Pirus
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| Founded | Mid 1972 |
|---|---|
| Founding location | Compton, California United States |
| Years active | 1969–present |
| Territory | Nationwide |
| Ethnicity | Primarily Samoan American & African American |
| Criminal activities | Murder, drug trafficking, robbery, extortion |
| Allies | Bloods |
| Rivals | Some Sureños gangs, 18th Street Gang, MS13, Crips |
- This article is about the street gang. For other uses, see Piru.
The Pirus or Piru Street Family are a Los Angeles, California area street gang alliance based out of Compton which spread to Carson, Inglewood, and Watts. Piru sets make up most of the original blood gang alliance in Los Angeles.
The name "Piru" is derived from Piru Street in the city of Compton. The gang was originally founded around 1969 and known as the Piru Street Bangers. With a growing threat from the much larger Crips. [1]
There are 14 Piru sets in Compton, 2 in Inglewood, 5 in Carson, 1 in Los Angeles, 1 in Watts, 1 in Pacoima (San Fernando Valley), 1 in Willowbrook, 2 in San Diego, 2 in Atlanta, GA, 1 in North Carolina, 1 in Kansas, 1 in Albuquerque, NM, and 2 in Little Rock AR. There is also many more in other states that are either unknown or fake sets.[2]
Original formation of the Pirus
In 1969 fifteen-year-old Raymond Washington started the Crips (originally called the Cribs) street gang with ten friends from his neighborhood on the East Side of South Central Los Angeles. Washington's strategy for increasing the size of his gang was to recruit members of other gangs into the Crips. To this end Washington challenged the leaders of other street gangs to one-on-one street fights. Because Washington was an extremely tough and experienced street fighter he won the majority of these fights after which the beaten gang leaders and their members joined the Crips.
Other gangs, however, merged with the Crips willingly. One such gang was the Piru Street Family in Compton, California. Washington approached the Piru Street Family in 1971 and the gang changed their name to the Piru Street Crips. The Pirus, however, were arch enemies of the gang that would become the Compton Crips, led by a teenager named Mac Thomas. According to Crips co-founder Stanley Tookie Williams, Mac Thomas and the Compton Crips were unhappy about Raymond Washington recruiting their arch rivals. According to Tookie Williams, Mac Thomas had even complained about Raymond Washington showing the Pirus the Compton Crips' turf including their personal hangouts. At one time the Pirus were a part of the Crips before they broke off from the Crips and became some of the first gangs within the Bloods. Recently large numbers of Pirus sets are becoming disenfranchised with the Bloods and are steadily becoming their own gang. This is further noted with some Pirus fighting other Blood sets and even those who are Pirus such as Fruit Town Pirus are enemies towards Tree Top Pirus and Mob Pirus, both loyal to the Bloods alliance rather than becoming their own gang.