You can distinguish teenagers who are in a gang and teenagers who aren’t in a gang by their activities. Gangs are one of the major factors why violent crimes are happening and growing in our society, both on and off school property. Three examples of this from the movie “Tagged” are; at the school dance when Kyle and John started fighting, when they punched John in the washroom. The third example is when they almost killed John and put him in a coma causing permanent damage to the brain. Members of gangs wear specific clothing to be recognized as part of the group. For example when John was invited to the gang, after he accepted he was given a white bandana identical to the bandanas that the rest of the members owned. This was to indicate that he was part of the gang. Gangs are also known for consuming alcohol, getting drunk and getting high. An example from the movie was in Kyle’s garage when he was gathered up with the rest of the gang members. Kyle took out some white powder and started sniffing it. Gang members are also careless and will do anything to “have fun.” For example when John’s mother was at the park and Kyle’s gang started throwing fireworks at little kids and Mrs. Wamback. All of these are activities found in everyday life of gang members but of course there is also gang mentality that causes the activities. For example gang leaders and members lack respect. In the movie when Kyle’s mom was about you leave for work she paged Kyle and said, “I’m leaving for work, you dinner is ready.” In return Kyle responded, “No it’s not so shut up!” Gangs also believe that to feel powerful you have to bring others down. An example of this I found towards the beginning of the movie when school first started and Kyle along with his buddies started picking, bullying etc. on little ninth graders, putting a scene of fear into them so they could feel more powerful. Doesn’t matter if it’s a school gang or a street gang members have no remorse or sympathy. In the movie the gang beat up Jonathan so bad that he fell to the floor and even after he collapsed they didn’t stop kicking and hitting. People found in gangs are also careless. For example even after Kyle got arrested he was still making careless jokes and he was still him self he didn’t care about how badly he was embarrassing his mother or himself he just kept acting like him and not caring about anything or anyone. These are just a few of the mentality and activity characteristics that gang members have.
I believe that there are different types of peer pressure. For example, positive peer pressure, negative peer pressure and indirect peer pressure along with other types too. In the movie “Tagged” there is a large variety of peer pressure. An example of peer pressure was when Jonathan was pressured to join the opposing gang and fight against Kyle Simpson’s gang. This could be considered as indirect peer pressure because the gang first invited him to come hang out and then slowly, slowly lured him in. Another example of peer pressuring exhibited in the movie was by his parents even though the pressure was positive pressure is still pressure and it affected John. His parents would always say, “you can do better” or the night He got in a fight with the other gang they started pressuring him right away. “You got ride in the police car?!... How will this look on your university application?” Also when John got lured in Courtney’s trap she peer pressured him to come. Even though you couldn’t hear what Courtney, you could hear how Jonathan didn’t want to go at first he told her he was grounded and gave some other excuses but eventually he gave in and went. Finally one of the members from Kyle’s gang was also peer pressured. Except he was peer pressured to tell the truth. If he tells the truth he wont be sentenced but if he doesn’t the punishment is equal to the rest of the gang who actually hurt John. All of these are just four from many examples of peer pressure found in exhibited in the movie.
In my opinion the Y.O.A was a horrible idea to begin with! Not only did it change the criminal language and made crime seem less obvious in society. It also kept criminals on the street giving them more opportunities to strike. I believe that from age 14 you know the difference between wrong and right. In my opinion the charter of rights and freedom was broken right there and then, yes everyone has rights but to a certain degree. By leaving those criminals around us not only are you putting then in danger but more importantly the public is automatically put in danger as well. If you committed a crime you should pay for it no matter what your age is. Kyle Simpson and his buddies knew very well what they were doing when they were beating Jonathan up, they knew it was completely wrong yet they continued it was their choice no one forced them to beat John up. So why should people like Kyle and his crew be allowed to walk among us? I believe that certain changed should be made as soon as possible! For example if an adolescent ends up committing murder no matter the age they should go and be judged at an adult court and if needed be sent to jail even for the rest if there life. Another change that should be made if an adolescent ends up hurting someone bad like Kyle put John in a coma and left him with visible defects (such as speaking seizures with toes, hands and eyes pointing up proving his brain is damaged.) If that person ends up living their life is changed forever and the person responsible should pay. They should be sentenced to a minimum of 5 to 10 years in jail. Also two other changes that should be made are. If a person committed a smaller crime such as theft they should still pay but not spend the rest of their life in jail. They should be given in between two months to a year in jail depending what the person stole, the price of the item and how many times he/she stole things. Finally the last change that I believe should be made is house arrest should not be an option for any type of crime and should be removed completely. The only time when house arrest should be used or considered is if the crime is extremely small and the person would have to go to jail for a very little period of time (below 5 months.) Also community service should be given to everyone who committed crimes the bigger the crime the more hours the person receives. In conclusion I believe that the Young Offenders Act should be taken out of the Canadian system as soon as possible!