D Street Boyz
by Jeffrey Stockbridge
D Street Boyz, 2010.
Danny, Tor & Bobby (pictured left to right) pose on the tracks.
Edited Audio Transcript
Danny: Straight Irish Boys, we’re from D Street.
Tor: They’re only a few left.
Danny: We, we, we was the hardest white boys that ever walked through Kensington. Period.
Bobby: And we was born and raised here.
Danny: From days when Kensington was Kensington, when the blacks couldn’t come through here until the fucking beginning of the 2000’s the white boys from D street ran this whole fucking area.
Bobby: Back in the 60’s and all when I was growing up there was nothing but pool halls, bars and boxing rings on every block.
Danny: And the white boys from D Street, D and Cambria ran this whole area. We were the hardest things that ran this thing. We were the white boys that were hard.
Bobby: You put that, you put that on TV, and, and then, ask, ask, and ask for uh, you put that on, do something about that and then ask for feedback from it and see what you get…
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Bobby: This is for those who are gone, we miss you, we love you’s and we hope to see you soon. Back when we were there, Irish Boys dead all the way.
Danny: Yo, you see this here. You see how I got it right here, Irish Boys, um. It say’s D Street. That’s who we are. We’re D Street Irish Mob.
Tor: Original, ORL.
Danny: That’s who we are, all the way.
Bobby: See, you should, you should call the documentary Hard Times.
Danny: This, this is for real, we were some real hard killers up here homie.
Danny: Lot of our homies are doing life.
Bobby: It was hard growing up here.
Danny: Lot of our homies are doing life and shit up here man.
Bobby: Lot of our homies died.
Danny: Died, lot of homies got shot. Lot of homies got shot… We was already on 20/20, 48 hours. You name it we was on it holmes. We was, we was on some real hard… I just did 15 years. My brother did 17. (inaudible) just left did 15. All for being the Irish crew.
I graduated from high school in Kensington in 1988. These men represent the worst of the worst. Scumbags who think they are “hard”. What they are is shameful and think being tattooed, doing and dealing drugs, cursing, and fostering delusions of gangster grandeur is something to be admired. Its not. They are trash.
You’re supposed to have some compassion and be able to see people in desperate circumstances in life. Not argue against them and criticise. We thought that viewers of this series were aware of the documentary value and wistful take on an interesting place. el
Look. I’m not going to read this and pity these people because they make wrong turns in life. Get back on the road buddy and make a u-turn. I have a very close family member who did just that. Down and dirty heroin addict who made the u-turn and now counsels addicts for a living. You’re really only enabling this behavior. There are enough TV documentaries that chronicle this.
FINALLY ! Someone with a brain !
Sumbags don’t even begin to touch it. These are the individuals who destroyed Kensington and many, many of the children that grew up within a 25 mile radius of D and Cambria. They are such trash that they pushed the rest of the trash out of Kensington to spread the rot to other areas of the city. These people sicken me. Sad when your greatest accomplishments in life are the years that you spent behind bars for ruining other people’s lives. I’m going to go vomit now.
EXACTLY !!!!
Funny how those not truly raised in Kensington are quick to judge & call anyone, including the D Steet boys trash. Growing up in Kensington one had no choice but to experience the drug & crime life & many were negatively impacted by those experiences. Sure many Kenzos made horrible life choices but certain social influences were hard to avoid, especially only as teenagers. Thing is you can look from afar & say these people are “trash” & “the worst of the worst” because they did prison sentences & used drugs but in my opinion the low income area played a large part on how a majority of Kenzos turned out.
I spent my high school years in Kensington and dated a man who was exclusively raised in Kensington. First at D & Westmoreland and then the family moved to Frankford and Atlantic. He was one of 7 children and none of them went into drugs or crime. Most of them didn’t graduate high school, but nonetheless secured good blue collar jobs. They were never rich, never had money for luxuries, new cars or vacations, but never went the D Street Boyz route, so I find those excuses lazy and irresponsible. They range in age now from 40 – 53 now with children and grandchildren of their own.
I grew up in Kensington as did my husband and his entire family. You’re so wrong in your assumption that growing up in the neighborhood we had no choice to experience the drug and crime life. We all had choices and NONE OF US chose that. Some of our family still live there, many have moved out. And I can still say that we’ve all went down the right road.
Hope u r all doing better
My great grandfather, grandfather, and all of my family were from Richmond and Kensignton. They WERE the Irish mob for real. They ran all the rackets and bars, and made stacks of money while these clowns were still crapping in their huggies. The neighborhood went to shit because fools like these didn’t keep the neighborhood sacred. They turned into little wiggers, spic wannabes, and junkies themselves. They are a disgrace to my people, the real Irish gangsters.
