History Of The Bloods and Crips

Despite these contradictory views, most common definitions of gangs can identify several key elements: a group of people, some sort of organization, identifiable leadership, identifiable territory, use of symbols, a particular purpose, ongoing association and existence, and participation in any manner of illegal activity. Major gangs today have common behaviors such as: they use graffiti to tag their territory and communicate with other gangs; they dress alike and often adopt a certain color as a part of their dress code (for example, blue for the Crips and red for the bloods); They frequently tattoo themselves with their gang names or symbols; they adhere to as a specific code of conduct; they speak a specific language; and they also have their own hand signs that assist them in recognizing other associates of their gang.

Therefore, my research is specifically about one of the biggest gangs not only in the United States, but also in the world: The Bloods and The Crips. Bloods and Crips History of the gangs Crips activities started on high school campuses throughout the Los Angeles area. Freemont High School was the home of the Eastside Crips and Westside Crips who originated from the other side of the 110 Freeway Harbor. Bicker, 2017). Other known gangs are the Bloods, who became some of the most violent and illegal African-American gangs in L. A. The Blood was established around the West Piru Street in the Compton part of Los Angeles. The Bloods were founded by Vincent Owens and Sylvester Scott and this gang started as the Compton Pirus.

If one wore ambiguous clothing, gang signs were often used, which was their derivative sign language. In the early 1980s Bloods and Crips had active participation in drug trafficking. But in 1983, African American gangs in Los Angeles were relying on drugs, especially cocaine crack, as a source of income. Most of the gang members associated with the buying and selling of drugs came from other cities where unemployment and poverty were a way of life (Presley, 2016). Most gangsters earned between $ 400 and $ 600 a day through selling cocaine also known as crack. The Crips and Bloods were started in a small section of Los Angeles about three decades ago, and to date there are more than forty states and one hundred and twenty-five cities full of gang members of Bloods and Crips origin.

New York City is one of the leading cities in the United States, flooded by Bloods and Crips, and several other members of these gangs living in prisons. Mindset of the gangs Scholars believe gangs retain and recruit members who see the gang as a means of gaining a sense of belonging and acceptance in their lives. Gang members frequently feel that traditional authorities such as church, family, school, and government have given up on them in one way or another, rendering them powerless (Decker & Curry. Therefore, Gang membership guarantees young people a sense of identity and makes them feel part of something greater than themselves. There are no Bloods leaders’ known, although individually set Crips have a hierarchical structure with identifiable leadership levels.

These membership levels indicate status in a group. A leader, usually a member with a major crime story, leads a set (Buford, 2016). A permanent leader is not elected, but presents himself through the development and leadership of criminal gangs thanks to his reputation for violence, cruelty and through his personal charisma. Most members of the group are called soldiers, usually between 16 and 22 years old. They often claim that their friends are gang members, while they aren’t. Members of the rival gang who shoot from a moving car, however, do not distinguish between a gang member and their associates. The gang-of-blood symbol as the sign reads the word "blood". Blood sets identify themselves with various gang indicators such as tattoos, jewelry, colors, clothing, symbols, graffiti, and hand signs and language (Rogerson, 2017).

The color of the blood gang is red. Blood members also have a unique jargon. The Bloods greet each other with the word Blood and often avoid words with the letter "C". Finally, the blood uses the signs of the hand to communicate with each other. The signs of the hands can be a single movement, such as the letter of American B-sign language, or a series of movements that use one or two hands for more complex sentences. United Blood Nation (UBN) or East Coast Blood Insider often get a marker on their right shoulder that is represented by three dots that are often burned with a cigarette (Joffries, 2017). Sometimes they use methods such as the use of the sports team jerseys, although in general a number of claims by a particular gang member can be determined by their tattoos.

Many Crips also change the words with the letter B or choose another word to substitute it, the best word is one with a C. This is due of their dislike of the Bloods. If no word can be reasonably replaced, the letter B is crossed out to indicate lack of respect. Sometimes there is also an excessive use of the letter C, such as ‘I’ll C right baCC ‘, with the initials CK which means Crip Killer, rather than the use of "B, meaning the first letter by Blood. There are about 600 Hispanic gangs in Los Angeles with an Asian population fully growing steadily in numbers since its inception of about 20,000 gang members. The Crips are well-known to have a bitter and intense rivalry with the Bloods and numerous Chicano groups (Decker & Curry.

They are also stuck in a fight for drug trafficking with the vice men in Memphis, Tennessee. The Crip Allegiance fights with gangs under the Blood Alliances such as, Brads, Stones, and Pirus, who wear the opposite color. The Crips are also enemies of the Surenos alliance because Surenos attacked African Americans. Community organizations, Law enforcement, and the numerous media houses, offer several gang members the credit that they desire (Buford, 2016). Stories regarding the gang for instance murder, theft and mass shooting are some of the major ways which favor these gangs. Also gang activities among their rivals and gang violence are concrete examples to gang members that their actions and gangs are significant. For example, some scholars hold on to a believe that the media organization impact the general public’s perception of gangs and generates the belief that gangs are more violent and widespread than they are in reality.