An understanding of these rival Los Angeles based street gangs, their characteristics, and illegal activities will enhance one's abilities to easily recognize the potential risks of these gang members both in the street and in our correctional facilities.

The Crips and Bloods began as violent, local, predominantly black and Hispanic street gangs in southern Los Angeles, California, in 1969. Active and highly successful in the drug trade, members of both groups are now being discovered in numerous other cities and states where they are attempting to control the local drug trade.

There are several beliefs as to how the Crips name came about. A popular one is that Crips is derived from a horror movie entitled "Tales of the Crypt." An original Crips gang member relates the term began due to an original member being handicapped. S ince he as a cripple, they shortened this term to "Crip" and name was used in his honor. A recent and more plausible story has the term Crips developing from the fact members were looking for the hardest and toughest thing imaginable; thus they come up wi th Superman and the only thing that could hurt him was KryptoniteÑthis was shortened to Crip.

In reaction, other gangs formed to provide protection against Crips. These became known as Bloods. The first known Bloods gang was formed by individuals from Piru Street in Compton, California. Compton gangs affiliated with the Bloods were called "Piru s." These rivalries made gang warfare more prevalent and a focal point of gang activity. Firearms were used with regularity and "drive-by shootings" produced a dramatic increase in assaults and homicides.

Because Crips and Bloods are now aligning with the Folk and People Nations out of Chicago, they closely follow the Chicago philosophies. Chicago based/influenced gangs display an all for one, one for all mentality with complete devotion to their set and nat ion. Most codes of conduct require lifetime allegiance to the group. The groups have a strict set of laws that result in "violations" for breaking these rules. Violations are inner disciplinary punishment issued by the leaders of the group for violating t he set rules. They range from performing menial tasks to physical assault for a set time period, to death.

The members are required to follow all orders given by their leaders and failure to do so results in "violation".

The philosophies vary somewhat depending upon the set, and location. Here in the New England region we have seen a more orginzed/structured leadership than the sets on the west coast

The Crips adopted the color blue for their clothing to set them apart from other gang members. Also, the Crips began using the word "Cuzz," short for cousin, in greetings to identify each other.

The Bloods adopted the color red and began using the term "Bloods" to identify each other.

Within Crips sets, blue continues to be the dominate color. However, other dark colors such as black, brown, and purple may also be blended to identify certain sets.

Bloods sets still use red as the dominant color in most cases. However, other colors may be used if they are significant to the gang name, such as "Lime Street Pirus."

The primary personal accessories which identify gang affiliations are hats, handkerchiefs, shoelaces, and belts.

Most gang members are identified by a nickname (AKA) or street name. Often, members will not know each other by their legal names. A nickname is important because it can give insights into a member's psychological perspective of himself, an indicat ion of his physical description, and can aid in identification based on graffiti.

The first letter of the real name and a gang term often will be used for a nickname (AKA). Examples are C-Bone or T-Loc. These terms are intended to express a hardness or madness to non-gang members. Many members will tattoo their moniker on their body.

Both Crips and Bloods have their own rules for speaking or writing to their "homeboys." Homeboy is another name for a gang member.

Some common rules exist. Such as, Crips do not use the letter "B"; Bloods will not use the letter "C" and will replace it with a "B". For example, "cigarette: would become "bigarette."

Communications may take different forms, and we must recognize these "identifiers" if we are to successfully deal with gangs. Clothing, guns, jewelry, hand signals, and tattoos are all forms of communication to gang members. All of these may be used as in inroad when interviewing gang members.

Graffiti is used by gang members to communicate territorial limits and broadcast warnings or publicize a challenge to other street gangs. Challenges are made by one gang putting their graffiti on another's territory. This can be considered a killing of fense by the gangs. Also, simply crossing out of other gang's graffiti may lead to serious retaliation measures. Graffiti is an effective way to keep track of gang rosters, geographic locations, and gang violence.

This is Bloods graffiti:

This is Crips graffiti:

ENEMIES/RIVALS

Crips and Bloods sets are rivals. And since Crips and Bloods are affiliated with Folk and People Nations respectively, they are then rivals of all Folk or People sets and subsets.

Traditionally Folk Nation aligned sets and People Nation aligned sets are rivals. In addition, various other national and local street gangs develop as rivals, allies and/or initiate alliances. Under each of these alliances there are literally hundreds of individual sets or gangs. These alliances and rivalries are constantly changing and need to be reviewed frequently.

For the Crips allies are any gang that considers the Bloods an enemy and vice versa for the Bloods.

We have found in the NY and New England region a centralized leadership, wereas on the west coast neither the Crips or Bloods has centralized leadership. Instead, they are fragmented gangs that can be arranged into larger group affiliations generally based on their geographic area. This fragmentation makes these gangs more difficult for law enforce ment to track and identify them. The Crips and Bloods do have an alliance with the Chicago based gangs that make up the Folk and People Nations respectively.

