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Posted: 5/13/2004 5:49:39 AM EDT
[#1]
Gets rid of the evidence?
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Posted: 5/13/2004 5:51:21 AM EDT
[#2]
I understand it is a sign of gang activity. I've also heard the color/type of shoe indicates which drugs are available in the area.
Who knows??? I'd love to find out the meaning though. |
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Posted: 5/13/2004 5:51:44 AM EDT
[#3]
Marking terrritory?
ByteTheBullet (-: |
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Posted: 5/13/2004 5:52:26 AM EDT
[#4]
Dunno, but I've always assumed kids did it to terrorize other kids. They are expensive, and a hugely valuable possession for most kids--so taking them, tying them together, and putting them in a place where they are visible, but inaccessible, seems like the act of a bully to dominate another kid. YMMV--it's just a guess.
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Posted: 5/13/2004 5:53:24 AM EDT
[#5]
That's what I've heard, as well. <shrug> |
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Posted: 5/13/2004 5:54:50 AM EDT
[#6]
Maybe they just got done seeing the movie "Wag The Dog"
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Posted: 5/13/2004 5:55:08 AM EDT
[#7]
That's a sign that there's a place to buy drugs in the area.
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Posted: 5/13/2004 5:55:11 AM EDT
[#8]
Retail drug location.
See the shoes. Pull over to the side and flash your lights a couple times. See how long it takes for someone to come up and ask what you want. |
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Posted: 5/13/2004 5:55:36 AM EDT
[#9]
It is for the dead homeys
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Posted: 5/13/2004 5:56:02 AM EDT
[#10]
Houses with shoes on the powerlines are supposed to be selling drugs. That's how it started. I think it's now turned into kids just being stupid.
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Posted: 5/13/2004 5:56:12 AM EDT
[#11]
Wow, I guess you do learn something every day. Drug dealers "Shoes over power lines code". |
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Posted: 5/13/2004 5:57:26 AM EDT
[#12]
When I worked out in south central l.a, you couldn't drive a block without seeing a pair of sneakers dangling from the power lines.
  
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Posted: 5/13/2004 5:57:30 AM EDT
[#13]
So if I do that in my patrol car this evening you think someone will sell me some shit? |
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Posted: 5/13/2004 5:58:47 AM EDT
[#14]
What are you looking for? I can get you anything you want homey! SGtar15 |
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Posted: 5/13/2004 5:58:52 AM EDT
[#15]
ghetto enterprise has no boundries 
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Posted: 5/13/2004 5:58:57 AM EDT
[#16]
Beside the copycats, I have heard it's the area where a gang member was killed, like a ghetto grave marker.
They must have seen it on MTV or BET, now it's commonplace. Or maybe they just smell? 
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Posted: 5/13/2004 5:59:25 AM EDT
[#17]
Someone might be dumb enough to yes
If they are, that should make dumb crook news, you'd be famous!!!!! |
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Posted: 5/13/2004 6:00:25 AM EDT
[#18]
Depends on if you're 'known' in the hood. When we lived in the ghetto, the street corner guys had different whistles for different 5-0. 'Good' ones had one signal. Clean cops had a different one. You knew the po-po was rolling through because you could hear the whistles going up the blocks. |
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Posted: 5/13/2004 6:00:27 AM EDT
[#19]
That depends on how much they abuse their own product. |
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Posted: 5/13/2004 6:01:22 AM EDT
[#20]
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Posted: 5/13/2004 6:01:44 AM EDT
[#21]
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Posted: 5/13/2004 6:03:58 AM EDT
[#22]
Its a common practice at Army installations to throw a pair of boots up on the powerlines upon ETS from the Army!
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Posted: 5/13/2004 6:04:00 AM EDT
[#23]
No, no, no. It's just mean kids being mean.
A group will either make some kid take off his shoes or they forcibly remove them. Either because they don’t like them or are jealous of their shoes. They then tie the shoelaces together and giggle and chortle as they try and toss them onto an overhead wire. Its mischievous bullying - pure and simple. Don’t see too much of it anymore either because it’s such an old trick or possibly due to the fact that trying to take someone’s clothing now a days is a good way to end up shot. |
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Posted: 5/13/2004 1:53:59 PM EDT
[#24]
Yep, that's pretty common practice. Everywhere I was stationed there were boots every where. I asked my teenagers about the gang/drug things and all I got was the "WTF is wrong with him?" look. |
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Posted: 5/13/2004 1:56:51 PM EDT
[#25]
Im not police, but I had a silver crown vic with a spotlight, I dress in BDU style clothes with close but hair. 2 people tried, now I drive an Impala, they now think Im selling instead of buying. |
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Posted: 5/13/2004 2:01:30 PM EDT
[#26]
Nothing like a bunch of suburban white guys hypothesizing about ghetto drug culture
 Beekeeper has it right |
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Posted: 5/13/2004 2:05:11 PM EDT
[#27]
Exactly!!!! its the dead man shoes |
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Posted: 5/13/2004 2:45:44 PM EDT
[#28]
I don't know about over Power Lines, but I know why we do something similar @ the Univ of MN. We have a tradition to honor on campus, and one of its historical landmarks is the "Shoe Tree."
