WEBVTT - How Street Gangs Work 0:00:01.040 --> 0:00:04.200 Welcome to you Stuff you should know from house Stuff 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:12.960 Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm 0:00:13.039 --> 0:00:16.720 Josh Clark, There's Charles w Chuck Bryant and Jerry's with us, 0:00:17.239 --> 0:00:20.599 and this is stuff you should know. The podcast not 0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:26.279 affiliated with any gang. No, No, I would have thought 0:00:26.320 --> 0:00:29.280 that goes without saying. You never know stuff you should know. 0:00:29.360 --> 0:00:32.840 Army that's our gang. Yeah, I guess so nerds rolling 0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:37.720 around dropping knowledge. Yeah, that's how we roll. Our symbol 0:00:37.800 --> 0:00:42.280 is Infinity gang sign. I don't think that should be 0:00:42.320 --> 0:00:47.519 our symbol. No, No, it's um a perfect circle. No, 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:52.480 I think the the mike with the mean our regular logo. 0:00:53.000 --> 0:00:55.760 All right, that's a symbol. We just need to learn 0:00:55.760 --> 0:00:59.280 how to make it and spray paint. Yes, actually that's 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:02.360 dated what we've just said. We just mentioned spray painting 0:01:02.360 --> 0:01:07.160 your gang sign. But that's old time people. They still 0:01:07.160 --> 0:01:09.600 do that. No, gangs have evolved so much. Yes, some 0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:13.039 people do still do it, but from what I understand, 0:01:13.160 --> 0:01:17.640 gangs have basically come to see that. It's like, why 0:01:17.680 --> 0:01:19.600 why would you do that? It doesn't make any sense. 0:01:19.640 --> 0:01:23.319 You're basically you're marking your territory, right, You're marking yourself 0:01:23.920 --> 0:01:27.080 whereas it's better to stay out of the hands of 0:01:27.160 --> 0:01:30.679 law enforcement and not through a gang sign or tag 0:01:30.800 --> 0:01:35.800 something with your gang symbol than to do that. Gangs 0:01:35.800 --> 0:01:37.880 are wisending up and they're just not committing crimes any 0:01:37.920 --> 0:01:40.679 longer because that puts them under the police microscope. No, 0:01:41.160 --> 0:01:44.360 I'm saying that they are committing crimes still, they're just 0:01:44.440 --> 0:01:47.840 not UM. I don't think they spray paint their stuff 0:01:47.840 --> 0:01:51.920 as much. They're definitely UM getting more sophisticated in some 0:01:52.040 --> 0:01:57.840 gangs that've I've seen that like mortgage fraud and identity theft, counterfeiting, 0:01:57.920 --> 0:02:00.160 like are some of the human trafficking one, So the 0:02:00.160 --> 0:02:02.880 new crimes um. So before we get started the chuck, 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:06.400 I want to say that throughout this reading The Stuff 0:02:06.720 --> 0:02:10.040 or the House Stuff Works article and doing research, I 0:02:10.080 --> 0:02:12.840 was plagued by this idea that, like, we don't really 0:02:12.919 --> 0:02:17.240 have a real idea of how many people are in gangs, 0:02:17.560 --> 0:02:19.960 how many gangs are in the United States, exactly what 0:02:20.120 --> 0:02:24.720 kind of problems like gang problem we have. Is it overstated? 0:02:24.960 --> 0:02:28.960 I suspect it might be overstated gangs. So this is 0:02:29.000 --> 0:02:33.920 so the FBI compiles this report every few years and 0:02:33.919 --> 0:02:37.040 in the original House Stuff works article. It cites the 0:02:37.080 --> 0:02:41.000 two thousand five National Gang Threat Assessment, right, and it 0:02:41.200 --> 0:02:45.480 says there's twangs and seven hundred and thirty one thousand 0:02:45.560 --> 0:02:49.000 active gang members. Two thousand eleven, which is the most 0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:51.919 recent one from what I could find, has not too 0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:54.919 many more gangs thirty three thousand, but one point four 0:02:54.960 --> 0:03:00.280 million gang members. Thousand more gangs, I guess it is, okay, 0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:04.280 but one point four million gang members. The number of 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:06.520 