12th Street: 'We killed people for telling'

This eight-minute video, posted on YouTube, features a group of gun-toting 12th Street Kansas City gangbangers flashing their dope, their weapons and their views of the world.

It's hard to watch, harder to listen to and not safe for work - lots of bad language. There's an occasional rap-music overlay, and a narrator who I take to be the film-maker, madjohann. This is by far his most popular video, viewed 4,309 times when I saw it yesterday.

There's a guy who shows his finger he says was shot off, and another who says he saw a killing as a child. Perhaps most attention-grabbing is a wobbly older guy who boasts about robbing banks 25 years ago, "like Robin Hood", so a) people wouldn't disrespect 12th Street and b) sons and daughters wouldn't have to be poor like he was.

He seems to lament that it's not as easy to kill snitches as it used to be.

"We killed people for telling," he says. "We killed people for taking a stand. Their momma, their daddy, everyone else got to go. Nowadays, people got things kind of f*ed up, somehow."

Right.

Update 8:40 a.m.: This is apparently part of a five-hour, 2005 double DVD, Hood 2 Hood, featuring similar segments for KCK and a couple dozen other cities, reader Mike P. tells me. Thanks!

Hat tip to reader ScooterJ!

A reminder:
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Comments

[TomKat]

I made the mistake of watching this-
It really makes me proud to be from Kansas City. It is clear to me that we need to spend more money on jail construction and law enforcement....

[Dutchboy]

Remember that these folks live in public housing, probably get some kind of money benefit every month, and spend time in prison, all at the taxpayer expense.

Can we put them on the dark side of the moon until they learn to behave? Or maybe we should drop ship them into Iran?

[Reminder - Please sign your comments]

What's the big deal? This goes on in every major city. This is what society does to some groups of people. If these guys live in the projects, what do we expect them to do with their time? This is the lifestyle they've learned growing up, unfortunately. Just take it as a good promo for KC....makes us look like we're tough around here. LOL.

[JC_in_KC]

Wow, he has weed and has a gun. They talk about robberies and murders. Why do people want to legalize drugs again? I guess stupid people want to do stupid things.

[keith]

You blame society and this and that, but people it is all in how you are brought up. Parents who care. Obviously, the parent(s) of the people didn't do what they were required and responsible to do. Do whatever it taked to make sure their children know right from wrong and make sure that they become the best person that they can become. I don't think they ever got that message. Hell, I bet their parent(s) get messed up with them and talk the same way as them.

[G]

Their parents are probably dead or in jail.

The next time you bleeding hearts feel like chewing out the cops for being too rough, or for being mean to people, or blah blah blah...watch this video and see exactly the kind of people they are dealing with.

[JC_in_KC]

that is right, it is the 90/10 rule. They deal with the bottom 10% of the population 90% of the time and the other 90% of the population 10% of the time.

[Scott]

I like how the older guy is talking about robbing banks ... like Robin Hood ... so people won't be poor like he was. I have a piece of advice, go find a job instead of gang banging.

[Big al]

This goes to show, if you create an animal(society), the animal is going to one day be the most dangerous thing you can deal with if not properly raised,and nourished. The govt. allows us to have public housing, and have guns, liquor, and drugs on every corner in the inner city. These kids and adults are victims and if you ask anyone of them, they never had a chance to get out and succeed. We take for granted hot meals and clean beds to sleep in at night, I know families that sleep on mattress's that are so filthy they are brown and dont even think about sheets... the point is that if the Govt. focused more on helping than destroying it would get better, but by putting drugs and liqour stores in the hood, they know we will just keep killing ourselves!!
Why in JO they have laws to have only one liqour store per zone? What the F#^%K is a zone???? Why dont they exist in the inner city?? Economic racism is the number one killer of minorities in the country right now.

Peace out

[You're a mean drunk R2D2]

I really hope that we see all of these men in this video in the Obits soon.

Like we really need jackasses like this repping themselves and the hardcore way of life they live.

[Dogbite]

Is'nt civic pride a wonderful thing?

[Vibiana]

Not to sound like a bleeding heart liberal, but the people who end up like these guys never had a chance. Most of them were born to single teenage mothers and have never lived in a home where anybody had to get up and go to work every morning. Their perception is life is 180 degrees removed from normal.

[Second reminder - Please sign your comments]

We need more govt intervention like other countries have. You don't hear about thousands of homicides every year in Europe and Canada, do you? That's because there's free education, health care, and pretty much any basic needs are taken care of ADEQUATELY, not to the point where people are just "getting by" like they are here. If we actually had a country that cared about its people, and not its war budget, then we'd be a lot better off and would have a lot less people who are forced into being in this position of toting weapons and selling drugs.

