Take Two translates the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that affect our lives. Produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from October 2012 – June 2021. Hosted by A Martinez.
Football reigns supreme in the San Joaquin valley, and this year the Fresno State Bulldogs college football team is 9-0 and ranked in the top 20 nationally. But for years, gang violence has dampened team spirit. That's because the team shares its muscled cartoon bulldog mascot with the notorious Bulldogs gang, which law enforcement officials consider to be the largest independent street gang in the country, boasting an estimated 30,000 members. Confusing the team with the gang has proven deadly; at their height in 2006, the Bulldogs gang was responsible for 70% of the shootings in Fresno and schools banned bulldog attire in response. The violence has left Fresno State school administrators in an awkward position as sales of Fresno State bulldog merchandise has grown tenfold since the gang's appropriation of the log0. Valley Public Radios' Joe Moore joins Take Two to discuss.