IBO - Brian R. Lundin (100 books to read in a lifetime .txt) 📗

was just the opposite of Paco, he was a good student and well liked by his classmates. He was popular with the young children in Robert Taylor, whom he often treated to ice cream from the Good Humor Ice Cream truck.
Both Malik and Paco were members of the State Street Boys street gang.
Paco was jealous of Malik; he resented the respect that Malik got from the younger and older people in community and the older gang members. Where Paco had a reputation for being a bully and harassing and intimidating the elderly and young people in Robert Taylor, Malik was always helpful to them, helping the older women with their groceries or tutoring the younger children.
One hot and humid July afternoon, Malik was returning home from the library when he saw Paco and his two friends, Lobo and Jimmyboy both twelve years old, slapping around a little boy about six years old. Paco was holding the little boy by the neck and slapping him in his face. Lobo and Jimmyboy was standing around laughing as the little boy started to cry, Malik saw blood coming from his mouth.
“Whoa, Paco, what’s happening?” Malik asked.
“I’m teaching this little motherfucka some respect,” Paco answered defiantly.
“What did he do?” Malik asked, reaching for the child.
“None of your fuckin’ business, man,” Paco, said, tightening his grip on the little boy.
“I gave you all the money I had Paco,” the little boy said crying.
“Let him go Paco,” Malik demanded angrily.
“Fuck………….”
Before Paco could finish, Malik had slammed his fist into Paco’s stomach, causing him to lose his breath and release the child as he bent over in pain and vomited.
The little boy ran over to Malik and tightly held his leg.
Malik looked challengingly at Lobo and Jimmyboy who had started to back away with their hands in the air.
“We don’t want no trouble, Malik,” Lobo said.
“You ok, little man? Malik asked, gently wiping away the blood and tears from his face.
“I’m ok, thank you Malik,” the little boy said, hugging Malik’s pants leg.
“You go on home now,” Malik said softly as he straightens the boy’s clothes.
Malik watched as the little boy walked away sniffling.
“You then fucked up now motherfucka,” Paco said with a smirk as Lobo and Jimmyboy were helping him to his feet.
“You’re going to get sanctioned for hitting me, asshole. The Simbas going to kick your ass,” Paco said with a smirk as he and his buddies started to walk away.

