0:00 this is where oddly enough I went to college cuz I my friend told me that we need funding and he and I and then he said why don't you go to uh College welcome back to just K news out of the closet we got Joe back and we're talking about Joe joining a gang kind of a silly episode yeah it was like a Whimsical Affair what do you what was that movie the Sharks what story what side I think by this point I wasn't fully like in this world yet I was I just got out of graffiti I got I did you know I went to court got probation I was being drug tested I had a PO officer um I you know I convinced my mom to move to the San Gabriel Valley
0:51 because at this point like I found a whole new set of friends and um they were just ravers and drug dealers that's cool and a lot of the at the time I didn't know they were gang but a lot of Asian organized crime would use teenagers to go sell their drugs at Raves and all this stuff and I just thought they were like Rich party kids I didn't know that they were in my mind there was no such thing as like poor Asians I thought they were all nerds and then I I I I go visit them in the San Gabriel Valley and I'm like oh ████ you guys got like four families living in this house you guys are are like you're like Refugee like War torn poverty people like I never seen this before but like it was a group where I felt like like oh these guys are cool you know like they're they're they're
1:42 they're they like to party all the time I want to be closer to them and then one of my buddies here his name is Sean and he was one of my first friends that I made at the Rave that said why don't you move out of Gardina and come to monre park and I wasn't even considering that and then that's kind of where I asked my mom like hey can we get out of there and then she was like I think it's time for a change so we moved right down here to monre park I got enrolled into school I already had a set of friends that I was walking into and these guys were not getting Affiliated but they operated like organized crime because there would be like Asian Triad guys that would send them drugs right they operated like a gang without a name and then every single time we would go to these parties and all this stuff like they would have all kinds of drugs on them all the time
2:33 and I was like damn these guys are so rich they're and then they take care of you like you never had to pay for anything like we would go out to restaurants and the bill would be like $100 and I'm like teenagers can like pay for this ████ and I was like that's crazy and so I just naturally started selling for them too or selling with them and and you know it was just a really fun environment and I think from there I started reconnecting with old friends again not knowing that they were all a part of a gang and I started understanding like this whole gang world deeper and deeper cuz I liked hanging out with my childhood friends that I haven't seen in decades right and then and then we have a mutual one that you know um how do you see Clues they're in the
3:23 gang oh they talk about it they said this is our name this is I was like what's that you know like I know what a gang was at that time cuz I I've been around so much but the Asians operate so differently from like Mexican gangs and I think Asians at the time were kind of having this identity crisis about like should we dress more threatening and cool cuz when I was coming into the thing like a lot of the Asian gangs like they were taught don't dress like a gangster they were taught like why why are you looking like that like what do you want to be Mexican or like they had like Banana Republic clothes yeah was more like like the GQ style turtlenecks turtlenecks and a slacks yeah and then they ran errands for the for the mob here but they were told to like hey dress like respectable or whatever um but then the younger Generations were like n we want to look hard we want to like represent or
4:15 whatever they wanted to look like a thug and so it was kind of this you had some Asian gangs that were more traditionally operated you had some that were more Street oriented you had some that were like they they they were no different from black and Mexican gangs they were more like um you know like bald head Cortez's the way that they dress they look like you know what you saw on TV with Snoop Dogg and everybody right they had that style usually the southeast Asians operated more like that and then the chines operated more organized and stuff like that and so at this point I never like thought of even joining but I just like their company cuz they always had a great time they were always girls they're always things to do there are always homes that were like open and they it just didn't matter so you start
5:06 feeling like I own this ████ City but you're 15 years old you know like you're s you're 15 years old you're going to like a cafe and waiters that are full grown adults are pouring beer in a te- mug cuz the gang bosses or whoever said I want beer and these establishments don't that don't serve alcohol they're so terrified that they'll be like all right we'll serve it to you sir and then they'll be like at the time you remember like you were able to smoke in restaurants so you had these 15-year-old babies drinking beer smoking cigarettes acting like full grown adults right so you you felt like oh I could do whatever I want with this group and then so um eventually like I just spent so much time with my childhood friends and it
