The Bloods are a primarily African-American street gang which was 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.
Venice 13 or West Side Venice 13, abbreviated as V13 or VX3, is a Mexican American street gang based in the Oakwood neighborhood of Venice, a section of Los Angeles, California. It has a substantial presence in East Venice as well as the Culver City/Los Angeles border, especially around Washington Blvd.
The Rollin 60s Neighborhood Crips is a "set" of the Crips street gang alliance based in Los Angeles, California, originally formed around Hyde Park, Los Angeles in 1976 from the Westside Crips and having since spread to other cities in the United States. Membership is estimated to be around 1,600 people, making it one of the largest gangs in the Los Angeles area.
The Crips are a primarily African-American alliance of street gangs that are based in the coastal regions of Southern California. Founded in Los Angeles, California, in 1969, mainly by Raymond Washington and Stanley Williams, the Crips began as an alliance between two autonomous gangs, and developed into a loosely connected network of individual "sets", often engaged in open warfare with one another. Its members have traditionally worn blue clothing since around 1973.
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 Jungles faction of the Black P. Stones street gang is a "set" of the Bloods gang alliance in Los Angeles. Originating in Los Angeles' Baldwin Village neighborhood in the 1960s, the Black P. Stones became one of the largest gangs in the city. The gang has been linked to various crimes, including murders, assaults, robberies, narcotics violations and firearms violations, and has been the subject of numerous FBI and LAPD investigations.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, African American organized crime emerged following the first and second large-scale migration of African Americans from the Southern United States to major cities of the Northeast, Midwest, and later the West Coast. In many of these newly established communities and neighborhoods, criminal activities such as illegal gambling, speakeasies and were seen in the post-World War I and Prohibition eras. Although the majority of these businesses in African American neighborhoods were operated by African Americans, it is often unclear the extent to which these operations were run independently of the larger criminal organizations of the time.
Approximately 1.4 million people in the United States were part of gangs as of 2011, and more than 33,000 gangs were active in the country. These include national street gangs, local street gangs, prison gangs, outlaw motorcycle clubs, and ethnic and organized crime gangs.
Sanyika Shakur, also known by his former street moniker Monster or Monster Kody, was an American author and former gangster. He was a member of the Los Angeles-based Eight Tray Gangster Crips. He got his nickname as a 13-year-old gang member when he beat and stomped a robbery victim until he was disfigured. Shakur claimed to have reformed in prison, joined the Republic of New Afrika movement, and wrote a 1993 memoir called Monster: The Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member.
The Asian Boyz, also known as ABZ, AB-26, or ABZ Crips, are a street gang based in Southern California. They were founded in the late 1980s to protect Cambodian refugees from other American gangs. According to the FBI, the gang has about 12,000 members, who are predominantly Southeast Asian and especially Cambodian. Many Asian Boyz are also members of the U.S. military, some of whom use their position to traffic drugs. According to the FBI's 2009 National Gang Threat Assessment, the Asian Boyz are active in 28 different cities in 14 different states across the U.S.
Crips and Bloods: Made in America is a 2008 documentary by Stacy Peralta that examines the rise of the Crips and Bloods, prominent gangs in America who have been at war with each other. The documentary focuses on the external factors that caused African-American youth to turn to gangs and questions the political and law enforcement response to the rise of gang culture.
The Grape Street Watts Crips is a "set" of the Crips gang 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."
James Edwin Richards, also known as Jim Richards,, was an American citizen journalist, editor and publisher of Neighborhood News, a weekly e-mail newsletter, that reported on crime in Venice, California. Richards was murdered at his Oakwood neighborhood home, one convicted assailant was sentenced to 16 years in prison, and the anniversary of his death is honored by locals.
The Rollin' 30s Harlem Crips are a "set" of the Crips alliance of street gangs. The gang was formed by Belizean American Crips who had moved from South Los Angeles to Belize and then to Harlem, New York.
Sons of Samoa is a Crips-affiliated street gang based in Long Beach, California, United States. Its membership mainly consists of Samoan Americans with other Pacific Islander members.
The Florencia 13, also known as South Side Florencia 13,Florence Gang, F13 is an American criminal street gang based in Los Angeles, California, composed mainly of Mexican-Americans. The gang is named after the Florence area of Los Angeles County, controlled by the Mexican Mafia. They are involved in drug smuggling, murder, assault and robbery.
The Crips and the Bloods, two street gangs founded in Los Angeles, California, have been engaged in a gang war since the 1970s. The war is made up of smaller, local conflicts between chapters of both gangs, and has mostly taken place in major cities in the United States, especially Los Angeles (L.A.). It is also present in other countries. The gangs often identify themselves using clothing colored blue for Crips and red for Bloods; people wearing those colors in gang territory are often targets of violence.
