"You want me to tell you the sad thing about being a wannabe?," says Detective Aquiles Carmona, lecturing a kid who was flying a black bandanna from the pocket of his low-hanging jeans, riding his bike around Wynwood.
"You got the look, you got the talk, but then when you get confronted by a hard-core is when you get your ass whupped," the veteran Miami Police gang unit cop said, as the 15-year-old boy's mother arrives at the scene.
It's just another night on the streets for the officers who make it a mission to put pressure on local gangs. These men and women are out almost every night, keeping tabs on known gang members and trying to prevent tragedies.
It seems like every other week, an innocent person somewhere in South Florida is caught in the crossfire of a gang-related shooting.
"I've definitely noticed more firearms on the street," Carmona says. "We used to see a lot more of just your regular, traditional street fights."
In the last 20 years, the number of gangs has more than doubled in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. The police estimate close to 150 gangs are active in Miami-Dade, and about 85 in Broward.
Why the growth? NBC Miami asked "J", a life-long, hard-core gang member who's left the gang life to be a police informant, after serving three years in prison.
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"Your dad's in prison, your mom's a gang member, into drugs, dad was into drugs, so what do you see growing up, it's just drugs and poverty, all you really know is the streets," he says.
Detective Carmona sees another source for gang members: immigrants from Central America. "Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, that's a way of life for them over there," Carmona says. "Dad and grandma and great-grandfather were gang members, so how do you tell those guys that being a gang member is wrong?"
Kids in some neighborhods idolize the gang members they see and hear every day, but J sees a difference between his generation and the teenagers blasting each other these days.
"They don't want to talk, they just wanna grab their gun and go shoot, that's it, there's no talking, heartless," J says. "Nowadays, it's the younger generation doing all the killing, they have no fear."
When asked if he's ever shot anybody, J didn't hesitate.
"Yeah, I've done it," he says. "Once you do your first killing, you're apt to do your second killing because now you think about it less."
J helps police understand gang tactics and mentality, and rides with them, behind dark tinted windows, identifying lookouts and assorted thugs of different neighborhoods.
Life has changed for him now that he's grown older, fathered children, and hopefully, gained some wisdom. J feels pangs of guilt about the crimes he's committed.
"Now it bothers me 'cause I got kids and I think about it," J says. "It's like wow, that could've been my son, my daughter, but when you're young and you're out here doing it, you don't think about those consequences, you really don't, you really don't care."
