As a follow up to yesterday’s post about the Vineland City gang seminar, let’s talk about some general gang information.

First, a gang is defined as, “a group of 3 or more people who have a common name, sign, or identifying symbol, who engage in criminal activity. Both males and females from all neighborhoods, races, cultures, religions, and economic levels are affiliated with gangs.” According to the Vineland PD, gangs exist because people are looking for several things; Monetary gains, stature, protection, territory, racism, politics, religion, and popularity.

HOW AND WHY PEOPLE JOIN GANGS

Gangs look at juveniles from the ages of 14-17 as “wannabes.” Wannabes are curious young youths. Gang members start by asking these kids for small favors. These small favors quickly add up to asking kids to participate in criminal mischief, robbery, burglary, thefts, and drug sales. Sooner than these kids know it, they’ve gone from wannabes to gonnabes.

Once these kids have gotten involved with the gang enough, they or the gang decides that it’s time for them to be initiated. An initiation may be as simple as learning a set of rules and regulations and reciting them in front of current gang members. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the initiation may require the individual to endure a painful undergoing. A very popular type of induction is a “beat-in.” The gang will crowd around the inductee and brutally beat them for half a minute.

When women join a gang, they sometimes get the option of being, “sexed-in.” The female inductee rolls a pair of dice, and the number she rolls is the number of men in the gang she must have sex with. It’s a pretty brutal practice, especially since many times the gang’s will beat and have sex with female inductee’s regardless of being beat-in or sexed in.

The easiest way to gain gang membership is being, “blessed-in.” If you are the child of a current gang member, you are in that gang from birth. Police records show family photos of parents giving gang signs while holding their young children, with some photos even showing the young children themselves throwing gang signs.

Now, let’s check out some information on individual gangs.

BLOODS

The Bloods originated in Compton, CA in the late 60’s to protect themselves from the already existing gang, the Crips. (Protection from other gangs is a common reason for a new gang to come into existence). The Bloods most frequent criminal activities are distribution of narcotics, gang assaults, and contract killings. They are very violent towards other gangs, especially the crips.

Although the bloods originated on the West Coast, in 1993, the recognized godfathers of the East Coast Bloods, Omar (OG Mack) Porter and Leonard (OG Deadeye) McKenzie organized prisoners in Rikers Island to fight and defend against the current gangs in the prison (Latin Kinds and NETA). The Bloods are now recognized as the largest NJ street gang.

Bloods are known for their Red clothing, although they may also wear brown (the color of dried blood). They also occasionally wear pink (in prison, a red marker thrown in with white laundry means that incarcerated bloods can still “represent”). They frequently have M.O.B. tattoos. M.O.B. stands for Member of Bloods or Money Over Bitches. They also get Dawg Paw tattoos after completing particularly dangerous missions for the gang. This can be a literal tattoo of a dog paw, or three cigarette burns that make an equilateral triangle. Bloods cross out the letter, “C” when they write, as a gesture of disrespect towards the Crips. Bloods will refer to each other as Demu.

The bloods are broken up into different, “Sets” across New Jersey. Their gang structure is organized as follows:
-First Superior or General
-Second Superior or Captain
-Third Superior of Minister of Defense
-Fourth Superior or Minister of Education
-Fifth Superior/ Field Commander (Drug Manager)
-Blood Soldiers/ Male and Female Dawgs

CRIPS

In 1969, Raymond (Tookie) Williams, co-founded the Baby Avenue Crips. By 1972 the word “Crip” had become so common among CA street gangs that members adopted the name. Other than CA, Chicago is known as a Crip homeland.

The Crips are the 3rd largest NJ gang according to a 2004 NJSP survey. The Crips appear to be the most heavily armed group in the Cumberland County area. They are frequently found with weapons when pulled over or stopped by police.

The Crips are mortal enemies of the bloods. Crips are known for wearing Blue. They also will wear Grey and Purple (gangs have multiple color options to help them avoid police and other gangs when alone). Crips use the 6-pointed star of David as a logo when spraying graffiti. They frequently wear British Knights shoes (the BK also stands for Blood Killer). Crips refer to the Bloods as, “Slobs,” so in addition to British Knights, the Crips wear Adidas (All Day I Destroy A Slob) and K-Swiss (Kill A Slob When I See A Slob). Crips are also known for a unique style of speech known as, Crackalackin, and a unique dance called the, “Cripwalk”. Of all the gangs, Crips have the most members involved in the entertainment industry.

Unlike the Bloods, Crip Sets are less structured. Sets are frequently comprised of family members, with the older members as leaders, and the younger members as street drug dealers. Local Cripsets include; YT Young Thugs, 5 Hoover Duece, and Grape Street.

Check back tomorrow for New Jersey’s Latin Gang Info!

Labels: bloods, crips, cumberland county, gangs, graffiti, voilence