Last updated Latin Kings diss tags putting down Spanish Cobras, Maniac Latin Disciples, Spanish Lords, and Imperial Gangsters near North/Homan avenue.
The Chicago neighborhood of Humboldt Park is the founding grounds for several major gangs, including the Latin Kings, Simon City Royals, and Maniac Latin Disciples, among a number of other gangs with active chapters in the area as of 2023.[1][2] With its roots dating back to the 1950s, the continuous presence and activity of gangs around the neighborhood has caused it to be a frequent subject of law enforcement, media, and residents over the years.[3][4][5][6]
Several pivotal moments occurred in the neighborhood throughout the 20th century, largely deriving from racial change and resulting tension.[4] Notably, the formation of the Latin Kings in 1954 and the Simon City Royals in 1956, demographic shifts and homeowner fears exacerbated by blockbusting in 1962,[4] the Division Street riots in 1966, and finally the arrival of La Raza Nation in 1985; All in part serving as the impetus for the formation of subsequent gangs and a broader culture that would continue to foster around the neighborhood.
Gang involvement, particularly among youth, has carried on successively down generations, with the 1970s through early 1990s marking an apex of drug dealing and violent crime in Humboldt Park, largely stemming from gang activity.[7][8][4]Gentrification in Humboldt Park, particularly on the east side of the neighborhood, began in the 1990s. Around the same time, Chicago Police modified its approach to gang related crime.[8] Gradually, crime began decreasing around the area, with the 2010s experiencing notably diminished violent crime levels, particularly on the east side.[8] However, gangs continue to be active in the area maintaining various chapters, especially on the west side,[9] and will publicly engage in activities such as drilling[2] and tagging. Evidence of present gang activities in the neighborhood is widely available in-person and online.[1][10][2]
History
Gangs in Humboldt Park originated in the 1950s, and quickly cascaded across nearly all racial groups in the area over the proceeding years as gang related violence also increased, with a surge in the late 1970s.[3] By the late 1980s/early 1990s, approximately 49 of the 139 gangs active in Chicago operated out of the 14th district, Humboldt Park.[3]
Early neighborhood demographic shifts, formation of gangs
Humboldt Park had originally been inhabited predominantly by Danish, Swedish, and Norwegians. In the 1920s/1930s, Russians, Polish, Jewish, and Italian residents began moving in as many of the Scandinavians left.[4] In the early 1950s, some of the first Puerto Ricans families began settling in the neighborhood, mostly in West Humboldt Park and areas south of Chicago Avenue including East Garfield Park. These properties had recently become more affordable due to a large influx of black residents in the surrounding area, causing the city and banks to disinvest in the community, in turn diminishing property values.[4] Impoverished Puerto Rican families now had the prospect of being able to move into the neighborhood and live an idyllic middle class life, as had traditionally been the characterization of Humboldt Park since the 1880s.[4] From 1950 to 1960, the Puerto Rican population of Chicago jumped from 255 to 32,371.[11]
Latin Kings
In 1954, Ramon Santo along with two other boys formed the Latin Kings, which they coined after the Imperials.[12] The group was formed in response to rising discrimination, both from Irish, Italian and Greek groups in the area that harbored "deep anti-Puerto Rican sentiments', as well as stronger Black gangs such as the Clovers, Imperial Chaplins, and the Egyptian Cobras.[12]
Puerto Rican youths here continued to face bullying and harassment from greaser gangs throughout the 1950s and 1960s. They would often be accosted for simply walking through their neighborhood, such as to school.[12] In 1964, through diplomacy spearheaded by King Papo, the Latin Kings merged with the Imperials, among numerous others gangs throughout the city, including the Jokers, 23rd Street Boys, Supreme Cliques, MarKings, and Skulls, to defend their community from discrimination and its right to life.[12] Several of these gangs were white, including the 23rd Street Boys, 26th Street Jokers and Supreme Clique, as well as the Latin Kings of Little Village, which was mostly a white neighborhood at the time.[12]
On Friday May 15th, 1964, the now expanded and more powerful Latin Kings "Officially assembled" in the park itself - "On a sunny Friday afternoon several Puerto Rican gang members and a few full Puerto Rican gangs like the Imperials, Skulls and some others met in Humboldt Park in the actual park."[12] The tenants of the Latin Kings were established to:
Protect our families
Protect our neighborhoods
Protect each other
Division Street, south of the park, soon became a hub for these communities. In 1966, the Division Street riots occurred in protest of continuous discrimination against the Puerto Rican community, most of whom lived on the outer rim of a city they felt took them only for their cheap labor. The widely reported riots prompted the rise of further organizations around the area.
