Published: April 10, 2008 11:58 pm            

Kenneth Hart: Guess it's a 'gang thang': 4/13/08

When people from different backgrounds have children together, conflicts about how to raise the kids are inevitable.

According to a Rocky Mountain News story a friend sent me (thank you, Rosie), a couple in Commerce City, Colo., were involved in just such a dispute the other day, one that wound up drawing the attention of the local authorities.

However, these two former lovebirds were not arguing about anything like what church Junior should be raised in, how best to save for the baby’s college education or whether to send the child to a public or private school.

Nope, according to the story, the couple belonged to different street gangs and had recently separated because they couldn’t agree on which gang affiliation their offspring would claim.

The News story states this tiff became public after police were called to a dispute at a video store where the distaff half of the couple was employed.

Her former beau, it seems, was harassing her, and caused a ruckus in the store by knocking over a computer and a magazine stand and screaming obscenities.

An officer subsequently learned the two had been together for four years and had a child together, but had recently separated because they had “different ideas about how the child should be raised,” according to a police report.

Pressed by the officer, the woman, who wasn’t identified in the story, admitted she and the baby-daddy were at loggerheads about what gang the kid would swear allegiance to.

Police later arrested 19-year-old Joseph Manzaneres on charges of harassment and disorderly conduct, to which he later pleaded guilty.

I liked this comment about this story that was left on the News’ Web site by a reader whose screen name was “MarineGrunt” because it succinctly summed up my feelings on this matter:

“Have to have a license to drive a car. Own a dog. Carry a weapon.

But any drug dealing banger can have a kid. Way to go, God.”

Still, I really would have thought this would have been a fairly easy dispute for the couple to resolve before it reached the boil-over point.

To paraphrase a bit of dialogue from the movie “Knocked Up,” all they would’ve had to do was determine whether the child looked better in blue or red. Blue, he’s a Crip. Red, he’s a blood. Simple.

Then, after determining what set of colors the child was going to wear while committing various acts of thuggery, they could’ve moved on to bigger decisions — like what type of drugs the youngster was going to deal.

That kid’s got some future, I’m here to tell you.

KENNETH HART can be reached at khart@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2654

        

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