(Anonymous: In the future, please remember to sign your comments in the "Name" box. This keeps them from popping up in my 'delete' list. Thanks, Greg Reeves)

[Rich]

I find two points from this film interesting:

1.) Where are the police when people are openly displaying loaded handguns and weed? I know, they are on 71 highway protecting and serving by stopping people on their way to work

2.) I especially enjoyed the young "playa" complaining about "licka stows" every 5 blocks. I guess since most of those people receive socialistic public assistance they have never heard of the economic principal of supply and demand, one of those pesky capitalism problems. If you don't have demand, you stop having supply.
It is sort of like when whites in "nice" neighborhoods complain when adult oriented stores want to open they say..."no one will patronize this place so why do they want to open one here?" As a point of fact, stores don't open where people won't buy things from them.
So Jamal, if you want the liquor stores gone, stop buying 40 ounces of King Cobra there each morning at 9:30! If Todd and Margo in Prairie Village don't want a Priscilla's in their neighborhood, they can stop buying vibrators and renting movies there "in secret" once they are open.

This "cut" underscores that everyone in life is born with a choice. You can choose to be a thug, smoke weed, PCP or dip cigarettes in embalming fluid. Or, you can choose to try to be a normal citizen and follow the rules, or at least try you best not to break every rule possible and flaunt that you do along the way in a profanity laced 8 minute long piece of sheer idiocy.

[Monty]

Keep the "Profit By Pregnancy" welfare system going and this is what you get from all races.Maybe things have changed but I thought the Brothas on the mid 50"s between Paseo and Prospect were scarier than these clowns.At least during the 1990"s.

[You're a mean drunk R2D2]

Yea, I'm hardcore, and this is how I roll man!

[openmind]

JC,

If weed were legal, these guys wouldnt be the ones making money from selling it. They wouldnt be out trying to kill other dealers to steal their money either. You dont see any alcohol bootleggers out shooting people nowadays do you?

You all seem to think that it is easy to make it out of that lifestyle and that everyone starts out the same. Why do we mainly hear about this stuff from the poor then? Are they just inherently bad people, or do you think maybe their environment might play a role?

[Esq2eB]

Yeah, real tough gangbangers making a movie for YouTube. I wonder what their MySpace page says! I bet they have sleepovers at gramps house and spend all night instant messaging the honies down the street. I have seen tougher people on after school specials!

[chris h]

these people are boastful, angry, uneducated persons completely left behind by society - as have their families. notice that the drug dealing fellow sells drugs to buy expensive shoes AND "cuz i gotta eat."

i guess i shouldn't be surprised that persons on this forum are using this video as an opportunity to spout their classist, racist political platform. "profit for pregnancy?" give me a break. the people in this video definitely have the opportunity in america to scrape themselves out of the gutter and try to make it, but the adversities they face are absolutely incredible. naturally, some of the people on this forum want to delete even MORE opportunities from these peoples lives. i bet it feels heroic to spout the right-wing talking points about race, class, and crime from the comfort of their overland park home! are you doing anything to help these people, or just trying to make sure the drawbridge is lifted and these people are kept out of mainstream life forever?

i see this entire video as a call for help. i bet 90% of the things they are saying are lies - they're trying to act tough in response to hard times. instead of dismissing these people and marginalizing them even more than they already are (and pushing them to become even more desperate and commit more crimes), perhaps we need to re-assess how society processes these people. the cycle of prison obviously doesn't work.

[Robo]

Don't worry, they'll all kill each other soon anyway. The only problem is there's always more to take their places...

[chris h]

it should be noted that these people did not make the video for youtube. it's part of a DVD series called Hood 2 Hood, where the filmmaker traveled to poor neighborhoods all over the US to talk to locals. the KCMO one is one of the more shocking ones.

[Not Tupac]

Yeah, the 33rd Streeters, (blue?) and the 55th streeters, (red?) are the one's we all read about see on Teeveee. 12th streeters? Hmmm...

Maybe they're pussies. They need to promote their "toughness". Real men wouldn't risk this being used as evidence, as it most surely will, now that the caped crusader who runs this blog has alerted authorities.

[JC_in_KC]

Chris - You are right they face tremendous adversities. They must stop dinking alcohol and doing drugs, they should go to school (yeah public school is not great in the inner city, but better than the streets), maybe the spend some of their freetime getting a job. Go to a junior college and maybe on to a university and get out of the hood. It happens everyday with youth from the innercity.

[JC_in_KC]

Oh yeah they should probably stop carrying guns, shooting people, and robbing banks.

[Not Tupac]

"are you doing anything to help these people,"

Uuhh, that would be a "no"...

Is the term "Social Darwinism" liberal enough for you? Some organisms simply cannot make it in the environment they find themselves in. They die or migrate to better niche.

Adapt or die. It's part of evolution. If we, as a society move forward, we MUST leave those folks behind.

