African-American Street Gangs in Los Angeles :: Gangs Crime Essays

African-American Street Gangs in Los AngelesIn Los Angeles and other urban areas in the United States, the formation of street gangs increased at a steady pace through 1996. The Bloods and the Crips, the most well-known gangs of Los Angeles, are predominately African American1 and they have steadily increased in number since their beginnings in 1969. In addition, there are over 600 active Hispanic gangs in Los Angeles County with a growing Asian gang population numbering approximately 20,000 members. Surprisingly, modest has been written about the historical significance of melanise gangs in Los Angeles (LA). books and firsthand interviews with Los Angeles residents seem to point to three significant periods relevant to the ripening of the contemporary black gangs. The first period, which followed WWII and significant black migrations from the South, is when the first major(ip) black clubs formed. After the Watts rebellion of 1965, the second period gave way to the cultured righ ts period of Los Angeles where blacks, including those who where former club members who became politic aloney active for the remainder of the 1960s. By the early 1970s black street gangs began to reemerge. By 1972, the Crips were firmly accomplished and the Bloods were beginning to organize. This period saw the rise of LAs newest gangs, which go along to grow during the 1970s, and later formed in several other cities passim the United States by the 1990s. While black gangs do not gain up the largest or most active gang population in Los Angeles today, their influence on street gang culture nationally has been profound. In order to better understand the rise of these groups, I went into the original neighborhoods to muniment the history which led to these groups. thither are 88 incorporated cities and scores of other unincorporated places in Los Angeles County (LAC). In the process of conducting this query, I visited all of these places in an attempt to not just identify gang s active in Los Angeles, but to determine their territories. Through several weeks of field work and research conducted in 1996, I identified 274 black gangs in 17 cities and quadruple unincorporated areas in LAC. Post WWII to 1965The first major period of black gangs in Los Angeles began in the late 1940s and ended in 1965. There were black gangs in Los Angeles prior to this period, but they were small in meter little is known about the activity of these groups.