The Bloods are one of the Los Angeles, California street gangs. The Bloods are identified by the red color worn by their members. They also have a particular gang symbol (the word blood spelled with their hand). The gang is largely composed of African Americans, although the Bloods are more racially mixed than the Crips, their rivals. The Bloods are made up out of various cliques known as "sets" or "tres" (trays) between which significant differences exist such as colors, clothing and operations. Since their formation the Blood gangs have branched out throughout the United States.

History

During the summer of 1972, the Crips, and the Pirus had a conflict, and an all out rumble ensued. The Pirus, like other northern gangs, were out numbered, and the Crips prevailed. The Pirus wanted to terminate peaceful relations with the Crips so they turned to the Lueders Park Hustlers for back-up. They agreed and a meeting was called on Piru Street. The Pirus also, invited every gang that had been targets by Crip sets to join the meeting, The Crips had murdered an L.A. Brim member earlier that year, so the Brims attended the meeting too. Others that attended were the Denver Lanes, and the Bishops.

How to combat Crip intimidation was discussed along with the creation of a new alliance to counter the Crips. At that time the color of bandannas was not important, but since the Crips were known to wear blue bandanas, the Pirus and the other groups decided to discontinue the wearing of blue bandannas. They decided to take on the wearing of an opposite color, red, and created a united organization which later became known as the Bloods. The Pirus, Brims, Athens Park Boys, and Pueblos decided to unite with the Bloods, and soon after, other gangs who had been threatened or attacked by Crips joined the Bloods.

Coastal spread

These African American inmates, organized by some of the more violent and charismatic inmates, formed a protection group which they called the United Blood Nation. This United Blood Nation, which was actually a prison gang, was emulating the Bloods street gangs in Los Angeles, California. Several of the leaders of this recently created prison gang formed eight original Blood sets in Compton, and got together to recruit in their neighborhoods across New York City. These original sets were: Mad Stone Villains (MSV), Valentine Bloods (VB), Nine Trey Gangsters (NTG), Gangster Killer Bloods (GKB), One Eight Trey (183) Bloods, Hit Squad Brims (HSB), Blood Stone Villains (BSV) and Sex, Money and Murder (SMM). Thousands of members of the Blood street gang were establishing themselves as a formidable force among gangs and continued a steady drive for recruitment. At this time, the bloods were more violent than other gangs but much less organized. Numerous slashings (razor blade or knife attacks) were reported during robberies and discovered to be initiations into the Bloods. This Blood in ritual became the trademark for the Bloods. Bloods recruited throughout the East Coast and began spreading their drug networks rapidly. Blood gangs can be found in the New York City area, Upper New York State, New Jersey, Baltimore, Hagerstown, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Connecticut to name a few. Recently, Blood gangs have become a favorite target of Law Enforcement because of their connection to violence. Bloods will commit violence against other Blood sets and there is no direct Regional or National leadership or connections. According to some sources, East Coast Bloods and West Coast Bloods conducted a series of meetings in 1999 and formed the United Blood Nation as a way to align all Blood gangs as one Nation for the purposes of power and unity. They eventually became united with the Latin Kings and the Peoples Nation in 2000 after putting aside a dispute.

Bloods and hip-hop

Notes

• According to a Los Angeles Weekly profile, the Bloods generally refuse to use the letter C in names, especially when names start with a C, they will often add the letter K after C to make it CK, meaning crip killer.
• The Bloods refer to Crips in disrespect as "Crabs".

References