Simon City Royals
In 1956, a group of mostly fourteen year-old Greasers banded together in response to racial changes taking place around the neighborhood, forming the Simon City Royals. They took their name after Almira Simons Park located at 1640 N. Drake Avenue, where they tended to post up.[13] The original founder and much of the first generation members were said to be Italian, though the gang was not exclusively Italian.[13]
Soon after the inception of the Simon City Royals, other greaser gangs began cropping up around the neighborhood, such as the Jokers and Hirsh Street, causing friction between the groups. For the remainder of the 1950s and very early 1960s, the various greaser groups in this area often competed and fought amongst themselves. The Simon City Royals would ultimately establish themselves as the toughest gang among these groups in the neighborhood in the early 1960s.[13]
In 1962, Simon City opened up recruitment and other white greaser gangs continued to spawn along Chicago avenue, including the Harding Drakers, as Puerto Rican families and gangs moved into the area at an increasing rate.[4] The gang was able to expand rapidly due to anti-Puerto Rican and anti-Latin King sentiment being fairly spread among some of the white youth here.[13] This second generation of Simon City members fought significantly more than the preceding, founding generation, as a result of accelerating changes to the neighborhood, and their opposition to them.[13]
As many of these blocks around West Humboldt Park became increasingly settled by non-white families, realtors quickly capitalized on fear and sentiments of some middle-class white families by employing the use of blockbusting.[4] To much success, fear mongering of depleting home values and redlining had spread considerably causing the exit of many homeowners, as sudden and dramatic changes to the neighborhood further incensed white gangs.
In 1971, white gangs around Chicago formed an alliance or "truce" known as the White Power Organization, in response to continued changes undergone by the "old white neighborhoods, and the increasingly more powerful and growing gangs such as the Latin Disciples, Imperial Gagsters, and Spanish Cobras.[13]
Maniac Latin Disciples tag near Pulaski/Grand ave.
Maniac Latin Disciples
In 1966, the same year as the Division Street Riots, Albert "Hitler" Hernandez, along with other adolescents around Rockwell/Potomac ave. formed the 'Latin Disciples', under the larger umbrella of the Black Disciples Nation. The Black Disciples Nation was the result of a unification that took place that year involving mostly African American gangs from the South Side.
These founding members of the Latin Disciples did not desire to become Latin Kings, though they had family members who were.[14] Persistent harassment from greaser gangs motivated them to open the group, and to gain entry into the Disciple Nation. In 1968, the Latin Disciples began recruiting all races.[14] They had been known for defending residents, particularly youth, against bullying from other local gangs, such as the Latin Kings, Warlords, and Spanish Lords, causing strife between them and these other gangs.[14] That previous winter, eleven members, including Albert Hernandez, had been pictured in the paper during a fierce blizzard in 1967 after voluntarily shoveling the neighborhood for residents.[14]
In 1972, the founder, Albert Hernandez, was hanging out on their usual longtime corner of Rockwell/Potomac ave, when two Latin Kings strolled through the area. Hernandez asked them to remove their colors as they were in MLD territory, and a conflict ensued. Hernandez would ultimately end up getting stabbed to death. He was 18 years old. The incident launched gang warfare between the gangs, and the Latin King who killed the popular Hernandez quickly became known to the street, and his death would be quickly avenged as the killer would soon be shot and murdered, in part by aid of the Milwaukee Kings.[14]
In 1976, the gang opened a chapter in West Humboldt Park at the corner of Division & Avers, and quickly spread from there to Washtenaw/Hirsch and Talman/Wabansia (T-Dubb).[14][15] Around this time in the mid-late 1970s, the Latin Disciples came to dominate the drug trade, specifically relating to heroin. This allowed the gang to expand exponentially, thanks in part to their newfound allegiance with other powerful gangs like the Spanish Cobras, and entry into the Folk Nation in 1978.[14] In 1979, numerous members between the Disciples and Cobras were busted at various street corners including Washtenaw/Hirsch, Evergreen/Wastenaw, and the infamous Rockwell/Potomac intersection, where police said "you could buy any drug".[14] Once released from jail following their arrests, members would simply set operations back up at the same locations.[14]
1980s-1990s
Several continuous decades of gang activity in the neighborhood led to membership becoming nearly a mandate, or basic way of life for many of the youth here by the 1980s/1990s.[3] For some, it helped fill certain voids as many lacked resources at home and a support network. Gangs were also a means of protection. Widespread and stark division lines drawn by gangs throughout Humboldt would prevent kids from walking through or going to various public locations.[3] Many of these youth came from parents who had also been members of gangs when they grew up in the neighborhood.[3][14]
