Crip-less: S.F.'s Dislike of Franchises Extends to Street Gangs (Los Angeles: neighborhoods, movies)

[lulrich]

It's a strange fact, but there is no significant Crips presence in the Bay Area. The Crips, after all, are one of the most widespread gangs in America, C-Walking through neighborhoods in major cities and small towns from San Diego to the Bronx.

The story of how this happened is filled with apocrypha and speculation. There is no official record, just gang lore passed down from O.G.s to young bucks. While some former local gang members have their own analyses, they all tell variations on the same narrative.

It all started in South Central Los Angeles in the late 1970s. Born from the ashes of the disintegrating Black Panthers, the Crips were forged by poverty, anger, ambition, and a desire to protect the community from police brutality. The gang spread quickly, as visiting friends carried the culture back to their own cities and original members relocated to initiate branches elsewhere.

The Crips made a move to San Francisco in the early '80s, a small group of them setting up shop in Bayview-Hunters Point. The recruitment pitch was simple: We're here to take over; join our growing drug empire and make some money.

Read the rest here

[URL]http://www.sfweekly.com/2012-09-26/news/crips-gangs-sfpd-bloods-bayview-hunters-point[/URL]

what do you think of this article? i think there's a couple of things the author said that are debatable, but it's an interesting read.

[krudmonk]

Meanwhile, Sureños doing the same **** in the same color...

[Isebiel]

Yeah, I don't know what actually happened, but that's pretty funny. Seems plausible enough.

[bigdumbgod]

Like many, they probably can't afford to live in SF either.

In many visits to Missouri, I've heard much complaining about CA exporting it's Crips and Bloods to places like Kansas City and St. Louis.

[Natural510]

They're also a huge problem in New Jersey and even NYC. It's sad how easy it is to divide ghetto youth along arbitrary lines when poverty and broken family units are involved.

[18Montclair]

Wasnt there a shooting somewhere in the Bay---a guy got shot for daring to wear red? Heard something on the radio this morning.

[LunaticVillage]

I grew up in the heart of what might have been San Francisco's most crime-ridden Black community on Randolph Street in the Lakeview district in the southwestern part of The City in the 80's and early 90's when gang violence and drug dealing was epidemic. There were never any Bloods and Crips in Lakeview during that time period. No one ever had to worry about wearing red or blue when I was growing up. However, turf-related Starter apparel was the uniform. Kids from Lakeview donned UNLV Rebels apparel and the rival turf of the Sunnydale projects wore San Diego Padres hats and jackets. But Bloods and Crips? Definitely not. There is also not a real presence of Crips and Bloods in Oakland either.

Don't get me wrong, young Black brothers in the Bay were influenced by L.A., musically, during the 80's and 90's. Underground rappers from San Francisco and the Bay spent at least five to ten years after 1992 trying to rehash The Chronic. But to be fair, hugely successful L.A. rap artists like N.W.A. were blatantly influenced by early Bay Area rap stars like Too $hort while Snoop Dogg admittedly was influenced by Oakland rappers like Richie Rich.

There is no secret that there is a lot of pride in San Francisco and the Bay. Just like how people from SF hate the Dodgers, they also hate Bloods, Crips and Surenos. Local Black thugs from Bay Area turfs made it a mission to rid the Bay of Bloods and Crips much like how Nortenos are on a holy mission to rid the Bay and Northern California of Surenos. But the Bay has always done its own thing. Especially with the formerly mentioned avenue of music where the majority of Bay Area rappers refused to link up with major record labels despite being offered deals, regularly. This same entrepreneurial spirit was also manifested in the refusal of SF thugs to link up the Bloods and Crips.

But in terms of the streets, the ways money was made had already been well-established by the 80's. Millions of dollars easily flowed through various projects and ghettos in SF and Oakland in the 80's and early 90's. Joining the Bloods and Crips from L.A. as a business venture would not be lucrative as much drug money would be taxed by L.A. gang bangers. There is also the ghetto pride issue and block huggers in SF and Oakland would rather die than rep a street that they have never seen in Los Angeles. Thugs from San Francisco ghettos were not interested in bowing to a red or blue rag from a city 400 miles away.

[Gentoo]

Absolutely true. I lived in east Oakland in the mid 80's and was a teenager then. At no point was there ever any blood or crip activity. I only knew what I knew from movies and thought it was an LA thing. Then I moved to San Diego. Had a rude awakening there. Because i was a young black male, I had to very quickly learn the culture and lingo of the bloods and crips as well as colors. We think of just red and blue but green and gray are used too. Because I know that culture I can say compared to Oakland it's totally different. Many from oaklands and perhaps SF's hood would get shot and have no idea why if they were to go into the wrong neighborhood in SD either for what they're wearing or what they're saying. Likewise the blood and crop culture just doesn't jibe well up here.

[Nineties Flava]

Lol at how long it takes information to get down the pipeline to the mainstream media, this "news" is literally 3 decades old.

And as for why there's none in Oakland, two words: Felix Mitchell.

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by Nineties Flava

Lol at how long it takes information to get down the pipeline to the mainstream media, this "news" is literally 3 decades old.

And as for why there's none in Oakland, two words: Felix Mitchell.

Yep Felix! He permanent set the tone for the street drug and gang culture throughout this area.