Just a quick note before we get started, this episode contains strong language and graphic descriptions.

It's a popular belief that gangs or power-hungry groups of thugs who set out to create chaos and violence in a neighborhood.

But for Thierre Caldwell, they served another purpose.

Caldwell didn't live the traditional family life, but his family did provide a much-needed

sense of belonging.

It provided security in a tough world.

Tierra's family was a gang.

Joining the gang, it starts with, you know, just hanging out,

feeling out the person who you are.

And then it's really more or less,

it's kind of like trauma bonding. Like you relate to somebody else through

their struggle and your struggle. Like we're both poor. We're both from this neighborhood. We both don't

have fathers. We both, you know, have mothers who may or may not have been on drugs. And we come from broken families.

And it's almost as if our trauma has, in some ways, bonded us together at this point.

And so the trauma kind of in a strange way connects you.

Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, there's something about broken people coming together.

Right, right.

And so when we were obviously, when we're all broken pieces,

but in this gang or this family, when we all come together, we feel complete.

Facing a hostile world alone, Tierra grew up angry and lashed out at everyone and everything.

I'm Vic Vela. I'm a journalist, a storyteller, and a recovering drug addict.

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