Crips

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The Crips are one of the oldest, largest, and most notorious gangs in the United States. They originated in Los Angeles, California, and have been involved in murders, robberies and drug dealing in the area. The Crips are mostly identified by the blue color worn by their members. What was once a single gang is now a loose network of individual "sets" around the United States. The gang primarily (but not exclusively) comprises African Americans. The Crips have an intense rivalry with the Bloods and are also known to feud with Chicano gangs.

Contents

History of the Crips

The Crips were founded in Los Angeles, California in 1969 by 15-year-old Raymond Washington. Washington initially called the gang the Baby Avenues in an attempt to emulate older gangs and activities carried out by the Black Panthers with which he was fascinated. This evolved to Avenue Cribs and then Cribs as nicknames for the age of the members.[1] The name Crips was first introduced in the Los Angeles Sentinel newspaper in a description by crime victims of young men with canes, as if they were crippled (though there is some discussion that it may have initially been a simple spelling mistake). The name stuck.

Stanley Tookie Williams, generally acknowledged as co-founder of the Crips,[2] started his own gang called the Westside Crips. The Crips became popular throughout southern Los Angeles as more youth gangs joined it; at one point they outnumbered non-Crip gangs by 3 to 1, sparking disputes with non-Crip gangs including the L.A. Brims, Athens Park Boys, the Bishops and the Denver Lanes. The Crips eventually became the most powerful gang in California. In response, all of the other besieged gangs, including the Pirus, formed an alliance that later became the Bloods.

Along with friends, Williams and Washington created the initial intent of continuing the revolutionary ideology of the 1960s. These aspirations were unattainable because of a general lack of political leadership and guidance. Washington and Williams were never able to develop an agenda for social change within the community and instead became obsessed with protecting themselves from other gangs in the community.

By 1971 the gang's notoriety had spread across Los Angeles. The gang became increasingly violent as they attempted to expand their turf. By the early 1980s the gang was heavily involved with drug trade.[1]

The Great Divide, Crip On Crip Violence

In 1971 a Crip set on Piru Street, Compton, known as the Piru Street Boys was formed. After two years of peace, a feud began between the Piru Street Boys and the other Crip sets. It would later turn violent as gang warfare ensued between former allies. This battle continued until the mid 1970s when the Piru Street Boy wanted to call an end to the violence, and called a meeting with other gangs that were targeted by the Crips. After a long discussion, the "Pirus" broke off all connections to the Crips and started an organization that would later be called the "Bloods," a streetgang infamous for its rivalry with the Crips.[3]

Since then, other conflicts and feuds were started between many of the remaining sets of the Crips gang. It is a popular misconception that Crips sets feud only with Bloods. In reality, they also fight other Crips sets — for example, the Rollin' 60s and 83rd Street Gangster Crips ("Eight-Tray") have been rivals since 1979. This conflict has resulted in the majority of "Gangster Crip" sets feuding with most "Neighborhood Crip" sets. In Watts, Los Angeles, the Grape Street Watts Crips and the PJ Crips have feuded so much that the PJ Crips even teamed up with local Bloods set, the Bounty Hunter Bloods, to fight against the Grape Street Crips[4]. A clique (a still smaller group within a gang set) within the PJ Crips is even called 'Tha GK (Grape Killa) Boys.' The Hoover Crips developed huge rivalries with many Crip gangs in Los Angeles. Because of this they decided to stop being Crips and changed their name to the Hoover Criminal Gang.


Gang identification

For many years, Crips were characterized by their tendency to wear blue in order to easily identify each other. One suggested origin of the selected color is traced to the school colors of Washington High School in South L.A. Another theory is the co-founder, Stanley Williams, had a good and close friend called "Buddha," who wore blue shirts, khakis, shoes, and a blue bandana from his back left pocket. When Buddha died, Williams made blue the Crip color in honor of Buddha. A particular set of Crips, the Grape Street Crips, have been known to wear purple in addition to blue. The SGC's, (Shotgun Crips), are separated into three sub-sets: the Nine, 139th street; the Foe, 134th street; and the Deuce, 132nd street in the city of Gardena, California and have been known to wear dark-green, the city color of Gardena, in addition to blue to show that the Shotgun Crips are from Gardena. Crips also wear blue bandanas and British Knights sport shoes (using the company moniker BK, which the Crips use as a backronym meaning "Blood Killas"). They usually refer derisively to their rivals, the Bloods, as "slobs" and "busters."

More recently, however, the Crips have begun to cease the use of colors as a means of identification, since it is likely to draw attention from police. Methods such as the use of college sport team jerseys and hats are sometimes used, but in general, what set a certain gang member claims can be determined solely by their tattoos.

Many Crips will also change words containing the letter B or choose another word to replace it, the best being a word with a C. This is due to their hatred of Bloods. If no word can reasonably be substituted, the letter B will be crossed out to show disrespect. Sometimes excessive use of the letter C also occurs, such as "be right baCC" to refrain from using the initials "ck" which stands for "Crip Killer." Also the letter B can be written Bk as in "Blood Killer."

Entertainers with Crip affiliations

Crips, hip-hop, and C-walk

Many popular rappers, in particular West Coast rappers, have close ties to Crips gangs in L.A. County. Snoop Dogg is a former member of the Rollin' 20 Crips in Long Beach (as are Warren G, Nate Dogg, and Goldie Loc), while WC has an affiliation with the 111 Neighborhood Crips in South Central Los Angeles. The late N.W.A member Eazy-E reportedly had ties to the Kelly Park Compton Crips. Recently signed G-Unit rapper Spider Loc is a member of the 97th Street East Coast Crips. Also G-Unit West's Snoopy Blue is also part of the 97th Street East Coast Crip gang. It is said that the popular hip-hop dance, the C-walk (Crip-walk), is meant to spell out one's set as an insult to rival gangs. On WC's song "The Streets" from his Ghetto Heisman album, he and Snoop Dogg rap about the C-walk's popularity in the mainstream, telling suburban teenagers and other non-gang members that it is a dance for Crips only. Another song with a similar instance is "Not a Dance," by Spider Loc, Young Buck and C-Bo.

Pop Culture

In the South Park episode "Krazy Kripples" Timmy and Jimmy think that the Crips are all crippled.

In Michael Jackson's Extended Music Video The Way You Make Me Feel Michael Jackson was posing as wannabe gang member, before being told to be himself, hence the blue shirt in the video. The Crip Walk was also being performed at the start of the video.

The Black Eyed Peas song Where Is The Love makes reference to the "Bloods, the Crips and the KKK."

See Also

References

  1. ^ a b http://www.gripe4rkids.org/crips.html
  2. ^ http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/12/13/williams.execution/
  3. ^ [1]
  4. ^ [2]
  5. ^ http://xxlmag.com/Features/2005/april/snoop-dogg/index.html
  6. ^ Daz Dillinger biography. IMDb. Retrieved on July 9, 2006.
  7. ^ Terror, Hope on the Streets of Compton. National Public Radio (2006-03-06). Retrieved on July 9, 2006.
  8. ^ http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/jayo_felony/bio.jhtml
  9. ^ http://thugradio.net/mceihtinterview.html
  10. ^ http://www.nndb.com/people/905/000087644/
  11. ^ http://thugradio.net/mceihtinterview.html

External links

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