Gang Territories in Los Angeles - Essay Example

Gang Territories Today, many urban environments are characterized by criminal gangs who compete for the control of gang territories and any available resources. More often, gangs declare ownership of large territorial regions; however, the gang members concentrate their actual activities in specific restricted areas. As a result, they form a set space. A gang set space can be referred to as the actual region where members of a gang come together as a gang, within a particular neighborhood (Tita, Cohen, and Engberg 273). The aim of this paper is to demonstrate gang territories in Crips and Bloods in Los Angeles. The Crips was formed back in the late nineteen sixties, and it later became the most dangerous African American street organization in Los Angeles. The group was formed with the aim of representing black power, black pride, and was to address various injustices perpetrated on black people during that time. When it started, the Crips was known as “Baby Avenues” and Stanley Tookie Williams and Raymond Washington from South Central, Los Angeles high school, are believed to be the founders. They initially called their gang “cribs”, and it then evolved into the most popular gang the “Crips.” According to its creators, the gang was created as a way of defending its members against various rival gangs that were involved in innumerable wrong doings in the southern Central neighborhoods. The Crips’ activities have their origin on high school campuses in every part of Los Angeles. The Eastside Crips originated from Freemont High School while the opposite side of the 110Harbor Freeway was home for Westside Crips (Covey 48). Another group was established in Compton. The Bloods is a gang that was established in Compton, Piru Street (Street Gangs 1). The founders of the bloods are Vincent Owens and Sylvester Scott. Initially, the gang was referred to as Campton Pirus, and as time went by, the gang grew rapidly. Its growth was triggered by the disputes the Compton Pirus had with Compton Crips. During these disputes, the Pirus was brutally beaten and outnumbered. The Crips also treated other gangs badly and, for this reason, countless gangs decided to team up against the Crips. This is how the Bloods came to be. Today, the Bloods are known for their unforgiving attitude and take no prisoners mindset (covey 48) Since the 20th century, these two gangs have made Los Angeles to be ranked among the cities with the highest cases of crimes. The crime rate and crack use in south central became very high to a point that the area was portrayed as a no gone zone by the media and several movies. The bad image of these neighborhoods reflects the gangs occupying them. Brantingham, Tita, Short, and Reid (852), suggested that levels of crimes are high in those areas occupied by numerous gangs around corner markets. The conflicts between the Crips and Bloods have therefore claimed lots of lives. The gangs started as a result of segregation of black people and poverty in that area. In addition, the large black population in Los Angeles formed a good environment for the emergence of African American Gangs like Crips and Bloods. The situation worsened due to the gangs engaging in drug trades, parental incarceration, and separation of families. The Crips terrorized the neighborhoods in south central, extorted money from people who were not members, and also engaged in assault and theft. Both the Crips and Bloods were exceedingly territorial and vehemently protected their neighborhoods especially against invasion by other competing gangs and one another. Territories in these Gangs are more associated with drug distribution than to identification with specific neighborhoods (Covey 49). More often, both gangs mark their territories with colored graffiti, which has violent and coded messages. A large number of gangs inhabited a comparatively small area of Los Angeles, which means that identification became difficult. Therefore, they had to come up with ways of identifying the gang members. The identification method was vital as it prevented assaults of members who belonged to the same gang but of different sets. The color blue was used by Crips to identify their members while the Bloods identified themselves through the color red. Members from Crips wore blue clothing articles, gang signs and replaced the letter b with c when engaging in communication or writing. Members from Bloods cross out the letter c to show disrespect for Crips (Covey 49). Bloods also use Graffiti to mark their territories or even draw disrespectful graffiti on walls towards the rival gang Crips. In nineteen eighties, the Crips and Bloods started to engage in drug market and engaged in violence in all parts of Los Angeles to fight over neighborhoods with profitable narcotics trade. It is important for gangs to have territories that are separate from other gangs for various reasons. Various studies suggest that there is a link between the effects of these territories and criminal activities conducted by these gangs (Wilson and Petersilia 65). According to (Brantingham et al., 860), gangs usually engage in activities that would control, seize, and secure home territories from other opponents from gangs. In most cases, neighborhoods, where Crips and Bloods assemble, are characterized by high rates of criminal activities especially violence associated with gun use. In addition, these spaces (Piru and South Central) set by gangs act as generators and attractors of crime in Los Angeles. The competition between Crips and Bloods gangs can lead to conflict. Therefore, to minimize the tendency of a conflict to emerge, the actors of these groups were forced to divide these systems into territories that were geographically defined. How these territories were formed was influenced by conflicts and competition among the Crips and Bloods gangsters. Members of this gang assembled for the purposes associated with economic and social reasons and, therefore, they needed a distinguished space to run their activities. According to Covey, the most likely places where gang set spaces can be found are street corners (8). From such positions, the gang members can be able to keep an eye on going and coming vehicles and pedestrians while limiting the surveillance of their activities by residents. Also, a gang might find cover from spaces that have been abandoned such as vacant lots and abandoned buildings. Moreover, control of a specific territory has benefits for gangs because they can do their transactions without any interference. Several studies on drug sales among criminal gangs suggest that a street corner can be transformed into an open-air drug market if a large volume of drug sales is done in that corner (Covey 38). In addition, when the Crips and Bloods started to be in Drug market, they invested heavily in drugs trade and fought with their rival gangs, to protect their territories to show beyond doubt that they had a rightful place in doing business in a specific location. This is especially because a neighborhood they valued most was associated with the gang’s prestige. Not only does competition forms the main cornerstone of ecological and social systems, but also how it plays out has a significant geographic aspect to it. Territorial and geographical boundaries prevent conflicts from erupting because they reflect the aspect of ownership of a specific “space” by a particular gang. Sometimes, (Wilson et al., 102) suggests that groups and individuals make use of already existing boundaries as natural boundaries. However, if a certain space does not have any physical barriers, these gangs might self-segregate themselves by imagining that a boundary exists. Therefore, owning and having territories that are separate prevent conflicts and portray ownership. The Bloods and Crips territorial wars were as much important as the territories themselves. The wars were conducted with the aim of maintaining, building, or restoring the gangs and individual members’ reputation as an institution. For instance, if the Bloods gang was attacked in its space by the Crips, efforts were made by individual gang members to retaliate in a severe and quick way possible. According to Covey (39), gangs’ retaliation demonstrates a sense of belonging to the gang and ability to handle the gang’s business. Therefore, a gang might engage in retaliatory violence in order to gain control over other gangs, a territory, or become more superior to others. Works Cited Brantingham, P. Jeffrey, George E. Tita, Martin B. Short, and Shannon E. Reid. "The Ecology of Gang Territorial Boundaries." Criminology 50.3 (2012): 851-885. Print. Covey, Herbert C. Street Gangs throughout the World. 2nd ed. Springfield: Charles C Thomas, 2010.Print. Street Gangs. “Blood (Piru) Gangs in Compton, California.” Streetgangs.com. Web. 22 March 2015. Tita, George E., Jacqueline Cohen, and John Engberg. "An Ecological Study of the Location of Gang "Set Space"" Social Problems 52.2 (2005): 272-99. Print. Wilson, James, Q., & Petersilia, Joan. Crime and Public Policy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. Print. Read More