gang members between two thousand and five and two thousand 0:03:06.520 --> 0:03:11.400 and eleven, according to the FBI, doubled, doubled. And okay, 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:16.880 if that's the case, right, what why what happened between 0:03:17.120 --> 0:03:19.560 two thou five and two thousand and eleven? I don't know, 0:03:19.639 --> 0:03:22.920 because the gang heyday was in the eighties and nineties. Okay, 0:03:22.960 --> 0:03:27.800 all right, So what would cause gang membership to skyrocket 0:03:27.840 --> 0:03:31.840 to double from two I don't think significant. I have 0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:38.000 one guess, uh, federal grants going to police departments, UM 0:03:38.080 --> 0:03:40.280 that say they have a gang problem. So maybe they're 0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:44.080 inflating the numbers. Maybe, Okay, what if they're not inflating 0:03:44.120 --> 0:03:47.240 the numbers? The thing that I think the internet, no, 0:03:47.920 --> 0:03:52.200 the economic crisis. If you go back and look at 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:53.840 the history of gangs, and if you look at all 0:03:53.920 --> 0:03:58.800 gang um activity, yeah, gang banging. If you if you 0:03:59.200 --> 0:04:02.200 tried to find on the lying cause, one of the 0:04:02.280 --> 0:04:06.080 underlying causes, if not basically the underlying cause is a 0:04:06.160 --> 0:04:10.560 lack of access to economic opportunity a k. Nothing else 0:04:10.600 --> 0:04:14.880 to do, no job prospects, and then already being surrounded 0:04:15.120 --> 0:04:18.880 by gangs or the possibility of gangs leads to an 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:21.680 increasing membership. So we have this economic crisis in the 0:04:21.800 --> 0:04:24.520 United States. So if gang membership really did double, I 0:04:24.520 --> 0:04:26.719 would put my money on the idea that it was 0:04:26.800 --> 0:04:30.640 because of the economic crisis. Didn't that touch the middle 0:04:30.680 --> 0:04:32.520 and upper middle classes more? Though? I mean, was there 0:04:32.520 --> 0:04:36.720 a housing crisis? Oh man, everybody got totally messed up 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:39.120 by the economic crisis. Yeah, I mean I knew it 0:04:39.160 --> 0:04:41.440 touched everyone, but I didn't know it wasn't just housing, 0:04:41.600 --> 0:04:43.760 Like housing kicked the whole thing off. But like the 0:04:43.960 --> 0:04:46.400 job market, like all of a sudden, all these people, 0:04:46.520 --> 0:04:48.920 even if it did affect like say the middle class 0:04:49.000 --> 0:04:50.960 or the upper middle class, all of a sudden they 0:04:50.960 --> 0:04:54.000 lose their jobs. They start taking the lower classes job 0:04:54.080 --> 0:04:56.160 because they've got to survive. Now, where are the lower 0:04:56.200 --> 0:05:01.159 classes doing? Interesting? Theory. I'm if membership doubled in the 0:05:01.240 --> 0:05:04.760 US between two I would bet any amount of money 0:05:04.800 --> 0:05:07.320 that was because of the economic crisis. You would stake 0:05:07.320 --> 0:05:11.000 your stuff. You should know fortune on that. Yeah, yes, 0:05:11.080 --> 0:05:15.160 I would all the millions. All right, Well, we may 0:05:15.200 --> 0:05:17.200 as well go and talk about white people join gangs 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:23.080 because you just teased it. Poverty is a huge reason. Um, 0:05:23.160 --> 0:05:26.560 these are usually in poorer areas of the city. Um, 0:05:26.760 --> 0:05:29.040 not a lot of money going on. You can make 0:05:29.080 --> 0:05:33.360 money by robbing people, by dealing drugs. It provides a 0:05:33.480 --> 0:05:37.600 financial incentive to join a gang basically. Yeah. I've read 0:05:37.640 --> 0:05:40.919 about one study from Los Angeles that found that neighborhoods 0:05:40.960 --> 0:05:44.200 that had unemployment rates of between fourteen and sixteen percent 0:05:44.839 --> 0:05:50.080 had about fifteen times more gang related homicides than neighborhoods 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:53.320 that had unemployment rates of between four and seven percent. Yeah, 0:05:53.320 --> 0:05:56.559 and they say that gang related homicides account for close 0:05:56.600 --> 