When you think about gangs, you probably often think that new members have to do some crazy initiation in order to prove their worth, but I would normally think that this involved something like stealing a diamond rather than getting brutally assaulted by everyone else in the gang.

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That’s not the case if you want to become a Crip in New York City though, as every new member has to get the absolute crap kicked out of them by the rest of the gang before they’re allowed to join the ranks. Upon hearing about this, Vice decided to set out and make a documentary about the process, following one new member named JT’s journey to full acceptance.

The documentary is actually fairly lengthy at 17 minutes but is well worth watching, if you just wanna skip towards the beating though it’s around the 10 minute mark:

I mean that was probably less brutal than I thought it would be even though JT got smacked up pretty bad, but it just seems so weird that they’re even doing it in the first place? Why do you like beating up someone who’s gonna be in your gang and gonna be your mate, even if JT is trying his best to justify it because they helped him out afterwards and he felt love from them following it? Completely bizarre, but I suppose that’s why I’m probably never going to be in a gang. So it goes.

For more gangs, check out this gang of machete wielding thugs in Harrow of all places. What?