Abstract

Gato and Alex - No Safe Place

This is the story of Gato and Alex, two Salvadorans, who as children became refugees from America's war in their homeland only to become rivals in America's gang war on the streets of Los Angeles, California. When these two homeboys finally turned their lives toward peace, there was no safe place for them. They were among the New Untouchables, the supposedly incorrigible "superpredators," whose specter justified the war on gangs that has become the worst police scandal in Los Angeles history. A better way to look at gang violence is through the mirror, as an underclass mimicry of institutional violence, including state, corporate and entertainment violence. Nation-states, including frequently inflict savage punishment to project power and preserve reputation. Not to do so is thought to invite aggression. People engage in arms races and compete to control resources like oil, while gangs assemble weapons to control the drug underground. They fight over colors. They are entranced by films about Italian, Jewish and Irish gangsters, and the new gangs emulate those movies in the belief that it is the American way.