Through Pattillo, Goffman and Ralph we’ve discussed how the authors have portrayed a more nuanced relationship between neighborhood gangs and their communities. In particular, Ralph’s work presents an even more in depth view of a neighborhood gang like the Divine Knights. They are not simply deviant members of the neighborhood,  but they can and do play constructive roles in shaping the community and its institutions as well as providing counter-narratives to concepts like injury , disability, memory,  historical consciousness and activism,

The following news clip,  prominent during the Baltimore uprising,  features members of the Black Guerrilla Family, the Bloods and the Crips talking to the channel  11 News, representing themselves and their communities and providing a counter-narrative to media portrayals and allegations which stated that they came to a  truce for the express purpose of harming police officers.

While there are aspects to critique, it nonetheless speaks to much of what Ralph’s ethnography elucidates and highlights the strategic and political elements of street gangs, as well as the idea of “renegades”  i.e. members that the old heads cannot necessarily control.