Crips

In 1969, fifteen year old Raymond Washington and Stanely “tookie” Williams started a new gang called the Baby Avenues (aka Avenue Cribs). At the time the Black Panther group was eliminated in Los Angeles, but they still wanted to continue on with the Panther movement and community control. Washington also was inspired by another 1960s gang called the Avenues. They formed the gang to battle other street gangs around their area. The name Cribs turned into Crips when the members of the gang started walking around with canes to show off their “pimp” life styles. People started to called them cripples, which eventually got shortened to Crips.

Eventually the gang became very popular and branched out to different parts of Los Angeles. By 1980 the gang was well known for being involved with selling Crack. By the 1990s they were well known throughout the United States and other countries.
Each set of the gang uses the term Crips along with their individual gang name. The street gang that started in a small part of L.A now has nearly 35,000 members.

Crips are associated with the color blue in different shades and usually wear a blue rag or handkerchief to identify themselves. They often wear professional sports team jackets and caps that have the names of Los Angeles teams.
To identify their territory the Crips use graffiti. The graffiti also tells what activities they are planning or ones that already happened. They also have different hand signals that they use to communicate with each other. Their biggest rivals are the Bloods.

The initiation into the Crips could be different for males and females. Males are required to commit some sort of crime in front of gang witnesses. Females have that option or they can be “Sexed In” which means that they need to have sex with several older members of the gang.

The Crips are one of the largest and most violent gangs in the United States. The gang is known to be involved in murders, robberies, and drug dealing, among many other criminal pursuits.

The gang has a special dance known as the “Crip Walk.” If someone that is not in the gang is seen doing this dance, a member is supposed to harm them. There are a few famous rappers who are known to be in the Crips. Snoop Dog is one of them. In one of his songs he says, “I keep a blue flag hanging out my backside
But only on the left side, yeah that's the Crip side”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5eA9A4lR90
- this is how the Crip Walk is done.

-kristina poggi

MS-13

MS-13 is a gang that originated in Los Angeles and later spread to Central America and parts of the United States and Canada. The gang names are known as Mara, MS, or MS-13, gang members are mostly composed of Salvadorans, Hondurans, Guatamalans, and Nicaraguans. MS-13's criminal activities include drug smuggling and sales, black market gun sales, human trafficking, auto thefts, home invasions, assaults on law enforcement officials, and contract killings.

The Mara Salvatrucha gang originated in Los Angeles and was set up by Salvadoran immigrants in the 1980's. The gang's main purpose was to originally protect Salvadoran immigrants from other gangs of Los Angeles who were predominantely Mexican and African-American. At first only Salvadorans were allowed to join but other Central Americans were allowed to join later on.

Many gang members have been deported because of their illigal status in the United States, committing crimes as non-citizens, or for both. These deportations have only helped increase the size of the gang because MS-13 members are recruiting more members in their home countries. Salvadoran authorities claim that more than 60 percent of prison inmates serving prison terms for gang-related crimes there have either fled prosecution or were deported from the United States. MS-13 is constantly spreading to different parts of the U.S., especially large cities such as Washington DC.

MS-13 is regarded as the largest gang in the world and the most dangerous. To be a part of the gang you must be "jumped in". Gang members many tattoos, common markings are "MS", "Salvatrucha", "Devil Horns", and names of their cliques. Like most gangs, MS-13 uses various hand symbols, most common would have to be the devil's head almost the same as the symbol used by heavy metal musicians. MS-13 is constantly growing.

-Aaron Rios

Latin Kings

Latin Kings


The Latin Kings gang is the first gang that M.A.S.C will make a blog about. The Latin Kings started in the late 1950s and 1960s. One originators of the gang goes by the name of Gustavo ‘Lord Gino’ Colon. The gang was started in Chicago, where Puerto Rican males gathered to try and stop problems that were arising in the city. The problems ranged from racism, prejudice, and aiding the new immigrants who were treated badly in the city. Later on when drugs became a money maker, is when the Latin Kings became involved with dealing drugs, such as heroin.

One of the symbols that represent the Latin Kings is the five pointed crown. Each point on the crown represents something; love, sacrifice, honor, obedience, and respect. The Latin Kings also use a three point crown, and the points stand for knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. Another symbol is the lion which represents courage, just as the crown does. The colors of the Latin Kings even have a meaning to it, black and gold. Gold represent the sun, which is the direction they pray to, and the color black stands for the darkness among all enemies.
While ‘Lord Gino’ was incarcerated, he created a set of rules which was known amongst the Latin Kings as ‘The Constitution’. This was spread to each member of the gang. One of the rules of the Latin Kings was that as a member, it was mandatory to know all the laws and the beliefs of the Latin Kings.

The first step to be initiated into the gang is to endure a three minute beating, and possibly commit a crime. This is all to prove that the individual really wants to become part of the Latin Kings, and their loyalty. After they do complete these tasks then they must remember all of the teachings, symbols, and what everything stands for. Such as, ALKN, which is Almighty Latin King Nation. Almighty: A Love Measured In Great Harmony Towards Yahweh, Latin: Latin American Tribe Illuminating Naturally, Kings: Knowledge Indestructible Nobility Growing Strengths, Nation: Natural Allies Together One Nucleus. A requirement of the Latin Kings is that every member must have a tattoo symbolizing the gang.

As a Latin King, there are five principles that must be followed, first, once a king always a king, second, no king shall engage in gay acts, third, no kings should be collaborating with the media, fourth, no king is to leave the nation without approval of the coronas (the top kings), fifth, one king moves all kings move. If any of these principles are disobeyed it may lead to a brutal beating, or death.


-Steph Rivera


To view some clips from the history channel about the Latin Kings:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5FLJ2R40F4