There Are No Children Here

One July day, Jimmie Lee, the head of the Conservative Vice Lords gang, gets out of his car at Horner and is welcomed by a large group of enthusiastic teenagers. When Lee sees a drunken man yelling at his thirteen-year-old daughter, calling her a “bitch,” Lee punches the man in the jaw, berating him for being so disrespectful to his own daughter. The man falls to the ground and remains in shock, while Lee leaves the scene to join a meeting with some of his workers.

Jimmie Lee and his gang control Henry Horner and have more authority than any other group, including the police. Lafeyette and Pharoah have learned to stay inside when Lee arrives at Horner, as the gang is known to have a variety of assault weapons and to use torture techniques against their enemies. Because Horner residents know that “snitching” (giving the police any information about gang activity) can easily get them killed, they refuse to call 911 and even to talk to each other about the shootings that take place.

Surprisingly, while Lee is dangerous because he rules over a variety of crimes, he is also seen as a positive influence in the neighborhood. Horner residents see him as a respectful, reasonable person who, despite his involvement in drug trafficking, does not personally use drugs or drink excessively. He is also respected for his decision to keep overly young adolescents from joining the gangs and for his twenty-year marriage, a rare feat of fidelity in the neighborhood. Even a local police officer, Charlie Toussas, considers him a “gentleman.”

People’s attitudes toward gangs have varied over time. In the 1960s, gangs were relatively tolerated because people thought they might use their resources to improve neighborhoods. After funding job-training programs and serving as a calming force during the riots following Martin Luther King, Jr.’s death, Jeff Fort, leader of the El Rukns (another African-American street gang), was even invited to President Nixon’s inauguration. However, the gangs’ positive actions did not prove sustainable. After a local hospital gave the Vice Lords a former Catholic boys’ school in the hope that they would build a neighborhood center, the gang soon looted the school, using the money to buy a vehicle and uniforms for the gang. Jeff Fort was also sent to prison on charges of planning a terrorist attack with Libyan leader Moammar Ghadhafi.  

By the 1970s, the expansion of drug trafficking turned the local street gangs into big businesses focused on making a profit. This increased their economic power dramatically and also gave them political power, as politicians recruited gangs to promote their campaigns. As gangs began drug wars, though, they also turned significantly more violent, which deeply impacted ordinary people’s lives. At the age of ten, Lafeyette saw someone die before his eyes. In a fight to take control of Henry Horner, Jimmie Lee’s Vice Lords killed a young member of a rival gang, the Disciples, whom Lafeyette watched bleed to death in the stairwell of his apartment building.

By 1986, the Vice Lords occupied two buildings across from the Riverses’ apartment, taking over apartments that they used as safe houses for storing drugs, guns, and money. The Vice Lords used symbols, such as baseball caps turned to the left, to differentiate themselves from other gangs. After the Vice Lords succeeded in defending their territory against the Disciples, though, they began to attack another gang, the Gangster Stones. The viciousness and frequency of shootings upset all Horner residents, as everyone soon knew people who had been killed by gangs.