Civil rights activist Najee Ali is leading protest to get MySpace and other social networks to remove and ban members displaying profiles that “promote and glorify gang violence.”   His efforts have been heightened following a March 2 murder of Jamiel Shaw (17) from Los Angeles who was gunned down by a MySpace gangster.

“On his profiles he claimed membership in his neighborhood street gang and posed for pictures flashing gang signs.” According to a statement from Ali’s Project Islamic HOPE Shaw spoke real reckless on his MySpace profile targeting rival gangs causing many people to now believe that he was killed because of his gang affiliation and not motivated by race as was previously speculated.

“Our coalition wants MySpace to ban all promotions of gang violence and gang culture by users and is asking for community members nationwide to report objectionable comments and pictures that promote gangs.”

As I get older I realize that the gang culture is obviously something that has traction in the younger kids especially in environments where the discipline and parental figures are absent. The gang replaces in some way the the family structure.  I think that’s why its rooting itself in sites like Myspace where the younger crowd comes to get “something more.”  It make so much sense as a natural progression and even an excellent marketing tool for these organizations.  I salute the Najee Ali but unfortunately as more and more gang members find their way to social networking to help grow their organizations it may get harder and harder to identify and thus eradicate.