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The Crips are a primarily, but not exclusively, African American gang founded in Los Angeles, California in 1971 mainly by 17-year-old Raymond Washington and Stanley Williams. What was once a single alliance between two autonomous gangs is now a loosely connected network of individual sets, often engaged in open warfare with one another. The Crips are one of the largest and most violent associations of street gangs in the United States.[2] with an estimated 30,000 to 35,000 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. Crips are publicly known to have an intense and bitter rivalry with the Bloods. Crips have been documented in the U.S. military, found in bases in the United States and abroad.[7][8]
[edit] HistoryStanley "Tookie" Williams met Raymond Lee Washington in 1971, and the two decided to unite their local gang members from the west and east sides of South Central Los Angeles in order to battle neighboring street gangs. Most of the members were seventeen years old.[9] Williams discounted the sometimes cited founding date of 1969 (or even the early 1950s), in his memoir, Blue Rage, Black Redemption.[9] The original name for the alliance was "Cribs", a name narrowed down from a list of many options, and chosen unanimously from three final choices, which included the Black Overlords, and the Assassins. Early on, many members, while intoxicated, mispronounced Cribs and started saying "Crips", and the name stuck.[9] The name had no political, organizational, cryptic, or acronymic meaning. Williams, in his memoir, further discounted claims that the group was a spin-off of the Black Panther Party or formed for a community agenda, the name "depicted a fighting alliance against street gangs—nothing more, nothing less", Williams wrote.[9] Washington, who attended Freemont High School, was the leader of the East Side Crips, and Williams, who attended Washington High School, lead the West Side Crips. Williams recalled that a blue bandanna was first worn by Crips founding member Buddha, as a part of his color-coordinated clothing of blue Levi's, a blue shirt, and dark blue suspenders. A blue bandanna was worn in memorium to Buddha after he was shot and killed on February 23, 1973, which eventually became the color of blue associated with Crips.[9] The Crips became popular throughout southern Los Angeles as more youth gangs joined; at one point they outnumbered non-Crip gangs by 3 to 1, sparking disputes with non-Crip gangs, including the L.A. Brims, Athens Park Boys, the Bishops, and the Denver Lanes. By 1971 the gang's notoriety had spread across Los Angeles. The gang became increasingly violent as they attempted to expand their turf. By the early 1980s the gang was heavily involved with drug trade.[10] [edit] Crip on Crip violenceIn 1971, a Crip set on Piru Street in Compton, California, known as the Piru Street Boys was formed. After two years of peace, a feud began between the Piru Street Boys and the other Crip sets. It would later turn violent as gang warfare ensued between former allies. This battle continued until the mid 1970s when the Piru Street Boys wanted to call an end to the violence and called a meeting with other gangs that were targeted by the Crips. After a long discussion, the Pirus broke off all connections to the Crips and started an organization that would later be called the Bloods, a street gang infamous for its rivalry with the Crips.[11] Since then, other conflicts and feuds were started between many of the remaining sets of the Crips gang. It is a popular misconception that Crips sets feud only with Bloods. In reality, they fight each other — for example, the Rollin' 60s and 83rd Street Gangster Crips ("Eight-Tray") have been rivals since 1979. In Watts, Los Angeles, the Grape Street Watts Crips and the P Jay Crips have feuded so much that the P Jay Crips even teamed up with the local Bloods set, the Bounty Hunter Bloods, to fight against the Grape Street Crips.[12] [edit] PracticesThe literacy practices of Crip's gang life generally include rapping, tagging and substitutions and deletions of particular letters of the alphabet. The letter "b" in the word "blood" will be "disrespected" among certain sets and written with a cross inside it because of its association with the enemy. The letters "CK", which stand for for "Crip killer", will be avoided and substituted with a double "cc". The words "kick back" will instead be written as "kicc bacc". Many other letters are also altered due to symbolic associations.[13] [edit] Sets
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