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Crips

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File:Crips.jpg
The blue bandannas worn by most Crip gangs.
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The purple bandanas worn by grape street Crip gangs.
File:Blackban.jpg
The black bandanas worn by shotgun Crip and other Crip gangs.

The Crips (Community Revolution In Progress), originating in Los Angeles, California, are one of the oldest and most notorious African American gangs in the United States. They have been involved in murders, robberies and drug dealing in the Los Angeles 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 "franchises" around the United States and Canada. The gang is largely composed of African Americans, but is multiracial in many cities (e.g. New York), where "satellite" Crip gangs are present. The gang has an intense rivalry with the Bloods. They are also known to feud with Chicano gangs.

History of the Crips

The Crips were founded by Raymond Washington and Stanley Williams. Williams argued that this was after the two became fed up with random violence in their neighborhood. Law enforcement officials dispute this, pointing to the extremely large number of violent crimes involving the gang members, even in early years.

The original name of the gang founded by Raymond Washington in 1969 at the age of 15 was the Baby Avenues, derived from a gang of older boys in the 1960s, named the Avenue Boys with their turf on Central Avenue in East Los Angeles. This evolved to Avenue Cribs and then Cribs as nicknames for the age of the members. 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 co-founded the gang in 1971, and 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. In response, some of the besieged smaller gangs formed an alliance that later became the Bloods.

Contrary to popular misconception, Crip sets do not feud solely with Bloods, but also other Crip sets — for example, the Rollin' 60s and 83rd Street Gangster Crips ("Eight-Trey") have been rivals since 1979, and their rivalry is currently the largest in L.A.

Expansion

In the 1980s, Crips moved into the sale of crack, a form of the drug cocaine. It was invented by developing a cheaper process for extracting the stimulant from the coca plant. Previously, the only available form was an expensive powder, leading to the traditional image of cocaine as a status symbol for the wealthy hedonist. Inexpensive and highly-addictive crack could be marketed by the Crips to lower-income brackets.

The Crips made enormous profits from selling crack and gathered the capital to advance themselves in the illicit markets. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s the Crips developed intricate networks and a respected reputation with other gangs across America and neighboring countries.

To stem violence between the Crips and Bloods, a peace treaty was recently negotiated, most notably in Watts, the treaty being largely based upon the ideals laid forth by original Crip co-founder Stanley Tookie Williams in his "Tookie Protocol For Peace". Though violence levels have been reduced somewhat after the conclusion of this peace treaty, gangland killings and warfare persist in heavily gang-controlled areas.

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. A particular set of Crips, the Grape Street Crips, have been known to wear purple in addition to blue. The GSCs are seperated 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 rival, the Bloods, as "slobs."

In more recent years, 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.

Origin of the name "Crips"

There have been many different explanations for the origin of the name of the gang:

  • The most well-known theories tie the current name with "crib" or "crib street" (alluding to an actual street or the young age of the members at the time of the gang's founding).
  • Crip or crib originates from the carrying of a cane or stick — Los Angeles Times 14 April 1992: "Word spread about the tough-looking young men, who some said carried canes and walked with a limp — cripples, or crips, they were called for short."
  • Mis-pronounciation of "The Crypts."
  • The rumor that to get initiated into the gang, a person had to have crippled someone.
  • Community (or California) Revolution In Progress.
  • Community Resources for an Independent People
  • Crip meaning cradle amongst the grave. C standing for Cradle, RIP standing for grave

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. However, there are also many rappers who are not members of Crips sets, yet take on traits of the Crip image and behavior because they hope to self-promote and sell records by doing so. Ice Cube has at times claimed to be a member of the Rollin' 100s Nhood Crips, even though he has no proven ties to this gang (aside from the fact that he is from the same area), and Atlanta rapper Young Jeezy has also claimed to be a Crip in some songs (also without any proof).

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, warning suburban teenagers and other non-gang members that it is a dance for Crips only.

Entertainers with Crip affiliations

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See also

Reference

  • Bing, Leon (1991). Do or Die: America's Most Notorious Gangs Speak for Themselves. Sagebrush. ISBN 0833584995
  • Stanley Tookie Williams (2005). Blue Rage, Black Redemption: A Memoir (PB) ISBN 0975358405
  • Colton Simpson, Ann Pearlman, Ice T (Foreword) (2005). Inside the Crips : Life Inside L.A.'s Most Notorious Gang (HB) ISBN 0312329296
  • Shakur, Sanyika (1993). Monster: The Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member, Atlantic Monthly Pr, ISBN 0871135353
  • Yusuf Jah, Sister Shah'keyah, Ice T, UPRISING : Crips and Bloods Tell the Story of America's Youth In The Crossfire, ISBN 0684804603
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