{"author":"Drexel Deal","author_id":"Drexel+Deal","total_quotes":55,"quotes":[{"text":"Listening to their argument made me aware of how empty my life was, and I hated the life I was living all the more. It was quite obvious to me this lady was deeply in love, for she was fighting for what she thought to be hers. Even though I was dating two females at the time, and stringing a third one along, yet I’ve yet to discover that kind of love. I guess this was why my favorite song was ‘I wane be love’, by the Jamaican reggae super star Buru Banton.","author":"Drexel Deal","tags":["argument","deeply-in-love","emptiness","faithfulness","hunger-within","infidelity","loneliness","love","relationships","searching-for-love","thug-life","true-friendship","true-love"],"id":19076,"author_id":"Drexel+Deal"},{"text":"According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, the definition of the word ‘rebellion’ is ‘an act or a show of defiance toward an authority or established convention. Extensions of the expression include to fly in the face of danger and to fly in the face of providence, both of which carry a sense of reckless or impetuous disregard for safety.’Because we did not grow up with our fathers, we became reckless with our lives and disregarded the lives of others as well. Therefore, the problem is not the gangs, so to speak; rather, it’s the conditions that create them. It is the dismantling of our homes and marriages that create the right conditions for gangs to flourish. If homes could be put back together or prevented from falling apart, then these symptoms could be, root cause eradicated.","author":"Drexel Deal","tags":["absentee-fathers","broken-homes","disregard","eradicate","family","fatherless-homes","gang-prevention","marriage","rebellion","rebellion-raiders","reckless","right-conditions","root-causes","single-mothers","single-parent-homes","strong-communities","symptoms","two-parent-homes"],"id":44596,"author_id":"Drexel+Deal"},{"text":"Out of all the other gangs that were around, you could always have come to the reasoning table of the Rebellions without being fearful and present your case, and whatever is decided at the reasoning table you know that is what it will be, whether it’s war or peace. Unlike the other gangs that were around, you didn’t even know who to talk to. Scrooge, former leader of the Rebellion Raiders street gang that once boasted of having some ten thousand members.","author":"Drexel Deal","tags":["communication","community-policing","conflict-resolution","discussion","gangs","listening-ear","peace","police-outreach","present-your-case","reaching-gang-members","reasoning","rebellion-raiders","youth-outreach","youth-programs"],"id":51647,"author_id":"Drexel+Deal"},{"text":"We had a genuine love for each other, and we loved being around each other, and in the gang was where I felt love. Troit Lynes, former death row inmate of Her Majesty Prison.","author":"Drexel Deal","tags":["gang-members","gangs","love","loyalty","unity"],"id":58960,"author_id":"Drexel+Deal"},{"text":"I came from as low as one could come, with no mother and no father. So in return I build a family for myself and these fella’s were a part of my family. So I had to look out for them, as if I was looking out for my children. Scrooge, former leader of the Rebellion Raiders street gang that once boasted of having some ten thousand members.","author":"Drexel Deal","tags":["absentee-fathers","broken-families-family-life","family","family-members","fatherless-homes","gang-formation","gang-life","gang-members","love-ones","my-children","my-family","no-father","no-mother","parenthood","rebellion-raiders","single-mothers","social-ills","youth-outreach"],"id":62763,"author_id":"Drexel+Deal"},{"text":"I will always respect Mr. Charles chuck Mackey for the way he dealt with me. His approach was not hostile, rather his approach was one, “Look here, I’m working with you, so I need you to work with me.” He showed me first that he had my back, and it was easy for me to do the same for him. Mr. Mackey was well known in the entire school as a no-nonsense but fair person. There are some school administrators that aren’t intimidating at all, but with Mr. Mackey, it was totally different. When we saw him, even if we were not doing anything wrong and our uniform was intact, we still tend to avoid him by going in a different direction. His presence alone demanded that kind of respect.","author":"Drexel Deal","tags":["at-risk-students","coaching","influence","reaching-students","resolving-conflicts","respect","school-administrators","school-rules","school-uniform","trouble-youth","youth-leaders","youth-ministries"],"id":74993,"author_id":"Drexel+Deal"},{"text":"The gangs filled a void in society, and the void was the absence of family life. The gang became a family. For some of those guys in the gang that was the only family they knew, because when their mothers had them they were too busy having children for other men. Some of them never knew their daddies. Their daddies never look back after they got their mothers pregnant, and those guys just grew up and they couldn’t relate to nobody. \tWhen they had their problems, who could they have talked to? Nobody would listen, so they gravitated together and form a gang. George Mackey, the former representative for the historic Fox Hill community in The Bahamas.","author":"Drexel Deal","tags":["absentee-fathers","at-risk-communities","at-risk-youth","broken-homes","coming-together","dead-beat-dads","emptiness","empty-nest","family","family-life","fatherhood","fatherless-homes","gang-family","gang-formation","gang-intervention","gang-life","gang-members","gang-prevention","gangs","gangsters","government","hurting-children","hurting-people","member-of-parliament","missing-in-action","policy-makers","politicians","representative","sense-of-belonging","single-mothers","social-ills","street-life","void-within","youth-club","youth-groups","youth-ministry","youth-outreach","youth-problems","youth-programs"],"id":84468,"author_id":"Drexel+Deal"},{"text":"The leaders at that time believed so much in protecting the name and the reputation of the gang, that I along with one or two other individuals who were still in school who were trusted, responsible, and ready were given weapons to take to school to make sure that if anything arises, the matter would be dealt with properly. They made sure that even if their presence were not there during a fight, we were in a position to properly defend ourselves. Troit Lynes, former death row inmate of Her Majesty Prison.","author":"Drexel Deal","tags":["back-up-plan","brand-name","carrying-weapons","community-policing","forward-thinking","gang-addiction","gang-intervention","gang-leaders","gang-members","gang-pride","position-to-win","protecting-your-name","protection","ready","ready-for-action","rebellion-raiders","reliable","reputation","school-gangs","strategy","strong","support","trust","turf-wars","violence-addiction"],"id":87375,"author_id":"Drexel+Deal"},{"text":"We really had a close netted structure to rely on for anything, you could have gone by anyone house and get something to eat. Whatever they were eating, they would’ve fed you, and all the mothers would’ve treated you just like they treated their own. What the gang also did, it provided some level of protection for a lot of the working adults in the neighborhood. They knew that their houses were safe, when they went out to work and didn’t have to worry about anyone breaking in to their homes. Scrooge, former leader of the Rebellion Raiders street gang that once boasted of having some ten thousand members.","author":"Drexel Deal","tags":["banding-together","black-communities","brother-s-keeper","close-knit-community","community","community-crime-watch","community-policing","crime-prevention","extended-family","family","gang-intervention","gangs","like-family","mothers","protection","rebellion-raiders","single-mothers","small-community","standing-together","structure","surrogate-family","surrogate-mothers","tight-knit-community","unity","urban-communities","youth-program"],"id":92018,"author_id":"Drexel+Deal"},{"text":"My volcano of compress anger was about to erupt in school, and it would take more than five years for my molten lava to be brought under control, which was through the loss of my sight. However, shouldn’t there be a way of detecting and reaching out to kids like me before there is a massive problem? Why wait until there is a devastating eruption before we intervene?","author":"Drexel Deal","tags":["anger","at-risk-students","blindness","compress-anger","detecting","devastating","eruption","intervention","massive-problems","molten-lava","school-fights","volcano"],"id":92476,"author_id":"Drexel+Deal"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":55,"pages":6,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}