Tape 85 Interview with LA 24 year old Black and Native American Minneapolis Vice Lady Interviewed by Kate Cavett Hand in Hand Tuesday November 24, 1998 Shakopee Correctional Facility .05 KC: Introduce yourself to me please. LA: I'm (name), 24 years old an I currently reside at Shakopee Woman's Prison .. KC: And what name can I use? I think: I explained to you I always use anotherProject name. What name can I use for this interview? LA: Just call me L.A. KC: Lwhat? LA: L.A. KC: L.A. Okay. How old were you when you first became aware of gangs and became attracted to them? Society LA: Probably eight. Research KC: And kind of what I want to you do is tell me your story about how you got involved. You started watching them at eight, when did you start hanging around with them? LA: When I was nine. Urn, basically really got bad when we moved to Minneapolis. Urn my mom and dad have always been drugGang addicts, alcoholics, so they weren't never around. So my -- my family, my friends were you knowHistorical my fellow, ya know, whatever gang members or whatever you want to call em. KC: The other kids on the street whose parents were.... weren't around very much either? LA: Well, no it wasn't necessarilyYouth the people was just .... well you could say that, neighborhood kids I guess. I don't know. KC: I don't want to put words in your mouth, ya know. Sometimes my job is just to clarify, but I certainly don't want to ..... so you started hanging out with gang members, what gang? LA: Vice Lords. KC: Have you always beenMinnesota affiliated or interested in Vice Lords? LA: Well, that's ..... them were the people that I could relate to. I grew up ..... I grew up with the Bloods,Minnesota the Disciples, I've grown up wid em all, but people that I click with was the Vice Lords, ya know. Filer Cotton is my cousin an people know him, ya know, I just was more into wid the Vice Lords period. An them were the people that I hung out with, stole with, ya know, lived in abandoned houses with, robbed people with, I mean, we did everything together. 2.29 KC: What was most important for you about being with the Vice Lords, or being with your friends that you were hanging out with all the time? COPYRIGHT: HAND in HAND, Post Office Box 65522, Saint Paul, MN 55165 === 651-227-5987 LA 2 LA: Well I didn't have to explain myself to nobody for one. It wasn't. .. really back then it wasn't a choice of us kids jus bein .... runnin away from home, it was mostly cuz no parents were there an if they were there you were better off not there for the, ya know, being afraid of gettin abused or whatever, so ya know, there was this security we had for each other. We became each other's family, weJa know, we loved one another, we took care of one another down to the food, to the clothing. U m ..we taught each other a lot..•• street wise, ya know. How to make~,guns out a rubber bands an paper clips an all that, ya know, we taught each other all that stutT. So it was just the••. the•.• the sharing an the bonding, that's what we had 3.17. KC: Wow. So this starts at nine years old and this ... that sharing and that bonding has been with you all the way to 24? Project LA: Yes, an it's still with me now. KC: That's something you can't walk away from is it? LA: Well, a individual becomes ... it becomes to you like a religion. It's .... it's like urn ... like that.. .. a security blanket or somethin, it's.... don't know it's just different. I mean, some people look at it like oh, they just ya know want to be tough -- it's not like that. It's not a thing -- you just one day decide you wanna do, it's somethinSociety that goes wich you. Urn .... it's not out a fear that I don't leave it, because it's not.Research Ya know, my thing is if anything scares me I'm either gonna try to beat her up or tackle it or leave it alone. An it's not somethin that intimidates me it's just. .it's .... it was like my mother when she wasn't there, ya know. It's ... it has a lot offeelins and security with it. I don't, ya know, wish it for everybody, ya know becuz it's not somethin you can justGang pick up. It's somethin that goes wich you. KC: You have children don't you? LA: Yes, I do. Four young daughters. Historical KC: What are their ages? LA: Three, four, six an seven.Youth KC: Do you want your daughters to grow up and have this same kind of security and support? LA: No, I don't. KC: Can you speak to that? LA: Well, I don't but chances are, ya know, their father is a CVL just like me. Urn .... I'm sure they ... they hear about it.Minnesota I mean, I don't want them to grow up wid it, but I...I can't control my kids, I can't control what their gonna do, but, ya know, I would like to get out there an hopefullyMinnesota durin this time that I'm incarcerated change enough to where I'll be able to have some skills, ya know, and a better idea of, ya know, bein strong within myself to show them a ..... different things in life, ya know, just being there period, cuz my parents weren't. So I think, you know, a person's presence an absence has a lot to do with that. KC: Urn huh, I agree. When I do training sometimes I'll talk about how gangs are excellent parents. That they're some of the best parents that you see because they spend so much time with you nurturing you and training you how to do the skills of the street. Would you agree with that? 5.52 COPYRIGHT: HAND in HAND, Post Office Box 65522, Saint Paul, MN 55165 === 651-227-5987 LA 3 LA: Well, I'm not a bitter person and I don't dwell on the past, but ya know the upbringin that I have had, which is basically been just hard core, ya know, no feelins, ya know I wasn't really allowed to show .. J wasn't . .it wadn't no time to be a punk:. It was no time to be that, if you would, I wouldn't be here today, ya know. Um... J had to endure some stuff, I'm not bitter for it, but urn, I don't know. I've had some significant people in my life, but it seems like no matter what you do you end up in prison, becuz the ... the beliefs that I have it...it doesn't follow in suit with .... ah ... normal society so to speak or whatever. So I don't know, I.. .. I'm not sure if I understood that question. KC: Well the question was do gangs do a goodjob ... you gave a great answer. .. but do gangs do a good job of parenting kids, of raising kids, of nurturing kids when their parents don't? 6.56 LA: It's a ... it's a different kind a nurturing .. .it's completely .. you do getProject love but you get it in a different way. Urn when you're .. when you ... when you grow up without it, who's ta say if it was normal or ifit was better or ifit was right. It was nurturin that's all that really mattered ta me. So I mean, to Tom an Betty that live out in Mendota Heights, an their kid is in college that wouldn't... the way that I was, ya know, raised or treated, whatever, might not be ... they ... it would probably be horrific to them. Or, ya know, whatever, but I can't say whether it is or whether it isn't, ya know. I'm here, I survived, ya know.Society KC: Survival's an important word, isn't it, when it comeResearch to the street life or the gang life? LA: Yeah ... that's your instinct. I think: it's everybody's natural instinct to survive an ... when I was growin up that.. .. that was the thing, ya know. The parents weren't there so I had to survive. Whether it was going in the store with a big coat on with my homies stealin ten steaks, 25 pot pies, havin my friend go an steal myGang pads, my tampons, that's ... that was survival. It got me in trouble sometimes when I got caught, but it was survival. Livin in abandoned cribs .. like fifteen of us young kids, that was survival,Historical ya know. Survive ... yes, it's everybody's instinct to survive an you've got to. KC: Did your parents get soberYouth at any point in you growing up? 8.34 LA: Well my mom's still a alcoholic but. ... no, she hasn't. Urn .. my dad finally turned his life around in 1985 when me, my .... me, my little sister, brother an my older sister -- me, my older sister and my younger brother were all in juvenile an my dad was currently in Hennepin County Jail at the time, whichMinnesota he later got sent to work house for a hundred an somethin days or whatever.