Let's work with the gangs


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THE CATHOLIC HOUR

LET'S WORK WITH THE GANGS
BY

G. HOWLAND SHAW
Former Assistant Secretary of State

The sixth in a series of addresses by prominent Catholic laymen
entitled “THE ROAD AHEAD/' delivered in the Catholic Hour, broad-
cast by the National Broadcasting Company in cooperation with the
National Council of Catholic Men on July 14, 1946. by G. Howland Shaw,
former Assistant Secretary of State. After the series has been concluded
on the radio, it will be made available in one pamphlet.

National Council of Catholic Men
Washington, D. C.



LET’S WORK WITH THE GANGS
In many American cities now- At the outset let’s be clear on

adays there is a good deal of one point. The overwhelming
talking and writing about boy majority of gangs even in slum
gangs or street clubs and their areas are not as groups carrying
doings. Unfortunately much of on activities characterized by
this talking and writing tends to lawlessness and violence. Of
take one of two extreme forms, course that statement does not

• At one moment because of an act mean that one or even two or
or series of acts of lawlessness three members of a gang may
committed by some gangs we are not be in trouble or at least
told that gang boys are a thor- have been in trouble any more
oughly bad lot, that pretty much than a statement that some adult
all of them carry guns or knives dub is a respectable and sound
and that the gangs should be organization would exclude the
ruthlessly suppressed. The Po- possibility of an embezzler or
lice and the Juvenile Court are forger being discovered among
called upon in almost hysterical the membership. But the fact
terms to do something and do it remains that the gang as such
quickly. That is one view and is not anti-social although condi-
at the present time there are tions over which its members
many examples of it. The other .have no control may make it
view is just the opposite. Its such. A painstaking census re-
proponents insist that there is cently made in one of our larg-
nothing to get excited about, est cities disclosed sixty-six anti-
that there always have been social gangs among more than
gangs of boys of different na- one thousand five hundred. Un-
tional and racial backgrounds, fortunately the bad gang has a
that they always have and always news value which the good gang
will indulge in a certain amount seldom possesses,
of fighting and that there is not Qn the other hand it is quite
much to be done about it as long true that in certain areas of our
as the Police are reasonably cities an increasing number of
alert and there are enough boys’ gangs are carrying on. anti-social
clubs

^

and other rfecreatiopal activities which have in some
facilities available. The truth cases resulted in death and in
lies somewhere between these some cases in injuries more or
two extremes, less serious. It is true that these



particular gangs are armed with

home-made revolvers and guns,

knives and improvised brass

knuckles and more recently, be-

cause of our carelessness in per-

mitting the entry of souvenir

revolvers, with these latter weap-

ons. It is also true that in-

stances can be cited in which boy

leadership has resulted in a de-

gree of organized and planned

gang warfare different from

that to which we have been
accustomed in the past. And
finally it is to be noted that again

in certain areas of our cities it

is relatively easy for a good

gang to change, into a bad gang.

What are the reasons for this
growing tendency of the gang

to be swung out of its more nor-

mal pattern into anti-social

lines? They are of course nu-

merous and some of them we

have known for many years.
Slum conditions and the carica-

ture of the home in the material

sense which the slum usually

affords are to be put in the fore-

front. Certain other reasons,

however, are of more immediate

importance.

In the first place should be

mentioned the mobility of popu-

lation characteristic of our

cities. So-called ‘‘areas of first

settlement,” areas in which

rents are the lowest and living

conditions the poorest, in par-

ticular, have seen wave after

wave of persons of different ra-

cial or national backgrounds

arrive and eventually depart.

Such movements of population in

their transition phases cannot

fail to produce hostility and con-

flict and in this hostility and

conflict youngsters as well as

adults have been involved.

More recently the effects of

this mobility of population have

been heightened by the racial

and religious tensions which

presumably are the backwash of

Hitlerism as well as a breakdown

in our democracy. As a result

movements of population, essen-

tially economic in their origin

and causation, have become in-

vested in the minds of many of
the people affected with a racial

and even religious significance.

This significance has been effect-

ively passed on by fathers and

mothers and other adults to

members of gangs.

The War inevitably glorified
violence. It also inaugurated

new methods of fighting known

as commando tactics for the

benefit of the organized military

forces and for the forces of re-

sistance in enemy occupied coun-

tries. Manuals of these tactics

copiously illustrated, not to men-

tion newspaper and magazine ar-



ticks, brought this type of fight-

ing to the attention of a large

public, including youngsters, and

gang warfare has been affected.

And last but by no means

least we should not forget that

a feeling of frustration is fairly

common among teen agers at the

present time. They find them-

selves in a grim and thoroughly

disorganized world; they were

stirred to prepare themselves for

service in the armed forces and

the war ended before this now

pent-up emotional drive could

find suitable expression, and dur-

ing the war years those of an

age to work became accustomed

to high wages and employment

opportunities which for them

and for their successors no long-

er exist.

