I have always maintained the belief that the most important lessons in life are not taught in the classrooms. These are lessons that may be instrumental to our very survival and most of them come from very unlikely sources.

While conducting an investigation on weekend murders, I spent a couple hours with some guys from the hood. I was with six of them- all notorious “top shattas”. There was one who the others respected. To his enemies, he is one to look out for- a most wanted target. To police, he is a cold killer- top suspect in many murder investigation. To the young aspiring gangsters, he is a role model. To the young trigger youths, he is a “big breda”. I thought that by spending time with him I would better understand the ongoing gang war. However, it just made me more confused. It is difficult to understand how is it that an individual considered to be ruthless could be one of the most beloved figures in his community.

After a while, he got to a level of comfort to speak freely. He and his friends spoke about one thing that stuck out at me, the rich kids’ part in ghetto violence. He said that there are many rich kids who play major roles in gang war. One of the youngsters said, “You tink wa gun cheap den?” Their reasons for dishing out vary. Some willingly give money because they want to be left alone. Some give money because they want to be able to call for protection in times of trouble and some give money because they want to be affiliated. Children from rich families are a top supplier to street gangs.

This was not the first time I heard about their involvement; in fact, I experienced it firsthand as a teenager. When I was in third form at St. John’s College, some of my friends were giving a fellow classmate a hard time. We always ran mean jokes on each other but apparently this guy couldn’t take it any more. One evening we were at the entrance of the school compound near the pond. An SUV approached, stopped in front of us and three guys our age exited the vehicle. They were each armed with handguns and as they opened the doors one of their clips fell to the ground. As he picked it up, the other two started walking towards us with the guns pointed in our direction.

My first thought was, “We are going to be robbed; just don’t do anything stupid.” This wasn’t a strange occurrence for us as students in that area, but it was strange for robbers to come in a fancy SUV. Now about seven of us were being held up at gunpoint near the entrance of our school. It was obvious that they had no intention of robbing us when they asked for one of my friends by name. One of the gunmen pointed him out and they grabbed him and pulled him inside the vehicle. They released him after a couple minutes. It was hard to look him in the face knowing that we were unable to protect him.

When we asked what happened he told us that inside the vehicle was a friend of the classmate we were teasing and if we teased the guy again “we wouldn’t get off so easy next time”. This is the kind of protection they get when they contribute to the gangs. In a conversation I had with a gangster earlier in the year while doing a piece on a grenade attack, he said, “Rich kids who link themselves in this sh@# have no sense. They don’t need this… the only thing that they will get is their death.” 

Parents who have been fortunate to inherit or make a lot of money need to be careful about the amount of money their children have access to. Right now it might be a poor mother from the ghetto crying because she lost her son; however, your child could be next. One of the most common war tactics is to take out the enemy’s suppliers.