Time in lockup the turning point
By Audrey Tan
The New Paper
Saturday, Oct 06, 2012
SINGAPORE - At 17, Joe (not his real name) was charged with common intention for assault and spent 12 hours in a lockup.
When he was 14, he was mixing with gang members and claimed he joined the Ang Soon Tong gang the following year.
He picked up smoking and binge drinking, and spent his days with his gang members loitering at void decks watching YouTube videos of gory violence, missing most of his classes every day.
He even stole bicycles.
For two years from 2008, this was the life he led.
And he felt safe being in the gang.
He explained: "We promised one another that we will watch out for one another. They were the only friends I had."
Then, his parents had given up on him and his family ties became strained. He has three older siblings.
But during the sleepless 12 hours he spent in the police lockup in 2010, Joe decided he had had enough.
At the time, he had repeated a year at Secondary 3, and the then-Normal Academic student said he grew anxious when he realised that he would be spending six years in secondary school.
Realisation
He said: "I had this feeling that if I continued being in the gang, I would be in a lot of trouble."
The 19-year-old now lives in Eunos with his aunt's family on weekdays and returns to his Choa Chu Kang home on weekends.
He said he left the gang amicably in 2010 and has not contacted his former gang members since.
Joe studied hard for his O-level exams last year and is now a first-year junior college student.
He hopes to work in business IT in the future.