Individual gangs are referred to as "sets." These sets, particularly the Crips sets, often form affiliations (group sets) within a geographic area. For example, Compton Crips (as many as 20 individuals sets); Hoover Crips (about 10 individual sets); Ea st Coast Crips (many sets). Set groupings are also based on the particular city were they may be located; e.g., Compton Crips, LA Crips, San Diego Crips. Areas and neighborhoods were soon identified as either Crips or Bloods territory. Presently there are about 200 known Crips gangs and 70 Bloods gangs in Los Angeles.

There are generally four types of individuals associated with street gangs. The "hard-cores" are exactly that. They talk, act, dress, and commit criminal acts as a gang member.

"Associates" will identify with gang members in their neighborhood, but seldom involve themselves deeply with gang activity. Dope suppliers would be an example of an associate.

"Peripherals" are those outside the gang who identify with the gang for protection or for favors. This group mainly consists of women. They are used to carry drugs or guns for members in return for money or drugs. All female gangs are beginning to emer ge.

The last type person is the "Gunna-Be's." They are people who calm to be gang members in an attempt to influence people in areas outside the control of the gang. Gunna-to-Be's usually are not gang members, but assume some characteristics such as weari ng a particular gang color. These people are the recruitment pool for the gangs' new members. These Gunna-to-Be's can be more dangerous than the members themselves.

Most gang members range from 8 to 35 years of age. The members 8 to 18 appear to be the most violent. This is the period of time when new members are trying to prove themselves to older gang members and raise their status within the group.

Within gangs usually three groupings will appear: "Old Gangster", who are likely to be the originators of the set; "Gangsters", who are the hard-core members; and "BGs" (baby gangsters) or TGs (tiny gangsters), who are the younger child and juvenile members. The older members who have earned their reputations will often control younger members. For this reason they are referred to as "Shot Callers."

Recruitment by these gangs is required by their by-laws and is usually pursued in a very aggressive and persistent manner. Recruitment often involves memorization of alliance and set history, organization, and mythical symbolism referred to as "knowled ge." This "knowledge" is often written and passed around by members/prospective members where it is copied. The writings are often coded or cryptic using a specific alphabet.

Initiation into these groups is accomplished by proving your loyalty to the gang; you will give your life to the gang, and that you love the gang. This is accomplished by ordering the prospect to commit crime, physically assaulting the prospect, having them play Russian roulette, or otherwise risk their life for the group.

The most common form of initiation is described by members as "walking the line". The prospect is instructed to walk between two lines of group members, with his/her hands behind them, while the members beat and kick them. The objective being to get to the end of the line standing. Once the individual's knees touch the ground they must repeat the process.

We have observered that many of the behaviors listed within this section have also been observed by educators and school resource officers within the educational systems of the country. Regardless of the location or in public and private schools. This includes, the large city, urban and rural schools.

When gang members are enrolled in schools or put into the general prison population, serious problems have developed. Teachers,students and Correctional officers are attacked with increasing frequency. Non-gang prisoners are often raped, assaulted, or killed by gang members in their efforts to establish turf or deal drugs inside the institutions. In case of schools other than fights which may be over drugs or insulting remarks, the more violent activities will happen within 1500 yards of the school. You must know if there are both Crips and Bloods in the same facility.

Visitors, this is also very important within the school systems. will probably be other gang members or associates. Special screening and searches will often produce narcotics or weapons. Make sure visitors are required to produce some form of photo identification, and a visitors log is accurately maintained.

Checking graffiti inside the school or prison often times will indicate a potential "hit on another student, teacher, inmate or officer.

As prison populations become more saturated with gang members officials will need to watch for emerging prison gangs, such as the "Death Row Crips" (DRC) and the "United Blood Nation" (UBN), or Cop Killa's (CK) Although these gangs have only surfaced in iso lated areas, there will be a natural growth inside the prisons as more members are sentenced.

These gang members are predominately Black, however, the Bloods have accepted other ethnic groups into the gang. Hispanics, Whites, Greeks, and Chinese member have been identified. In New York City jails, approximately 9% of the Bloods are Hispanic. Th ese individuals engage in activities such as drug sales, robberies, car thefts, extortions, rapes, and murders.

To gain acceptance to the gang, individuals must "Blood-in." This means they must spill someone's blood, or have their own blood spilled. There are various ways (fights, slashing, assaults against law enforcement personnel, rapes, robberies, group sex for women blooding-in) to Blood-in, but blood should be spilled. Bloods trace their history to Chicago and Los Angeles, where open territorial fights are commonplace. The Bloods arch rival gang is the Crips. West Coast Bloods will not pronounce the letter "C," and will cross it out when writing.

In New York City and the New England area, the Bloods have demonstrated a propensity for violent attacks against unknowing victims. Usually, victims are slashed across the face with little or no warning of the attack. Bloods have been identified in areas throughout New York City; Brooklyn's 77Pct. (Crown Heights), Queens' 100 Pct. (Far Rockaway), and Manhattan's 28 Pct. (11th Street), Bridgeport, East Lyme, Norwich, New London, Connecticut, Providence, Rhode Island.