5:57 was funny cuz there was a lot of Japanese members in this chines Chinese gang and I'm not ever going to give them any clout because I just don't like that but what got me to join was there was like three of us at a doughnut shop and I remember the Rival came in and it was like we're outnumbered but these guys were so tough in my head cuz they're like I don't care if there's more than us as soon as they saw them they went for it and I was like oh I guess we're fighting now and I was the third guy and and you know we got beat but we went full force and I just I was like these are the kind of guys that I want to be around and I think I've been searching for that because I've been getting the ████ kicked out of me and I was like
6:48 these guys are ████ they're ready to walk into a situation outnumbered and they still lead the charge and they'll fight these guys knowing that they're going to lose and I was like ooh that's the kamakazi spirit that I want to be a part of and I think a part of me was looking for a strong group of friends that would help me take revenge not that I was consciously saying this but I feel like I felt so goddamn weak that I was like I want to be a part of a group that makes me feel strong and I think for the first time I was like okay how do I get in I want to be a part of this I want to be a part of this whatever you guys are doing I'll do whatever I need to do and um I think at the time too like they weren't operating like like traditional Mexican gangs and all that where they were like oh we'll jump you in and you just had to go do crime with them so they're like okay we're going to go do this job so uh
7:40 there's a house that they found we have to go in we have to do this we have to break in you do that whatever and then at first they would just have me like drive or look out or do the safer ████ and then later they taught me other things like you know breaking in and and and how to do things and then they're like you do it in the daytime you don't do it at night and So eventually it's it's like one of those things right where you have these older Father Figure guys that are like telling you I'm proud of you you're cool like you're doing a good job and then when people talk about you like like to their friends like oh this guy like this guy he's he's this and and then you just feel like oh like I'm loved I'm admired these guys are like looking after me right and another reason why I joined is cuz um
8:31 the older guys were uh they were involved in drug dealing and all this stuff but I thought it was so smart that they got a job as a security guy at uh the Long Beach Convention Center cuz they knew that a rave was going to come and their whole plot was well when we're the security guys we're going to bust all the dealers take all the drugs you guys sell it that's ████ great right and so 15 16 years old and I'm like these guys are genius at this time my morality was so skewed too that this was normal and this was like oh these guys are this is the you know like when you're going for a job in like you're like I want to be a part of Apple they're crushing it right and that's kind of how I felt it was
9:22 like wow I've never heard of anybody like for me all I know is hey here's your bag go to the Rave sell it all that's all I know I don't know about uh wait we can actually not have to hide like a rat like we can operate freely like that's crazy is there a fear in busting the dealers by anybody or no no cuz some of these dealers are not a lot of them were just like ravers okay got so they're like low level yeah they're like they're kids too they're they're kids too and you know and I'm sure there were no other gangs there or maybe they discussed or or or I don't know what it was but I felt that was like when I felt immunity of like oh like we are in
10:13 cahoots with the government here and we made a lot of money and and I think this was the first time in my life where I'm making thousands of dollars I'm like I'm a teenager and I just feel on top of the world I have a girlfriend and and you know like I'm busting nuts I lost my virginity I'm I'm a man right like I'm a ████ entrepreneur right I'm on the up and up baby and uh yeah we're rolling in luxury cars you know like Mercedes BMWs all that or like and then back then you know you drove around with four five cars deep everywhere you went cuz you're bunch of ████ ████ and you're afraid so you need like 40 people with you you and it was just literally like a you know it feel it felt like we were like a
11:03 Mongolian horde of genas Khan's guys just riding into town with a bunch of horses right that's cool you're eating every ████ eating everything that insight consensually though yeah they he's painful you want to make a name for yourself so you go to one of the pool halls and you start ████ and you fight and one of your friends you know does something and you're excited and and you you it's just pointless ████ exciting things for young men right and like that was probably one of the best best moments of my life at the time feeling powerful and confident even though it was false cuz I've always felt weak and looking back it is weakness still weakness it's it's a false sense of power cuz you're you're just violent