Chapter 5

The State Street Boys are one of the largest, most notorious and most violent street gang in Chicago. They have been involved in murders, robberies and are major drug dealers. The Chicago Police Gang Crimes Unit estimates their membership to be over two thousand in Chicago alone.
In the fifties most of the black drug dealers usually worked for Italian gangsters or the Mafia. The black drug dealer made money but the Italian gangsters made more money. In the late fifties and sixties, the drugs of choice were heroin and marijuana, only wealthy athletes or celebrities could afford powered cocaine. The outfit or organized crime would buy the drugs in Mexico or Asia where it was processed and transported into the United States.
The Blackstone Rangers, one of Chicago’s earliest black street gangs began to rob the street dealers and take their dope and money, and if they knew whom the supplier was they robbed him also. The white gangsters became very concerned about these robberies and their first impulse was to kidnap or murder the young leaders of the gang, but they were also concerned about the black communities’ outcry even though they were gang bangers and dope dealers. Instead, the gangsters resorted to another tactic; they decided to let the Blackstone Rangers control the sale of narcotics in their neighborhoods, but they would sell the drugs to them. The gangsters knew the young black gangs didn't have the sophistication or connections to get drugs directly from the drug cartels in Mexico, Central America, or Asia, plus now they did not have to worry about their people being arrested for selling drugs. The Italian mobsters and the Blackstone Rangers gang became partners in the drug business.
In the late sixties The State Street Boys started out as a loosely knit group of restless young boys that shared a passion for the ghetto sports, sandlot football, baseball and basketball, which evolved into friendships and solidified the bond between the young men. They hung out in the parking lot of the Arab owned grocery and liquor store located at 51st South State Street.
The owner only allowed two youngsters in at a time, hoping to avoid thefts and three of his sons always watched them and followed them around when they were in the store. Whenever they ventured out of Robert Taylor Homes, they traveled in groups of five or more for protection.
The playground was the central meeting place for the gang and only gang members could ride the swings or slide on the sliding boards. The playground was where the gang congregated, smoked their dope and talked about who had been killed or shot, who had been arrested. A group of gang members was sitting in the swings making up rap lyrics while another group was shooting dice. Two gang members were pushing a shopping cart that contained junk metal. A dope fiend was leaning against a building wall doing the dope fiend lean, which was in a half standing and half falling position. Gang members were stationed in different buildings selling marijuana and crack cocaine, Malik was sitting on a swing reading a book when Cinque the Head Simba of the gang approached.
Cinque Binnwa was the head Simba and was a muscular young man with large hands and long and narrow fingers. He was born in the Louisiana Bayou and was a Cajun. He was 6’4”, tall, and had the lean, graceful body of a pro football wide receiver and he moved with the grace and surefootedness of a distant runner. He had light reddish brown skin, which was accentuated by his jet black eyes and coal black wavy hair a result of his African and Seminole heritage. Cinque was the leader of the Simbas violent young men that had all served time in the penitentiary for gang approved killings and they never violated the oath; they did not inform on the gang or cooperate with the authorities.
Kidnapped Blood and all of his drug dealers and took them to a CHA abandon warehouse at 43rd South Federal Street where Robert’s and ten Simba were waiting.
“Didin’ you get my message,” Roberts asked Blood.
“Yeah, I got it Nigga, so what,” Blood said defiantly.
“So, you are out of the bisness in the jets,” Roberts said.
“Fuck you, Nigga; you know who I work with?”
“I know your connect is those greasy hair Italian muthafuckas and I have already cut a deal with them. They don’t give a fuck who buys their shit.”
“I gave you fair warning cause you’se a brother. You didin’ heed my warning so now you pay.”
The Simbas tied Black and his ten dealers to chairs with a Simba behind each chair. Roberts nodded to Cinque and Cinque nodded to the ten Simbas. On cue, each Simba injected the dealers with an overdose of pure heroin. Black was in tears as he watched his dealers foam at the mouth and twist in their chairs.
Cinque approached the dealers and pulled out a slender bladed, extremely sharp and large fish fillet knife and with one swipe of his big knife cut off their heads. Black’s eyes widen in fear as Cinque approached him with the blood of his dealers dripping off the knife. I heard that Cinque got a nut in his pants as he decapitated Black. Cinque then ordered three Simbas to throw the heads into Lake Michigan.
The three Simbas carefully wrapped the heads in black plastic bags secured with duct tape and loaded them into a car and threw the heads into the lake while five other Simbas wrapped the bodies in old rugs and placed them in a dumpster in the Ida B. Wells projects. Two days later children playing found the headless bodies in dumpsters at the Ida B. Wells Homes, a public housing development on 39th South Vernon Avenue
The Boys were now in the drug business.
By the late 80’s, crack developed as a simpler and cheaper alternative to powdered cocaine and was highly addictive and we controlled all the drugs sold from 22nd Street South to 5500 South from Federal Street on the west to Michigan Avenue on the east. We also charged a “Street Tax,” on gambling joints, chop shops, and other illegal activities. 47th Street from State Street to Cottage Grove Avenue is the epicenter of the black community. It is believed by the blacks that live in the area that a person could get anything he or she wanted on the street from drugs to designer clothes. Whites and Jews owned most of the businesses but blacks owned the bars and restaurants. We are equal opportunity extorters. If a business, black, white or Jewish wanted to remain in business he had to pay the gang. The monies we gang received from the drug sells, extortions and “Street Taxes,” enable us to open legitimate businesses. These businesses included used car dealerships, fast food restaurants, real estate and taverns and they also allowed the gang to launder the money.
The fuckin’ police, black and white harassed the young black men in the development, some of who were gang bangers and some were not, but we paid off the be eat police officers that allowed us to peddle our goods without interference.
But remember our “Rep,”is very important.
“How do we become members,” Malik asked taking a bite of his hamburger.
“You have to undergo an initiation or “blessing,” before being accepted into the gang.”
“What the fuck is a “blessing?” Paco asked.
“You have to be, “Jumped In.”
“What the fuck is that?” Malik asked
“This initiation required the new member to fight three or four other gang members and if he did not “punk out” by crying and fight, he is accepted. Another route to entry into the gang is to commit a crime, robbery, rape or murder. Once in the gang the recruit now is a family member. You can wear your cap to the right side, wear black and red clothing, the gang colors and play in the playground. Only members are allowed to play in the playground any other mutherfuckas will get his ass kicked or get a cap popped in his ass. Only gang members can wear their hats on the right side or wear the gang’s colors. Any offense against a gang member or his family would result in severe and often deadly retaliation or sanctions. New members generally start out by committing minor crimes; shoplifting, rolling drunks or breaking out the windows of businesses that refused to be extorted. You work your way up in the organization by building a reputation or “Juice,” which usually involved committing a criminal act; morality is