How The Crips Gang Actually Works | How Crime Works | Insider

my name is Tyrone white I'm a  former 65 Milo [ __ ] some of   my rivalries were blood gangs and the  [ __ ] gangs we're evolved in drive   by shootings as well as drug  dealing and this is how crime works yeah of course I've participated  in Drive buys um I've been a victim of   Drive buys plenty of times when you going  to againsts war with one another there's   no winners now you can you can look at it  and say okay I shot more of their homies   than they shot of mine or I killed more of  their homies or they killed of mine but both   sides are taking losses so if you both are  taking a loss of life there's no [Music] winners when I was coming up the guns that were  using gang banging were the 9 mm the 45 mberg   12 gaug shotgun pump AK-47s Tech9 the first gun  that I ever got placed in my hand given to me as   a gift from one of my homeboys was a 25 a chrome  25 little small 25 with the pearl handle shot like   had like seven shots six shots in it or something  like that and as you got older and you learn more   about guns and Elevate yourself of course you get  bigger guns guns are sold on the street like dope   is sold on the street you can even buy guns from  enemy gangs cuz right now it's a business it's   about making this money they come from everywhere  now where they get them from could be from the   police force it could be from the military you can  never be caught what we call lacking or slipping   you got to always be ready you got to have enough  Firepower you are ready for war at all [Music] times from the early 80s all the way up  through the mid 90s um those were the   years of of heightened gang activities so drive  by shootings were nothing you you could turn you   literally turn your news on every day at those  during those years and see a driveby shooting   I mean every day we had to drive by shooting to  where uh that I participated in I walked in the   house and I remember seeing it on the news I must  have been about 15 at that time I remember my mom   was on the phone and she was like I'm so tired  of these kids shooting one another and killing   one another and I remember thinking to myself  like man she has no idea that I was just in   this situation she never found out about it but  I just remember the way that I felt listening   to her on the phone telling her friend like man  this is these kids need to stop this and this is   crazy and there's another situation to where  we were getting ready to go out on what they   call Sunday Funday when all the low riders all  the motorcycle clubs all the car clubs all the   gang members that's like the one day to where all  the gang members enemies everybody can congregate   in one area on CR Shaw Boulevard I remember we  were we seeing a car pull up to the corner and   usually when you see cars pull up in the corner  with no lights or anything like that you know   you you you know that's a sign of something  that's going to happen and all you see was   Guns come out the window and everybody just  got the shooting shooting at everybody and we   all just scattered like like ants just everybody  screaming hollering running scattering because   no one had guns actually on their person  at the time one of my big homeboy um he   was real very known he had got hit in the face  because they shot with a 12 gauge and they had   buck shots but it didn't kill him because they  wenten shot at close range luckily nobody got killed the Crips were founded in the 60s and by Raymond  Washington he formed the East Side Crips which is   on the east side of La TIY Williams formed the  West Side Crips and through those two different   uh foundations different sets start to evolve  different areas you know the the Hoovers the   East Coast the rolling 60s the menow the all  these different sets the object and the goal   was to keep this side of of La safe but you know  as usual things escalated things multiplied and   vus became no sh happened when Raymond Washington  got killed that's what caused the division that's   what caused that's what that's when cripping  became divided between the East and the west   and different things start happening in different  subset and it just became like a disease no one   [ __ ] set betrayed this [ __ ] set and it just  caused a NeverEnding Feud Bloods used to be the   main Rivals of the Crips but now there just as  many Crips are against one another then there   are Bloods a lot of Crips and bloods have become  allies because they share the same common [ __ ]   enemy for example um the a TR gangster Crips  they have a uh a peace treaty going on with   the Englewood Family Bloods and that's because  their their borderline is connected right next   to one another so since our neighborhoods are  so close to one another you got to come through   my neighborhood to get home I got to come  to your neighborhood to get home let's make   this a blood free zone no VI let's not saying  that we're homeboy or we're just a close Hood   but let's keep the peace between this dynamic  between this area the beef between the 65 mow   Crips and the Hoover Crips it goes way back we  actually all grew up together and went to school   together we became one of the biggest enemies  to the ho because our sets are so close to one   another to get to the Hoover Hood you got to  come through our hood you know what I'm saying   and to for us to get to other parts of the  city we got to go through the Hoover [Music] Hood I was raised born and raised in South Central  LA all my life had a stepfather in my life that   taught me how to be a man of different things  but for the most part I was raised by a strong   single mother usually in the black neighborhoods  when kids that come from single parent homes like   that they usually get caught up in these streets  because your mom is out