What is the history of the Bloods street gang?

Answer 1

History of the Bloods

Blood is an alliance of individual street organizations known as "sets" or "hoods". The Blood Alliance originated in Los Angeles, California. Each Blood set is it's own individual gang and are known to have sub-clicks, blocks, or lines (line-ups) which are like smaller individual sets within the set. Gang members in gangs under the Blood allaince are known as Bloods or Damus. Damu means Blood in the language of Swahili, a language Bloods are known to use to confuse outsiders. Bloods also refer to each other as "relatives". The gangs under the Blood Alliance are mainly identified by the color red which is worn proudly by all Blood members as a primary color. Each Blood set has significant differences such as hand signs, use of secondary colors, and customs. The Blood alliance has significantly branched out of California and has spread throughout the majority of the United States.

By late 1971 the Crip alliance was well established in Los Angeles. In this same year the Avalon Garden Crips and the Inglewood Crips had joined forces with other Crip sets and began to engage in violent warfare with non-Crip sets. They began to expand to non-Crip set territories controlled by other independent (gangs not in an alliance) gangs including The L.A. Brims, which started in 1969 on the west side Los Angeles and was already a powerful organization by 1971. The Crips targeted these independent organizations because they were not part of the Crip alliance or any alliance and therefore lacked the strength in numbers that the Crips had and were easy targets. The Piru Street Boys, who presented a powerful force in Compton, actually collaborated with the Crips prior to 1972. For a short time the Pirus were sanctioned by the Crips as the Piru Street Crips, and they also wore the traditional blue flags of the Crip alliance.

During the summer of 1972 the Piru Street Crips had a conflict with the rest of the Crip gangs and warfare ensued. The conflict was over a murder the Crips had committed on March 21st of that year at the Hollywood Palladium. After a concert at the Palladium, up to 20 Crips attacked a small group of young men and robbed them of their wallets and leather Jackets. During this attack a young man by the name of Robert Ballou Jr. was beat to death after he refused to give up his Jacket. Robert Ballou was not a member of any organization so the Piru Street Crips had a problem with the other Crip gangs for attacking a neutral person. A neutral person is a person not in a gang, and is also known as a civilian or neutron. The Piru Street Crips were strongly against the abuse of civilians and waged war against the other Crip gangs over this event, but they were severly outnumbered by the rest of the Crip gangs and the Crips prevailed in that battle. The Pirus dropped out of the Crip allaince and wanted to terminate all peaceful relations with all Crip gangs after this war, so they turned to the Lueders Park Hustlers for assistance. The Lueders Park Hustlers agreed and a meeting was called on Piru Street. The Pirus also invited every independent organization targeted by the Crip sets to join the meeting. The Crips had murdered an L.A. Brim member by the name of Lil Country earlier that year, so the Brims attended the meeting as well. Others that attended were the Denver Lanes and the Bishops.

At the meeting, the groups discussed how to combat Crip intimidation, along with the creation of a new alliance to counter the Crips. At that time the color of flags was not important, but since the Crips were known to wear blue flags, the Pirus and the other independent organizations decided to discontinue the wearing of blue flags. They decided to take on the wearing of an opposite color, red, and created a united organization which became known as the Blood alliance. Blood gangs also decided to start demonstrating their flags to the right side, since all Crips are known to demonstrate their flags to the left. Even though all Blood gangs now demonstrate their flags to the right as a result of that meeting, some old school Blood members continued to demonstrate to the left regarding it as the original side and how they were raised. The Athens Park Boys and Pueblos were later also sanctioned into the Blood allaince, and soon after, other independent gangs who had been threatened or attacked by the Crips were also sanctioned into the Blood alliance as well.