There's a tree on the WestBank campus right below the south-side of the pedestrian bridge over Washington Avenue. Students have been tying their laces together & throwing their old shoes into this tree for over 30 years (perhaps more). There are shoes, bicycles, rollerblades, etc... All hanging up i this moderate sized tree and they've been there forever. I have seen many friends of mine throw their old shoes in that tree and they said that it's a tradition. Their parents threw their shoes in the tree, as did their friends & their parents... Etc... It's a tradition on campus to toss a pair into the shoe-tree. On powerlines, I have no idea why. |
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Posted: 5/13/2004 3:49:00 PM EDT
[#29]
Its an Army tradition gone wrong! I don't know how long it has been going on but soldiers who were ETSing from the Army were "hanging up their boots" but since the early 80's that I know of. Surely it has been going on much longer. I doubt if we picked the habit up from drug dealing gangs.
I slung my boots in 1988 and heard that the guys tasked with getting them down had difficulties. They were wrapped around the span several times out in front of my unit.
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Posted: 5/13/2004 3:54:06 PM EDT
[#30]
I think it is a sign your in the wrong area. Turn around and head the other direction if your not looking for trouble. But if you are it means lock and load.
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Posted: 5/13/2004 3:59:48 PM EDT
[#31]
Whats with the drug reasoning for throwing sneakers over power or phone lines? I am 47, grew up in Philly and we threw them over lines...Why?...The main reason was to see if you could, secondly it was always a good chuckle to see them hanging...lastly you had to get rid of them ayway.
It's a city thing. |
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Posted: 5/13/2004 4:03:05 PM EDT
[#32]
I'll tell you why. It's because kids do it. Kids have always done it. When I lived in the city when I was a kid we did it just for the sake of doing it. You throw your old sneakers over the line when you get new ones. I've heard that thing about the neighborhood being a drug location and it's bullshit. If anything, it's a coincidence that drug infested areas have lots of kids who hang out on the street all day. Nothing more to it.
Now I see Retched Rick's post. We probably grew up in similar areas. NY for me. |
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Posted: 5/13/2004 4:25:35 PM EDT
[#33]
So what's it? 1. Drug area indication 2. Death body in the vinicity 3. Army ritual 4. Bullies 5. All of the above I occasionally see it, but have no idea WTF it means. Help a brother out. |
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Posted: 5/13/2004 4:29:12 PM EDT
[#34]
Read the above 2 posts or ask somebody who actually grew up in a city. You'll get your answer. |
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Posted: 5/13/2004 4:39:27 PM EDT
[#35]
I can't answer the shoes over the power lines dealie, but what has driven me stark staring nuts for about 40 years is ONE SHOE in the breakdown lane.
For years, I've driven for MILES tryint to find the other shoe with no avail. |
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Posted: 5/14/2004 5:14:14 AM EDT
[#36]
when i was young, my brothers and i, hung my sisters barbie dolls from the wires, just like the shoes are seen now, but it was just for fun, i bet some people thought it meant that the house was full of prostitutes, hmmmm
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Posted: 5/14/2004 5:32:45 AM EDT
[#37]
I don't know about this drug shit yall are talking about....But I remember back as kids years ago, we would tie up our burnt out skippies and throw em up there just for the hell of it. I guess times have changed.
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Posted: 5/14/2004 5:48:02 AM EDT
[#38]
yes, it is an unofficial Army tradtion for ETSing |
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Posted: 5/14/2004 5:59:11 AM EDT
[#39]
My guess...... You are about to enter a area where Garbage, Trash and the Scum of the Earth live.
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Posted: 5/14/2004 6:19:32 AM EDT
[#40]
I get the feeling that you have a personal story about having you shoes taken that you might want to share with the class... |
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Posted: 5/14/2004 7:11:14 AM EDT
[#41]
They do it because they can. Don't try to read too much into it.
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Posted: 5/14/2004 7:45:11 AM EDT
[#42]
here - snopes has an answer - the short of it is - no one knows why...
http://www.snopes.com/crime/gangs/sneakers.htm If you have alot of it in your area, its probabaly just the cool thing to do... |
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Posted: 5/14/2004 9:10:03 AM EDT
[#43]
Answer:
Back in the days of Chuck Taylors and Pro Keds, kids would have one pair of gym shoes that they kept in their lockers at school. On the last day of school the tradition was, to celebrate by throwing the sneakers over a wire. This began in the Northeast back in the 40s and 50s. |
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Posted: 5/14/2004 9:26:33 AM EDT
[#44]
Well, I lived in South America for a couple years - Ecuador, specifically. It has been done there for a LONG, LONG time. They do it for sporting events (specifically, soccer). The winning team gets to do that to the shoes of the losing team as incentive not to lose. If it's done for other reasons here, it has mutated from that original purpose.
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Posted: 5/14/2004 9:38:15 AM EDT
[#45]
To piss off the owner of the shoes.
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Posted: 5/14/2004 9:52:30 AM EDT
[#46]
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Posted: 5/14/2004 11:44:10 AM EDT
[#47]
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Posted: 5/14/2004 12:03:30 PM EDT
[#48]
Yeah - it's right up there with the story of when I was 12, on a fishing trip with my uncle, and got attacked by a bear. |
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