Featured Story, Street Gangs

SHORTIES TAKEN OVA by Lanard “Nardy” Miller

chicagoChicago is a world of its own and always has been. From the beginning of time, Chicago has represented organized crime and straight-out gangsters. From Al Capone to Jeff Fort, Larry Hover, to Willie Lloyd just to name a few. Even though these brothers were gangsters, they were organized with the way they did things, that’s why their legacy is still recognized. But nowadays, all order is out the window. Chicago went from an organized crime area to a “New World Order.”

At one point in time, you had to be authorized to murk somebody, but know it’s every man for himself. It went from the organization to cliques. At first it was Black P. Stones, Gangster Disciples, Black Disciples, Black Gangsters, Vice Lords, Latin Kings, and Latin Folks. Now it’s S.T.O’s, Hobo’s, 300’s, and Goon Squad, just to name a few. It used to be about where you were from, but now it’s who you eating “getting money” with. In the modern day it’s about who you running with. You could have known a person for twenty years, but if somehow you come in between his clique, his money, you get treated like a total stranger. They’ll walk right up on you in broad daylight and shot you in the face, with no emotion, no second thoughts.

I was in “Moe Town” nicknamed after the Black P. Stones and it’s crazy, because these niggas are some of the most treacherous hitters I’ve seen in my life. These niggas whacking twenty-year niggas, niggas they’ve known for twenty years, bare face, that shit is real. They don’t give a fuck who sees, who hears, or who’s present, they’re getting their man, period.

It’s a new world order of gangsters, vicious, heinous, killers, hands down. The people from the age of 14 to 25 have the streets of Chicago on lock, they consider anybody over 25 out-of-date and they’re making anybody they think is old, get the fuck out the way. They making old niggas retire. Chicago looks like the Wild, Wild West right now. I remember growing up, kids used to play in the streets jumping rope, hop-scotching, stuff like that, not no more. It’s too many people beefing, bullets flying like planes.

Nobody but these young killas walking the streets. They’re waiting for somebody to get in their way, so they can make a name off of them. They’re waiting on the opportunity to show people who’s running shit. Even the Chicago police are getting the fuck out of their way. What can anybody do if they see a fifteen-year-old nigga carrying a gun bigger than him, with a clip the size of a table leg, (which is why they call guns in Chi-Town Table Legs)?

Who’s going to tell these young niggas what they can and can’t do? The older people can’t afford to play the game of life to the extent as these youngsters. The youngsters feel like they have the most to lose because they have a whole life ahead of them. But these youngsters can’t see that far, anything other than today is unrealistic to them.

It’s crazy how a person can be so young and value life so little. These niggas are ready to die, and going to jail for taken a life is like nothing. You can buy a nigga for one thousand dollars, or you can owe a nigga seven hundred dollars and get flipped, killed. People make statements like these niggas stupid, they’re killing kids, they’re just shooting wild, but the fact of the matter is they’re killing.

chicago2In 2012, Chicago had the highest murder rate in the nation, with over 500 murders, earning the name “Chi Raq,” or “Baby Iraq.” But in all actuality, Iraq should be named “Baby Chicago,” because Chicago outnumbered Iraq’s American soldiers’ deaths by almost two hundred. 314 soldiers died in Iraq, 509 soldiers died on Chicago streets. If that’s not shocking consider the fact that over half of the homicides were not only people under 25, but the murders were committed by people under 30, it’s not a game.

My little cousin is twenty-two-years-old, I talked to him on the phone the other day and in his voice and conversation you could tell he feels like it doesn’t matter whether he lives or dies. He’s from Robbins, Illinois, a city outside of Chicago that’s suffering from poverty. My little nigga was telling me how his cousin just got killed, his man just got murked, and his grandfather just got whacked, in less than a year, all homicides. What can you say to a person that young who has witnessed tragedies that extreme? Nothing, they don’t want to hear nothing, but revenge.

When I was on the streets I was twenty-two-years-old, these activities and modes of thinking were routine. It was nothing to get in beef and handle it in an “I don’t give a fuck” attitude. Carrying a gun with an extended clip was a part of our uniform, any nigga that knew me knew every nigga around me was holding. It was like, “It is what it is.” Either sink or swim. Only the strongest survive in Cook County, get down or lay down. You have to be ready to take a life or get your life taken.

In a short period of time I lost several people I know personally. My nigga J-Bone got killed at a gas station after seeing some niggas that tried to rob him a couple days prior. When he saw them niggas, it was either kill or be killed, and they got off before he could, so he lost his life while their still living. Eddie-B was found dead after being kidnapped, tortured and shot to death.

A legend in my hood named Chick was murked in front of his mother’s house, 10:30 am, a couple of weeks after being released from prison. Chick was a straight goon, everybody in the hood knew what it was with Chick, he’d whack a nigga in a New York minute. But this day he was unfortunate, Chick was caught in broad daylight slipping and it cost him dearly.

Not only are they killing viciously in Chicago, but in the surrounding cities they’re killing just as much. Places like Harvey, Chicago Heights, Ford Heights, Markham, Riverdale, Cal Park, and Robbins. After the housing projects were removed from the city people were given section 8 housing outside of Chicago to all these surrounding cities causing all hell to break loose, because individuals have to eat no exceptions. And the people that were there prior have to protect their territory, so it was war.

Then you have the people asking what is the cause of these heinous crimes, and the answer is an abundance of things, but mainly it’s because of the lack of resources to make money, and a lack of education. So what you have as a product of that is youngsters getting high off these drugs and going crazy. They’re high off Rush, coke, Mollies, lean, and liquor. And these young niggas ain’t seeing nothing but death.

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