There is one common factor

which runs through the causes

which I have suggested are at

the root of the increase of anti-

social activities on the part of

the gang. There is not one of

them over which the youngsters

themselves have any control

—

not one for the origin of which

they can be held responsible

—

personally or collectively. That

is a fact over which we should

do a good deal of pondering.

There are surely few men who
if they will take time off to re-

call their boyhood days will fail

to discover some sort of gang

to which they belonged, some

group that went together reg-

ularly, that had a name and a
hang-out, a’ pass-word or a sec-

ret code perhaps and some sort

of a constitution. In a word, the

gang is a perfectly natural, nor-

mal boy phenomenon. Indeed it

is more than that. In the words

of the recent Report of the Com-

mittee on Gangs or Street Clubs

of the Welfare Council of New
York City

:

‘'By its very nature the gang

has constructive potentialities.

It is a medium through which
the adolescent not only can gain

a security which arises from ac-

ceptance by one's social group,

but also through which capaci-

ties for group loyalties, leader-

ship and community responsi-

bility can be developed."

In dealing with the gang we
have followed two principal

methods. When it has gotten out
of hand or at least showed signs

of getting out of hand we have

had recourse to forcible methods

of suppression. These methods

have not worked. The gang sup-

pressed on one street corner to-

day revives minus a few mem-

bers perhaps and with a new

name next week in a probably

less desirable meeting place and,

what is more ominous for the



future, it revives with a strong

determination to get even with

those responsible for the effort

at suppression. A quite differ-
ent answer has been sought

through recreation and leisure

time agencies and that answer

too has proved inadequate for

the simple reason that the kind

of boy we are talking about says

that he isn't interested in pro-

grams concerning which he

hasn’t been consulted, that he

dislikes rules he hasn’t helped

to make and he makes unfavor-

able comparisons between his

hang-out and any building, how-

ever fine, which he says isn’t his.

At any rate recent studies have

shown that only a small percent-

age of the total adolescent age

group are participating in adult

sponsored leisure time activities

at the present time.

Clearly a new and experimen-

tal approach to the gang prob-

lem is required. The Committee

On Gangs of the Welfare Coun-
cil of New York has recommend-
ed in its recent report the imme-

diate setting up of three year

experimental projects in two

areas of the city in which there

has been serious gang conflict.

Those projects have three essen-

tial elements

:

1.

Recognition and accept-

ance of the gang.

2. Adult influence exerted

indirectly through carefully
chosen persons capable of win-

ning the confidence of the gang

and working with its members.

3. Efforts to enlist the active

interest and support of the com-

munities from which the gangs

come, first of all in behalf of the

immediate needs of the boys and

eventually in meeting community

problems of which the anti-

social gang is but one manifesta-

tion.

The emphasis in these pro-

jects will be on getting the right

sort of personnel—the kind of
man who can sit in a corner for
three hours while fourteen boys

are arguing over the by-laws of

their gang and only throw in a

question every now and again to

draw attention to some need or

convey some suggestion. The

projects will have no fixed pro-

gram and will be housed in no

building.

A project incorporating the
features recommended for New
York has been in successful op-

eration for several years in

Washington, D. C. It is known

as The Junior Police and Citi-

zens Corps and its founder and

director is a young Negro Police

Officer, Oliver A. Cowan. The

Corps started when Officer Co-
wan was given an especially



troublesome beat and found him-

self confronted with widespread

destructive gang activity. In-

stead of making wholesale ar-

rests he got to know the gangs

and he cultivated their leaders.

Before long he had won their

confidence and their cooperation.

He secured better meeting places
for each gang and with the as-

sistance of store keepers and

other persons in this particular

area of the city he was able to

get athletic equipment and rec-

reational and other facilities.

The community soon got the idea

that these were their boys and

that instead of condemning them

or doing nothing about them

they had better do something to

help them and the boys in due

course got a very similar idea:

the idea, as one boy put it, that

‘This is our part of town and

we're going to do something

for it." They have. Street lamps

are no longer smashed, store

windows are intact, alleys are

being cleaned up, an open air

canteen has been built for the

summer months on a vacant lot
from which an unsightly collec-

tion of junk has been removed

and a frame house has been ac-

quired as headquarters and is be-

ing renovated partly by the boys

themselves and partly as a pro-

ject of the manual arts depart-

ment of a nearby public school.

That is an example of what

can be done with gangs and it

suggests a slogan which is the

essence of a program:

Let's do far less to gangs and

far more with them and with

the communities from which

they come.





3^3853 7

THE CATHOLIC HOUR
1930—Seventeenth Year—1946

The nationwide Catholic Hour was inaugurated on
March 2, 1930, by the National Council of Catholic Men
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