Getting The ‘Best’ While They Can

I asked Roberto, and he answered.

“Yes, it’s a good feeling when people are scared of you,” he said. “You’re just a little teenager - but they’re scared!”

Roberto, 17, sat there at Arizona’s Adobe Mountain detention center near Phoenix in a green T-shirt and dark blue tattoos, his brown eyes alert, his tone polite.

The leader of a small west-Phoenix gang, he’s been linked to a long list of serious crimes.

“It’s that feeling inside of you,” Roberto said, driving a fist into his palm. “It’s something to laugh about! Most of us don’t have much out there (in society), so we just do what we want.”

Later I asked Jaime. He answered too.

“Shoot you - oh, no, I wouldn’t do that!” Jaime, 16, is a lanky kid with sleepy eyes and a soft voice. I’m told he’s a rising soldier in the Valley’s largest gang.

“I mean, you’ve interviewed me, you might recognize my face,” Jaime explained earnestly. “If I shot you and you didn’t die, you could turn me in.”

Finally, I asked Kevin, a 17-year-old African-American from central Phoenix who squints as he ponders my question.

“No, I’m not afraid to die,” he said mildly. “There’s nothing to life, anyway. What’s the purpose?”

In fact, it’s better to die young.

“Right now, I love just my mom and (my gang). But if I get older, I’ll meet more people and I’ll grow to love some of them. That’s not going to keep me from dying; it’ll just make it harder on my heart to go.

“The longer you live,” Kevin said, “the more you don’t want to die.”

Say hello to the next generation.

Juvenile crime is all over the news these days. Politicians, experts, cops, judges and even columnists are clamoring to share their insights and answers. So I decided to consult the source.

I spoke separately with three hard-core gang members - their names changed for this column; three of the Valley’s bountiful new crop of young monsters.

They refer to their activities as “putting in work.” Police call it drive-by shootings, carjackings, robberies and drug dealing. An Adobe Mountain staffer said, “They’re what people would call the ‘worst of the worst.’ “

Scary? Depressing? Quite right.

But it gets worse.

For the bitter truth is that these three are not really monsters or lunatics or aliens in our midst. They are bright, resourceful, articulate, savvy youngsters. They are old beyond their years.

They’re the sort of youths we should be welcoming as tomorrow’s leaders, especially in our minority communities.

Instead, they’re helping keep those communities down, mired in the same cycle of fear, rage, violence and vengeance that swept these boys into crime while they were still grade-school kids.

While their families weep and their neighbors hide. While the rest of us send in the police, then stand at a safe distance offering insults and advice.

I want you to listen to these youths. Not because they’re heros or geniuses; just because I think they were telling the truth.

Like Roberto, a sturdy young guy with a sweet smile who dropped out of school after eighth grade after his parents divorced. He started shoplifting, breaking into houses, stealing cars.

Did no one tell him that’s wrong?

“My dad did,” Roberto said, “but I had some hatred for him because he was never around. Why should I listen to him?”

His mother? Roberto shrugged. “I didn’t want to listen to a woman.

“Anyway,” he added, “I figured life’s going to end soon; you might as well get the best of it while you can.”

Then Roberto started counting up dead family members and friends. Then his girlfriend gave birth to a son.

“My mom and her mom started making me think: My own dad wasn’t around for me a lot; what if I die and I’m not around for my son his whole life?”

At 17, Roberto is thinking hard. He’s gotten his GED and has a job if he wants it. Does he? Can monsters change?

“There’s something inside of every person that could change them,” he said. “I seen it happen. A big part of it is - I don’t know - a lot of people need love but they have too much pride to admit it.”

Sounds good. But what will happen if another gang starts harassing him?

“I guarantee you that will happen,” Roberto said soberly.

“And I guarantee I’ll take care of it.”

xxxx