working trying to make   a living for you provide for you while she's  at work you're out there running the streets   doing sh that you know you're not supposed to be  doing and that's really that's pretty much how I   started it I was about 10 when I first start  hanging around them I knew them very well it   comes down to hey you know you've been hanging  around us a lot been chilling a lot you from the   hood know let's make it official you know and  making it official means getting jumped in or   doing something to be a member of the other  game can be anything from you fighting one   person sometime four or five persons it's to  see how you handle yourself it's to see what   type of skills you have if you get into to one  of these type situations you know can stand your   ground and hold your own whether you get beat up  or not you have to know how to fight back you got   to be a monster to be a member of of any game but  particularly in the Crips you better be a [Music] monster the word [ __ ] was really originally  meant Community resistance and progress it was   a way to to bring the community to uplift the  community to protect the community of course we   they took on a ER and the appearance of a gang  because according to the dictionary a group of   five more more people is considered a gang to be  a [ __ ] you have to carry yourself a certain way   you have to walk a certain way but for me the The  Lure was I love the color blue and they wore blue   Rags uh they wore blue jeans they wore blue belts  they wore blue Chuck tayor the dress code for me   back when I was a active CP in the in the 90s in  the early 80s it was definitely 501 Levi jeans   creased you I would go by a can of starch and  literally spend about an hour ironing my pants   laying the starch to a point to where before I  even put my pants on I could stand them up Crips   wore K Swiss because it was an acronym it was  actually a disrespectful term towards the Bloods   it was called K swister for kill slobs when I see  some slobs is a disrespectful term towards the   Bloods if you wonder a [ __ ] you couldn't [ __ ]  walk if you wasn't a [ __ ] you didn't know how   to [ __ ] Walk and so to learn how to [ __ ] Walk  and to actually perfect something like that was   like a badge of honor it's a cool thing it's when  you look at it the the feet movement the way they   dance the way they do it the way they incorporate  certain moves along with the hand signs and hand   signals words that you Crips usually use which is  part of the lingo was of course cuz everything we   say would start with a seat if you had say  Burger you say k you know if you say uh you   say sit it's just different things that you could  replace the B with the c you would do it and that   was the same thing with the Bloods anything  with a seed they wanted to eliminate it and   it may it may sound strange and people might be  oh that's stupid that's y'all sound stupid that   was our language that was the way that we talk we  understood it and that's all that matters and if   you disrespect us and tell us it sound stupid you  can you might get your ass whooped of course they   throw up the seat you know the C is is just you  just take your hands you you make a c with your   hands and now you're set your actual neighborhood  your [ __ ] neighborhood like the 60s they have   their signs uh the Hoovers they have their signs  the menow they have their signs you're going to   throw up that sign to represent to let people  know that you're actually from that set you're   from that neighborhood we threw up the M it  was just a m you just take your hands cross   your which it's Su just how Ice Cube throw up  the W when he's when he's in concert and doing   taking pictures Snoop Dog throws up the W just  turn it upside down and you throw up the am gang   graffiti is a big part of Crips people that are  coming in there they know when they see that on   the wall uh the rolling 60 Crips or the mlo Crips  or the five5 Crips they know we're entering this   game this is their [Music] neighborhood the gang  structure is not so much organized like uh the   mafia with under bosses and bosses and stuff  like that we didn't give titles like that but   people automatically knew who the ogs were who  the double ogs were who the big homies was and   who was ranked over who the double OG is usually  one of the big homies that has put in more work   than you can imagine um he's done it all killed  robbed made money uh been to jail every you name   it he's done it usually 50s 60s you know higher  age that they were around in the 70s in the 80s   when gang banger really just exploded they were  at the top of their game um an OG really Falls not   not too much different from a double OG except  that he may be a little younger may have done   a less little few a little less of the crimes  then you have some of the ogs that have turned   their lives around and they just want to live  life have a family have wife and kids and they   getting money they making money the legal way so  what makes them an OG is the fact that they're   talking to the little homies to the young homies  showing them and explaining to them how they were   able to do this street Soldier is exactly what  that sounds like a street Soldier is going to go   out there and put in that work for the OG for the  double OG for the little homies or just for the   set period a street Soldier has no limits he's  going to go out there and do what he has to do   no matter what um the little homies are usually  of course what they sound like the little homies   that's looking up to the big homies they're  going to imitate they gonna copy everything   that the big homies do and if if the big homies is  constantly going to jail robbing people shooting   people killing people the little homies gonna  follow a suit at some point my main