Well, as you guys know me, I've been through a lot of violence.
I could have been dead when I was 16 years old.
From there on, I could have been dead when I was 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, all those were the
days that I was into that gang stuff.
I just look back and then, I don't know, it's just unfair how people that do bad stuff,
they get to leave, but innocent people like Trayvon, just at that short age, you just
get to leave.
This is Oakland, California's eighth largest city, and the unofficial crime capital of
the state.
A violent gang war is underway here that has some giving Oakland a new name.
Oakland has one of the highest murder rates in the country.
On average, a killing takes place here every three days.
What is driving Oakland's skyrocketing murder rate?
One major factor in the rising homicide rate is violence among Latino.
Gang members drive around in cars, literally hunting members of the other's gang, and
the bullets are flying.
It's an escalating war, one that seems to know no bounds.
There are close to 10,000 gang members here, numbers that just keep rising, and they're
engaged in a violent war over turf and colors.
Black and Latino gangs have sliced up a 100 by 70 block section of Oakland, an 11 square
mile battleground.
The epicenter of violence is increasingly to the east, which is dominated by three Latino
gangs.
The Norteños, or Northerners, are the largest gang in Oakland and fly the color red.
The Border Brothers are the newest.
They fly black and are a growing presence in the city.
This is 94th Avenue, home to Javier.
He says he's not a gang member, but he lives in Border Brothers territory and flies their
color black.
If some guy see me wearing a blue shirt all the time, and I live right here, they're going
to come after me because as the gang's right here, blue, red, and black, so yeah, I like
black.
It's just like protection.
I don't want some guys to come and just don't give a f**k to me.
Javier is part of the 9,400 boys, and his crew all have their street knick-knacks.
I'm the youngest one in the black, that can't touch me.
Fat boy, Raul, Snoopy.
They are one of the hundreds of cliques in Oakland.
The youngest member is just 14 years old.
And like Javier, who was born in Columbia, most came to America with their families looking
for a better life.
I was running from the violence over there.
My dad wanted a better future for me, so he brought me over here to the United States.
But for Javier, that promise of a better life changed in a single night.
I went to the club one night with my friends, and when we came out the club, some guys just
rode by in two cars, they seen us, and they just pulled on the side of us.
They showed us the gang color and everything.
They just took our guns and they went...
Javier was wearing black, and the shooters, he thinks they wore red, Norteno's colors.
It was a 45 that hit me with about this big, got it right here.
Can you see it poking out?
You see it?
The bullet is a constant reminder to Javier of the price he paid for wearing his color,
a color that was supposed to protect him, but instead made him a target.
Any day me or one of my friends could get killed, man, that's how it is right here.
Anybody, anybody could get killed anytime, right here, in Oakland, man, it's crazy.
You live your life thinking all the time that some is going to happen to you, like, destinies,
it's a ****.
For the gangs of Oakland, keeping a low profile is seen as a weakness, and the weak get preyed
upon, so they tag, they post, and they funk.
Today, Javier and the rest of his crew are going out to do just that, to go funky, street
slang in Oakland for a risky game of chicken.
In this case, they are going out for a ride in rival gang territory.
From here to there, that's the 90s area, from here to there, that's the 80s.
Norteno's turf begins in the 60s and stretches beyond the 30s, right where Javier and his
crew are headed.
If something happened to Yard, it might fall.
Javier and his boys are not just cruising, dressed in black, the color of their gang.
This ride is meant to antagonize their rivals, the Nortenos, Night Falls, and Javier's crew
starts to post up in preparation for the sideshow.
Like most of the gangs on the street tonight, the 9400 boys are drunk and stoned.
Javier's friend Snoopy knows it can be a dangerous scene.
If they get caught, it's bad for them, they get dropped.
That's how it is out here, you feel me?
It's dangerous, like I'm telling you, you're going to play with your life, I just hope
it didn't happen to me, that's it, I just hope I make it back to my house, that's it.
Some of the crew heads out, while Javier, Raul, and Snoopy head back to the van.
With the streets crawling with rival gangs, anything can happen at any time.
Out of sight, a car pulls up and a rival gang in ski masks head straight for the 9400 boys.
The violence of Oakland has come right to Javier's doorstep.
It was a violent scene that was too hot and cameras stopped recording.
Two days later, Javier's van is still parked in front of the house and he is piecing together
what happened in the gunfight.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, that big mother
damn.
One more right here, my friend was sitting down right there, he was drunk, but we took
him out, we took him out before all that shit happened, I ain't gonna lie, we shot back.
Despite 13 shots being fired, no one was hit.
But now in the light of day, one thing is clear, Javier and his friends are in deep.
It's known as the Boulder Brothers territory, so you don't see nobody hanging around right
here except for us, there's a lot of people claiming 94 for it, but they don't be out
here like we be, you know.
They hate one of my friends, it's gonna be over man, I'm gonna, me and my partner, we're
gonna go out there some heads.
That's the Oakland rules right here, retaliation, revenge is a promise all the time.
Lucky, a Norteno has served his full sentence and says he's trying to leave gang life behind.
I would hang out the car and shoot at all of them, sit back in the car and drive off.
I didn't know that I was hurting someone's brother, someone's sister, I didn't know that
if I killed this person, that his mom would hurt for it later.
I thought I was fighting for something to better myself, the only thing I got to show
for is a record and a prison number.
Back in the nines, Javier has something new to show for his fight, today he's putting
on a different color, white.
They shot Snoopy at the sideshow, they shot him in the head.
It is a tribute to Snoopy, one of Javier's best friends, a member of his gang.
Snoopy was shot while out at a recent sideshow, killed by a rival gang, and now the 9400 boys
are out for blood.
Everybody knows what the role in the street is, you go and do something about it, it was
your blood, it was your family.
Whoever did it better be hiding, because you're going to get it from me.
You don't know what you're fighting for, and you're not ever going to know the truth.
It's not going to get you nowhere, I know, because I lived a life.
Snoopy was death number 124, the last in a bloody year, and already the rival gangs
are bragging.
This is Snoopy's tag, and coming off of it is a red line, the boast of his killer.
This cycle of violence continues, in Oakland, revenge is a promise all the time.
It's not going to get you nowhere, it's going to get you nowhere, it's going to get you
nowhere.
It's not going to get you nowhere, it's going to get you nowhere, it's going to get you
nowhere, it's going to get you nowhere, it's going to get you nowhere, it's going to
get you nowhere, it's going to get you nowhere, it's going to get you nowhere, it's going
to get you nowhere, it's going to get you nowhere, it's going to get you nowhere, it's going
to get you nowhere, it's going to get you nowhere, it's going to get you nowhere, it's going
to get you nowhere, it's going to get you nowhere, it's going to get you nowhere, it's going
to get you nowhere, it's going to get you nowhere, it's going to get you nowhere, it's going
to get you nowhere, it's going to get you nowhere, it's going to get you nowhere, it's going
to get you nowhere, it's going to get you nowhere, it's going to get you nowhere, it's going
