In Chapter 6 of his book, Cintron explains to the reader the ways in which gang members identify shared ideas about their own gang as well as sentiments held towards other gangs. Most of the communication is a series of symbols that are unique to each gang and each symbol can be manipulated and expressed to convey positive and or negative remarks about any number of gangs. These gangs have also appropriated certain symbols which have meaning outside of their gang to use as a means to express ones affiliation with a gang. For example, someone wearing a L.A. Kings hockey jersey may be wearing the apparel to distinguish himself as a member of the Latin Kings street gang. Other ways, specifically related to the composition of graffiti, gangs will show disrespect to other gangs is to write the rival gang's name in a certain manner. For example, writing a gang's name with a “K” beside it means that you are a “killer” of that gang. Also, to show disrespect for a gang, a member could spray write a rival gang's name with the first letter upside down. Making subtle alterations to another gang's name and the symbols themselves are all part of the lexicon and syntax that the gangs have learned and adopted.
The graffiti is also seen as a narrative of sorts and to understand it would be to understand the constructs of power that have birthed ideas and ways of life that lead to gang life. It is understood that a certain level of the gang life is to garner respect in a society that shuns them. The anti-society, as Clntron uses the phrase do describe gang life, is actually contingent and adherent to a hierarchy of produced by a normal society; without gang life being subjugated to something of criminal status, much of the respect gangs obtain would be moot. It is a symbiotic relationship that gangs and non-gangs have. Cintron finds looking and gang graffiti as a narrative to be problematic, though. A lot of what he calls “common sense” ( criminal activity) ways at looking at
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