hoodlum:
(plural: ‘hoodlums‘; for the right pronunciation, please click here)

three hoodlums (R) cornering their victim (L)
a violent person, usually a young ruthless criminal;
a gangster;
a hooligan; a thug;
(more recently) an ill-mannered and violent teenager/youngster,

hoodlums with guns, ready for action
In parts of Asia these days, a politician begins his ‘career’ as a hoodlum for a senior politician and then, after gathering enough ‘followers’ and some ‘track record’, which is nothing but some criminal record and blood money through crimes, finds a minor position in an already corrupt political party and in due course, will become a ‘candid’ politician!
As most hoodlums are becoming heroes because of the media publicity, the police and some social activists are sending requests to the media giants not to sanctify these low grade anti-social elements by giving them high priority in their crime reports just to make their news articles look more interesting.
More and more cases of unruly youngsters, unemployed youth wearing hoods and involving in anti-social activities, being labelled as hoodlums are showing up throughout the world, especially in the USA and the UK, and are becoming a pain in the neck to parents, law enforcement officers and politicians because most of these cases are unwittingly becoming serious racial and religious issues!
