I was telling this to Mr. Rilch and Friend. They said I should post it here, so I am.
Last night Power 106 had an interview scheduled with Busta Rhymes. It went on as usual, but of course he and the DJ only talked about yesterday’s events. Two things Busta said and one thing the DJ said stood out with me.
BR: Everybody saying Muslims, ah, Arabs, ah, some other words I don’t wanna say on the radio (laughs) and saying bin Laden, bin Laden, bring me the head of bin Laden. But lest we forget, we said the same thing about Oklahoma City at first, till we found out it was one of our own. So even though everything seems to point to bin Laden, it’s possible that some other group did this and thought they could get away with it, knowing that everyone would think it was bin Laden.
DJ: Yeah, and also let me interrupt you here, I want to say something to all you listening out there…There’s a lot of anger right now, and a lot of people want revenge. But if you’re thinking of taking this out on some individual who looks a certain way or is a certain religion or lives in a certain community…Y’all don’t do that.
[later]BR:…I don’t want us to be in a war, 'cause that would mean so many more of our people lost before it’s all settled. But I tell you, if someone come into my house, put me in danger, put my family in danger…it’s me or them. So in a way, these people did come into our house. They did put our family in danger. So it is us or them.
Just wanted to share this, because it’s the first commentary I’ve heard from an entertainer so far. Granted, he said that about not knowing it was bin Laden at a little after 9 last night. Now there’s less reason to doubt that it was his people. But I was impressed that he displayed just the degree of prudence that’s necessary at this time.
Besides that, it’s also the opinion of someone originally from the 'hood. And if/when we go into combat over this, it will be largely people from the 'hood, and people from the heartland, who will serve.
There’s no local news, so I don’t know if anyone’s business, or person, has been threatened because of this. I hope we learned something from that incident in '92 that no one wants to talk about.
This also reminds me of something Mr. Rilch said when we saw Three Kings. He said, “I bet the scariest thing to a middle easterner is a black soldier. All they probably know about African-Americans is Boyz n the Hood and Tupac Shakur and the Cr*ps and Bl**ds, so when they see a big ornery brother with a machine gun, they just give up immediately.”
Also, I have a shot from that movie stuck in my head (I have to block out the news footage). The one with the jeep roaring up to the camera, and the grill ends up filling the whole screen. Centered on it is a grinning Bart Simpson, clutching the Stars and Stripes in his little fist.
I meant “wtf - why did he/she censor them?” There’s way too much censorship in this world already and I hate to see it contributed to, especially when it is absolutely unnecessary. I hope that was a joke.
Cisco, I “bleeped” those words because I don’t like to hear, write or say them. To me, they’re like saying “Bloody Mary” five times. I feel the same way about the n-word.
Every silver lining has a cloud. Society is going to go through enormous changes. Perhaps one positive by-product will be the end of gang warfare. Communities that fight among themselves are easy to take down. But if 50,000 people with weapons and deadly skills turn them away from each other and against an outside force, they may stay on civil terms after they, as a team, win. Which they would.
It’s entirely possible that the leaders of the Cr*ps will have a sit-down with the leaders of the Bl**ds (sorry, but it’s my post!) in which they agree that they have a common turf, one that bin Laden’s guys aren’t going to leave alive if they walk into it.
Of course, there will always be some gang activity, as long as there is a drug trade. And I don’t see a war undermining the drug trade. But they might decide to keep it just business, no peacocking around.
For years, I have prayed for the gang lifestyle to fade away. It seems to have been doing that recently. Now I hope it will be phased out entirely, and soon.
I’ve never thought of the “Crps" and “Bl**ds” as being organized enough to have “leaders”. From what I understand it pretty goes like: throw on a red bandana and you’re a "Crp”, throw on a blue bandana and you’re a “Bl**d”.
They do have leaders. And they are organized, or once were.
I’m piecing together what I’ve read and been told. Around the time Vietnam ended, a lot of disaffected brothers returned to the cities from which they’d been harvested. They had strong resentment towards the government and towards white America. They felt used and frustrated: used because so many had been drafted and so few had returned, frustrated because the civil rights movement had not accomplished all it could have. Ghettos became fortresses rather than holding pens, as the residents bonded with each other and repelled outsiders, and sometimes exploited them through robbery and assault.
At the same time, cocaine was coming to America. Poverty loves anything that blocks out reality. However, alcohol often enhances depression rather than banishing it. Uppers have to be countered with downers, and I’m not sure weed caught on in the ghetto in the '60s. But cocaine! Man…I’M KING OF THE WORLD!
