The Crips are a gang based in the coastal regions of southern California.They were founded in Los Angeles, California in 1969 mainly by Raymond Washington and Stanley Williams.Once a single alliance between two autonomous gangs, they are now a loosely connected network of individual 'sets', often engaged in open warfare with one another.
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Origins
Started in Los Angeles as a street gang in the 1960s, spread to Texas prisons in the 1980s. Besides serving the broader purpose of neighborhood protection, the Bloods street gang originally arose as an opposing force to their rivals the Crips, who had been allying with various other gangs in the 1970s and becoming more powerful. As a result, the Piru gang allied with the Denver Lanes, the LA Brims and the Lueeders Park Hustlers to become the Bloods in 1972. 'Bloods' was a term that African-American fighting men called each other in the Vietnam War. The Pirus later changed their name to Bloods.
The East Coast Bloods began in 1993 in New York City. Leonard 'Deadeye' MacKenzie, then 26-year-old inmate from Brooklyn living inside a Rikers Island cell, and fellow prisoner O.G. 'Original Gangsta' Mack, founded the New York chapter of the United Blood Nation in 1993. Deadeye is now in his late 30s and is incarcerated in upstate New York.
By the late 1990s, New York Latin Kings leader Antonio Fernandez (AKA King Tone) aknowledged that the Bloods have begun to dominate New York's prison system, and that his own gang has abandoned criminal operations in favour of political-activism. Because of this abatement in Latin King crime, the Bloods have a stronger and larger population in jail.
Rivalries
Rivalries have been reported with:
Factions
Hundreds of factions or sets of the Bloods exist, some of which include:
Organization in PrisonFor a map of prison locations and a list of gang reports, see Bloods Prison Gang ReportsPrison Gang News
Gang ProfilesPrison Gang Reports
Because it has no written constitution, the Bloods are officially labeled a 'security threat group' in prison, not a street gang per se. The gang deals in murder, conspiracy, credit card fraud, extortion, prostitution, and drug trafficking. Despite the stigma of violence, founding Blood member Omar Portee started the gang for the purpose of 'brothers getting together, people getting together, fighting oppression' and not to advocate violence and killing.
Most of the primarily Black street gang operates in prisons and on the street across much of California, but they have long since spread to other states. They have approximately 5000 members in Los Angeles alone (where they operate their national headquarters), but have set up chapters in Chicago, New York, New Jersey, Seattle-Tacoma, and Little Rock, Arkansas.
The New York Department of Corrections recently started up a Gang Intelligence Unit that identified the different Blood sets operating in New York prisons and jails, including the Gangsta Killer Bloods, the Sex Money Murder Bloods, the Concepts of War, and the Nine Trey Gangstas. New York's prison system has suffered considerable challenges from Bloods inside state prisons, with many corrections officers saying that the rise of the Bloods have resulted in making themselves feel 'targeted' for the first time. According to the Village Voice's coverage, staff often get hurt intervening in conflicts, and have begun getting 'popped without warning, with no rational explanation' (21 October 1997 The Village Voice).
In addition to California, signficant numbers and incidents of the Bloods have been reported in the following local, state, and federal prisons:
The Bloods street gang is reported to have or have had in the past headquarters at:
Previous East Coast Bloods have or have had headquarters on 183rd Street and Davidson Avenue in New York City. They have chapters at Norfolk, Virginia, Harford County, Maryland, Albany, NY, Los Angeles, CA, New York City, Portland, Oregon. For a more detailed list of Blood sets and their locations, refer to the factions section above.
Famous Members
According to news reports, the following members have (or have had) alleged executive connections:
Signs, Symbols, and Identification
The Central Region consists not only of Oklahoma City but also the surrounding suburban cities such as, Midwest City, Del City, Norman and Edmond to name a few. The gang problem has spread into every one of these communities. We have over 100 different gang sets in the area with an estimated gang population of 8,000. Our drive-by shootings have tripled since 2000. The majority of our shootings seem to be triggered either from a dispute over a female or a drug deal gone bad. After the initial shooting then it becomes a set vs. set issue. Additionally, we have seen assault rifle shootings drastically increase in recent years.
In the past few years we have seen a huge increase in gang violence, particularly in the Hispanic gangs. Our three largest Hispanic gang sets are the South Side Locos (SSL), Grande Barrio Centrale (GBC) and the Juaritos who also go by Grande Barrio Loco (GBL). These three gangs have a combined membership of over 1,500. Since the summer of 2003 we have experienced a marked increase in the gang homicides between these groups with some being directly tied to the Varrio Tortilla Flats gang out of LA.
The other three largest gangs in the region are the 107 Hoovers, Westside Rolling 60’s and the Rolling 90’s. These three have in excess of 300 members each. Of these three the 107 Hoovers are the most active and violent. They are engaged in heavy drug dealing and numerous shootings and assaults. Due to their aggressiveness they have been retaliated upon in recent months with the result being several of them being murdered in about a one month time span. More recently the 107 Hoovers and the Shotgun Crips have been involved in an ongoing war with the two Neighborhood sets. This began over drug turf and has now erupted into a full scale war. There have been numerous homicides, ADW’s and drive by shootings related to this dispute.
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December 2022
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