Posted on 08/14/2008 4:51:17 PM PDT by freespirited
Former street crew member Ronald Moten initially dismissed as idle talk the rumors that gang members from the notorious Bloods were attempting to infiltrate Washington.
The District never had an organized gang problem, said Moten, who is now an anti-violence advocate in the District. The city's crews were homegrown neighborhood cliques while the Bloods were a Los Angeles gang, a huge criminal enterprise widely known for its rivalry with the Crips.
But about six months ago, when a teenager showed him the cigarette burns on his arms — an initiation rite the teen endured rather than get a tattoo under his eye — Moten said he realized that the Bloods were serious.
"They do that in L.A. They don't do it in D.C.," said Moten, co-founder of Peaceoholics, a D.C. organization that mediates neighborhood disputes. "These are more than wannabes. Our young people will get sucked right into this if we don't do something."
Law enforcement officials acknowledged that the Bloods, and to a lesser degree the Crips, have been on the rise in Maryland and are now creeping into the District.
In downtown Silver Spring last month, Montgomery County police set up an operation to combat an increase of Bloods criminal activity that included armed robberies. Police busted a 22-year-old D.C. man and four teenagers after they observed them spray paint "Bloodz" on a wall and then try to rob a man.
The national gangs, which are involved in robbery, extortion, prostitution, auto theft and drugs, are moving south from New York, said Montgomery County prosecutor Jeffrey Wennar of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Investigators Network.
In Baltimore, more than 28 purported members of the Tree Top Piru Bloods gang were indicted in February on racketeering, drug and gun charges. The name Piru comes from a group of streets in Compton, Calif., named after trees.
Rival gangs vying for authority in suburban Maryland committed a string of violent crimes late last year. One person was fatally stabbed in the Lakeforest Mall in Gaithersburg, and a week of retaliatory shootings followed that left several alleged gang members injured.
Authorities said the attacks involved the Vampire Bloods, the Black Mob Bloods and the Crips.
In D.C., the Bloods are concentrated along Minnesota Avenue in Anacostia and in Trinidad, the Northeast neighborhood marred by a barrage of homicides this summer, law enforcement officials said.
The Bloods in Trinidad first surfaced in December, 5th District Commander Lamar Greene said.
Police noticed gang graffiti and teens strolling through the streets wearing the gang's red colors about six months ago, Greene said. The Crips haven't solidified themselves in Northeast D.C., he added.
"Fortunately, a lot of the guys seen wearing the clothing, walking around with bandannas in the pockets, are pretty young. That may be why we haven't seen the violence," Greene said. "But a group like that, you have to take seriously."
D.C. police said they are gathering intelligence on the Bloods and Crips movement. One Bloods recruiter in Trinidad, a heavily gang-tattooed man in his 20s who used to live outside the city, told a police officer that he recently got out of the Army.
Data collected by Wennar's group last summer credited the Bloods with having 400 members in the region, but gang experts say that number had more than doubled by the end of 2007 and has continued to rise. Membership in the gang has surpassed that of the largest Latino gangs, such as Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, and the Latin Kings.
The report, which said 36 separate gangs were active, is based on self-identifications by suspects, tattoos, clothing, informants and police investigative methods.
The Bloods and Crips recruit in schools, the streets, playgrounds and even on Metro buses, the experts said. Most of the recruiting occurs inside Maryland's prisons, where joining a gang is a matter of survival. The Bloods first took root in Maryland about nine years ago in the Washington County Detention Center in Hagerstown. They were known as Trey 8 and later became the Insane Red Devils.
After the inmates are released, they often return to their old neighborhoods to help the national gang gain supremacy over local groups, Wennar said.
Sometimes they use the lure of belonging to a nationally affiliated syndicate with a violent reputation, he added. Sometimes they use threats or even beatings.
Wennar said the California gangs have moved in while law enforcement and the media focused on the Latin gangs.
"If you're operating under the radar, it's great," Wennar said. "Everybody has kind of forgotten about the Bloods and Crips."
Maybe the ARNULD can spin this one at the convention???
This seems to happen in RAT infested jurisdictions.
ping
Martin O’Malley will welcome them with open arms because, why geez we just have to raise taxes to fight this menace.
Good luck, blue states. Virginia, beware.
SURE THEY ARE MOVING IN, THEY ARE GOING TO BE READY TO RULE WHEN OBAMA HITS THE HOUSE IN THE HOOD IN JANUARY!
Although I despise gangs, there are parallels to the organizations of actual corporations. But that History Channel piece was very good, they had another special on MS-13 but I missed it.
One step across Eastern Avenue (the DC northeast line) and they’ll be heading back in, holding their bloody stumps, thanks to MS-13 machetes.
“With my mind on my money and my money on my mind...”
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
I agree. It will happen someday soon.
Hopefully, before they get to that last resort, they’ll get the federal government and the states to end the War on (some) Drugs and thus deprive these menaces of a lucrative source of income.
These bro’s jus’ followin’ the advice of pastor Jeremiah Wright an’ brotha Obama, dat dey avoid “middle-classness,” yunnastan?
They left out Detroit? That would seem to be fertile soil for them these days.
I believe the term you are looking for is "martial law".
But...
dat be profilin y0!
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