Investigations and prosecutions
On November 10, 2005, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Los Angeles Office and Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) served 16 federal drug indictments and arrested at least 18 members of the Black P. Stones accused of conspiracy and drug trafficking in a joint effort called "Operation Stone Cold". [9] Almost 1,000 law enforcement personnel took part in the operation, carrying out police raids in Baldwin Village, Hawthorne and Inglewood, and seizing stashes of crack cocaine and weapons, including an AR-15 assault rifle and an AK-47. [10] The indictments followed an investigation which lasted over a year, and involved informants infiltrating the gang and making videotaped drug buys from members. [7] 17 people were convicted on federal charges, and another 12 were convicted on state charges following the investigation. [3]
In 2006, a gang injunction was filed against the Black P. Stones by the Los Angeles City Attorney, Rocky Delgadillo, prohibiting members from congregating in public. [1] Police alleged the gang was responsible for 1,500 aggravated assaults and 28 murders between 2000 and 2005. [8]
75 members and associates of the gang were indicted on a variety of state and federal drug charges as a result of "Operation Red Dawn", a year-long investigation by the FBI and LAPD, which culminated in a series of raids involving over 900 federal agents and police officers in Southwest Los Angeles, on May 19, 2011. [11] [12] 135.5 grams of PCP; 41.2 grams of methamphetamine; 25 kilograms of marijuana; 1.7 kilograms of cocaine; and a variety of firearms were seized as a result of the operation. [3]
Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer and prosecutors heavily targeted property owners and managers of the Chesapeake Apartments, a 425-unit apartment complex spread over more than 17 acres which was a longtime stronghold for the Black P. Stones, to crackdown on gang crime. Between July 2013 and November 2017, Feuer filed 98 nuisance abatement lawsuits and secured 96 injunctions related to specific properties with documented gang and/or narcotics activity. [13] The LAPD also conducted raids and arrests among the apartment buildings which decreased crime within that area dramatically. [14]
Training Day is a 2001 American crime thriller film directed by Antoine Fuqua and written by David Ayer. It stars Denzel Washington as Alonzo Harris and Ethan Hawke as Jake Hoyt, two LAPD narcotics officers followed over a 24-hour period in the gang-ridden neighborhoods of Westlake, Echo Park, and South Central Los Angeles. It also features Scott Glenn, Eva Mendes, Cliff Curtis, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and Macy Gray in supporting roles.
The Bloods are a primarily African-American street gangs 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.
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The Rampart scandal was a police corruption scandal which unfolded in Los Angeles, California, United States, during the late 1990s and early 2000s. The scandal concerned widespread criminal activity within the Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums (CRASH) anti-gang unit of the Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart Division. More than 70 police officers were initially implicated in various forms of misconduct, including unprovoked shootings and beatings, planting of false evidence, stealing and dealing narcotics, bank robbery, perjury and cover-ups thereof.
Colors is a 1988 American police procedural action crime film starring Sean Penn and Robert Duvall, and directed by Dennis Hopper. The film takes place in the gang ridden neighborhoods of Los Angeles: late-1980s South Central Los Angeles, Echo Park, Westlake and East Los Angeles. The film centers on Bob Hodges (Duvall), an experienced Los Angeles Police Department C.R.A.S.H. officer, and his rookie partner, Danny McGavin (Penn), who try to stop the gang violence between the Bloods, the Crips, and Hispanic street gangs. Colors relaunched Hopper as a director 19 years after Easy Rider, and inspired discussion over its depiction of gang life and gang violence.
The Almighty Black P. Stone Nation is an American street gang founded in Chicago. The gang was originally formed in the late 1950s as the Blackstone Rangers. The organization was co-founded by Eugene Hairston and Jeff Fort. In later years, under Fort's leadership, an Islamic faction of the gang emerged, naming themselves the "El Rukn tribe of the Moorish Science Temple of America" . They eventually started describing themselves as Orthodox Sunni Muslims. Jeff Fort changed their fort name from El Rukn Moorish Science Mosque, to El Rukn Sunni Masjid al-Malik.
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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.
About one to two percent of United States Armed Forces members are estimated to belong to criminal gangs in the United States, a much higher proportion than in the civilian population.
The Nazi Lowriders, also known as NLR or the Ride, are a neo-Nazi, white supremacist organized crime syndicate, and prison and street gang in the United States. Primarily based in Southern California, the gang is allied with the larger Aryan Brotherhood and Mexican Mafia gangs, and fellow peckerwood gang Public Enemy No. 1. The Nazi Lowriders operate both in and outside of prison.
Crime in Los Angeles has varied throughout time, reaching peaks between the 1970s and 1990s. Since the early 2020s, crime has increased in Los Angeles.
The United Blood Nation, also known as the East Coast Bloods, is a street and prison gang active primarily in the New York metropolitan area. It is the east coast faction of the California-based Bloods street gang. Their main source of income is the trafficking and sale of illegal drugs.
Pueblo Del Rio is a public housing project located in the Central-Alameda neighborhood of South Los Angeles, California. The address of Pueblo Del Rio is 1801 East 53rd Street, which is near the intersection of 55th and Alameda streets.
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 Rollin' 30s Harlem Crips are a faction, or "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.
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.
Houston's murder rate in 2005 ranked 46th of U.S. cities with a population over 250,000 in 2005. In 2010, the city's murder rate was ranked sixth among U.S. cities with a population of over 750,000 according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Houston had over 400 homicides in 2020 and 473 by the end of December 2021 a predicted increase of 30% year on year.
The Crips and the Bloods, two street gangs founded in Los Angeles, California, have been in a gang war since the 1970s. The war is made up of smaller, local conflicts perpetrated by 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, including Belize. 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.
