Gang Deconstruction

e burned on as well as inked. Some gangs make use of more than one identifier, like
the Nortenos, who wear red bandanas and have "14", "XIV", "x4", and "Norte"
tattoos. Also, many male gang members wear earrings or other types of body jewelry,
or simply have pierced ears to depict gang membership, unlike females, who usually
wear jewelry for fashion.
Gangs often establish distinctive, characteristic identifiers
including graffiti tags colors, hand signals, clothing (for example, the gangsta rap-type
hoodies), jewelry, hair styles, fingernails, slogans, signs (such as the noose and the
burning cross as the symbols of the Klan), flags secret greetings, slurs, or code words
and other group-specific symbols associated with the gang's common beliefs, rituals,
and mythologies to define and differentiate themselves from other groups and gangs.
As an alternative language, hand-signals, symbols, and slurs in speech, graffiti, print,
music, or other mediums communicate specific informational cues used to threaten,
disparage, taunt, harass, intimidate, alarm, influence, or exact specific responses
including obedience, submission, fear, or terror. One study focused on terrorism and
symbols states that "[s]ymbolism is important because it plays a part in impelling
the terrorist to act and then in defining the targets of their actions." Displaying a gang
sign, such as the noose, as a symbolic act can be construed as "a threat to
commit violence communicated with the intent to terrorize another, to cause evacuation
of a building, or to cause serious public inconvenience, in reckless disregard of the risk
of causing such terror or inconvenience … an offense against property or involving
danger to another person that may include but is not limited to recklessly endangering
another person, harassment, stalking, ethnic intimidation, and criminal mischief."
The Internet is one of the most significant media used by gangs to communicate in
terms of the size of the audience they can reach with minimal effort and reduced
risk. The Internet provides a forum for recruitment activities, typically provoking rival
gangs through derogatory postings, and to glorify their gang and themselves. Gangs
use the Internet to communicate with each other, facilitate criminal activity, spread their
message and culture around the nation. As Internet pages like MySpace, YouTube,
Twitter, AIM, and Facebook become more popular, law enforcement works to
understand how to conduct investigations related to gang activity in an online
environment. In most cases the police can and will get the information they need,
however this requires police officers and federal agents to make formal legal requests
for information in a timely manner, which typically requires a search warrant or
subpoena to compel the service providers to supply the needed information. A grand
jury subpoena or administrative subpoena, court order, search warrant; or user consent
is needed to get this information pursuant to the Electronic Communication Privacy Act,
Title 18 U.S.C. § 2701, et seq. (ECPA). Most gang members have personal web pages
or some type of social networking internet account or chat room where they post photos
and videos and talk openly about their gang exploits. The majority of the service
providers that gang members use are free social networking sites that allow users to
create their own profile pages, which can include lists of their favorite musicians, books
and movies, photos of themselves and friends, and links to related web pages. Many of
Page 26 of 110