Boys
wear blue

In the difficult task of child-rearing, parents won’t always see eye-to-eye on the best path for their child. Voices might be raised in the Harvard or Yale debate. Tempers might flare over private school or public. But when it comes to choosing your child’s street gang, the only way for a man to show he means business is by trashing a workplace and threatening murder. Not that it worked particularly well for Joseph Manzanares.

Manzanares, a member of a gentleman’s club known around Commerce City, Colorado, as the Westside Ballers, took issue when the mother of his seed said she’d like to see her four-year-old son grow up to wear the Crips colours. Unable to express his frustration in words, 19-year-old Manzanares visited the video store she worked at, knocked over some display racks, tossed a computer and threatened to kill her. His case made, Manzanares fled and the police were called.

“They have different ideas on how the baby should be raised,” explained police Sergeant Joe Sandoval. “Basically, (Manzanares’s girlfriend) said they cannot agree on which gang the baby would ‘claim.’” Manzanares got off pleading guilty to a disorderly conduct charge, earning himself a year’s probation.

by Scott Saxon