- Do snitches get stitches?
(laughs)
There is a code in the streets,
in some cases, snitches do get stitches.
(upbeat music)
- Hi.
- Hi, what's your name?
- I'm Cortez. What's your name?
- Hi, my name is Celine.
- Hi, my name is Forest.
- How you doing Forest?
- Hey Dad.
- Hey, what's up Brianna?
So do you know why we're here,
do you know what we're going to talk about today?
- That, you were
in a gang
but you're not active.
- That is correct.
Are you guys familiar with any gangs?
- Yeah, kind of.
Sometimes, I watch like Boys n the Hood and stuff
like that with my dad, so.
- Oh okay, Boys n the Hood, that's a good movie.
What is your idea of a gang member or
being in a gang?
- They would probably like, look like
person with baggy jeans or a cap,
like maybe a golden chain.
(laughs)
- Okay, fair enough.
What about you?
- Just thinking of people like,
little like
cruel?
- Violence, I guess and drugs involved and
usually getting in trouble, I guess, a lot.
- All I know is that shoes hang up from the
electrical wires.
- (laughs)
- [Celine] That's all I know.
About gangs.
- So what did you do in a gang?
- I didn't do too much, you know,
out of the ordinary, it was just like, you know
I still went to school for the most part,
I would show up to school.
- Did your teacher know that you were in a gang?
- Pretty sure they did. (laughs)
But after I got kicked out of the school,
I kind of just fell off.
- Oh.
- Fell off with that.
- How come you got kicked out?
- Because I was bad.
- Oh.
Okay.
(laughs)
- Why did you join a gang?
- I thought like a lot of times, as a kid in my family
growing up,
I wasn't accepted and so, you know, this was easy.
I loved the lifestyle, I was infatuated with the,
with the entire culture.
I had a lot of homeboys from the neighborhood
that were in gangs like, that doesn't necessarily
deem us as like bad people or anything like that,
you know that right?
- [Interviewer] Do you think people in gangs are bad people?
- I don't think they're bad people but
they might do bad stuff.
- So what kind of activities I guess, did you guys do as
a gang on a daily basis?
- You know, link up, smoke some weed,
shoot some dice, play basketball, drink.
- I hope you didn't get drunk when you drunk alcohol.
- Well, alcohol does that to you, like it takes you
out of your normal self and your
- Makes you dizzy?
- Makes you a little dizzy, you know.
- Sometimes you collapse, sometimes you run across
the street like a horror movie.
- Right.
- Did your parents know that you were in a gang as well?
- Yeah, my mom was not like accepting of it,
and she gave me all the values that I needed to have
to be successful but it still comes down to choice
and I just chose to live a lifestyle that you know,
I wasn't really raised to live but, you know, I did it.
- I have a question.
- Yeah.
- Have you ever went to jail?
- Yes, unfortunately I have went to jail before.
- What for?
- It was driving without a license, I got caught
with drugs.
- Have you ever carried a gun?
- Yes, I actually have carried a gun before.
- How old were you when you first held a gun?
- I was probably about sixteen.
- Did you ever have to shoot anybody?
Or at anybody?
- I, um.
I played a part in
a lot of activities in the streets.
- And, how did that make you feel, pointing a gun at
somebody else?
- I never said I pointed a gun at somebody else.
- Oh.
(laughs)
I thought he was saying, I thought you were
kinda getting there.
- Hey man, you're a great interviewer.
- [Interviewer] Yeah, you are.
- You almost got me right there. (laughs)
- [Interviewer] For real.
- So, did you have to do like any horrible things or
things you didn't want to do?
- [Cortez] I never did anything that I didn't want to do.
I have done some horrible things that
I'm not proud of doing.
- Why did you do something bad? You should think in
your mind, should I do this or should I not?
But you chose the wrong choice.
- You're right.
- You did it.
- You're right. You're absolutely right.
- Have you learned from your mistakes?
- I'm continuing to learn from my mistakes.
- Did you ever have any like friend gang members, did they
have ever died?
- Yes.
- [Cortez] Yup, unfortunately
I lost a couple from my actual block.
- Do you think of that gun violence, or any type of
violence is necessary?
- At this stage in my life, no. I think that you
can always effectively communicate
with one another to
resolve anything,
I don't think, I don't think nothing
should result in violence.
- If they say something mean to you, say stop but
if they don't,
turn away,
breathe
and then say how you
feel and then ignore them if they just keep saying it.
- Wow, why didn't I think of that, back in the day?
- When did you start realizing that what you were
doing was wrong?
- 21, turning 22. Started to think about some of the things
that I was doing. I made a decision to live different
and to do something different.
I got kids to take care of. So I started being
more about them and less about the neighborhood.
It's funny, I actually work with youth now.
I'm the recreational specialist for Late Night.
So, I'm the supervisor over all the Late Night programs
in all community centers that I used to go to and
get kicked out of when I was a kid and so it was dope to
actually be back in the hood and giving back and
being over the program that we was always at
when we was young.
Do you think that people that are, are in gangs or
was in gangs, do you think that they could like change
and do good in the world?
- Well yeah, I mean you did it.
So if you can do it, anybody else can do it.
(upbeat electronic music)
- Yeah, I guess you're right.
That makes sense.
- Thank you for your time and letting me ask questions.
- For sure Forest.
- It was nice meeting you.
All right man, see you guys. You guys stay out of trouble.
- Bye bye!
- Bye bye.
- Remember what I told you.
- I got you. (laughs)
- Peace.
(laughs)