[UU]

Rich- Jamal is not even up at 9:30am. Neither is Tyrone except when it's the morning to pick up the government check and cheese.
What it all boils down to is this: Children in these areas need to know that their main priority in life is not to finish college, sell stocks and bonds, nor to own a fancy car with 20 inch rims; their goal is get the heck out of that area. Period. If they don't know this, then nothing will change.
As for these thugs, they are in an animal society and the best possible thing would be for their bloodline to stop. I agree many of them never had a chance. But when they reach the age of accountability they know what is right and wrong as far as street vs. decent life.

[chris h]

of course they should go to school, get jobs, go to college, etc...

however, when you are 17 and read at a 3rd grade level and your family is starving, are you going to go out and sell drugs for $500/day, or are you going to go sling french fries at McD's for $800/month?

[chris h]

the term "social darwinism" is a cop out idea that permits people to justify their own sense of superiority, disconnectedness from other persons, and sheer laziness.

these "organisms" are just doing what they can to survive in their harsh environment. american society continues to marginalize them under the cop out rubric of "individualism." meanwhile, every other Western country has about 1/10000 as much crime as the US.

[JC_in_KC]

sounds like a personal decision, but I would take the McDonalds for $800, bob. Many kids do. I worked at a Price Chopper at Bannister and Blue Ridge. Lots of kids from the innercity worked there in Highschool to help the family and lots went on to the local community college. So if they cannot make the right choice, why should society keep giving them handouts.

[Not Tupac]

"are you going to go out and sell drugs for $500/day, or are you going to go sling french fries at McD's for $800/month?"

Actually, they do both. The McD's job is the cover from the po-po and the tax man.

That's why: Dont eat fast food in the inner city.

[Mark L]

I agree these people are a disgrace and need to be delt with, but so do many of you. All these "Jamal and Tyrone" comments; racist pigs.

[chris h]

those "handouts" (please) are often the difference between a family (barely) making it and being homeless and transient.

most people receiving these reviled "handouts" are not like the people in this video. there are probably tens of thousands of people on public assistance in the KC area, and very few of them are shooting each other or selling crack. again, people like to cite criminals like those in the video as an excuse to deprive needy families of subsistence.

i just cannot understand the reasoning spouted by so many here. these people in the video are not exactly swimming in funds, whether govt-provided or otherwise. we smugly talk of ending "handouts" from the comfort of our cubicles at Sprint while people needlessly suffer and turn to drugs and crime a few miles away. then, when slashing funding doesn't reduce the crime, you think we should take MORE help away? is it possible that these people need more help than anyone?

[Not Tupac]

the term "social darwinism" is a cop out idea that permits people to justify their own sense of superiority, disconnectedness from other persons, and sheer laziness."

Well, I guess you don't really understand Darwinism of any kind. "Lazy". No that won't help you survive in a tough world. "Sense of superiority" will only hurt by creating a false sense of self. Hey that sounds like they way our gangers are acting, huh?

And "superiority". I certainly don't have to justify" myself. I AM superior than those clowns. Straight up. I AM disconnected from them.

And what they are doing is trying to die, not "survive". They are terminal. Dead by 30.

[BLACK MANS NIGHTMARE]

... THIS IS WHY THE
AFRICAN AMERICANS HAVE NEVER REACHED
THE LEVEL OF OTHER AMERICANS.
CLEAN UP YOUR HOUSES AND GET RID OF THE
DRUGS...MURDER...GUNS...RAPES!
ITS YOUR OWN FAULT BLACK AMERICA...
YOU HAVE LET YOUR CHILDREN FALL INTO
THE EXCUSES TRAP. HOW MANY LIQOUR STORES
IN YOUR AREA? YES..ITS SOCIETIES FAULT
FOR THAT..ITS SOCIETIES FAULT FOR
EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS TO YOU.
YOU ARE ALL THE FILTH OF SOCIETY AND I
AM TIRED OF THE MANPOWER AND RESOURCES
GOING TO TRY TO HELP YOU..NO MORE SAFETY
NET FOR YOU ..ITS TIME WE CUT YOU
OFF AND LET YOU FEND FOR YOURSELF.
WHAT DISGUSTING TRASH ... HAVE WE
CREATED..............

[mo4life]

I totally agree JC. I know we need to do something with the poorer communities, but handouts are not the answer. It's time to get educated and get jobs. In a utopian society, we might be able to make things "better". I'm not for sure if the education was offered and jobs became available if the handout specialists would go to work.

[*****]

You can have parents who are good people, but their kids still choose to do the wrong thing. There are families in the projects, suburbs and in the country where one of their kids is studious and the other commits crimes.