0:05:58.880 to half of all the homicides in the United States 0:05:58.960 --> 0:06:03.680 right now. Yeah, that's another thing that I found, Like really, 0:06:04.440 --> 0:06:09.320 I saw also somewhere between I saw other places that 0:06:09.360 --> 0:06:13.120 are like this is all way overstated that like the 0:06:13.160 --> 0:06:15.720 gangs peaked back in the nineties and like we haven't 0:06:15.760 --> 0:06:18.720 had a real problem since then. I don't think this case, 0:06:19.160 --> 0:06:22.320 but there are some like sociologists out there saying this 0:06:22.360 --> 0:06:25.760 is this is overstated. Yeah, I don't think anyone saying 0:06:25.760 --> 0:06:28.000 there's not a gang problem. Those are No. I don't 0:06:28.000 --> 0:06:32.120 think anybody's disagreeing that there's a gang presence. I think 0:06:32.160 --> 0:06:37.119 the degree to which there is a gang presence. So Chuck, 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:39.120 for example, you can go look at something from the 0:06:39.160 --> 0:06:43.400 Justice Policy Institute called Violent Children two dozen send um 0:06:43.600 --> 0:06:46.200 look up the youth gang violence problem is exaggerated, and 0:06:46.240 --> 0:06:48.479 it provides kind of a counterpoint to it. Because if 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:51.320 there's one thing, I'm not saying there's not a gang problem, 0:06:51.440 --> 0:06:54.039 I'm not excusing the idea that like, oh, you have 0:06:54.160 --> 0:06:57.680 low economic opportunities so you join a gang. Totally get it. No, 0:06:57.880 --> 0:07:01.520 Like there's like there's still morality. There's still plenty of 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:04.680 people in the same situation that aren't joining gangs. Like 0:07:06.480 --> 0:07:08.919 what I'm saying is like when you when you read 0:07:09.080 --> 0:07:11.920 articles that are just like there's gangs everywhere and they're 0:07:12.000 --> 0:07:15.600 killing everybody. Of the homicide rates are because of gangs, 0:07:15.600 --> 0:07:18.320 and they're they're immoral little kids coming out of the 0:07:18.320 --> 0:07:21.240 inner city. Your your antenna should immediately go up, and 0:07:21.240 --> 0:07:25.520 you should start asking critical questions about where this stata 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:28.640 is coming from. What they're basing the data on, Who 0:07:28.760 --> 0:07:32.240 is giving you this data. Did they stand to benefit 0:07:32.360 --> 0:07:37.040 from people being scared? Um? Do they get funding to 0:07:37.160 --> 0:07:39.680 study this kind of stuff? You just have to ask 0:07:39.760 --> 0:07:45.280 questions like that, they're creating hysteria. It's yeah, anytime you 0:07:45.480 --> 0:07:49.160 encounter hysteria like that, yes, you should stop for a second. 0:07:49.640 --> 0:07:52.680 If you have that amount of self possession, stop and 0:07:52.720 --> 0:07:56.000 just start asking questions like what everybody calmed down, agreed, sir? 0:07:56.400 --> 0:08:00.040 Or just run because the gangs are coming for you. 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:02.480 All right. That's that was it for my soapbox. All right. 0:08:02.680 --> 0:08:04.640 Uh so back to why you might join a gang, 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:09.040 um peer pressure. I love that that's listed, uh because 0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:11.240 it's true. I Mean, it sounds kind of like a 0:08:11.320 --> 0:08:13.880 very high school thing. But that's a lot of times 0:08:14.000 --> 0:08:16.760 is when you're getting pressure to joining gang, they seek 0:08:16.800 --> 0:08:18.800 out children, right, That's where a lot of gangs find 0:08:18.800 --> 0:08:21.400 the roots. The crypts, bloods, both high schools, that's right. 0:08:21.480 --> 0:08:23.800 The blue, the red, those are the high school colors. 0:08:23.880 --> 0:08:27.040 That's right. We'll get to them later. Um boredom we 0:08:27.080 --> 0:08:30.520 talked about that. Um, a lot of these communities there 0:08:30.560 --> 0:08:32.480 isn't a lot going on. They don't have the neighborhood 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:35.960 pool or maybe even a neighborhood library or a neighborhood 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:39.520 youth center um, or a playground that's in uh not 0:08:39.600 --> 0:08:43.520 in disrepair. So these shuttered communities don't have a lot 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:46.400 going on. So kids are board um, and then they 0:08:46.480 --> 0:08:50.920 fall into a sense of despair, which means, um, you know, 0:08:51.200 --> 0:08:53.080 maybe I don't have a father who's a role model. 