How Neighborhood Policing is Making History in Boston (2)

Keep the Peace:
Learn the Past

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It is no wonder that by the time Morales became a teenager, he was an avid recruiter for the X-Men, a gang whose standard operating procedure included physical combat with the police. Morales says that during his gang years, Ramirez used to aggressively scream at him to try to scare him into better ways.

It didn't work. At age 17, Morales went to jail for dealing drugs, leaving his younger brother Hector to manage life in the streets by himself. Following his big brother's lead, Hector had joined the X-Men too.

I knew that Hector was looking up to me," says Morales. "I felt like we were growing up in the middle of nowhere with nothing to lose. Hector had to learn at a young age that he had to be tough, learn the streets tough and meet an argument violently."

"Hector was a witness when I got stabbed in the face and came close to dying," says Morales. "He, himself, became the victim of violence because first he was stabbed at a very young age and almost died, and then he got shot in the head. We were seeing our friends dying off and people getting shot on a regular basis."

One night, while serving his six-year sentence, Morales caught the evening news on the prison TV and heard a broadcast that changed his life: Hector had open fired on police. The officers shot back in defense.

Will Morales next to a
memorial headstone
of his brother Hector,
painted by members
of the X-men gang

Morales relives the memory on fast-forward, as if he can speed past the terror of the moment he finally felt his own pain. "When you're illiterate and you hear the newscaster say that the assailant has been identified as one Hector Daniel Morales and that he's listed in critical condition and you don't understand what 'critical condition' means, you're just thinking he's in the hospital.

"And you're getting mad and you say you're going to get out there and kill cops. And you have an inmate who's dying from AIDS grab you by the throat and say, 'Do you know what 'critical condition' means? It means your brother's on a thin line between life and death.'"

Later that night, Hector died. "It was the first time the lifestyle, the drugs, the gangs and everything caught up with me," says Morales. "I'm pretty sure that a lot of young people never expect to go to prison or they never expect death to be the consequence, but it became a reality."



	Keep the Peace: Learn the Past
Full Text Version (good for printing entire article)	It is no wonder that by the time Morales became a teenager, he was an avid recruiter for the X-Men, a gang whose standard operating procedure included physical combat with the police. Morales says that during his gang years, Ramirez used to aggressively scream at him to try to scare him into better ways. It didn't work. At age 17, Morales went to jail for dealing drugs, leaving his younger brother Hector to manage life in the streets by himself. Following his big brother's lead, Hector had joined the X-Men too. I knew that Hector was looking up to me," says Morales. "I felt like we were growing up in the middle of nowhere with nothing to lose. Hector had to learn at a young age that he had to be tough, learn the streets tough and meet an argument violently." "Hector was a witness when I got stabbed in the face and came close to dying," says Morales. "He, himself, became the victim of violence because first he was stabbed at a very young age and almost died, and then he got shot in the head. We were seeing our friends dying off and people getting shot on a regular basis." One night, while serving his six-year sentence, Morales caught the evening news on the prison TV and heard a broadcast that changed his life: Hector had open fired on police. The officers shot back in defense.
Will Morales next to a memorial headstone of his brother Hector, painted by members of the X-men gang	Morales relives the memory on fast-forward, as if he can speed past the terror of the moment he finally felt his own pain. "When you're illiterate and you hear the newscaster say that the assailant has been identified as one Hector Daniel Morales and that he's listed in critical condition and you don't understand what 'critical condition' means, you're just thinking he's in the hospital. "And you're getting mad and you say you're going to get out there and kill cops. And you have an inmate who's dying from AIDS grab you by the throat and say, 'Do you know what 'critical condition' means? It means your brother's on a thin line between life and death.'" Later that night, Hector died. "It was the first time the lifestyle, the drugs, the gangs and everything caught up with me," says Morales. "I'm pretty sure that a lot of young people never expect to go to prison or they never expect death to be the consequence, but it became a reality."