In the mid-late 1980s, the neighborhood continued to evolve. It had also collected a reputation taken note of by Chicago Police; By this point, 49 of the 139 gangs running in Chicago were out of the 14th district, Humboldt Park.[3]
In the early 1990s, gang-related violence in the neighborhood spiked, some of which stemmed from an ongoing two-year long deadly feud between the Latin Disciples and Imperial Gangsters.[14] A nine-day gang war occurred in the neighborhood between the groups in October–November 1992, which resulted in 25 shootings catching the attention of media.[16] The Chicago Tribune ran an article on the matter interviewing various CPD officials, professors from the University of Chicago, and community members. It also included interviews with gang experts from UChicago and the author of a study by the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority, which analyzed gang-related crimes in Chicago from 1987 to 1990, discussing differences between the various gangs - "Higher rates of violence and more lethal violence in Latino gangs" contrasting from "Black gangs tended to commit more of what researchers call ''instrumental'' violence, where the motive is money or property. They said Hispanic gangs commit more ''expressive'' violence, where the violence is the motive". CPD Police Commander, Robert Dart, denoted that "many Hispanic groups are much smaller, newer and less structured than the black gangs" and concluded that ultimately, gang involvement and related activities were an issue of adolescence: "The gang problem is a young adolescent problem...The black community is aging, while there are more Hispanic young people and more Hispanic people overall.''
Insane Orquestra Albany tag near Pulaski/Grand ave.
Entrance of La Raza nation
In 1980, an influx of Mexican migration into the United States occurred, with many immigrants making their way to Chicago. In 1985, La Raza expanded considerably around the city opening up several new chapters. The chapter established in West Humboldt Park had once been described as being one of the most "legendary" in the nation.[17]
The gang originally claimed Cortland/Kedvale ave, but are now based on Harding/Wabansia.[17] Bloomingdale to Wabansia, and Keystone to Pulaski, are within the La Raza chapter known as "DK Town".[18][19][20]
Law Enforcement Activities
Undercover narcotics units heavily targeted Humboldt Park in the 1980s, making 180 drug buys during a single one-year investigation alone, which concluded in 1986.[7]
Operation Pot-Rock
In the 1980s, the corner of Potomac Avenue and Rockwell Street, east of Humboldt Park, had become a "notorious drug-peddling location" known colloquially as the 'Twilight Zone'.[7] Chicago Police had known about it for at least six years.[7] In July 1980, CPD arrested 46 on charges of selling drugs at several locations, including Potomac and Rockwell. At the time, it was the "largest roundup of suspected drug peddlers in the city`s history".[7]
Between 1985 and 1986, Chicago police pursued an undercover narcotics investigation of the street corner, coined "Operation Pot-Rock".[7] Where the investigation got its name is two-fold; Pot was short for Potomac ave, while Roc was short for Rockwell st. - The investigation focused on pot and crack (rock), among other drugs.[7]
In total, the one-year long investigation yielded 94 indictments, 34 being the subject of gang members charged with selling drugs on Potomac between Rockwell and California Avenue. During the investigation, undercover agents described having to frequently wait in line behind other customers to purchase narcotics:
"...undercover agents often had to wait in line behind other customers to make the buys. Agents once found their car was the 13th in a line of autos waiting for curbside service" [7]
Humboldt Park, one of 77 designated community areas, is on the West Side of Chicago, Illinois. The Humboldt Park neighborhood is known for its dynamic social and ethnic demographic change over the years. The Puerto Rican community has identified strongly with the area since the 1970s. Humboldt Park is also the name of a 207-acre (0.8 km2) park adjacent to the community area.
The Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation is one of the largest Caribbean and Latino street and prison gangs worldwide. The gang was founded by Puerto Ricans in Chicago, Illinois, in 1954.
The Almighty InsanePopesNation is a Chicago, Illinois street gang, formed in the late 1950s on the north side of Chicago, primarily building membership from a Greek greaser gang that hung out at the corner of Lawrence and Rockwell. This small group had problems with the much larger Latin Kings gang on the north side, and so they began to associate with the Almighty Simon City Royals in an attempt to protect themselves. However, rather than joining the Royals outright, they eventually decided to form their own gang, which they named the Popes: this stood for "Protecting Our People Eliminating Spics".
