CARIBBEAN BLOODS AND CRIPS: CRACK COCAINE AND THE FACILITATION OF THE DEPOLITIZATION AND MILITARIZATION OF THE CARIBBEAN
The photo above is a picture of the front cover of the book by Tewhan “Massacre” Butler, one of the most revered Blood leaders in New York. At his height Massacre rubbed shoulders with the likes of Suge Knight and other “celebrities”, with Blood affiliations. Massacre commanded street respect, and his street credentials are iron-clad. Yet today he eschews gang life, and proposes a “better way”, for young people. A true street soldier “preaching”, an anti-gang message? I think many wannabees are still missing his message, or deliberately ignoring it. In the Caribbean the Blood and Crips gang’s name brand have become ubiquitous with the youth imitating their North America cousins, it would be almost hilarious if , children weren’t being slaughtered in their numbers, all for a gang culture that is completely alien to our way of life here in the Caribbean . Dying over “colour’s”, is meaningless in our cultural context, the social interstices that created gang-c...