The visual of that one guy in the video showing off his shoes and clothes while standing on the trash littered grass was just hilarious. He sees himself as being so slick, but he can't see beyond his nose to know the trash makes him look like a fool. I'm not going to touch on their criminal ways, but it's so ironic when they talk about others disrespecting their set while they disrespect themselves by standing in the trash and not picking it up. Brains on drugs.

[JC_in_KC]

Noone was saying take away money from those who need it and are trying to help themselves. The ones in this video are doing neither. They are helping themselves to profits from crime and that should not be subsdidized by tax dollars. The single mom with a kid or two, yes help her out the mother that keeps having kids although she is poor and trying to increase the amount of welfare without providing for those kids, hell no. take her kids and provide for them and let her fend for herself and get a job.

[chris h]

the people in the video are ignorant and dangerous, but the people who want to starve them of what little they have are even more ignorant and dangerous. what do you think happens when you take away the little help that is provided to an armed, angry, uneducated kid? it begets more violence, more resources spent on incarceration, etc. people on this forum arrogantly want to pull the plug on these "clowns" but then complain when the problems get worse. no one wants to get at the root of these problems, people just want to run away. sad.

[Anthony]

Try to understand thats how we came up,you get to know us, you'll love us but you can't change us. Really we rather be rich and famous,but in the mean time were forced to slang dust'Dro or crackcocaine, Penicillin to Rogaine,Ecstacy, Viagra,whatever'll get the dough man,Im tired of people mis-representing my dough man, Oh you think we out here,killing for nothing, hustling,for no gain. But our options are few its hell in high school When your helping with the rent,lights and the gas bill too,So before you go judging us loving us won't hurt, When you're under 25 staying alive is hard work

[Vibiana]

"Let them get jobs" is oversimplified. As someone pointed out, many of these guys can barely read or write, in addition to the fact that they may have had no role model for working every day. You can't just push people off the dole who have never been properly prepared for supporting themselves.

Training and education are expensive. Are those of you who are saying "Get a job" willing to let your tax dollars be used to help prepare people for work?

[mo4life]

if my tax dollars are used to educate the individuals who want to help themselves, it's well served. i'd rather pay for education than welfare.

[JC_in_KC]

agreed, and I thought public schools were free to go to. Like I said I know it is not the greatest, but at least they can learn to read, write, and make a coherent sentence.

[Vibiana]

JC: Public schools are free -- and you get what you pay for, especially in inner cities. Most inner city school systems are terrible, and these kids are living proof. That's assuming they even had a parent involved enough to insist that they go to class.

Please understand that I'm not excusing the parents of kids like this. But we can't turn back the hands of time. They were born, they're here, and all we can do now is try to correct what damage is done.

[Ron Burgandy]

I bet they all have pit bulls!

[Sandra]

UU - You give animals a bad name by referring to these stupid ... as animals.

And people wonder why 'young, black males' are the target of prejudice. Hell, yeah, I'm prejudice against this kind of blatant stupidity!

It's not the color of their skin, it's their behavior.

[JC_in_KC]

Vib - I think we are agreeing. I said they are not the best, but they are better than nothing. For those who want to go back and learn even though they are older, I am all for spending a little more tax money on anyone that wants to help themselves. That is the key.

[openmind]

If people on here are such shining examples of humanity, then get out there and be a role model. A lot of people who end up like this really dont have any role models, so they really have no idea what they should be doing. Its easy for you to say, "well they should have a job" but if no one in your life or around you has ever done that, you wont know to do it either.

Seriously though, join the Big Brothers Big Sisters Program and make a difference. I am in the program and my little brother lives literally right around the corner from these people. If you dont get out there and show them how to make their life better, then the people in the video will be the ones showing them. Dont tell them about the virtues of "getting a job a McDonalds for $800/month instead of selling drugs" show them what it can do for them in the long run. Right now all they see are the drug dealers making $500/day and how thye are living.

Its easy to criticize from your safe home while on the internet, it takes much more intestinal fortitude to actually do something about it.

[aqua]

It's all about a can-do attitude.

Tell these guys they are worthwhile. Tell them there is a better way. But they must listen and change their ways.

Bill Cosby is getting roasted by the people he is trying to help.

It's all about a can-do attitude.

Our inner city school system is not terrible. What's terrible is our attitude towards inner city school. Our kids will only get out of school what they put into school. You talk to any inner city school teacher and they will tell you. It's not how they are set up, it is the poor attitudes the kids bring into the classrooms.

It's all about a can-do attitude.

[Sandra]

Vibiana - I'm sick of blaming society for the behavior of these people. Aren't there others out there who were born poor who overcame it and became responsible adults??

Stop enabling these stupid thugs and let's get them the hell off the streets.

[Vibiana]

To overcome being born poor is a tremendous accomplishment. It requires people to first show you that there's another way to live, as openmind pointed out. Yes, there are people who have overcome being poor, but there can never be enough people to help them.