History of Bloods and Crips in America

To understand the history of Crips and Bloods one needs some foundational knowledge of Black history in Los Angeles, CA. This is not the history of all Bloods and Crips, just the beginnings of the original ones.

In the 1940’s, Blacks were migrating from the South to Los Angeles in hopes of economic opportunity and less discrimination. The mid to late 40’s saw Jazz in full swing and the birth of R&B along Central Avenue amidst a vibrant cultural scene. Simultaneously, Blacks were challenging the restrictive covenant housing laws that kept them segregated and overcrowded in the Central Ave/Watts area.

The White community pushed back against Black expansion in various forms. The “Spook Hunters” was probably the most notable White gang, which pre dated Black ones, and would violently harass the Black community. William H. Parker also became Chief of Police in 1950 and is largely credited with creating and fostering the racial tension between minorities and the LAPD evident to this day. He recruited young veterans from the South to join the LAPD, many of whom had openly racist worldviews.

Gangs like the Slauson’s , Businessmen, Gladiators, etc. formed among Black youth to defend themselves against the violent White youth gangs. The 1950’s ushered in “white flight” from South and West Los Angeles neighborhoods that had seen an increase in Black population. The result was that by the late 50’s-early 60’s the Black gangs had turned towards fighting each other as their common enemy had left.

The 1965 Watts Riots, while incredibly destructive, united the Black gangs once again, this time against the LAPD and systemic injustices. It is around this time that the Black Panther Party was taking root in poor Black communities across CA and the “Black Power” movement was in full swing.

“Bunchy” Carter, a Slauson leader, became founder and leader of the BPP LA chapter. This essentially made all of Slauson Panther’s overnight. Other gangs, who still had animosity against the dominant Slauson’s even though the violence had been reduced, joined up with Ron Karenga’s Black nationalist group known as the US Organization.

According to Book 3 of the US Senate “Church Committee” report of April 23, 1976,

“By July 1969, the Black Panthers had become the primary focus of the program, and was ultimately the target of 233 of the total authorized "Black Nationalist" COINTELPRO actions. 4

Although the claimed purpose of the Bureau's COINTELPRO tactics was to prevent violence, some of the FBI's tactics against the BPP were clearly intended to foster violence, and many others could reasonably have been expected to cause violence.”

In January of 1969 Bunchy and another BPP member, John Huggins were killed at UCLA during a Black Student Union Meeting. An Us Org. member was the killer however, according to the same Senate report;

In November 1968, the FBI took initial steps in its program to disrupt the Black Panther Party in San Diego, California by aggravating the existing hostility between the Panthers and US. A memorandum from FBI Director Hoover to 14 field offices noted a state of "gang warfare" existed, with "attendant threats of murder and reprisals." between the BPP and US in southern California and added:

In order to fully capitalize upon BPP and US differences as well as to exploit all avenues of creating further dissention in the ranks of the BPP, recipient offices are instructed to submit imaginative and hard-hitting counterintelligence measures aimed at crippling the BPP. 13

By the 1970’s the BPP and Us Org. had been effectively neutralized. The culture, evident by movies such as “Superfly”, had shifted away from a unified Black community to a celebration of selfishness at all costs. Pimping and hustling became celebrated and common stereotypes were exaggerated. As stated in, “Bastards of The Party”, the motto “Power To The People” seemingly became ‘Power To Self”

The 1970’s also brought us the Crips and Bloods. There is an enormous amount of folklore around these two groups and their formation. The issue of canes, leather jackets etc. has little if anything to do with their start or impact. What we do know is that teenager Raymond Washington and others had this notion of a “cradle to the grave” organization that would harness the power of and serve the community (hence the name Crib that soon evolved into Crip). There was not a well-formed mission and there was still the popular element of thug activity associated with the group. As the media heard of Crips they began associating any and all Black crime w/ the gang and unknowingly served as their greatest recruitment arm. In 1972 the Crip Constitution was written in an effort to curb Crip-on-Crip violence as well as legitimize/rebrand the gang. The Constitution was patterned after the BPP Constitution because it was the only reference point the young men had and the initials were said to stand for Community Revolution Inter Party Service. When the mayor’s office expressed dislike at the word “Revolution” the “R” was changed to mean “Reform”. It is important to note that this change came 2-3 years after the Crips started. The Crips spread as they traveled to non-Crip neighborhoods to recruit their tough and influential people. The result was either the power from within led to the whole neighborhood affiliating with Crip or they became a target of the Crips. The Crips soon became judge and jury of the streets in the Black community of LA.

Some of the older, established Black neighborhoods had youth who were proud and had no interest in joining the Crips. Most notable of these today is Piru (who, contrary to many “expert” websites, were never Crips or Crip affiliates). No individual group could challenge the Crips thus they formed a loose union against their common enemy. Based on the lingo of the day they called each other “young blood” etc. and this eventually evolved into them being known as Bloods.

A couple converging factors led to the Crips and Bloods gaining strong enough roots to withstand 40+ years and spread conceptually around the globe. Throughout the 70’s and 80’s unskilled labor jobs left the LA area in droves. This did not lead to the forming of any gangs but they did hinder people growing out of the lifestyle.

Previously, when most people hit their early 20’s they had children or got too worn out and entered the plentiful workforce. Now they had no legitimate safety net so they stayed in the streets longer. It is my belief that this also led to children witnessing much more negative examples by their parents for a longer period of time, thereby fast-tracking the rate of involvement. Preceding generations have never recovered.

Crack cocaine was the other primary factor. Black males who were angry, disenfranchised, relatively organized, violent and poor made perfect mules and manufacturers for South American cartels looking to fund political wars at home. Suddenly gangs had limitless amounts of money and an incentive beyond historical conflicts to protect and seize territory. It became a battle of who had the biggest and most well armed army, skyrocketing the murder rates and alarming the public. The response was the greatest expansion of incarceration and prison building CA has ever seen. While there was legitimate violence to be prosecuted it soon seemed every Black person in poor neighborhoods were criminals. Operation Hammer is one example, making sweeping arrests of hundreds while only filing charges on less than 40. In LA especially this was consistent with their policies dating back to 1950.

The 1992 Rodney King riots had a similar effect as the Watts riots. The community unified, albeit in a destructive way once again, against the LAPD. There was a very public call for a truce by Bloods and Crips and a plea to address the social ills plaguing their community. The “X” in Malcolm X became a logo and conscious rappers such as the East Coast’s Public Enemy and San Francisco’s Paris became staples in everyone’s tape deck. The LAPD insisted this was a ploy by two criminal enterprises to expand their control and even suggested it was fostered by the Nation of Islam to take down police departments. The Crips and Bloods again had no structure to nurture the truce and it soon fell apart. Certain rivals were able to make peace but too many people had too many personal vendettas to agree to lay down their guns against everyone.

The level of violence has had peaks and valleys in LA over the last 20 years. Incarceration, migration to other areas to escape the violence and occasional opportunities to sell for a profit have made room for Latino’s (mostly Mexicans) to dominate virtually every historically Black neighborhood in Southern CA. This has changed some allegiances and made for a new, violent and racist war in the streets. Through it all the Crips and Bloods have endured, becoming the most famous and therefore far reaching street gangs, by name, that the United States has created.

*While I include informational links, my “sources” for this paper come predominantly from current and former adult members of LA Crip & Blood gangs and a basic understanding of CA history. I am open to discussion on anything contained herein.