11:53 toward people that are weaker than you or like you're not getting your ass beaten for you that I'm not anymore now we're beating right and now I feel like okay and I still have this heart feeling of I want to kill the guys that bullied me and so I I tell these guys my story well first they laughed at me and said what a ████ I was and all that stuff that's what we just responsible friends responsible fors good friend but it made them mad and they said we're going to go we're going to go and then so this is stupid cuz obviously we're not going to catch how you going to know where they are or whatever we're driving around down guns loaded everything I was like when I see I'm going to ████ murder them and it's like that's tired you have Tupac playing in the background it's the stupidest ████ dude thank God Facebook didn't exist misss as a writer stupidest ████ Facebook live ████ kill people
12:45 you be in jail right now you just to be a jail ████ right now and I was I was just so mad I remember we were just so mad I had all this anger right and then like my friend he's a nutcase he looks over and he sees this guy and he goes oh he's ████ look at us and I'm like what and so we had all this anger so we just pull up and we just he's walking with like a couple girls and I we just beat his ass on the street holy ████ cuz we couldn't find the other guys we just feel we just ████ feel angry right got a comment honestly that guy yeah I mean probably did something why is he with so many girls yeah yeah what' he do to get those girls probably did something don't worry about the kids but it would it would literally be like so many of these kind of incidences yeah like one of but that's
13:35 what you do when you're 15 and you're ████ around you're and one of them one of these guys you know we're really close till this day and he left that life and all that stuff and he's been a prison and everything and changed his life around but um it was a weird wild time where I think where it's changed me is my idea of loyalty and brotherhood like I I don't know like I've seen situations where the older guys would go to prison for each other he's like I can't do this this is my third strike we had a thir three strikes rule at the time if you catch your third one you're doing life in prison so I remember situations where they're like hey will you will you do this one for me or they be like okay I'll do this one I remember like that's super Yakuza style yeah like they that
14:26 those were kind of things that I saw that I was like wow like this is love it wasn't but but but it's the depth of How It's a different type of loyalty you used to though yeah yeah like if we were to like normal friends right like let's say you got attacked on the street in most cases they'll be like hey dude I called the cops for you but you want me to like endanger myself that's common sense but in this world if you don't step in that's it you're ostracized like you're a ████ disloyal piece of ████ but like for me that's the kind of world I was in we're outnumbered odds against us they have weapons uh ████ it we're going to die together like it's it's so stupid but that was the that was your duty and so for me I always thought like oh these guys are the real good guys and the bad guys are the police the bad guys
15:16 are everybody else the teachers these Liars they're ████ anyway they will never fight for each other you know and so when your mind equates manhood to just risk and Ence like you operate on such a different world that I I don't even I don't think that the normal person can fathom what that mind is like so at that time it was like this weird feeling of like oh I like these guys more than my family these guys are my family I'm with them every day they take care of me I take care of them and there's this false sense of like cult like love right like you guys are 100% loyal to each other but where it started breaking down was um there was a rivalry
16:07 and there was a driveby shooting and this is actually on the news and and and there's an article written about this whole incident because the guy who was at the house they knew so we we were arranging like to settle a score of like hey let's just go to the park and just ████ fight this out and and and well let's be done with and they knew they were we were gathering at one of these homes and um so they planned to drive by shooting like a ████ coward right instead of us getting together and fighting it out and yeah they executed not even one of our members but they executed someone that was a part of the Assassins group they had several different cells within their group and they they had internal
16:59 issues after that cuz they ended up killing their own within their own wow yeah and the reason why that guy was there is he was just an innocent bystander he just wanted to come over and smoke some weed so he was at the front front you know and then so that happened and this is the same situation that Johnny confirmed yeah so so yeah cuz Johnny's um organization was was was that side not our our rival but it was like with yeah context for the kids yeah Johnny Johnny Shang is um now a reformed like you know gang member he's a preacher now and he's a former guest here was a former guest yeah but um so obviously we had to retaliate because our reputation was on the line and things got real cuz before this there was no like back and forth
