Something that i have been interested in learning more about has been “the black disciples”. I remember my uncle talking about it when i asked him how life was growing up when he was younger, but it only briefly caught my interest. Lately the issue caught my eye again. I know that may people feel that this is one of chicagos deadliest gangs. From what I've heard, the Black Disciples and their rival gangs disputes caused chicagos death rate to to increase. For example, i heard that the gang disputes caused more deaths in total then the amount of soldiers killed in Iraq in 2012 now thats just what i've heard, it may or may not be true.
One thing that i know for sure about the Black Disciples is that the gang was created in 1960’s and in the present they have strayed away from original teachings. Now, i've studied my share of the gangs history and i believe they are very disciplinary. Personally, its funny to me how strict they are about their gang membership and don't tolerate the slightest bit of disrespect.
The Black Disciples was important to the Chicago drug trade for decades after they were created, not only was it a gang but it was predominantly a drug dealing organization. The Bds (short for Black Disciples) was started by David “King David” Barksdale in 1960. It is a predominantly black/african american gang based in Chicago Illinois, Milwaukee, Miami, Minnesota, Iowa, Kankakee, Newyork, Atlanta, Texas, Springfield IL, and Cleveland Ohio. The gang is known to be violent and involved in drug dealing, theft, robbery, gun trafficking, murder, money laundering, and other crimes. The gang is estimated to have about 144,000
members and growing.
Being that i had some information but i had some questions on the Bds, i chose to do some research on the topic. As i researched for blogs and news articles on google, i came across this one article “ GANG THREAT ANALYSIS: The Black Disciples by George Knox (http://www.ngcrc.com/bdprofile.html) “. This article provided a lot of background on the Bds. Some people felt that the Black Disciples are structured more like a religion where gang leaders are called "ministers". This statement didn't really surprised me all that much, but it did make me feel confused. I'm confused because how can a gang that people claim are so violent be structured like a religion? I don't know of any religion where violence is accepted.
In another part of the article there is one statement that made me nod my head in agreement with the writer. It was “ This is gang where drug selling is a gang sponsored business enterprise “. This is true because originally the gang made money with each other by selling drugs. Along with other crimes but Mainly drug selling was were they made the most profit. The gang hosted “meetings” which were for both disciplinary and business reasons. In these meetings members were called upon to recite gang literature/prayer but mainly to collects money for drugs & recruit new members. If you didn't meet your leading disciples standards or came up short with money you were given what they called a “violation” or punishment. Depending on the seriousness determined how you were violated.
All of this makes me think that the Black Disciples was a gang to be feared. They were a business but they still were a gang that can & will use violence to get things their way. I think being a young black man that grew up around the areas in chicago where the Bds stayed it would be hard not to want to join. If they had the cars, clothes, and other material things it would be hard for a young black man to not want the same for himself, so if joining and working for a gang is what it took im sure not many thought twice and joined.
