How Did Sanyika Shakur Become A Victim Of Oppression

During the late 1900s racism was still strong. Even after the civil rights movement blacks continued to be oppressed. Racism, and the oppression it led to, left blacks trying survive any way they can. Many were driven to join gangs, such as the Crips or Bloods in Los Angeles. Sanyika Shakur, the author and title character of Monster an Autobiography of an L.A. Gang the oppression, and joined the Crips at the young age of 11. Although Shakur may have been a victim of his environment, he was also a victim of the times. The racism left over from the civil rights movement and the society’s oppression drove him to become a more and more violent resistor as well a gang banger. Often times in Shakur’s neighborhood police would leave crimes unsolved, culprits free or the wrong man

Because the police don’t arrest the culprits, it’s left to Eight Trays to take care of the murderers. This allows and encourages violence, because as Twinky’s mother declares ¨I don’t want to ever see you again if you can’t kill them...¨ she doesn’t just want to hurt the people who killed her son, she want’s them killed. A while after this, another event of police incompetence takes place. Both Shakur, and a fellow gang member, Crazy De are accused of a robbery. Apparently they had taken a man’s money and shoes, and he had identified Shakur and De as the culprits. Although both Shakur and De may have committed many robberies, neither had committed this one. ¨De and I had been charged with a robbery that neither of us had committed. The LAPD knew this, without a doubt… he had picked De and me out of a mug book as the robbers. But we knew it was a bogus charge… we knew without a doubt it was a setup… De and I were the hardest working bangers in the culture…[we knew] that all this was a game of get-us-off-the-street.¨ (198). Not only were the police wrongfully accusing people, and using ridiculous sources, they were doing this on purpose. Shakur says that the force knew