Gang Leader
Whenever we hear the words gang leader, some of the most heinous thoughts come to mind. This words do not conjure up happy images and the average display of the gang leader in movies does not help with the imagery either. However, these concepts of the gang leader are often off in a sense as a gang leader does not necessarily reinforce the proverb – show me your company and I tell you who you are. The gang leader is often very different from the members of the gang and he or she needs to be so. If the gang leader is not different, what is there for the members to aspire to or look up to? A gang leader is not necessarily the hot-tempered, gun toting personality often presented in films. In many cases as in that of the sophisticated gang, the gang leader can be quite educated and smart. A good movie that highlights this is American Gangster starring Denzel Washington. In which, Denzel is trained to take over a cocaine cartel. While he can be ruthless at times, this gang leader is cool-headed most of the times. This gang leader when he found himself in severe difficulty even managed to cut a deal with the police that when caught negotiated for himself a reasonable sentence.
A typical gang leader is often the head of a family, although the word family here is not by biological blood, but by choice. This gang leader provides for a deficiency within group members typical to the dependency children have on parents. Though motivations may be different from typical children, there are many similarities. Just as how children wait with a naïve innocence on their parents to impart identity to them; members of a gang, wait on the gang leader to do the same for them. Just as how children live a large portion of the earlier years of their lives for the affection of parents, so do members live for the gang leader in the hopes on getting close to the gang leader. In a case where gang members have higher aspirations, this submission could be a cover to get close enough to overthrow the gang leader. Why overthrow the gang leader as opposed to forming your own gang? The sense of power and respect the new gang leader thinks he has stepped into.
A gang leader is often someone with a natural ability to lead but leadership for this gang leader is often but is misguided, misappropriated and misused. This is due in part to the following, though a gang leader need followers to be validated, the gang leader does not easily trust his or her followers. Trust for a gang leader would make him too vulnerable. Some gang members are like sharks. They will mistake vulnerability for weakness and if a gang leader leaves himself careless he is easily devoured. Though the above sounds sad, it is a key indicator of those more likely to become gang leaders.
On an objective note though, a gang leader is needed to keep order within a gang. In this case the gang leader is like the ‘alpha male’ within a pack of lions. The only problem with this is that the gang leader will find himself at different point having to defend his position. The gang leader is above the gang members in rank, thus having ability to influence members, as opposed to a regular gang member.
A gang and gang leader are not recent phenomena. For as long as there have been different sets of people there have been gangs and gang leaders.
