More and more Black folk are moving into Surrey, BC. More and more Indigenous folk are moving out, and more and more East And South Asian folk are moving in, which is beautiful and strange all at once.
Many of these people are warm welcoming and kind regardless of their ethnicity, and for the same reason, many are not. The lack of communication, the inability to understand – or the desire to ignore – disability is making it harder for us to co-exist in this community and more and more we’re seeing “not so random” acts of violence that are taking lives.
From a hatchet attack at Surrey Central Skytrain to a two-person knife attack at Surrey Center Mall, we’ve had our fair share of violence, but no one’s talking about it because “that’s just Surrey.”
This is not the Surrey BC that I want for my neighbours and friends, this is not the Surrey that I wish for you, and I think these festivals are an excellent paving stone, but they aren’t the entire road to peace.
We talked before about anti-gang programs that this city needs but did we really talk about what that means?
Like It Or Not, Gangsters See Themselves As Soldiers, And They Are At War
Oh, you thought we were done with that conversation? No. These men, and the women that surround them, need mental health support, I know that for a fact because I am struggling.
I am completely struggling, because I have little money, no access to support, and a strong desire to keep going, without really knowing which direction to go in. Many of the folk that are like me – getting out of gangs, fighting the desire to go back – are struggling with identity.
What is Life After Gangs?
This is far-fetched for some, but for others, it’s right on point. Leaving a gang can often mean leaving your entire family, going to another country for safety and spending the rest of your life lying about who you are, until they drag you back. Because what you did do for them? Wasn’t something you wanted to do, it was something you were forced to do, to protect those you love, because you know if you DON’T do it, someone else will, and they’ll do it to you too.
Life after gangs is not peaceful. For many people, it means running, forever, and never stopping, because there’s always someone on your six looking to take you out, JUST so they can say THEY were the ones that took you out.
And just when you think you’re out, they drag you, your family, and every single person you love back in. These movies aren’t just films about cars, they’re stories about what happens when your family is in trouble, but the problem is that the average gangster? Has nowhere else to go. You ask how some people get found and others don’t, often?
They turn themselves in to protect those they care about, that’s what happened to some of the guys who love me, they turned themselves in, so I would be safe, so their families would be safe, they had no other choice. So you ask “what’s life after gangs?” There is no such thing. You’re always in a gang, forever. Until you die and even after if that’s what it takes for them to get what they want.
There Is No Escape
My story is out there now, and even though I’ve been careful to only name the names of those I can absolutely get away with naming, there are questions. Everyone wants to know who, what when, how, why. I don’t have answers for you. I have answers for cops, for lawyers, for judges, I don’t have answers for the public, but that doesn’t change that once people know you’re in a gang one of two things happen:
- They are either afraid of you enough to show respect and be nice
- They are fucking terrified of you and hate you for it and let you know at every opportunity.
I don’t always know why someone is being rude to me, but I always know why someone in this town is being rude to me, that’s part of the reason I want to escape so bad, so that I can go sit with my fam, smoke some blunts, relax, enjoy the sun, and get out from the never-ending shadow of our abusers.
But that’s not going to happen. You know that funeral scene in Fast and Furious? It’s rarely like that. More often we don’t get to go to the funerals of those we love, because we’re in jail institutions, dead or in hiding.
We’re stuck because we want to be there, but the family doesn’t want the fam there, and the fam does whatever they can to respect the family, there’s no other option when it comes to death, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t feel pain or sorrow, and maybe we deserve to, but the question is this:
If the story that I – Devon J Hall – have been telling you all these years is true, why should we be excluded from happiness, when we’re only here, because of a bunch of pedophiles who did everything they could to hide their secret including but not limited to rape, torture, branding, and murder;
These men have been getting away with it while having their victims locked up for crimes they didn’t commit, and then our abusers go and collect the reward money from Crime Stoppers, for selling out their victims – it’s a vicious fucking cycle and it never ends.
“Prove it.” How many billions of dollars since the 90s have organizations like Crime Stoppers given out without knowing who they’re giving the money to, in the name of anononmousness and safety? Ahem, exactly.
This shit happens all over the world.
A commits a crime against B, then against C, blames B for C and collects money, it’s a great scam and it works because the cops fall for it every time, but gangsters are the bad guys.
This is the shit that we’re talking about when we say that many gangsters don’t have a choice because often the cops are in on it, and if after what you’ve seen in America you aren’t convinced I don’t know what to tell you.
Sending all my love,
Devon J Hall
Loud Mouth Brown Girl 