DSC28TCOn page 78, it says "Police classified young people as gang members to benefit from the ability to keep track of them and impose harsher restrictions and policing on them." I thought this was crazy because a lot of young kids are not in gangs so labeling them as such is only setting them up for failure and labeling them as deviant which will eventually catch up to them and limit their opportunities in life which is just simply not fair. #so345
@DSC28TC It's insane that police will say anything about a kid to benefit their job and their ability to control the boys. It could be false and hurtful to their reputation but the police won't listen because it is not what they want to believe. It is unfair to label people as deviant when they shouldn't be. In the book the police told Spider's mom that he was in a gang when he wasn't which could form distrust between them or worse but the police don't care. #so345
@DSC28TC The worst part of this is that the police who do this fail to realize what effects this has on the kids. They most likely think that classifying kids as gang members will prevent them from committing crimes in the future, as the label would allow them to be watched more and punished harsher. But, like you said, this label just leads to limited opportunities in life because many people will not want to help or recruit someone with that label, something police need to realize. #so345