Looking for the latest Norteño gangsta
rap CD? How about a "Sureño 13" T-shirt? Shopping around for "gangster
garb" and other related merchandise is just a couple of clicks away on
eBay. Some California groups and a national gang expert accuse the
world's largest online marketplace of promoting gangs by allowing such
merchandise on its popular Web site. And they say the Internet
purchases could put naive buyers - gang "wannabes" and others - at risk
for violence. "The bottom line is, if you can go into a store or online
to buy something that basically puts a target on your back to get
killed, it's a huge concern," said Angel Rios, who heads the Mayor's
Gang Prevention Task Force in San Jose, Calif. "This is an issue."
Rios, already concerned about local stores selling gang-related
merchandise, said he was surprised to learn that similar items were
available on San Jose-based eBay. Since its inception in 1995, eBay has
been taken to task for providing a marketplace for questionable and
even controversial items. A furor over Nazi memorabilia in 2001 sparked
a revision of the company's "offensive material" policy, which was
revisited two years later when several blacks protested racially
offensive items on eBay and listings that included the n-word.
EBay spokesman Hani Durzy said he did
not believe advertising the sale of a red or blue bandanna or a T-shirt
with the number 13, a symbol for the Sureño gang, violates the policy.
They would be banned if they contained the word "kill" or explicitly
promoted a violent act. But San Jose police who have worked with street
gangs know that certain colors and numbers signal gang affiliation and
can silently trigger challenges. Herald News (Passaic County, NJ) March 31, 2005
Pictured above: "SUMMERS JUST AROUND THE
CORNER! MAKE SURE TO GET YOUR SOUTHLAND T- SHIRT. WE PRINT THE SURENO
TEES 3 TIMES A YEAR. WERE RUNNING LOW. MAKE SURE TO HAVE YOUR T-SHIRT A
HEAD OF THE GAME DONT WAIT UNTIL THE END OF SUMMER TO ORDER. SPORT YOUR
SURENO T SHIRT, BE ONE OF THE FEW THATS ON TOP OF THE GAME. O G ART
FROM EAST L A. (WHAT ARE YOU WAITING 4?" [more]
Article originally appeared on (http://brownwatch.com/).
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