Gangbanging is so overrated, and being a gang member or part of a gang isn’t cool. A gang is a group of people, through the organization, formation and establishment of an assemblage that share a common identity. There are a wide variety of gangs in the world such as The Order of Assassins, Adam the Leper’s gang, Penny Mob, Indian Thugs, Chinese Triads, Snakehead, Japanese Yukaza, Irish Mob, Pancho Villa’s Villistas, Dead Rabbits, American Old West outlaw gangs, Bowery Boys, Jewish Mafia, Russian Mafia, and Italian Mafia crime families.
Crips are a primarily, but not exclusively an African American gang. Raymond Washington and Stanley Williams founded the Crips on 1969 in Los Angeles, CA. The two autonomous gangs were once a single alliance, are now a loosely connected network of individual sets. These sets even often engage in open warfare against one another.
One of the most largest and violent associations of the street gangs in the U.S. is the Crips. The Crips have an estimate of 30,000 to 35,000 members. The gang is known to be involved in murders, robberies, and drug dealings, among many other criminal activities. Blue is the primarily color that the Crips wear. The Crips rival is the Bloods who they have an intense and bitter rivalry with.
Bloods are a street gang that was also found in Los Angeles, CA. Bloods are often identified by the color red, which is worn by members of their gang. Blood gangs are also known to spread out through the United States. Blood sets are usually known to work independently from one another, and are located in almost all of the states.
Gangs are often involved in all areas of street-crime activities such as extortion, drug trafficking both inside and out of the prison system. They also have significant distinction of how to recognize which gang is which, For example, Bloods, wear red bandanas and the Crips wear blue. This distinction helps these gangs “represent” whom they are affiliated with.
Gangs have gained a lot of control in poorer and urban communities and in third world areas. Modern gangs began introducing new acts of violence, which became the “rites of passage” for new gang members. During the 1960’s Black and Hispanic gangs were formed in the U.S.A. The United States Department of Justice estimates they are about 30,000 gangs with 760,000 members which impact and control about 2,500 communities across the United States alone.
There are five primary steps of gang involvement that apply to the majority of gangs around the world. Step 1. At Risk, Step 2. Associates or Affiliates, Step 3. Gang Member, Step 4. Hardcore Gang Members and Step 5. Gang Leader.
One thing that gangs have in common is that they have signals and hand signs/gestures in order to communicate with one another. These hand signals that the Bloods and Crips “throw up” to one another are for them to either identity that they are or to taunt, harass or intimidate other gang members or non-gang members.
To me gangbanging isn’t helping our community. I think that gang banging is actually destroying our community. Too many young brothers are being drawn into the lifestyle. A lot of them are being affiliated with either the Crips or the Bloods and even are shooting and killing one another. Families are even being torn apart because one family member could be a Blood and another family member could be a Crip. Or some young people are being killed by gang members and are not even apart of a gang. This is inhumane and sickening. What happened to all the peace, harmony, and love?
Gangbanging needs to end once and for all. This is not helping our community at all. In actuality it is destroying our community and it needs to stop. We need to come together and sit down and solve issue as a village and need to unify and work together. STOP THE VIOLENCE! END GANGBANGING ONCE AND FOR ALL!