0:08:53.360 --> 0:08:57.240 Maybe my father or mother or both are in prison. Um, 0:08:57.280 --> 0:08:59.160 but I have a family right over here. This gang 0:08:59.200 --> 0:09:02.199 says they love me, They're gonna get my back, and um, 0:09:02.320 --> 0:09:05.160 now I have a sense of community finally through this gang. 0:09:05.320 --> 0:09:09.360 And some gangs actually have set up overt community programs, 0:09:09.400 --> 0:09:14.400 like job training programs, like things that basically said, we 0:09:14.880 --> 0:09:18.400 have been so neglected by the community at large that 0:09:19.040 --> 0:09:22.000 like local gangs are the ones setting this up. And 0:09:22.080 --> 0:09:24.000 I mean that's a pretty good reason to join a gang, 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:27.400 is when they're holding community outreach programs in your community 0:09:27.440 --> 0:09:29.559 and they're the only show in town. Yeah, I mean 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:32.320 there's uh, it's not just a TV thing. The gang 0:09:32.400 --> 0:09:34.920 leader with a heart of gold that like secretly uh 0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:39.960 snipes to build the playground, you know, like that stuff happens. 0:09:40.520 --> 0:09:42.320 I mean, and we're not trying to say like gang 0:09:42.440 --> 0:09:46.720 leaders are just the best, that they have been known 0:09:46.760 --> 0:09:50.480 to quietly reinvest money in their own communities. Well yeah times, 0:09:50.600 --> 0:09:53.439 I mean, yeah, you don't want the place falling apart, 0:09:53.559 --> 0:09:56.320 especially if that's your major market. Yeah. And plus also 0:09:56.320 --> 0:09:58.560 it's a really great way to ingratiate yourself with the 0:09:58.600 --> 0:10:02.200 local community. Absolutely sure. So let's talk a little bit 0:10:02.200 --> 0:10:05.240 about the history of gangs. If you'll indulge me for 0:10:05.280 --> 0:10:09.559 a moment, you can consider yourself indulged. Um. I love 0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:12.800 the way. And this is by the Grabster at Grabowski. Um. 0:10:12.840 --> 0:10:15.040 He says criminal gangs have been around for as long 0:10:15.080 --> 0:10:18.360 as crime and that makes total sense because, um, their 0:10:18.400 --> 0:10:23.040 strength in numbers. And I think you've seen the movie 0:10:23.080 --> 0:10:28.640 Gangs of New York. Yeah, stripe pants, stripe pants, oh man, 0:10:29.400 --> 0:10:33.280 strip pants, Yeah, a lot of them. Fashion. Did I 0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:36.480 like it? No, not really, Yeah, I've went back and 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:38.680 watched it recently. I really liked it. Um. I did 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:42.600 not like Cameron Diaz. I forgot she was in it. Yeah, 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:45.080 that was she was missing. She was like a Cockney accent, 0:10:45.160 --> 0:10:48.440 now that I think about it. Uh no, no, it was, 0:10:48.600 --> 0:10:50.240 it was. It must have been a nightmare I had. 0:10:50.559 --> 0:10:54.720 She was I've had that same nightmare. I don't. I 0:10:54.720 --> 0:10:56.040 think she had to look at some sort of a 0:10:56.080 --> 0:10:59.480 weird accent. Maybe she was trying to do Cockney. You know, 0:11:00.679 --> 0:11:03.560 um forgot a good movie though. I think I really enjoyed. Mean, 0:11:03.600 --> 0:11:05.679 I could stand and go back and see it as 0:11:05.720 --> 0:11:08.560 an I liked it. And what's this Daniel Date lewis Man, 0:11:08.840 --> 0:11:13.240 what a great character. Um. So, anyway, that movie was 0:11:13.360 --> 0:11:16.920 based on fact because in the nineteenth century in New 0:11:16.960 --> 0:11:20.400 York and Five Points, Um, you had these ethnic gangs, 0:11:20.440 --> 0:11:23.920 the Irish gangs, Polish gangs, Italian gangs, and they all 0:11:24.000 --> 0:11:27.240 