Another organization, called the Black P Stones, was also sanctioned into the Blood alliance in Los Angeles. The black P Stones actually originated in Chicago, Illinoise and were brought to Los Angeles in 1969 by T. Rodgers, who was sent to L.A by Chicago's main 21 at the age of 12 to spread the nation and it's teachings. T. Rodgers started 2 decks of black P Stones in Los Angeles, one deck is called the Jungles (Baldwin Village, an area that had an organization called the Jungle Boys which T. flipped into Stones) and the other deck is called City (in the West Adams area). The People Nation alliance did not yet exist in Chicago at the time, so the Stones joined the Brims in Los Angeles as their own Brim sets before the Brims requested to be sanctioned into the Blood Alliance. Even though the black P Stones in Los Angeles joined the Blood Alliance with the rest of the Brims and soon became their own Blood sets separate from the Brims, The black P Stones in Chicago remained independent until the People Nation was created in 1978. The black P Stones in Los Angeles took on the wearing of red flags, but kept demonstrating to the left and used the same symbols and teachings as the original Stones in Chicago. The original black P Stones in Chicago have been known to show great animosity towards the black P Stone Bloods in Los Angeles for joining the Blood alliance without permission from the Stones in Chicago, so the black P Stones in Los Angeles are regarded as renegades by the original Stones in Chicago. Renegade is a person or group of individuals claiming a gang or organization that they are not or are no longer really a part of or on count with. The Blood Stone Villains (also known as East Side Villains) and Blood Stone Pirus of Los Angeles are not part of the black P Stone Bloods, they got their name from a 1970's R&B group called "Bloodstone" and have no connection to the black P Stone Bloods in L.A. other than being under the Blood alliance. Contrary to popular belief, T. Rodgers did not start the Bloods, and was not even at the meeting where the Bloods was created. His gang just simply fell in line with the Blood Alliance after the Blood Alliance was created.

Many Pirus began to use burgundy flags in addition to the red flags to separate themselves from the rest of the sets in the Blood alliance, essentially turning Piru into a "Card" or "Car" for short. Cards are smaller alliances of individual Blood gangs within the Blood alliance itself, which gangs within the cards are known to put before the whole Blood alliance. Blood gangs strictly bang (go to war) to defend their territory (hood) before any alliance or card, and are known to be very vicious in their attacks. Also, Blood sets are always trying to expand their territories and find new territories to take over which essentially makes their wars never ending. Bloods are known to mark their territories and all boundaries by the use of extreme wall banging. Wall banging consists of marking territory with graffitti which shows what gang controls that turf or going into a rivals turf and crossing out their graffitti.

There are significantly more Blood gangs today than when the alliance was first created. This is because many independent organizations outside of California, and across the United States have also decided to be sanctioned into the Bloods alliance. All it takes for an entire independent organization or gang to be sanctioned into the Blood alliance is the permission from a member of an already sanctioned legit Blood gang. Many Blood sets have names which include the name of their City, a street that runs through their turf, or the name of the projects, apartment complex, or community they control. Bloods are known to shout "SuWhoop" and "Blaaat" as a greeting to other Bloods and to let their presence be known. All members must shed the Blood ("Blood In" - shoot, stab, slice, etc.) of an enemy before becoming a Blood to prove that he/she is really down to "ride" (put in work) for the set/hood. Bloods are forbidden to attack any person who is not an enemy and any person who is not in a gang (neutral), and doing so will lead to being "Blooded Out" (killed).

Contrary to popular belief, real Bloods do not represent any People Nation 5 point star and are not part of the People Nation Alliance. The confusion of Bloods representing the People Nation's 5 point star started on the internet with unknown persons creating various fictional "Blood Books of Knowledge" which consist of mixing Blood history and People Nation history, symbols, and literature (lit) together. These fictional "Books of Knowledge" spread rapidly throughout the internet and eventually into the streets with wanna-be's taking these books seriously and being mislead. There are, however, legit Bloods who use the terms "5 popping", "We ride the 5″, and who replace the letter "S" with a "5″, but when a Blood uses the number 5 it simply symbolizes the number of letters in the word B.L.O.O.D. So when a Blood calls himself "5″ he is infact simply reffering to himself as "BLOOD". This use of the number 5 may have also lead the the confusion of Bloods representing the People Nations 5 point star. This misrepresentation of the Bloods and the number 5 has largely affected Bloods in the South, East Coast, and some parts of the Midwest. This widespread miseducation of the Bloods has lead to a recent major outreach by west coast Bloods to all Bloods across the country to let them know that Bloods do not represent the People Nation of Chicago and do not represent any form of a 5 point star. This outreach has been making a major impact on Bloods in the South, East, and Midwest who have all been dropping all use of anything related to the People Nation and a 5 point star and are all steady getting back to their roots.

Blood sets have a loose structure of ranks based on how long a person has been banging for their particular hood and how much work they put in for the hood. Their rank structure is as follows:

(from lowest to highest)

Y.G. (Young Gangster)

O.Y.G. (Original Young Gangster)

O.G. (Original Gangster)

O.O.G. (Double O.G.)

O.O.O.G. (Tripple O.G.)

These ranks don't signify leadership or dominance over anybody else in the set, they just signify respect for those who have been in the hood longer, put in more work for the hood, and have survived the longest. This means that Bloods with higher rank don't give out orders or call shots over those with lower rank. Once a person has joined a Blood set, it's for life… meaning you can not leave the set or flip (switch) to another set.