Nat Geo goes 'Inside' Straight Edge sub-culture on April 9
08/01/2005 - Thurston Moore - PR Photos
By M&C Smallscreen Mar 25, 2008, 19:17 GMT
Unusual youth movements pop up each generation, but the pressures of being young today can be overwhelming. Eighty percent of high schoolers have tried alcohol; seventy percent have smoked cigarettes; and almost half have used some sort of illegal drug.
But there is one group taking a stand.
They call themselves Straight Edge and they are a movement built around three simple rules: don’t drink, don’t smoke and don’t do drugs.
In schools and neighborhoods around America, Straight Edge has become something more: a community, a way of life. But to some, it has also become a militant-styled menace.
On
Wednesday, April 9, 2008, at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT, National Geographic Channel (NGC) goes "Inside Straight Edge" to examine this youth movement gone “clean.” But not all is as it seems, and some members of this movement are developing a dark reputation as a violent gang, capable of malicious beatings and even murder.
The "Hate Edge."
Narrated by
Sonic Youth band member
Thurston Moore, the documentary asks, Is Straight Edge a safe refuge or a militant subculture that feels justified in committing violence to disseminate its beliefs?
Like many young adults who seek countercultural experiences, members of the Hate Edge faction of the Straight Edge youth movement can often be seen brandishing tattoos, wearing spiked hair and enjoying hard-core punk music. But this is no ordinary community of rebels. This group identifies through its unique set of rules: no drinking, no smoking, no drugs and no premarital sex.
On the surface, it’s a positive ethos that would make any parent breathe a sigh of relief, right?
Not quite.
There is another side of Straight Edge: The militant minority that believes violence is justified in order to revolutionize the world. Notable episodes of violence started in Boston’s club scene, where members brutally attacked drug dealers.
Over time this militancy spread across the country to places like Reno, where members used brass knuckles in ambush beatings, or Salt Lake City, where a stabbing took the life of a 15-year-old boy. In at least one state, law enforcement now classifies the Hate Edge Straight Edge-rs as a certified gang.
Reno gang patrol officer Pat Salerno explains, “Straight Edge … is a great concept ... and the ideals are good, [but] you do have fanatics that take it too far. They engage in criminal activity like any other gang would, but they feel that they’re righteous and that’s where it becomes convoluted.”
As Straight Edge splinters into factions with opposing ideologies, its members are forced to navigate this uneven, unpredictable terrain. But Ross Haenfler, an expert on social movements and political sociology who considers himself a “posi” or positive Straight Edger, argues that Straight Edge will persist in spite of the current battle for its identity.
“It’s going to be a permanent fixture of youth culture. And that tension within Straight Edge between the positive and militant sides I think will always exist.”
In this eye-opening documentary, NGC gets to the core of both sides of Straight Edge. Hear firsthand accounts from youth who embrace a subculture free of drugs and alcohol, including those who beat up drunks and drug dealers in the name of Straight Edge.
What draws some teens, and even preteens, to embrace the movement?
For some it’s a reaction against parents with substance abuse problems; for others it’s a personal transformation from a troubled past. But for many, it’s simply a way to feel at home along the rocky roads of an otherwise alienating world.
Inside Straight Edge profiles candid accounts from Jeremy Nelson, an ex-Straight Edge member who is now a police officer on the gang beat; Ronen Morris, director of “Boston Beatdown,” a video that brought attention to the Straight Edge furor in Boston; and Annette Bilyeu, a parent caught between what seems like a good choice for her kid and the group’s increasingly disturbing reputation.
“Like any parent would, I like him not drinking, I like him not doing drugs,” says Bilyeu. “I worry about where Straight Edge may go. Will the gangsters take over? … Or will it become just a lifestyle without the fanaticism or the radicalism of their beliefs?”