faught for territory and robbed and mugged each other and 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:30.640 had violent fights in the street. That was pretty crazy 0:11:30.800 --> 0:11:34.120 in Lower Manhattan. Yeah, the Five Points gangs, Yeah, very 0:11:34.280 --> 0:11:37.280 very tough. But sometimes they have banded together and fight 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:41.880 other parts of town's gangs, like the Bowery Boys, that 0:11:42.040 --> 0:11:44.440 kind of stuff. So they're just fighting all the time, 0:11:44.480 --> 0:11:47.520 turf wars like today, like you know what, gangs they 0:11:47.559 --> 0:11:49.559 kind of have always been about turf to a certain 0:11:49.559 --> 0:11:51.960 degree they were about turf and that is we'll see 0:11:52.000 --> 0:11:56.959 one of the ways that you can divide um gang gangs. 0:11:57.240 --> 0:11:59.840 It's one of the definitions of gang is a turf gang. 0:12:00.559 --> 0:12:04.480 But they were also um ethnic gangs typically as well, 0:12:04.920 --> 0:12:09.480 like Irish gangs or Polish gangs or Italian gangs. You 0:12:09.559 --> 0:12:13.360 might ask yourself, what happened to the Polish gangs? What 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:17.040 happened to Irish gangs? Do you do you want to 0:12:17.040 --> 0:12:23.280 hear my theory behind the economic crisis of the nineteen seventies, No, no, 0:12:23.400 --> 0:12:26.440 these gangs went away, and they're so so. By the 0:12:26.480 --> 0:12:30.000 fifties and sixties, most of the um gangs in the 0:12:30.080 --> 0:12:34.080 United States were Hispanic gangs and black gangs. Ethnic gangs 0:12:34.160 --> 0:12:36.560 were like we think of as like Irish or Polish 0:12:36.600 --> 0:12:40.240 or whatever, just disappeared. And the reason why they were 0:12:40.240 --> 0:12:43.680 disappeared because the Irish and the Polish stopped being considered 0:12:43.720 --> 0:12:47.120 ethnic and they were just white after that, and then 0:12:47.160 --> 0:12:50.040 all of the economic opportunities afforded to white people were 0:12:50.040 --> 0:12:52.960 refording to the Irish people and the Polish people, and 0:12:53.000 --> 0:12:56.839 they had very little reason to be gang members any longer, 0:12:56.880 --> 0:13:01.600 and they became skinheads later on. But don't you think 0:13:01.640 --> 0:13:05.120 that that's probably what happened. Maybe so I couldn't find 0:13:05.160 --> 0:13:08.720 anything definitive anywhere. They were like not a disenfranchised ethnic 0:13:08.720 --> 0:13:12.400 group any longer. They were just part of, uh, the 0:13:12.440 --> 0:13:17.079 white machine that is the United States. I could see that, like, man, 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:19.120 you got theories out the wazoo today. But a lot 0:13:19.160 --> 0:13:22.080 of them became like cops. That was a big thing, 0:13:22.200 --> 0:13:24.640 especially for like former Irish gang members. A lot of 0:13:24.640 --> 0:13:27.439 them moved right from Irish gang member into Irish cops. 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:30.600 They're like, where can I still go? Crackheads? Right? Exactly right. 0:13:31.080 --> 0:13:34.200 What's strange is as we'll see, that's kind of going 0:13:34.240 --> 0:13:38.080 on today still gang members moving into things like law 0:13:38.160 --> 0:13:44.199 enforcement in the military. Yeah. Boy, that was frightening, hysteria inducing, 0:13:44.320 --> 0:13:48.080 isn't it. It is so in the nineteen fifties, um, 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:52.120 in sixties you had what we're called car clubs, and 0:13:52.320 --> 0:13:54.679 um they were gangs. And this is when you think 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:57.360 of like the outsiders, like when you go to rumble 0:13:57.440 --> 0:14:01.200 Over territories. These were the car lubs and they would 0:14:01.240 --> 0:14:03.400 get together and they would fight in a parking lot 0:14:03.480 --> 0:14:06.560 with chains and knives and things like that, go rescue 0:14:06.559 --> 0:14:09.720 people from burning houses and an iron Long State Old 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:14.360 Bony Boy, and UM, they began to languish in the 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:19.440 nineteen sixties and then in the nineteen sixties a man 0:14:19.640 --> 0:14:22.360 named Raymond Washington and a man named two Key I 0:14:22.400 --> 0:14:26.920 say man two boys. Yeah, they think they were high schoolers. 