Time Period by Tyler Abbott and Ellery Bledsoe
"The dramatic increase in the number of gangs from 1978 to 1982, which was most evident in Los Angeles, Compton, and Inglewood, occurred during the same time when unemployment was rising because of plant closures. A major phase of deindustrialization was occurring in Los Angeles that resulted in 70,000 workers being laid off in South Los Angeles between 1978 and 1982, heavily impacting the black community (Soja et al. 1983: 217). Unemployment at the expense of base closures and plant relocations has been linked, among other factors, to persistent juvenile delinquency that has led to gang development (Klein 1995: 103,194). Spergel found that gangs where more prevalent in areas where limited access to social opportunities and social disorganization, or the lack of integration of key social institutions including youth and youth groups, family, school, and employment in a local community, were found (1995:61). Also the type of community was believed to influence the prevalence of gangs, and neighborhoods with large concentrations of poor families, large number of youths, female-headed households, and lower incomes were key factors (Covey et al. 1997:71). In addition, poverty that is associated with unemployment, racism, and segregation is believed to be a foremost cause of gang proliferation (Klein 1995: 194). These conditions are strongly associated with areas plagued by poverty, rather than the suburban regions identified in this study.
By the mid 1990s there were an estimated 650,000 gang members in the United States (U.S. Department of Justice 1997), including 150,000 in Los Angeles County (Figure 1.1). In addition, in 1996 there were over 600 Hispanic gangs in Los Angeles County along with a growing Asian gang force of about 20,000. With gang membership increasing, gang-related homicides in Los Angeles County reached epidemic proportions for black and Hispanic males that represented 93 percent of all gang-related homicide victims from 1979 to 1994 (Hutson, et al. 1995). From 1985 to 1992, gang-related homicides had increased in each of the eight consecutive years (Figure 1.2). However, the year following the Los Angeles Civil Unrest of 1992, there was a ten percent drop in the number of homicides, the first reduction in gang-related homicides in Los Angeles since 1984. This drop in killings was the result of a gang truce implemented by the four largest gangs in Watts, the Bounty Hunters, the Grape Streets, Hacienda Village, and PJ Watts (Perry 1995:24). In 1992, shortly before the urban unrest of April 29, 1992, a cease-fire was already in effect in Watts, and after the unrest, a peace treaty was developed among the largest black gangs in Watts. Early on, the police started to credit the truce for the sharp drop in gang-related homicides (Berger 1992). Homicides remained relatively stable for the two years following 1993, and in 1996, there was a notable 25 percent drop in gang-related homicides from the previous year. By 1998 gang-related homicides were at their lowest rate in over ten years despite the increasing number of gang members over the same period. It is not known if the gang truce of 1992 is still responsible for the low number of homicides, or if some other factors such as an increase in police officers, a changing economy, or the implementation of new anticrime legislation have had an effect on the drop in gang crime. Additionally, the growing number of antigang programs may have had an influence on the reduction of gang-related crime" (Alonso).
Webster’s defines a gang in the modern sense as “a group of persons working to an unlawful or antisocial end.” While this may be the case today, the conditions, which gave rise to present day gangs stemmed from social tension that existed between blacks and whites during the 1940’s and 50’s. The first black clubs, the source for modern day gangs, were formed in reaction to the violence of whites, who felt threatened by the increasing black population. Further promoting geographical segregation, non-whites were not allowed to own private property. An ever-increasing black population led to overcrowding, subjecting blacks to “substandard housing” (African-American Street Gangs in Los Angeles, 2). Unsuccessfully, the black population continued to fight in court the property rights that accounted for their poor living conditions. The persistent efforts by the black population to fight the segregation that the whites were imposing on them led to frustration on both sides; eventually, people began taking measures into their own hands. The upstart of white street gangs led to “violent confrontations” (African-American Street Gangs in Los Angeles, 2) between the two groups. Blacks straying from their part of town were subject to attacks by such gangs. Black gangs began were formed to counteract the violence of the whites, and gradually became dominant in the inner city. As a result whites left central Los Angeles, further segregating the white and black communities. In the 1950’s, blacks composed “71% of the inner-city population” (African-American Street Gangs in Los Angeles, 3). With a now absent white population the aggression of the black gangs turned inward, and this dissension escalated into an East-West rivalry. What began as an effort to attain decent living conditions and fend off the white gangs was reduced to counterproductive fighting within the black community.
However the Watts Riots brought about a return to the social goals that had initially been the purpose of the gangs. Their attention was directed toward the Los Angeles Police Department, and gang activity subsided. New political groups, namely the Black Panthers Party and the US organization became the new outlet for many blacks, seeking to improve social conditions. These groups who sought to consolidate the black community in an organized effort to fight police brutality, as well as other oppressive agents, were seen as a threat to the general public. Intelligence agencies pitted the BPP and the US against each other resulting in the deaths of two prominent Black Panthers. By 1970 these organizations had lost strength and become ineffective.
With the loss of these organized political factions, gangs began to reappear. Raymond Washington founded the first of these gangs. Lacking the focus to follow in the footsteps of such groups like the BPP, his gang fell into crime. They resorted to assault and robbery to send out their message and acquire what was necessary to promote their way of life. His gang grew into what is the present day Crips. The non-Crips would later consolidate into the Bloods. Violence between the Crips and the non-Crips was the source of the present Crip-Blood rivalry.