If you’re about 15 years old and living in the U.S., you might have received text messages warning you to stay away from your local Wal-Mart because wannabe gang members are planning to attack women and children shoppers as part of their initiations.
Law enforcement agencies in multiple states are trying to quash the rumours, because no such attacks have ever occurred, even though similar rumours have been floating around since ’05.
There are plenty of valid reasons not to shop at Wal-Mart, but gang initiation isn’t one of them.
Swallowing The Camel 
I think a big part of this is just simple racism. I knew a girl in college who thought she was thisclose to being raped as gang initiation, because of some rumor she heard that a gang was looking for a white girl with brown hair to do this to at some gas station, so she didn’t go there any more.
Probably. In Canada, folks often fret about Asian gang activity whether they’ve actually seen any incidents of it or not, while gang crimes make up a very small percentage of crimes.