0:14:26.000 --> 0:14:29.160 They might have been middle schoolers even they were young, 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:33.440 because they originally called their gang the Baby Avenues, the 0:14:33.520 --> 0:14:37.600 after school specials. That would be a good gang, the 0:14:37.640 --> 0:14:41.400 Baby Avenues. UM. It was a very small gang at first, 0:14:41.440 --> 0:14:44.600 and then it later became the Cribs because they were young, 0:14:45.200 --> 0:14:49.040 like Baby Cribs. And then it became the Cribs in 0:14:49.080 --> 0:14:51.840 south central Los Angeles. Uh. And they were blue like 0:14:51.880 --> 0:14:54.600 you said earlier, because Fremont High School where they went 0:14:54.640 --> 0:14:57.760 to school, where that was their school colors. So it's 0:14:57.800 --> 0:14:59.520 kind of funny to think that it was rooted in 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:01.560 like I mean, it's not like it burst out of 0:15:01.600 --> 0:15:04.760 school pride, you know, but they did base their colors 0:15:04.760 --> 0:15:07.280 on their high school. And then um, as a result 0:15:07.360 --> 0:15:11.440 of the crips UH kind of taking over the area. UM. 0:15:11.600 --> 0:15:14.320 Raymond Washington was murdered by the way in he didn't 0:15:14.360 --> 0:15:18.640 last too long. UM. Tenure is a pretty good run 0:15:18.720 --> 0:15:22.280 for a game. Yeah, probably, so I would think that's 0:15:23.360 --> 0:15:25.600 longer than you would predict. And two Ki went to 0:15:25.640 --> 0:15:28.480 prison for murder. But UM in the nineteen seventies, and 0:15:28.480 --> 0:15:30.520 the Bloods were born as a results of the Crips 0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:34.200 and their activity. Um, all these smaller gangs that had 0:15:34.200 --> 0:15:37.280 been uh I guess messed with by the Crips. UM 0:15:37.400 --> 0:15:39.040 kind of came together and says, all right, we need 0:15:39.080 --> 0:15:40.680 a rival gang, so we're gonna be the Bloods. And 0:15:40.760 --> 0:15:44.680 that's why the Crips formed. Originally oh to uh for 0:15:44.760 --> 0:15:46.920 other rival gangs. It was a couple of gangs that 0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:50.640 came together. It's banding together, which still happens today if 0:15:50.640 --> 0:15:54.320 you believe that stuff. Um. And they were from the 0:15:54.440 --> 0:15:59.040 Um from the high school. Yes, and they were red 0:15:59.480 --> 0:16:01.960 and they were on to by Sylvester Scott and Vincent Owens. 0:16:02.360 --> 0:16:04.480 So then you had the Bloods, you had the Crypts. 0:16:05.080 --> 0:16:09.240 They are still thriving today. They do not get along. 0:16:09.960 --> 0:16:14.440 They have their well did they get along? So allow 0:16:14.560 --> 0:16:22.960 me to mention the Watts Truce Man two Truce Watts 0:16:23.240 --> 0:16:26.840 in south central Los Angeles. The Blood in the Crips 0:16:26.920 --> 0:16:30.880 came together with Jim Brown football legend Jim Brown. Yeah, 0:16:30.920 --> 0:16:33.120 I remember this actually in like u um, I think 0:16:33.160 --> 0:16:36.320 a y m C a auditorium or high school auditorium 0:16:36.760 --> 0:16:40.480 or jim and sat down and worked out a peace 0:16:40.520 --> 0:16:43.560 treaty based on one between I think Israel and Egypt 0:16:43.560 --> 0:16:47.280 that had been used um. And it was a peace 0:16:47.320 --> 0:16:50.480 treaty between the Crypts and the blood and it was 0:16:50.520 --> 0:16:53.920 abided by so much so as far as I can tell, 0:16:54.160 --> 0:16:57.200 it's still going on. Yeah, Like it was a very 0:16:57.240 --> 0:17:00.200 it was a big deal. But that's not to say 0:17:00.200 --> 0:17:03.120 that there's not in a related gang violence because now 0:17:03.160 --> 0:17:06.880 that the Crypts and the Bloods had watch truce signed, 0:17:07.440 --> 0:17:10.679 there was much more infighting among different cript sets and 0:17:10.720 --> 0:17:13.080 different blood sets. Well yeah, I mean this is I 0:17:13.080 --> 0:17:15.679 guess we should talk about the idea of nations like 0:17:15.760 --> 0:17:17.960 the Crypt Nation and Blood Nation their Bloods and