Ross Kemp at his hardest! (Easy!) (Gangs - Ross Kemp)

Member Name: kaitlinsmummy

Product:	Gangs - Ross Kemp
Date:	09/09/08 (109 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A truthful insite.

Disadvantages: Sometimes it's too truthful.

Anyone familiar with my book reviews will know that I am a chick lit and romance book lover, I occasionally stray from that path towards the vampire genre, but generally come back to the old and trusted, so the book I will now review is something that I would not normally choose!

The book I will now review is "Gangs, by Ross Kemp"

I mentioned in passing a couple of weeks ago to my sisters boyfriend that I had watched the series that went with the book on sky one. What I actually meant was that my husband watched it and with us only having sky digital in one room and a television in the bedroom that started whistling after being on for more than 10 minutes I relented and watched it with him!

Yes, I did find the series brutal and disturbing, but at the same time I found the featured gang members fascinating, in a macabre sort of way.

This is the first time I have agreed with him on his choice of programmes, he is a young 'un who watches family guy, which I just don't get! (My sisters boyfriend, not my husband!)

So on this revelation (the same programme viewing, not the family guy thing!), he offers me the use of the book that accompanies the series.
Ok, I know I still have a pile of 30 books to work my way through, and also 40 Mills and Boon books to start but this offer was enticing....... Do I scare the shit out of myself, reading about true life murderers or do I stick to heaving bosoms and throbbing members?

Well of course I borrowed it, or else I would be writing this review for no reason!

The book comprises of an introduction, 7 chapters on the worst gangs in the world and finally the conclusion.

INTRODUCTION - As mentioned before, this series and book was undertaken by tv's hardman Ross Kemp, best known as one half of the comically frightening Mitchell brothers from EastEnders.
I have to be truthful I always assumed that the reason he was marked out for presenting this series was because of his on screen character, I never realised the entire concept was his!
Born in 1964, Ross was the son of a senior detective with the metropolitan police force, so the fascination with this subject matter was deep rooted in him from an early age.
This section describes how Ross came upon the concept of the show and also the characters he met, filming another show that left such a profound effect on him, led him down the "gangs" path.

1, RIO DE JANEIRO - I am not at all a well travelled individual, so when this book describes the areas these gangs "run", I find it hard to imagine.
This particular area is described as the poorest, with drugs and prostitution being rife. This chapter really lost me about two pages in. I have no prior knowledge on weaponry and I hopefully never will, so the endless lists of AK this and sawn off that, was a little hard to read, I did actually consider giving up on this book as "not one for me" halfway through this...... I'm glad I didn't! The gang members seem more than willing in this area to talk about the murders they have committed. The detail that they go into also portrays godless monsters on earth, these are actually 17 and 18 year old children, hardened by life and unlikely to live past their mid twenties, a hard chapter to read.

2, NEW ZEALAND - This was a more readable chapter, less interest about weaponry and more about the so called brotherhood of a gang. The Mongrel Mob are one of the countries most feared gangs, their violence is legendary. Amazingly enough most of these gangs revolve around "tagging" themselves and their turf. These are no exception, the majority of members are of Maori origin, so have the traditional markings on their faces made by ink and whale bone, these are then complimented by the tattoo's of British bulldogs wearing Nazi war helmets, these are freely admitted to be just a shock tactic.
Again the stories seem to flow freely, though with this particular gang, there violence was extremely difficult to read about and at times the fear that Ross and his film crew must have felt was tangible, crackling off the page at you.

3, EL SALVADOR, In this area you are either a gang member, belong to a gang member sexually or your are a victim. These gangs are horrendous, they think nothing of abduction, rape, murder and of course the obligatory torture.
The worst part of this chapter was the way women gang members were initiated into the gang. The men could either murder someone "blood in" or take a beating, and if surviving enter the ranks, the women were not so lucky.
They could either take the "train" route which was being gang raped by any gang member that wanted her, or they could take the beating route, which would finally end in her getting gang raped.... Not much of a choice is it! Once in the gang, the woman are marked as a gang member for life, this is by way of tattoo's, over her face, nose and forehead, truly horrendous!

Please don't think I am giving too much information away, the chapters in this book are reasonably small but jammed with stories and horrors unknown!

4, ST LOUIS - This is one or I should say two gangs I have actually heard of. The "Bloods" and the "Crips" have been at war since the 70's, defending their territories. This chapter is more along the lines of what I hear on the news, drive by shootings, gang execution...etc. Again this delved into weaponry again, but this time you get to hear from the victims families perspective.
This chapter again goes into the ages of the thugs that defend the territories, these wars seem to be fought by children.

5, CAPE TOWN - This was a new one on me, this was about a gang that was only formed actually inside the prison system, and by god did they run that!
This was by far the hardest to read, I feel that I could probably go without mentioning the things that can happen to certain "weaker" men in prison, and it does get mentioned in a couple of chapters, but this chapter is based around it.
Not to harp on too much about it, the so called "hard men" have no problem forcibly copulating with new inmates, these inmates either take their chances and fight, usually ending with them getting gang raped, or they can voluntarily become what these gang members call "wyfies", this means a slave to their master.... In every sense of the word. They effectively become a Victorian housewife, cooking, cleaning, washing and taking whatever else is expected of them. A strange and disturbing read.

6, MOSCOW - This was one particular gang that truly frightened and intrigued me, the gangs that seem to run here are Neo-Nazi's, brainwashed and brainwashing any new members into the Aryan way of thinking and living.
The typical skinheads that you may picture when their name is mentioned, this particular gang was maybe not the most violent but definitely the scariest. The reason for this is, the majority of gangs that have previously been mentioned were, either power hungry or money hungry. This particular gang are racially motivated, gaining nothing more than notoriety, one of the higher members even stating that if one "foreigner" is murdered, a thousand others will think twice before coming to their country. The fact that like many other economies and countries, the state rely on immigrants to do the low paying jobs and keep the tourist industry going, means that any people who choose to come to this beautiful yet brutal country faces very certain danger!

7, JAMAICA - The final gang that was visited and documented within this book and of all of the afore mentioned gangs perhaps the most politically enforced. As with some of the other gangs these are again "run" by children as young as 14 years old. The difference is that even though, again, they are protecting their own "streets" these underdogs are being run by big time gangsters known locally as don's.
These don's have the good sense not to live in the firing line, but leave all the menial tasks, such as drug running and hits on rival gangs to there hundreds, if not thousands of "street soldiers".
The problem with this particular country is the fact that these don's are usually employed by the local politicians, the don's get paid to encourage their soldiers to vote for that particular candidate, usually ending up with that candidate being elected thus repeating the whole vicious circle of power and money again.
The one fact of this country that shocked me the most was the fact there are four murders everyday in Jamaica, the police who document these atrocities said that if an orange dot was put on a map to signify a murder Jamaica in it's entirety would be covered. Very scary.


This book, as I mentioned previously, was lent to me by my sisters boyfriend, so I checked on Amazon and found that for the paperback version will set you back around £3.90, and the hardback version ( which is the one I am reading) will set you back around the £9.00 mark.

There is a new "Gangs" book out now, I am hoping he buys that one too, this can be pre ordered from Amazon and costs 10.00.

I would highly recommend this book as a good dose of reality, even though it's quite disturbing at times, it's nice to realise however bad this country gets, at least we don't live in these places!

For more information visit - www.penguin.com

Thanks for reading x

Summary: A very scary and interesting book.