plays host to the Olympics; cops and prosecutors are cracking down, relying on new tactics to keep the bad guys behind bars - See the reality of gang life beyond stereotypes; gang members don't have to come from broken homes or bad neighbourhoods--some are from privileged, well-off backgrounds - Meet a Calgary constable who visits gang members and young men at risk and with touching humanity sees their potential and is even willing to trust a couple of them with the safety of his own family - Trace the rise and fall of the notorious Bindy Johal, a vicious crime leader who is still perversely idolized by up-and-coming gangsters and wannabes years after he was shot dead in the back of the head - Learn why white supremacist gangsters are more bark than bite, manipulating the media beyond their wildest dreams; one Ontario neo-Nazi fooled Fox News into interviewing him as a "free speech advocate" - Meet Jessie McKay, once known as a crazy punk rocker chick and muscle for the Indian Posse who has reinvented herself as a caring mother and activist trying to save Aboriginal youth. Gangs in Canada goes beyond the headlines and news clips. It picks up the discussion over media and drug legalization and shakes out fresh new perspectives. Anyone who cares about the future of the community will want to read this groundbreaking volume
About the Author
Jeff Pearce began his writing and journalism career over 25 years ago when he sold his first article to the Winnipeg Sun. Having graduated as a Journalism Major from the Creative Communications program at Red River Community College, Jeff has worked as a writer and editor for TV and magazines, both in Canada and the UK, where he lived for six years. In 2005, he taught journalism on a short-term contract in Myanmar (Burma), a country where reporters are routinely harassed and often imprisoned. His eight novels, published under pseudonyms in the UK and the U.S., have won several awards, while his play, Defenders of Gravity, inaugurated the Playwrights of Spring Festival in Toronto. Currently, Jeff is a freelance writer and is working on a variety of non-fiction projects.
The Road To Hell: How The Biker Gangs Are Conquering Canada
Author: Julian Sher, William Marsden
From the Publisher
In this definitive, up-to-the-minute account of the Hells Angels in Canada, two veteran journalists investigate why the recent imprisonment of feared biker leader, Maurice "Mom" Boucher, is too little, too late.By the spring of 2002, Boucher was safely in prison but the Hells Angels had grown to 37 chapters with close to 600 members across the country. They had taken over the drug trade and continued their rapid expansion into Ontario with a recent, high-profile enlistment -- or patchover -- In this definitive, up-to-the-minute account of the Hells Angels in Canada, two veteran journalists investigate why the recent imprisonment of feared biker leader, Maurice "Mom" Boucher, is too little, too late.
By the spring of 2002, Boucher was safely in prison but the Hells Angels had grown to 37 chapters with close to 600 members across the country. They had taken over the drug trade and continued their rapid expansion into Ontario with a recent, high-profile enlistment -- or patchover -- of 168 members from other gangs. In Winnipeg, gang warfare turned ugly as the Hells muscled out the competition and firebombed a policeman's home. In Vancouver, they secured a stranglehold on smuggling in the all-important West Coast port.
The Road to Hell is the story of how the Hells have taken over the Canadian crime scene: how politicians dithered while overburdened prosecutors burned out and lost major cases; how police brass squabbled while a handful of dedicated cops worked years to amass their evidence; how a few citizens stood up the bikers and paid for that bravery with their lives. Murder plots, drug deals, money laundering and assassinations are brought to life through never-before-revealed police files, wiretaps and surveillance tapes. In gripping prose, the authors tell all about Boucher's war on the justice system; how he finally lost in Quebec, thanks in part to Danny Kane, a reluctant biker turned informer; but how across Canada the Hells have succeeded in building a national crime empire.
The RCMP and then the police in Montreal would run Danny Kane as one of the most successful -- and most secretive -- agents ever to infiltrate organized crime. Kane would climb all the way to the top: from a lowly hangaround to a trusted confidante of the Quebec Nomads, the elite chapter led by the top Hells Angels lieutenants of Maurice "Mom" Boucher. And through his entire six-year-career as a spy, few people -- even inside the police -- would ever know about his dangerous double life. -- from The Road to Hell
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Who You Claim: Performing Gang Identity in School and on the Streets
Author: Robert Garo
From the Publisher
The color of clothing, the width of shoe laces, a pierced ear, certain brands of sneakers, the braiding of hair and many other features have long been seen as indicators of gang involvement. But it's not just what is worn, it's how: a hat tilted to the left or right, creases in pants, an ironed shirt not tucked in, baggy pants. For those who live in inner cities with a heavy gang presence, such highly stylized rules are not simply about fashion, but markers of "who you claim," that is, who …+ read more
The color of clothing, the width of shoe laces, a pierced ear, certain brands of sneakers, the braiding of hair and many other features have long been seen as indicators of gang involvement. But it's not just what is worn, it's how: a hat tilted to the left or right, creases in pants, an ironed shirt not tucked in, baggy pants. For those who live in inner cities with a heavy gang presence, such highly stylized rules are not simply about fashion, but markers of "who you claim," that is, who one affiliates with, and how one wishes to be seen.
In this carefully researched ethnographic account, Robert Garot provides rich descriptions and compelling stories to demonstrate that gang identity is a carefully coordinated performance with many nuanced rules of style and presentation, and that gangs, like any other group or institution, must be constantly performed into being. Garot spent four years in and around one inner city alternative school in Southern California, conducting interviews and hanging out with students, teachers, and administrators. He shows that these young people are not simply scary thugs who always have been and always will be violent criminals, but that they constantly modulate ways of talking, walking, dressing, writing graffiti, wearing make-up, and hiding or revealing tattoos as ways to play with markers of identity. They obscure, reveal, and provide contradictory signals on a continuum, moving into, through, and out of gang affiliations as they mature, drop out, or graduate. Who You Claim provides a rare look into young people's understandings of the meanings and contexts in which the magic of such identity work is made manifest.
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Street Gang
Author: Michael Davis
From the Publisher
"Davis tracks down every "Sesame" anecdote and every "Sesame" personality in his book...Finally, we get to touch Big Bird's feathers." --"The New York Times Book Review" "Sesame Street" is the longest-running-and arguably most beloved- children's television program ever created. Today, it reaches some six million preschoolers weekly in the United States and countless others in 140 countries around the world. "Street Gang" is the compelling, comical, and inspiring story of a media …+ read more"Davis tracks down every "Sesame" anecdote and every "Sesame" personality in his book...Finally, we get to touch Big Bird's feathers." --"The New York Times Book Review"
"Sesame Street" is the longest-running-and arguably most beloved- children's television program ever created. Today, it reaches some six million preschoolers weekly in the United States and countless others in 140 countries around the world.
"Street Gang" is the compelling, comical, and inspiring story of a media masterpiece and pop-culture landmark. Television reporter and columnist Michael Davis-with the complete participation of Joan Ganz Cooney, one of the show's founders-unveils the idealistic personalities, decades of social and cultural change, stories of compassion and personal sacrifice, and miraculous efforts of writers, producers, directors, and puppeteers that together transformed an empty soundstage into the most recognizable block of real estate in television history.
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Dangerous Dues: What You Need to Know About Gangs
Author: Lauri S Friedman
From the Publisher
Gang life is a reality for nearly a million kids and teenagers in the United States, and membership has consequences. Part of the What?s the Issue? series, Dangerous Dues: What You Need to Know about Gangs explores how gangs work through the words and stories of former and current gang members and victims of gang violence. P
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