Gang Clothing
January 9th, 2010
Professional and college sports teams clothing worn by street gangs. The following information is an indicator as to how many gang members are using popular sports clothing to represent their individual gangs. Both professional and college teams are represented. It should be noted that the sporting of clothing does not always signify gang affiliation. This list was compiled to make the reader aware of possible gang involvement. It should also be noted that street gangs have become aware of the fact that law enforcement uses the wearing of colors as an indicator of gang involvement. Read more…
The history of the Gangster Disciples begins with Larry Hoover, who entered and rose through the ranks of the Chicago gang circuit in the 1960’s and took control of the gang in 1974 by leading a series of increasingly powerful alliances. He ended up running the gang from prison until he was transferred to a higher security wing in the 1990s. Hoover was born in Jackson, Mississippi on November, 30, 1950. He moved to Chicago with his family in 1955. At the age of 16, Hoover joined a gang of 50 older youths called the Supreme Gangsters. Hoover and his Supreme Gangsters hung around their neighborhood at the corner of 68th and Green Street in impoverished Englewood on the South Side of Chicago. Hoover was kicked out of high school on the first day of his sophomore year, in 1965, after being shot in the thigh by a rival gang member. 
The Crips are a primarily, but not exclusively, African American gang founded in Los Angeles California in 1969 mainly by 16-year-old Raymond Washington and Stanley Tookie Williams III. What was once a single gang is now a loosely connected network of individual sets, often engaged in open warfare with one another. Through the years the gang has grown to be one of the largest and most powerful gangs in the United States, currently with over 30,000 gang members. The gang is known to be involved in murders, robberies, drug dealing, among many other criminal pursuits. The gang is notorious for its gang members’ flamboyant use of the color blue in their clothing. However, this practice has waned due to contentious police crackdowns on gang members. 
One doesn’t have to look far to find the destructive side of the mob mentality. In fact, your head would have to be buried in the sand to miss it. There have been Ku Klux Klan lynching’s, Soccer-stadium trampling, Woodstock II, and the L.A. riots. Clearly, mobs have great potential for doing harm especially within our institutions. This may be one of the best reasons for individuals to join a prison gang once they’re incarcerated. The first impression and vision of prison to most people is a scary mental picture establishing fear. Understand that most people in a state of fear tend to congregate together for protection and security, hence the prison gang. Think to yourself that you are the new inmate and you have stepped onto the yard for the first time. Where do you go? With whom do you align? You will congregate and align with individuals whom you feel are like yourself. 
As the Crips grew in South Central Los Angeles in the early 1970s they began targeting other gangs. It was during this time of conflict that several gangs joined forces to combat the growing Crip threat. The most well known gang within this group was the Piru Street Boys. They lead the revolt against the Crips and were instrumental in creating the Bloods gang in 1972. During the next 10-years the Bloods continued to operate and grow in a fragmented manner. Conflict with the Crips continued and the Bloods found themselves heavily outnumbered. 
A gang is an organization, association or group of three or more persons that has as one of its primary activities the commission of one or more particular criminal offenses, with a common name, identifying signs and symbols or other common characteristics, whose members individually or collectively engage in a pattern of criminal activity or provide support for members who do commit crimes.