One sunny day in South Central Los Angeles, there was an eleven year old boy walking home from school. His name is Marco. He lived with his mom and his two sisters. Marco’s dad had gone to prison for murder. He and his family lived in a rough neighborhood. In this neighborhood, there was a lot of gang violence. This environment was tough for Marco and his family. As Marco walked home he walked through an alley and saw multiple gang tags. There were words in blue, red, and black. He knew what they meant and which gang wrote on the wall by the color of the paint. Marco’s favorite color was blue. He saw some members standing at the end of the alley wearing blue. Marco walked past them and went home. As he got home he ate and then went with his older sister. She always hung out with gang members that wore blue. Her name was Maria.

Marco talked to the gang members and they asked him to join the gang. He said yeah and they went to an abandon house where there were more members. Maria didn’t care because she was in the gang too so she went to the house with them. There they jumped Marco in the gang. He was bleeding from his mouth and had a cut near his eye. After he got in, they gave him the nickname “El Payaso” which meant “The Clown” in Spanish. They had a little celebration and introduced Marco to the rest of the people The Day after he was offered to get a tattoo of the gang’s name. He got it on his hand. After a day, he started hanging around on the streets. Marco wore his color and threw up his signs. The more he does for the gang the more respect he will get. Marco started committing crimes.

Time passed by and Marco was now nineteen years old. He was known in the area. Marco had done many things but had never got caught before. One day he decided to go out with some friends and hang out at the park. He was in the parking lot as he waited for his friends to arrive. When everybody arrived, they were hanging out by his car. A red car drove by and shot at everyone in sight. Those people were Marco’s gang rivals. Marco’s best friend got shot multiple times. Later that day Marco and eight other members got guns and mask. They all snuck up to their rival’s party and shot everyone there. The next day as he watched the news he saw his face. Marco was in a hurry to leave and he packed his things. During that time the police raided his house and took his to prison for murder.

Marco struggle to get away from the cops but they tackled him down and put him in handcuffs. He knew it was going to be tough in prison but he did it because he had love and respect for his gang. While in prison Marco got stronger and better. He wanted to start a new and better life. He got into fights in prison and had secretly killed at least 5 people while in there. He started to behave better. He stayed neutral from all the violence for the rest of the time he was in prison. After 5 years, he was released.

Marco went back to the same house in South Central LA. He started going to church and avoiding trouble. One day some members came to his house and told him that the person who killed his best friend wasn’t at the party that day. Marco got mad and got gun. His other friend found out where that person lived. He drove to that person house and broke into his house. While in the house he got the guy at gun point and said “in blue, out red”. After those words Marco shot him in the head and took off.