Venice 13
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Venice 13 is a Latino street gang based in the Oakwood neighborhood of Venice, California, with a substantial presence in East Venice as well as the Culver City/Venice border, especially around Washington Ave.
The gang dates back to the 1950s, and has long been known as the one of the most dangerous street gangs on the Los Angeles Westside. It was amongst the first Latino gangs to fight gang wars against African-American gangs, especially the local Venice Shoreline Crips which were founded in the mid-1970s. It is affiliated with the Sureños and the Mexican Mafia.
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[edit] Injunctions
The Venice gang has also been the target of West Side gang injunctions in the 90's along with the Culver City Boyz, and theVenice Shoreline Crips.
[edit] Rivalry
Venice 13's main rivals are the Santa Monica 13, Santa Monica 11th St, and Santa Monica 17th St gangs, Sotel 13 in West Los Angeles, as well as Inglewood 13 in nearby Inglewood, 18th St (particularly the 106th St Inglewood and Smiley Drive sets) ,and of course the main rivals: Culver City Boyz in nearby Mar Vista.
[edit] Shoreline Crips
Venice 13 was involved in an intense battle with the Venice Shoreline Crips during the 1990's. The conflict escalated and in one point in time Venice 13 and the Culver City gang went as far as to set aside their own fight to unite against the Shorelines. [1] In 1994 Venice 13 and the Shorelines bargained for a cease fire, after a war that left 22 people dead and many more wounded. [2] The two gangs currently coexist peacefully under this truce. [3]
[edit] Notoriety
Aside from the war with the Shorelines, Venice 13 has also gained infamy as being the most violent rival of the Culver City gang. In November of 2001 the Venice 13 gang publicly took credit for the murder of a Culver City gang member by marking the neighborhood with "VX3," "V13" and "Venice 13" taggings. [4] Venice 13 is also extremely involved in a large scale narcotics trafficking business along the Oakwood and boardwalk areas. Venice 13 has also been known to viciously defend their neighborhood from outside drug trafficking, with violators being killed or at least shot at. [5]
[edit] Gentrification
With gentrification transforming the formerly more downscale sections of the West Side, many of its rivals are either near-defunct (like Sotel, based in West LA) or in severe decline (Santa Monica X3, the Culver City Boyz, and the aforementioned Venice Shoreline Crips). While at one point "V13" as it is known had managed to survive the gentrification of Oakwood, its membership has been severely reduced. With housing prices starting in the $500,000 and escalating into the millions from there, it has been a challenge for Venice 13 to maintain the presence it used to have in its neighborhood. [6] While Oakwood was at one point a very inexpensive area to buy property, it is currently being sought after by wealthy artists and businessmen at competitive prices. Famous movie stars such as actresses Julia Roberts and Anjelica Huston, and actors Nicolas Cage have taken residency in or around the Oakwood area. [7]
According to a Venice gang member, many Venice 13 members have been forced into nearby Inglewood due to gentrification of the Oakwood area. The affiliate, with plenty of animosity for the mostly Caucasian professional newcomers, stated that new home owners in the area at times fail to even notice Oakwood as a gang neighborhood. [8] This gentrification has been the cause of rising racial tension in between older black and Latino communities in the area. [9]