Couldn’t have said it any better !
Kensington people at least the ones featured in this series, are obviously victims of life’s twists and turns. This is an artistic and compassionate documentary of an interesting place. That I have also experienced for a short period but not in the depth shown in this series which is excellent.
They parents and relatives may have been real Irish Mobile and K & A Gang but these guys were a bit too young for that.
These guys grew up in a time when Kensington started getting really bad after the white flight – due to deindustrialization, failing schools, Reaganomics, broken homes, poverty, and overall lack of opportunities in the neighborhood and city.. They are right, though;, D and Cambria was the last area of white/Irish left to mov3 out of the neighborhood. These men are just products of their inner-city environment and Reaganomics. It was a bad time for working-class families in the city. The Irish did run that D and Cambria until about 1998-99 when most were indicted Puerto Ricans and Dominicans took over the rest of the neighborhood and drug racket. I can’t help, but feel some compassion for these guys.
Sorry for the typos.
When I was down there I came across these guys I felt bad for them growing up here and having it hard some of thair family ran shit back in the day but that is over now and they were just kids when the real money and power of the irish mob was going on if they were smart they would get oit of that place and start a life its over guys all thats left is rats and junkies I feel sorry for guys like this misguided in every sence of the word
Danny says, “You should call this documentary Hard Times.” Dude, you don’t know the meaning of hard times or being hard. I’m white, Italian, and I grew up in a bad neighborhood, 172nd St. and Rosedale Ave. Bronx, N.Y. Family was on welfare, no father, etc. Hard Times and being Hard is… graduating Monroe High School, 4 years in the Marine Corps., 1 year in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, waking up every day at 5:00am to go to work for 8 to 10 hours a day… and I was, but no longer, a full blown junkie, for 15 of my 47 years. Yeah, I could have taken the EASY way out by selling drugs, robbing and stealing, hustling, gangs, etc. Doing the right thing is HARD. Life, is HARD TIMES.
EXACTLY !!!! Thank you for your service and for sharing your story. YOU are a TRUE man !
Wow! Thank you. Your comment is very humbling. Although it wasn’t implied, I just want to say, “I am in no way a saint nor am I anywhere near perfect, but I try, God knows I try.”
Bobby, Danny, and Tor, I don’t know you guys, but you all know what the right thing to do is. No one has to tell you. It’s time to grow the fuck up.
Oh man, this one is hilarious. First of all, if they’re so proud to be Irish, why are they using the word “homie” every other damn word ? F**king wiggers don’t know shit about being hard. Second, I don’t know what the hell the one dude is saying, because blacks and ricans were in Kensington waaaaayyyy before the 2000s. I grew up right off of Kensington and Lehigh so I know wtf I’m talking about. Aint nothing hard about you if you’re a f**king junkie. Plain and simple. Everyone on here making excuses for these scumbags have no clue what they’re talking about. There are PLENTY of people who grew up in that same crappy area that didn’t turn out to be wannabe thugs. These dudes are trying to relive glory days that they heard their older relatives talking about but they themselves had no part in. “Hardcore killas up in here, homie”… are you frigging kidding me, you clown ?! It’s people like this that make TRUE Irish Kensington look like pure white trash.
Oh, yeah, I like you. Couldn’t have said it better myself. You clown?! That’s frickin funny. Better watch out, their hardcore killas, homie!
These guys have been huffing to much afta or cleaning fluid and fried their brains. There weren’t pool halls and boxing rings on every block, bars were probably on every other corner. I spent my entire youth roaming the streets of kensington in the and harrowgate in the late 60’s and the 70’s and D and cambria was nothing but another intersection. It’s a shame these guys never grew up but that’s on them , I know to many people that grew up in Kenso and moved on as the matured. No sympathy here.
I know Hinkie, as a lotta ppl do who got high there late 90’s up to late 2000’s, I’m sure he’s still there. One night a side tried to rob me back on the tracks (I’m a girl) and he said, “you’re fucking with my cousin homes” and I’m not his Hinkies cousin, no relation, but he saved my ass that day n I’ll never forget it. Brick to the dudes head. It was summer 2010. Tbey ised to call me Reds, cuz i had broght red hair n im not even gonna say ny name bc it don’t matter, I’m clean now on methadone n have a job, I’m not a loser n neither are ANY of them. Simply ppl who got caught up in the game n can’t get out bc of the prison system being so fucked up. Where do u go when all the places the put u, upon release Coleman Hall, etc are right in the hood, walking distance from ur old stomping grounds n that’s what the PA system does to them, these dudes are throwaways to any judge or jury, but I’ll never forget what Hinkie did for me that day. I’m sure he don’t remember. But I do.