In New York City and New England jails, the Bloods have developed a reputation as a vicious gang. They have been responsible for over 50% of the stabbings and slashings throughout the Department of Corrections during the period covering April 1, 1997 - August 31, 1997 . The Bloods (approx. 500) have grown in number to where they now outnumber both the Latin Kings(approx. 350) and the Netas (approx. 350).

Bloods refer to the United Blood Nation, which in New York City jails encompasses the these Blood sets: Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods (NTG); Miller Gnagsta Bloods (MGB); Young Bloods; Valentine Bloods (VB); Mad Dog Bloods(MDB); One Eight Trey Bloods (183); Mad Stone Bloods (MSB); Gangsta Killer Bloods (GKB); Five Nine Brims(5-9 Brims); Sex Money Murder Bloods; Blood Stone Villains (BSV).

Bloods can be identified by their tattoos; two burned dots over a single burned dot. This represents a dog's pawÑBloods refer to themselves as "dogs." Additionally, Bloods were colors of red, or clothing identified with the basketball team the Chicago Bulls.

Besides their tattoos and clothing, the Bloods display signs and speak in codes. One such sign is to curl the thumb and index finger until the meet to from a circle. The three remaining finger are extended straight-out. This hand is then placed against the stomach area, palm of the hand face down with thumb and index finger touching the stomach (solar plexus area). Next, the hand is moved in a circular motion, turning the palm of the hand face up, touching the pinkie finger and the wrist to the mid-sto mach area. As this process is completed, a Blood will say "031," which translates to "I have love four you ,Blood." The Bloods change their codes on a regular basis, and generally revert from new codes to old. Some codes are changed in their entirety. The current listing of Bloods codes is 16 pages in length.

The Bloods organizational structure is:

101 First Superior (this is the leader). His function is to oversee the set. This individual acts as the disciplinary officer.

102 Second Superior. Functions to assist and advise the First Superior and carry out the First superior's duties in his absence.

103 Minister of Defense. Functions to provide strategies and information to the First Superior for the operations of the set.

104 Minister of Information. Provides information concerning the set and its enemies.

105 Head of Security. Provides weapons and discipline to all members of the set.

106 Commanding Officer. Dictates orders as specified by the Superior.

107 Captain. Disseminates orders amongst the Lieutenants.

108 Head Lieutenant. Assists and advises the Captain, and carries out the Captain's duties in his absence.

109 Lieutenant. Ensures the principal soldiers carry out orders as issued by the Captain.

110 Principal Soldier. Complies with orders from Lieutenants, and to keep banging (fighting the enemy) at all times.

In general, every Bloods' function is to keep banging at all times. No Blood is better than the next. Each Bloods is a soldier, putting in work (fighting), maintaining the superiority of all Bloods over their enemies.

Each set follow this structure, with an individual identified for each position. Because there are many different sets, the Blood leadership in the streets of New York is not strong. Different boroughs or areas are under different sets. In the jails, l eadership is strong, however individuals do attempt to form new sets so that they can assume leadership. This is however, frowned upon by the existing sets.

The Bloods concepts of war are:

• Always listen before you talk, look before you walk, and observe before you stalk.
• In war, you must follow the commands of the higher rank, who is designated such because they are more, if not, better informed than you.
• Never make important decisions while angry, because an intemperate nature can cause one to run into a brick wall. Allow time to rationalize.
• What is pain to a warrior is but a privilege, pain, and handling pain are measures of a warrior, for to know victory is to know defeat.
• The injuries that you inflict upon the enemy should be considered such a vicious act of terrorism ,that the damage inflicted causes the enemy to never consider revenge.
• Never allow the enemy to live in ;your midst, because one day he may rise up to repay you for the mistake.
• One must be a fox to recognize a trap, and a lion to fight and intimidate the enemy.
• The best defense is often times a good offense.
• There is no greater sin in war than ignorance.
• War has no room for diplomacy, war is outright vicious.
• Beware those around you who shout out the most, yet find time to talk during conflict. These individuals will reason with enemy.
• In war, strive for rendering the enemy harmless, disrupting the enemy's alliances, and attacking before you are attacked.
• Silence and observation are major weapons in defense.
• During war, or peace, never allow you priorities to be misguided.

Bloods have a view of themselves as gangster, and as such, many have taken gang names (AKAs)of organized crime embers; Capone, Nitti, Baby Face Nel, Gambion, Scar Face.

Bloods use the letters "OG" when writing. OG is short for "original gangster."

The weapon of choice in NYC for this gang are razors, which the Bloods have proven to be experts at using. In the streets of New York, Bloods carry razor blades in their pockets, and in the jails, they have mastered the technique of carrying razors in their anus or mouth. This also has been found in other New England States as will as the more traditional weapons.

This information provided by:http://www.segag.org/frbldcrp.html