Eddie decides that Samuel and his friends are dangerous because there is no evidence that they are high. He says,

"Samuel was standing twenty feet in front of me with two of his homeboys, one wearing his mama's hair net. I checked their mouths to see if they had been inhaling spray paint. They were clean, thus sober, thus dangerous."

When Eddie is challenged by Samuel and his gang of cholitos, he hopes that they are high. If they had been inhaling spray paint, their judgment and reaction time would be compromised, which would make them comparatively ineffectual in their evil intent and easy to elude. Unfortunately, the boys are sober, making them extremely deadly. As is evidenced by the fact that they are "kicking with Angel," the consummate influence in ruthlessness and asocial behavior, they are out to do no good. With their faculties intact, they are deadly and malicious. Samuel has a "blade," and is adept with it and unafraid to use it, making him, as Eddie rightly concludes, very, very dangerous (Chapter 6).