- LOS
ANGELES (AFP) - The Bloods.
The Crips. Mara
Salvatrucha. 13th Street. The Latin Kings.
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- The names and fearsome
reputations are well known, but
their organizations and codes are a
mystery to those outside the secretive
subculture.
-
- Throughout the United States
there are more than 600,000
street gang members, according to the
Federal Bureau of Investigation.
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- Most -- though not all -- are
poor, young males from
inner city areas. And most -- though not all --
are members of racial or
ethnic minorities still outside the American
mainstream, especially blacks
and Latinos.
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- Gang members must obey a strict
code and follow gang
rules. In return, gangs provide structure,
protection and belonging, particularly
appealing to at-risk
youth.
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- In
the sprawling county of Los Angeles, there are about
1,300 street gangs
with 100,000 members.
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- Gang-related killings here peaked in 1995 at 807; last
year the number was 349, says Sergeant Wes McBride of the Los Angeles
Sheriff's
Department. "This year everyone's reporting small to
major increases."
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- Each gang marks its turf with graffiti. Members of rival
gangs -- or those who resemble them -- enter at their own risk.
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- Many gangs are
subdivided into "sets" or "cliques,"
each with
their own names. Sets usually apply to Black gangs, and cliques
to
Hispanic gangs.
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- The Hispanic gang uniform includes white t-shirts, thin
belts,
baggy pants with split cuffs, and a black or blue knit cap or bandana
around the forehead.
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- Black gang tend to identify themselves by colors. The
"Crips" favor blue -- "non-Crip" gangs, known
generally
as "Bloods" use red accessories such as caps or
bandannas.
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- Hispanic and Black "gangbangers" are responsible
for
most violent gang crimes, but Asian, Pacific Island, and Armenian gangs
are becoming more active and menacing, police say.
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- Most violence is gang-on-gang,
according to Chicago study
of 956 street gang-related homicides between
1987 and 1994.
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- Of those killings, only 14.4 percent were murders of
non-gang
victims by a gang member, the study found.
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- Gang members commit crimes in
numbers far out of proportion
to their share of the general
population.
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- Police have tried to fight "by putting a lot of
them in
jail," only to find their places taken by younger members,
says
FBI spokesman Steve Wiley.
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