Crypts 0:17:18.000 --> 0:17:20.960 all over the country. Yeah, which makes them super gangs. Yeah, 0:17:21.000 --> 0:17:25.800 but they sound terrifying that um. The guy who did 0:17:25.800 --> 0:17:28.239 the article I read said that he thought that they 0:17:28.240 --> 0:17:30.119 would all be sort of cut from the same cloth 0:17:30.119 --> 0:17:32.320 and they would all get along. But oh yeah, apparently 0:17:32.320 --> 0:17:36.439 within nations it's very much still broken down into your 0:17:36.480 --> 0:17:40.119 own neighborhood gang, and you might not get along with 0:17:40.160 --> 0:17:43.399 the other crip gang that's nearby. Even so, the crip 0:17:43.520 --> 0:17:46.200 is the nation and the set is like the local 0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:50.200 chapter basically. But like you said, this guy named Mike 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:53.360 carly PhD. He's I think from the University of Missouri 0:17:53.480 --> 0:17:56.960 or no Missouri state. I'm sorry, sorry, sorry he Um, 0:17:57.040 --> 0:17:59.840 I think it's a sociologist who went in and just 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:02.919 assimilated with gang members and hung out and ended up 0:18:02.960 --> 0:18:06.000 like writing this treatise on it. And um, he said 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:08.720 what you just said that he expected everybody to get along. 0:18:08.720 --> 0:18:11.840 If you're a crip, that's just not the case, because 0:18:12.119 --> 0:18:15.440 if you're a crip, your set's territory is much more 0:18:15.520 --> 0:18:18.760 likely to butt up against another crip sets territory then 0:18:18.840 --> 0:18:21.560 say a blood's territory on the other side of the freeway. 0:18:21.800 --> 0:18:23.720 And if you're selling drugs on the corner and they're 0:18:23.760 --> 0:18:26.679 selling drugs in the corner, well you're fighting directly for 0:18:26.920 --> 0:18:30.399 the same customers money, so you're much more likely to 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:34.280 erupt in violence or whatever. Yeah, and the nineties is 0:18:34.320 --> 0:18:36.800 when the narcotics kind of came on the scene. Before that, 0:18:37.200 --> 0:18:39.960 gangs didn't really deal a lot of drugs. It's a 0:18:40.000 --> 0:18:42.960 lot like more petty crime. And like muggings and stuff 0:18:43.000 --> 0:18:46.640 like that. Yes, supposedly it was drugs that that changed everything, 0:18:47.119 --> 0:18:51.560 not only unleashed the spasm of violence that started in 0:18:51.600 --> 0:18:56.199 the eighties in Los Angeles specifically, but also um, I 0:18:56.240 --> 0:18:59.200 think even prior to that, in the seventies in Chicago 0:18:59.800 --> 0:19:04.320 is where the idea of taking street gangs and turning 0:19:04.359 --> 0:19:09.560 them into hierarchical drug dealing businesses was formed by a 0:19:09.600 --> 0:19:14.800 couple of guys named Larry Hoover and David Barksdale. That's 0:19:14.880 --> 0:19:18.040 the guy from the Wire. It wasn't David, but that 0:19:18.160 --> 0:19:20.400 was Avon Barksdale, wasn't it. I wonder if he's named 0:19:20.440 --> 0:19:23.720 after David Barksdale. That seems like a nod. So Larry 0:19:23.720 --> 0:19:26.800 Hoover formed the Black Gangsters and David Barksdale formed the 0:19:26.840 --> 0:19:30.159 Black Disciples, and they were rival gangs in Chicago that 0:19:30.200 --> 0:19:34.640 eventually formed the Black Gangster Disciples the Super Gang, and 0:19:34.920 --> 0:19:37.520 they had this idea that they would take all of 0:19:37.560 --> 0:19:39.960 their gang members and just turn them into drug dealers. 0:19:40.440 --> 0:19:44.280 And the crack epidemic helped that tremendously, which, by the way, 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:46.120 if you're interested in this kind of stuff at all, 0:19:46.400 --> 0:19:48.879 go listen to our crack episode. It was one of 0:19:48.880 --> 0:19:50.919 our best if you asked me. Yeah, we have a 0:19:50.920 --> 0:19:52.719 few episodes that touch on this. I guess I think 0:19:52.800 --> 0:19:57.120 the Hell's Angels, even though biker gangs are not quite 0:19:57.160 --> 0:20:01.000 the same, Is that correct? Yeah, that's there categorization does 0:20:01.040 --> 0:20:06.480 it called outlaw and motorcycle gangs are seriously o MG's Yeah. Yeah. 0:20:06.600 --> 0:20:09.879 And then um, I think the one on zoot suits. 