17:49 shootouts we had a lot of fights we stabbed a couple people whatever like it's it's it's it was never like seriously let start shooting up homes and all this stuff what other gangs did they're hardcore like that um but we were more like burglaries and and business and drug dealing and and working for other guys so when it came down to the reality of it is like okay now who's going to pull the trigger right and my nutcase friend they I think they were all just egging this on and the guy that should have done it manipulated him into thinking that he should do it damn so they planed one guy out to be the driver that guy to be the shooter and then they said okay well the older guys were like we need x amount of dollars and we need you guys to go get all the
18:40 uh tools for this the guns whatever so we crowdfunded and the first thing that was odd to me is like why do the youngsters have to crowdfund and get the guns why don't they just have it and at this time too the older guys they all had um different like cases on on them so they just fresh out of prison they didn't want to go back they were they had to be careful they were they had ankle brace like you know what I mean so like they were just like we don't want any of this but we're going to help you organize it so we had all this money put together and then we were like where's the guns like how come and then what came back was like one or two weapons and we're like we need more than this and we thought we were going to get more than this come to find out um that a lot of them had a Coke addiction so a lot of of that money just went to them parting and once I found
19:32 out all this stuff it just broke the facade up and I was like this is ████ crazy like I thought everybody was ride or die here like what are we doing and then so my close friend the guy that was supposed to be the shooter I just felt like that was so wrong it was it should have been this other guy who had and started the Rivalry and it was it should have been his responsibility but he's the craziest guy that will do it so I pulled them aside and I said hey like all this stuff we're doing from the dealing to the whatever from selling and breaking in home selling all the goods I was like why do we need a name like we don't need a name like when you have a name you have a Target on your back he's like we're the wet Bandits we plug up the sink and we leave and I was like and and and some of the
20:23 people in our group they're so dumb they're just so hotheaded that they just start so much ████ that they just bring so much bad attention they just want to fight right and I'm like what if we just start something new without them and I was hella scared saying this cuz I was like I didn't know where he stood it's Mutiny dude yeah yeah and then so it's funny I told this story before people were like you unionized the gang and you ████ did a walk out and that's literally what happened so we talked to him and I was like I was like who else you think would be down with this right and so we talked to other people and we got majority of the members out out at one day so wow well for one we realized that the older guys wasn't going to retaliate in any way then mle brain they were just hella disappointed I think it broke their heart more than anything cuz I think their what their belief was was
21:16 um when ████ got real you guys deserted us but our belief was this was the responsibility of certain other members that started the beef and they needed to finish it and also we feel betrayed that you guys used all the money for crack and start rting yeah that's not like you used all the money selfish got to hang you got to spread love with the boys and that was the moment when um we actually left that life we continued to do you know all the dirt but you became independent contractors yeah just like we are escort we have no boss we have no boss here really smart we did escort but it doesn't matter State of California is like no ████ you you're an employee it's ████ and through that Journey like when I
22:07 was kind of like reforming myself with our friends I think we started to go like yeah let's just make money but why do we need this like name we can still hang with each other uh why do we have to fight for a name like the senseless violence is just stupid and so my buddy went off and he said I'm going to do a growop and I'm going to go into that world um and I and I'll take on I'll take on the um the the dealing portion of it this is where oddly enough I went to college cuz I my friend told me that we need funding and he and I and then he said why don't you go to uh college cuz they give you three grand financial aid that's how we could get our business started that that was the same as somebody being like hey I need
22:57 you to go to jail for me you're the you're the FAA cartel and I was like wait three 3 four grand like FASA money yeah so I was like I was a ganger though ████ go I'll buy a pound of weed right now love it and that's kind of how it that's so when we come back Jo going to talk about how they became the sticky Bandits
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