Founding location | Watts, Los Angeles, California, United States |
---|---|
Years active | 1969 - present |
Territory | Nickerson Gardens |
Ethnicity | African American |
Membership (est.) | 2,000 [1] |
Criminal activities | Drug trafficking, robbery, extortion, murder, burglary, identification theft, car theft, kidnapping |
Rivals | Grape Street Watts Crips, West Side Piru, [2] 118 East Coast Crips [3] [4] |
The Bounty Hunter Watts Bloods, [5] [6] also known as the Bounty Hunter Bloods, is a predominantly African American street gang situated in the Nickerson Gardens public housing projects in Watts, Los Angeles.
The gang was originally established in 1969 but became well established by 1972. Whilst today it is a set of the Bloods, it was originally known as the Green Jackets. Gary Barker and Bobby Jack are believed to be the set's founders. [7]
The gang is perhaps most known for its longstanding rivalry with the Grape Street Watts Crips which has been described by gang experts as "the most violent and long lasting feud between two gangs that are in the Watts area". [8] In 1992, the Watts truce was declared which saw a rapid decline in violence between the two street gangs. However, by 2005, the truce had reportedly imploded with the homicide rate increasing to at least seven. [9]
In 1993, Regis Deon Thomas, a member of the Bounty Hunter Watts Bloods, shot and killed two Compton Police Department officers during a traffic stop. They were the first Compton police officers to be killed in the line of duty in the department's 65-year history. [10]
In 1997, members of the 118 East Coast Crips shot a school bus in the hopes of killing members of the Bounty Hunter Bloods, killing 17-year-old bystander Corie Williams instead. [3] [4]
In 2003, shots were fired at Los Angeles Police Department patrol officers in two incidents in the Nickerson Gardens projects. In 2000, the FBI convicted 30 Bounty Hunter Watts Bloods members on federal drug violations for the distribution and conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine. [11] An injunction was imposed on the gang in 2004 which limited the movements of members. [12]
In 2013, O.F.T.B. rapper and Bounty Hunter Watts Bloods affiliate, Kevin “Flipside” White, was shot dead by alleged members of the Grape Street Watts Crips. [13]
The gang is situated within Nickerson Gardens, the largest government housing complex west of the Mississippi River. [14] The complex forms the majority of its territory which is the largest of any African-American street gang in Watts. [5] The gang has over 2,000 documented members and is subdivided into numerous subsets and cliques, including the Lot Boys, Block Boys, Bell Haven, Ace Line, Duece Line, Tray Line, Four Line and Five Line. [1] [5] Like all Bloods gangs, the Bounty Hunter Watts Bloods affiliate themselves with the color red. Its members tattoo themselves with the letters "B" and "H" which refer to "Bounty Hunters" and also use the letters in hand signs. [1]
Its members have been known to attend Centennial High School in Compton. [15]
In addition to its feud with the Grape Street Watts Crips, the gang is also known to feud West Side Piru, which is based in nearby Compton, [2] and 118 East Coast Crips. [3] [4]
There are other street gangs across the United States which claim the same name, such as the 59 Bounty Hunter Bloods in Houston, Texas [16] and the Bounty Hunter Bloods in Detroit, Michigan. [17]
The Bloods are a primarily African-American street gang founded in Los Angeles, California. The gang is widely known for its rivalry with the Crips. It is identified by the red color worn by its members and by particular gang symbols, including distinctive hand signs.
Raymond Lee Washington was an American gangster, known as the founder of the Crips gang in Los Angeles. Washington formed the Crips as a minor street gang in the late 1960s in South Los Angeles, becoming a prominent local crime boss. In 1971, Washington formed an alliance with Stanley "Tookie" Williams, establishing the Crips as the first major African-American street gang in Los Angeles, and served as one of the co-leaders. In 1974, Washington was convicted of robbery and received a five-year prison sentence, during which his leadership and influence in the Crips declined.
Watts is a neighborhood in southern Los Angeles, California. It is located within the South Los Angeles region, bordering the cities of Lynwood, Huntington Park and South Gate to the east and southeast, respectively, and the unincorporated community of Willowbrook to the south.
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Nickerson Gardens is a 1,066-unit public housing apartment complex at 1590 East 114th Street in Watts, Los Angeles, California. Nickerson Gardens is the largest public housing development west of the Mississippi River and was the first home of many notable people, including Jazz Joy and Roy Global Radio host Roy O’Dell Gray, who, according to Hollywood insiders, is the first cousin of Mary Mary Super Producer Warryn Campbell.
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The Watts truce was a 1992 peace agreement among rival street gangs in Los Angeles, California, declared in the neighborhood of Watts. The truce was reached just days before the 1992 Los Angeles riots and, although not universally adhered to, was a major factor in the decline of street violence in the city between the 1990s and 2010s.
The Pirus are an alliance of street gangs, under the larger Bloods alliance.
Bloods & Crips was an American gangsta rap group from Los Angeles County mostly known for their record selling song "Piru Love".
Gang activity and associated crime is a long-standing concern in Denver, Colorado. The city's street gang activity received statewide attention in 1993 when a "Summer of Violence" increased public awareness of gang-related violence and led the state to enact harsh penalties for crime by juveniles. From 1992 to 1995, Denver had 331 murders: 95 in 1992, 74 in 1993, and 81 each in 1994 and 1995 In 1997 The first Gang to ever be indicted out of Colorado was the West Side Ballerz Posse WSBP a Chicano gang that resided in West Denver & branched off in Adams county in cities such as Commerce, Thornton, Brighton, Westminster & other surrouIn 1996, members of the FBI's Metro Gang Task Force (“MGTF”) were investigating suspected gang-related drug activity in Denver, Colorado. Specifically, MGTF was investigating members of the West Side Ballerz Posse whom it suspected were selling controlled substances and engaging in gang-related violence. As part of this investigation, a series of wiretaps were authorized in late 1996 against suspected members of this drug conspiracy. Gang-related crime has continued, as shown by the New Year's Day 2007 drive-by shooting of Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams by members of the Tre Tre Crips, an East Denver street gang. The Crips in the city have several sub-sets such as Tre Deuce (DOD), Tre Foe, 35 Outlaws and the Tre Tre Gangstas. In 2017, the city's police estimated that there were 38,000 gang members in Denver, affiliated with 220 gangs. The Rollin 30s or Tre Tre Crips still have a powerful presence in the Denver area. In 2017 there were an estimated 2000 Bloods and Crips from Denver. These gangs are in various locations including Five Points, East Denver, Commerce City, Englewood, Aurora, North-East Park Hill and Federal Heights. Crips and Bloods have been commonly sighted almost all over Denver, even in the suburbs outside the city.
The Grape Street Watts Crips is a Crip subset based in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. The gang's rivalry with the Bounty Hunter Bloods has been described as being "the most violent and long lasting feud between two gangs that are in the Watts area."
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Timothy M. Brennan and Robert Ladd joined the Compton Police Department as officers in 1982 and 1983, respectively. In 1988, they were promoted to become Compton's two-man gang unit. The police department could only afford to have two people at the time, even though many smaller cities typically had up to four times as many. As the gang unit, Brennan and Ladd were responsible for dealing with and investigating over fifty-five gangs in the 10.1 square mile area that make up the City of Compton. They have served as the primary or assisting investigating officers on hundreds of gang-related murders and thousands of gang-related shootings, and witnessed instances of gang-related rapes, robberies, drive-by shootings, and shootings at police officers.
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