Larry Hoover is an American former mobster and gang kingpin. He is the founder of the Chicago street gang, the Gangster Disciples.
The Almighty Latin Eagles Nation (ALEN) originated in the area of Halsted and Addison in Chicago in the 1960s. Originally meant to be a Latino political organization, by the 1970s it had transformed into a criminal street gang.
The Simon City Royals, also known as the Almighty Simon City Royal Nation, are a street and prison gang which began in Chicago during 1952 as Simon City, a greaser gang. They named themselves for Simons Park, which is located on the corner of Drake and Wabansia in the Humboldt Park neighborhood where they originally formed. The gang had a major influence on other gangs around Chicago and the wider gang culture in Humboldt Park. The Royals are one of the oldest and largest white gangs in the US.
The Division Street riots were episodes of rioting and civil unrest, which started on June 12 and continued through June 14, 1966. These riots are remembered as a turning point in Puerto Rican civic involvement in Chicago. This was the first riot in the United States attributed to Puerto Ricans.
The Jousters, formally the Almighty Taylor Street Jousters, were a Chicago street gang that originally started on the Near West Side and then later branched out to the north side of the city as well. Their name is a reference to the medieval sport of jousting. They later became part of the People Nation multi-gang alliance.
My Bloody Life: The Making of a Latin King is an autobiography by Reymundo Sanchez about his life as a teenage street gang member in Chicago.
Paseo Boricua is a section of Division Street in the Humboldt Park community of the West Side of Chicago, Illinois.
The Spanish Gangster Disciples is a street gang that originated on the south side of Chicago, respectively in the vicinity of 88th & Houston in the South Chicago neighborhood. The gang was founded by Rudy Rios, who was a former member of the Latin Scorpions street gang.
The Maniac Latin Disciples Nation is a Hispanic street gang in Chicago and one of the largest in the Folks Nation alliance. Originally known as the Latin Scorpions, the gang was founded by Albert "Hitler" Hernandez and other Puerto Rican teenagers in the Humboldt Park community in approximately 1966. They were influential in the culture and history of gangs in Humboldt Park, and continue to be active there today.
La Raza is a street gang founded in Chicago in 1973. Their colors are green, white, and red. Their symbols include the Mexican flag, cross, and a six-point star.
Puerto Ricans in Chicago are individuals residing in Chicago with ancestral ties to the island of Puerto Rico. Over more than seventy years, they have made significant contributions to the economic, social, and cultural fabric of the city. This is known as the city of multiple cultures.
José "Cha Cha" Jiménez is a political activist and the founder of the Young Lords Organization, a Chicago-based street gang that became a civil and human rights organization. Started in September 23, 1968, it was most active in the late 1960s and 1970s.
The Spanish Cobras is a primarily, but not exclusively, Latino street gang in multiple states throughout the Midwest, USA with a large presence on the north and west side of Chicago, Illinois.
The West Side is one of the three major sections of the city of Chicago, Illinois, U.S. The other two sections within Chicago that associate with the West Side are the North Side and the South Side. The West Side consists of communities that are of historical, cultural, and ideological importance to the history and development of Chicago. On the flag of Chicago, the West Side is represented by the central white stripe.
Project Wildfire was a nationwide, multi-agency investigation of various transnational criminal gangs in 2015 that resulted in the arrests of 976 individuals, representing 239 different organizations, in 282 cities in the United States mainland and Puerto Rico. Eighty-two firearms, 5.2 kilograms of methamphetamine, 7.8 kilograms of marijuana, 5.6 kilograms of cocaine, 1.5 kilograms of heroin, US$379,399, counterfeit merchandise with a suggested retail price of US$547,534 and five vehicles were also seized.
The Humboldt Park riot was the second major conflict between Puerto Ricans in Chicago and the Chicago Police Department. The riot began on June 4, 1977, and lasted a day and a half. Following the shooting deaths of two Puerto Rican men, locals battled Chicago police officers in Humboldt Park and in the streets surrounding. The riot led the community to hold the Division Street Puerto Rican Day Parade, which started in 1978.
Chicago is considered the most gang-occupied city in the United States, with 150,000 gang-affiliated denizens, representing more than 100 gangs. Gang warfare and retaliation is common in Chicago. Gangs were responsible for 61% of the homicides in Chicago in 2011.
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