I find the world’s excuse of gangs just as sad as the excuse of those bystanders.
How are gangs an “excuse?” The whole purpose of a gang is to carry out vicious acts, so joining one shows right then and there what type of person you are and what you will do if you get the opportunity.
I wish the churches would work harder against gangs. Back in the 1960s in some slum areas there was a lot of anti-gang work being done by churches, but once the radical leftists managed to make the authorities and the press believe that gangs were just poor kids trying to stay alive and get money to feed their aging mothers, all the while expressing their political opposition to the Man and the system, churches got scared off. But gang membership has to be taken up again as a moral issue.