Boyz N the Hood
Heartbreaking story in the L.A. Times today. It's cliche to admit, but sometimes, as we're wrapped up in our lives up here in Los Feliz-Beverly Hills-Miracle Mile proper -- having fun with the goofy recall election or keeping track of which new TV shows are Nielsen bombs -- it's easy to forget life in Los Angeles south of the 10 freeway.
Times reporter Jill Leovy reminds us of that world, writing about the Aug. 23 shooting of 16-year-old Daniel Fitzgerald.
Daniel was walking to a store on West 104th Street when a gang member approached him and demanded to know his gang affiliation.
But he wasn't in a gang -- and the story recounts the necessary steps he and his older brother, David, had to take in order to remain neutral in gangland:
Theirs was the burden of trying to stay neutral where young black men are not permitted to be neutral. The two boys adopted a variety of strategies: David was a soft-spoken negotiator, who sized up each situation carefully, tried to gain allies where he could, and fled when he judged it necessary.
"I don't want to endanger my family," he would explain patiently to gang members who questioned his neutrality.
Daniel, nearly 6 feet 3 and muscular, tended to attract more attention — and more aggression, his brother said. He more often adopted the pose of a fighter, trying to stand down those who threatened him or blithely ignoring them.
Some measures were second nature. David described how he and his brother nearly always wore white T-shirts and black pants to avoid appearing in gang colors. Each had a mental map of South Los Angeles — places where one gang territory ended and another began, the areas they had to avoid. At night, they never left the house.
Despite all those precautions, Daniel still ended up dead. Even being neutral can make you a target, Leovy writes.
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