Gang Bangers Bang Pinatas
A recent sociology study by UCLA students and faculty that is currently being submitted for publication found that nearly 60% of Los Angeles area gang members had participated in pinata parties as youths. The study also found that most gang members incorporated pinatas into their ongoing criminal activities.
Examples included:
- shooting at pinatas with shotguns while blindfolded
- using captured members of rival gangs as pinatas, assailing gang members would hand one of their own a bat, blindfold him, send him after the “pinata” and yell out the customary “arriba” and “abajo” to make it easier to hit the suspended “pinata” gang member
- using pinata parties as recruitment tools for young gang members
Personally, I find this behavior both despicable and unsurprising. It corroborates Dr. Hans Fischman’s 2005 study on pinatas as “gateway violence” and proves once again the link between pinatas and violent behavior. Once the study is published, I don’t know how the city and county governments in Orange County will be able to continue to refuse the call for banning pinatas.
source: Jason Crawley, student researcher on the paper, UCLA
April 10th, 2008 at 10:28 am
PLEASE! This whole site is a ludicrous response to an unfortunate incident! Grow up, kids do stupid things and have silly ideas from all sorts of common events. I am truly sorry your daughter hurt you, but couldn’t she have gotten the same idea playing baseball? Are you going to forbid her from making paper dolls because she might decide to try to make you into one with a pair of scissors? So, you want to send her to counseling? How about loving her, I’m sure she feels awful! I feel bad for your daughter! Lack of normal relationships and parental support during childhood is far more likely to lead to a violent life than a few pinata parties!
And let’s be real… pinatas cause gang violence? Give it up! I think if pinatas had never been dreamed of we would still have gangs and still have violence. This is not only a “slippery slope” logical argument, it doesn’t even make intuitive sense.
This site is what is known as Internet SPAM.
April 28th, 2008 at 9:56 am
I think that parents that think this is violent crime just need to control thier children not just buying pinatas is dangerous there is other sports like golf or foot ball think of gang members then. I think that any parent that is not controling your child your kid will become dangerous so to speak it is not the traditions it’s the parents.
August 21st, 2008 at 12:06 pm
I’ve really been trying to cope with this for a while, and finding this website truly helped me. It’s true what he says, I am a gang banger and I, as a child, actively participated in bashing pinatas with a stick. At first I would only hit pinatas every now and then at parties, but then I started to become more and more obsessed. By the age of 11 I was hitting anything made of paper mache with a stick. I eventually met my best friend who shared the same desire to demolish paper donkeys as I did. Unbeknownst to me, 6 years later he is a gang leader and I’m part of that gang. If I had never been obsessed with pinatas, I would have never become a gang member.
December 19th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
My band HATES pinatas, and thats why we are protesting them.
myspace.com/pinata protest