Crips and Bloods | Office of Justice Programs (2024)

FAQs

What are the Bloods and Crips fighting over? ›

The Bloods and Crips rivalry is not just between each other, but with other gangs in LA. They battle for drug routes and turf control, often leading to violence and death. Even if a truce is called, tensions can rise quickly. Smaller gangs may side with one or the other, making matters complicated.

The numbers 0, 3, and 1 are very significant to East Coast affiliated Bloods and will appear in their graffiti and tattoos. Zero represents Bloods, three stands for the 31 rules they have to follow, and one represents the love for all Bloods under one umbrella.

Gang Identification

It is extremely important to realize and understand that not everyone who wears a particular color, or who has a tattoo, is a gang member. Bloods wear red, Crips wear blue. There are thousands of gangs in the U.S. and most identify with one or more colors of every description.

The name and what it stands for remain in debate, with Crip possibly referring to the gang "crippling" its enemies or an acronym for "Community Revolution In Progress." Early on in the gang's history, the color blue came to be associated with the Crips, with gang members wearing blue clothing and bandanas.

The number 5 is commonly used by the Bloods, and the number 6 is used by the Crips. The up arrow through the 5 is showing respect to the Bloods while the down arrow through the 6 is showing disrespect to the Crips. To the right is an example of Crip graffiti.

After dropping out, he joined a local street gang affiliated with the wider Bloods gang and became a full-time drug dealer, mainly selling cannabis.

Bloods Gang Tattoos

Many members have what is known as a "dog paw or triple o's" or three circular burn marks on the arm made by the heated barrel of a handgun that forms a triangle. Additional tattoos include simply the word "blood", five-pointed stars or crowns, pit bulls, and tear or blood drops.

G-Shine is a Bloods Gang set that evolved from the United Blood Nation in the late 1990s. G-Shine originated in the New York/New Jersey area and migrated along the east coast and now has sets, or sub-groups, in multiple states including New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

The backronym stands for "Member of Bloods," with 662 representing M.O.B. on a telephone keypad, according to prosecutors.

Some claim it derives from Swahili; others believe it imitates the sound of police sirens. The most likely explanation, though, is that soo woo is a variation on woop woop, a slang way to express excitement. During the 1990s various Bloods members started using woop woop to greet one another.

What is the Crip Star? ›

Crips have been known to replace the letter “B” with the letter “C” in writings. Crips' symbols include the six- pointed star which represents Life, Loyalty, Love, Knowledge, Wisdom, and Understanding.

Location: Bloods gangs are located in the Southwest (Los Angeles, in particular), West Central, Pacific and, to a lesser extent, the Great Lakes and Southeast regions. Criminal Activity: The Bloods primary source of income is derived from street-level distribution of cocaine and marijuana.

Black gang members have a strong conviction that they are oppressed by "white society." The gang life of the Crips and Bloods is motivated primarily by the desire for financial gain through crime, including carjackings, narcotics trafficking, and armed robberies.

The war started when a lack of economic opportunities in South Central L.A. led to the formation of gangs like the Crips, who claimed city territory and guarded it from other gangs. The Bloods formed in response to widespread shootings by the Crips.

In 1992, a truce was announced by Crips and Bloods to deter the gangs from killing each other after the acquittal of four police officers in the beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles the year prior.

It's popularly said the name Bloods is an acronym for “Brotherly Love Overcomes Overrides and Destruction.” However, the Bloods, given their origins as a counter-Crip alliance, likely take their name from 1960s slang, blood, short for blood brother, referring to a “fellow (young) black person.”