0:20:10.200 --> 0:20:12.120 Oh yeah, that that was a lot like this. Yeah, 0:20:12.119 --> 0:20:13.760 that's a great history one that we did. You should 0:20:13.800 --> 0:20:19.000 look into. So um bloods and crips. Um. They have 0:20:19.160 --> 0:20:23.680 this way of talking that where the Bloods won't say 0:20:24.080 --> 0:20:28.159 they'll substitute uh ce in words for B and crips 0:20:28.160 --> 0:20:31.560 will substitute B for C because they won't even say, 0:20:32.200 --> 0:20:34.680 you know, a word with B in it, Like let's 0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:40.439 go to Starbucks and get a boffy, start starbups and 0:20:40.520 --> 0:20:44.399 get a coffee. Yeah, because they're just hanging out in 0:20:44.400 --> 0:20:49.199 Starbucks now, they're hanging out in starbups Starbucks. Um. And 0:20:49.240 --> 0:20:51.240 they also have their own way of walking sea walking 0:20:51.280 --> 0:20:54.280 and b walking, which, um, it's sort of like a 0:20:54.280 --> 0:20:57.080 little dancy sort of move. But I looked at them 0:20:57.080 --> 0:21:00.480 both and I couldn't tell much of a difference, which 0:21:00.520 --> 0:21:03.880 means that I would be a bad gang member because 0:21:03.920 --> 0:21:05.920 I would do the wrong walk. I would guess that 0:21:05.960 --> 0:21:08.640 you would pick it up pretty quick. And of course 0:21:08.680 --> 0:21:12.840 they also have their besides the the blue and red clothing, 0:21:12.840 --> 0:21:17.400 they have their gang symbol, which in case you ever 0:21:17.480 --> 0:21:19.000 were like, I kind of want to wear my red 0:21:19.000 --> 0:21:22.760 hat today because I'm a Los Angeles Angels fan, but 0:21:22.800 --> 0:21:24.560 I don't want to get in trouble because I'm a crip. 0:21:24.960 --> 0:21:27.520 So they still have the the signs to rely on. Well, 0:21:27.560 --> 0:21:29.880 I would guess you would have to be a Dodgers fan, 0:21:29.960 --> 0:21:32.640 and if you're blood, you'd be an Angels fan. Yeah, 0:21:32.720 --> 0:21:35.399 but the Angels there, Anaheim, I don't think anyone in 0:21:35.600 --> 0:21:37.480 l A Is really an Angels fan. You gotta be 0:21:37.520 --> 0:21:41.200 from Orange County. Although we're going to hear from people Angels. 0:21:42.680 --> 0:21:44.880 So that's the bloods in the crips in a nutshell. 0:21:45.200 --> 0:21:47.320 That could be its own show. But we'll take a 0:21:47.320 --> 0:21:49.719 break here and we will talk a little bit more 0:21:49.720 --> 0:22:09.520 about gang history right for this, So Chuck, we keep 0:22:09.520 --> 0:22:12.720 throwing out the words super gangs. It sounds like a 0:22:12.760 --> 0:22:16.760 media creation, but it does. But there I mean, basically, 0:22:16.840 --> 0:22:21.439 what it what it describes is a a franchise gang 0:22:21.760 --> 0:22:26.520 like the Bloods or the Crypts or um these larger 0:22:26.640 --> 0:22:29.560 groups like the Folks or the People. Yeah, the People 0:22:29.680 --> 0:22:32.040 Nation and the Folks Nation. So I think the Bloods 0:22:32.080 --> 0:22:34.040 are affiliated with the People Nation and the Crypts are 0:22:34.040 --> 0:22:37.959 affiliate with Folk Nation. But this basically this network of 0:22:38.400 --> 0:22:42.240 gang members who are related to one another through their 0:22:42.280 --> 0:22:47.359 gang in different cities. And so say somebody in Chicago 0:22:47.840 --> 0:22:50.720 wants to get into the St. Louis market, They'll send 0:22:50.760 --> 0:22:54.160 some people and set up a gang there, Easy peasy. 0:22:54.240 --> 0:22:58.000 It's called franchising. And all of a sudden, now you 0:22:58.119 --> 0:23:02.240 have a inter interstate gang, which makes it a super gang. 0:23:03.240 --> 0:23:06.840 Those are I don't want to see peanuts because it's 0:23:06.840 --> 0:23:10.160 a big deal. But compared to like a transnational gang, 0:23:10.800 --> 0:23:13.520 that's the transnational gangs are the ones fro. I'm like, yeah, 0:23:13.520 --> 0:23:16.520 there's there's a real problem there. I think, yeah, here's 0:23:16.520 --> 0:23:20.440 some just because um, well, let's just read the names 0:23:20.440 --> 0:23:22.040 of the People Nation in the Folk Nation just so 0:23:22.080 --> 0:23:24.399 people know what's going on. And the People Nation. You 0:23:24.440 --> 0:23:26.640