Vampires, Dragons, and Egyptian Kings ?Vampires, Dragons, and Egyptian Kings? is a look into the postwar gang situation of New York City through the eyes of author Eric C. Schneider. This book deals with the many aspects that gang members and society dealt with on a daily basis. A brief overview of this work shows that gang affiliation is something that was taken very seriously in the 1940?s and 50?s. Schneider delves deep into the daily functions and rituals that gang members go through to prove manhood and loyalty. One can see the atmosphere that individuals face when becoming, or continuing affiliation with gangs during this period in history.
Within the first chapter, we are shown the average gang member and how he conducts his life. Salvador Agron is the main focus of this chapter, and Schneider takes us through the eve of Agron?s killing spree in a playground on Manhattan.
List of criminal gangs in Los Angeles, California
Image depicting member of MS13 gang. Work of the F...
Katie Schneider interviews Collette Lemieux at wra...We come to find that the media plays just as much a part in the ethnic division of power in New York as do the police. Newspapers play on this ethnic tension by goading Agron on to play the part of the psychotic murderer that he has become in the press and courtroom. The murders that Agron committed only ad fuel to the already nervous tension that exists over the division of ethnicity in New York. Chapter two deals with how New York begins to try to remake itself into a post-war economic stronghold. As more and more jobs became available in a city with many minorities, territorial conflicts soon emerged. Youth gangs were the haven at the time for young men to define their roles in society. With the influx of African-Americans and Puerto-Ricans, gang affiliation became a norm for the underprivileged. ?Location was the key in...