thing was   always to look out for my big homie or whoever  called me they Big Homie and make sure that he   was taken care of and vice versa CU he does the  same for me he don't have to but he does [Music] I started out selling weed in middle school and  then moved to crack cocaine and Robin I did I did   robberies that was my way mostly of making money  and and keeping money in my pocket the big homies   had the big dope and they all issue it out to the  younger homies they'll issue it down to the guys   to the next level and it was a way for every body  from the big homies OG homies all the way down to   the homies in junior high school to make money  the homies in junior high school they may be   out there selling crack on the corners $5 rocks  $10 rocks $20 rocks the big homies they move in   big weight you know ounces uh quarter pounds  pounds stuff like that the drugs came from a   lot of times from drug cartels and as well as the  government believe it or not not I mean there's a   story about free Ray Rick one of the biggest black  dope dealers in history of Los Angeles and he was   set up he was caught up in that Iran Contra stuff  with Ronald Reagan and come to find out that the   DEA was supplying him with dope the same dope that  they gave him 30 years for in prison so you know   it's like that's how that's just how it worked  they put they put it in our neighborhoods to bring   us down to keep us down always a gold of Crips to  make a substantial amount of money and to open up   your own business whether it be a smoke shop or  liquor store or a Fool's place or whatever that   was the goal to find a way to take that money  and make it somewhat as legal as you [Music] can the LA riots happened in '92 I was 18 years  old at that time the LA R was a result of the   Rodney King verdict those four officers that were  clearly guilty as hell on video beating Rodney   King half death when they were found innocent  that just sparked something in the community I   didn't never think I would see nothing like that  the ground zero of the riots happened five blocks   from my house I was sitting home watching the news  I seen the news so we jump in the car we drive   up to the riots by this time you got hundreds  and hundreds of people starting to migrate to   Florence in Normandy so at this point it just  kicked off every spirited like wildfire every   car that came through the intersection that had  a white person in it was getting attacked I saw   news reporters getting beat up I saw cameraman  getting beat up getting the cameras taken from   them and at that time it really didn't matter  what gang you were from because now it's about   it's a black against white thing now so it didn't  matter if you was a blood or a [ __ ] or whatever   you was even though it was such a messed up day  it's such AED up day it was also a g a day to kind   of Rejoice because that was the first time in a  long time that you saw common enemies Crips and   bloods and Mexican gangs come together against  this one common enemy the LAPD and so after a   days of riding some of the community leaders like  Jim Brown the football player uh a couple popular   gang leaders some different gangs from different  areas different sets had a meeting and decided   that this was the person perfect opportunity to  try to bring a peace treaty a truce between the   gangs even though it was something bad that  caused us to get to that level it still was   an opportunity for us to bring things together the  peace treaty lasted officially maybe a good couple   weeks and it kind of continued to dissolve  as weeks and months went on it to the point   to where it didn't exist no more but for that  little short time it was great to have [Music] it when gangster rap came out it introduced a lot  of cripping a lot of Crips and when NWA came out   which is the group that started gangster rap uh  he rest in peace e was known to be a [ __ ] and   from him you had other Pioneer rappers that were  from [ __ ] neighborhoods you had Snoop Dog you   had Dove seed uh all these popular gang rappers  that was in the neighborhoods representing their   hoods that were blowing up on the mainstream and  so now you got people sitting at home watching   MTV 106 in park they're watching all these video  shows and they got these game members doing rap   videos with the blue rags and the and the the  six fos and the the low riders and wearing all   the gang attire and the Gang uniform but they're  actually artists making money on TV and now it's   being broadcast all over the world aside from  the UK and the Netherlands I've heard about   Crips in China um I heard there's some Crips in  Africa which I've actually seen online social   media uh people in afca cripping and and just  loving this West Coast culture and I think all   that all these countries adapted on to these  United State values and these United States   ways just because of how it was glorified not  really understanding the meaning of it know   that people lost their lives and people are  killing this is not something to play [Music] with in 1994 I went to Oklahoma I got a football  scholarship to go to Oklahoma to play football   that's pretty much really what saved me from  being killed or anything else bad happening to   me on these La streets played football there for  two years at a historically black college in 1996   97 I moved to Oklahoma City and I start working  at the Juvenile Detention Center they needed a   gang advisor a gang trainer so of course I was  qualified for that just volunteering my time   talking to the kids and you know educating them  on gangs and telling them no because I had no   idea Oklahoma had a gang problem so I went and I  sat down with the chief of police to see exactly   you know where did he want me to go with this I  did two years in the school system they came to   