Cocaine trade was a huge economic opportunity. But because of the legal risk, people had to be able to trust the other people they did business with. With the inner cities were already being divided up into factions, each group found a focus: drug sales as a means of support and primary reason for being. Being loyal to the 'hood and hostile to others had already become a way of life, but now they were playing for real. Stepping over another groups line didn’t just mean a beating, it meant a beat-down, maybe a fatal one, or maybe a bullet. Guns were around at that time, but not like now: not an automatic in every house and a revolver in every glove box.
Time went on. More complex and more potent forms of cocaine were introduced. This increased demand. It also raised prices. It also put sellers at risk from disgruntled clients, so they started to arm themselves, and not just for show. Stronger laws were passed. This, too, increased risk. And it, too, raised prices.
With so much money to be made, but also to be lost if one group threatened another’s business, several groups decided to combine interests. Other groups, seeing the success and the power of the new associations, decided it would be better to join than to be beaten. By the late '80s, two major conglomerates were operating in LA. There were still many independent gangs, but the Cr*ps and the Bl**ds dominated, and either one alone had more members than all the others combined. And yes, Cisco, they did have leaders. This was not playtime; this was business.
In the '90s, younger people, never having known things to be any other way, thought being a gang member was the best and/or only way to find an identity and a purpose. Some joined or formed groups in their own 'hood, but many had loftier aspirations. And if they couldn’t get an entre into one or the other of the titans, they thought they could get away with acting as if they had. There were more weapons, and more powerful ones, available, so a person didn’t have to be shrewd, or strong, or skilled to be taken seriously. Someone as young as 12 could command respect, as long as he could use the index finger on his dominant hand.
Meanwhile, the Blues and the Reds (incidentally, Cisco, it’s blue-C, red-B) were circling each other and growling, much like Japan and the US in the '80s. They began to strike at each other without provocation, each in the hope of disabling the other. Their discord was not helped at all by the fact that there were so many wannabes who, as you said, threw on a bandana and claimed to have earned the right to wear that color, running around and appearing to be acting on their behalf. They weren’t, and it was to be stopped. The penalty for wearing the wrong color was death, and I’m talking about so much as red shoelaces. I went through the same thing in Illinois, home of the Gangster Disciples, where I had an earring taken from me while in a chokehold because it had a star (their sign).
Tension was overwhelming in the '90s, until finally, people began making a conscious effort to turn away from violence, while those who stayed in the thug life started practicing (some) discretion. But the Blues and the Reds are still around, and they do indeed have leaders, and a hierarchy, and the ability to assemble, confer, and mobilize.
Wow, very good post. I knew they were tough, I just didn’t know they were so well organized. I mean I’ve heard all this before but I guess I always took it as smoke when I was younger.
Of course I knew this, my fingers don’t always do what my brain tells them to do.
On a similar note, wouldn’t it be neat if the Hell’s Angels and the Outlaws made peace with each other? The Hells Angels started as a group of WWII pilots and they offered the president (can’t remember which, Johnson maybe?) their help and support in the Vietnam War.
Sadly though, the Cribloods and the Hells Outlaws are probably just pipe dreams.
Happy to inform! Wow, I actually know something useful.
Sorry! Look for anecdote below.
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Oh, that would be sweet!
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Well, you’re probably right. But I won’t be at all surprised if, as I said earlier, gang warfare dries up during…what we’re about to get into.
Anecdote: Several years ago, in '94 or '95, I believe, Mr. Rilch was at Ralph’s very late at night. He stood at the one open checkout line, and was almost immediately joined by what he was (and is, I just asked him) almost certain was a Crip. It wasn’t just the blue bandanna, although he had all kinds of insignia. It was the aura he gave off, like one of those electrical stations that thrums when you get near it.
Mr. Rilch, who is no 98-pound weakling himself, just looked straight ahead and paid for his stuff. He told me, “I knew he wouldn’t do anything if I didn’t give him a reason. But when you’re two feet from a Crip, you just start wondering, what would be giving him a reason?”
I’ve just been informed that the Crips and Bloods had a peace treaty during the '92 riots. (Wow, I just typed two things that I never spell out!) They united against the cops, and remained on good terms for while afterwards. In fact, I’m being told that it’s really not what it was.
Sorry. I meant that there is still some friction between them, but it’s nowhere near as intense as it was in the early '90s. Should have said “not what it once was”.
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