Goodbye to gangster life Her friends took bets she'd be back -- but they all lost
Glenda Luymes, The Province
Published: Monday, September 17, 2007

It's a life Desirae Cardinal doesn't miss.

She remembers watching for cops while her gangster boyfriend sold drugs near the Broadway SkyTrain station. She'd carry his drugs and weapons when he didn't want to get caught with them. And while he fought with rival gang members, she'd have it out with their girlfriends.

"That's something I can't be affiliated with anymore," she says.

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Once a girlfriend to Lower Mainland gangsters, Desirae Cardinal has put her life on a different path.
Jon Murray, The Province

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Font: ****Three years ago, the 19-year-old East Vancouver mom realized she needed to leave the drinking, drugs and gangster boyfriends behind. That was when she landed in the hospital after a month-long drinking binge, and just a few months before she got pregnant.

Her friends made bets on how long it would be before she returned to the gangster lifestyle.

"It kinda hurt to hear that," she says. "It made me want to prove them wrong."

It's been almost two years of ups and downs, but Cardinal's feeling pretty good.

"I still mess up sometimes, but I'm doing it. One day at a time, right?" she says, flashing a truly contagious smile.

Sexually abused by a foster parent when very young, Cardinal went to live with her grandmother at age seven. She frequently ran away, turning to alcohol, then pot, and finally ecstasy and crack to deal with her problems.

At age 14, she got pregnant for the first time, but miscarried.

A steady string of boyfriends followed, many of them gang members. She says most of the East Vancouver teens she knows -- including girls -- are "affiliated" in some way or another with street gangs like the Nightcrawlers, Indian Posse or Red Alert.

"I don't know what's happening in Vancouver . . . There's all these kids involved in gangs . . . The gangs are like families. They're recruiting kids from the elementary schools," she says.

The birth of her son a little over one year ago strengthened her resolve to turn her life around. She's finishing high school and hopes to go to Bible school in Mexico this winter. She's also been accepted at a hairstyling school.

University College of the Fraser Valley criminology professor Irwin Cohen says that although gang members are still predominantly male, researchers are seeing more girls participating "full on" in gangs.

"They are no longer simply the playthings of male gang members," he says.

Cohen says the increase might be explained by a shift in the elements that define female status -- adding aggressive independence to beauty and intelligence.

"We see some girls, in a traditionally male way, gaining acceptance for being aggressive," he explains.

But the professor says the risk factors that predict criminal behaviour in girls are not the same as in boys, although they may appear that way.

"We see many more girls who have been victims of sexual and physical abuse," he says.

Dr. Mark Totten, director of the youth services bureau of Ottawa, says gangster girls are often little more than sexual slaves for male gang members.

"We see them being pimped out, traded as peace offerings between gangs . . . To get into a gang, girls might have to submit to a gang rape," he says.

Girls are also used to carry drugs for gang members, who know police are more reluctant to frisk females.

"Girls may just play a tertiary role," says Totten, "but the impacts of that role, on their lives especially, can be very significant."

gluymes@png.canwest.com