me and ask me that I want to uh interested into  transferring to the streets basically running   traffic pulling people over writing tickets blah  blah blah um I'm like yeah F let me let me do that   I I'll do that see see what that's like I CU  I actually want to see how they how they dealt   with drug dealers being on with me being on the  other side of the law and all the complaints that   I had as a criminal all the police brutality all  the mistreatment from the police I got to witness   that's firsthand working with them and a lot of  times I would have to intervene on like hold on   like you know it was a couple times where they had  to have that conversation with me look either you   with us or you with them so even in the training  in the police academy I dealt with racism I   dealt with discrimination because a lot of those  officers felt like this dude is a criminal this   dude is from the streets how in the hell is are  you guys going to let him work with us blah blah   blah that's even that's why even after I became  a police officer and I moved back to California I   still ended up hooking back up with my old homies  and old gang members and I end up going to jail   even after being being a police officer I went  to jail my experience with the LAPD they still   haven't found a way to deal with communities and  cultures that they don't know nothing about it's   the same tactics no dirty cobs bogus charges  planting drugs um mistreatment because of who   you are what you represent it's the same thing it  hasn't stopped the one way the police can breus   de capap with the community is to Contin you to  work with those that want to work with them big   U as example from ring 60s guys that like that  that are gang activists that are trying to do   things to stop the gang violence and help kids in  the community and bring some positiv positivity in   the community the main thing is to save lives and  after you save lives you want to create [Music] opportunities I went to jail in Oklahoma for  robbery um since at that time when I was out   there it was for a robbery that I did when  I was living in Oklahoma when I came back to   California in 2006 I went to jail again in 2009  for another robbery and they end up finding about   another robbery that I did and they combined  the cases I end up taking a three-year deal   when I first got arrested um they took me down  to the main LAPD headquarters what they call the   Parker Center they transfer you the next day  to the County facility so I left the parking   center that morning they put me on the jail bus  took me to the county jail which is known as the   Twin Towers you usually go into the tank the tank  is basically a holding area where a whole bunch   of other game members are at and I'm talking  about mixed in Crips Bloods Mexicans everybody   and that's just a that's like a box of dynamite  waiting to explode and sometime you get put in   those situations and the officers just leave you  and they don't care they don't whatever happens   in there it happens and you're going to always  find somebody in there that's going to challenge   you especially if you're from a rival gang you  listen for the lingo you listen to what they   saying or you might see people that you haven't  seen since elementary and you lost contact with   you wonder where they were at well this is where  they at and so and you find out that they from   a [ __ ] set and so you guys you just I just  connect with one now if it becomes a racial   thing um Bloods and Crips you know they find  a way to unite against whoever whatever race   they have to go against you know it can be some  violence erupt in in between the transportation   into the different dorms of the different units  but for the most part in the county jail cpses   with Crips Bloods with Bloods or sometime you get  the general population where it's a mix dorm now   don't get me wrong if I went in there as a mlo  [ __ ] or or is a 60 CRI or 60 going there and   they run into some Hoovers it's blad it's bad  blood automatically no matter we're Crips and   recps we're in the same unit don't matter we need  to settle this beef so you I might walk in here   and a Hoover [ __ ] might say hey hey hey you  from menw I need that fade I need that fade so   that lets you know that at some point you and this  guy have to fight because y'all both of y'all sets   don't get along inside or outside of prison with  [ __ ] and there's no different the way you carry   yourself on the streets is the same way that you  expected to carry yourself in the prison except   at a higher level because it's a little more  dangerous in prison than it is on these [Music] streets the thing that made me change my life  was my kids when I took the scholarship to the   school I was in the process of changing my  life I just didn't know it but that was my   start of changing in my life and when I start  working with gangs and talking to the kids in   the schools and at the juvenile jails and I seen  how I was getting through to them and how much   they respected me from what I was telling them  to try to teach them it just made me want to   change just made me want to continue to to do  positive things and that that's what I've been   doing ever since I met somebody one day and they  told me I had this look it's like you should get   into acting you should think about acting so  I started doing acting little gigs doing extra   roles and so I've done several projects and been  a part of several uh uh TV series and dramas and   and different things that have gotten my  foot into the door of acting so I there   there's definitely some positivity that could  happen from my past that was negative [Music] yeah that

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Length: 26min 13sec (1573 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 14 2024