How do you look for Gang Colors?

[Carol]

MT member Hawke has posted a bit about gangs. He's shared his personal experience with gangs in his area and posted about whether would teach a gang member martial arts.

His writing made me think back to Halloween night. I live near Salem, Mass...a big place for Hallowe'en celebrations. Police from towns all over the North Shore were on the lookout for "gangs and gang colors" as it was described in the Salem News.

In this Northern California story, some Staples employees in an upscale suburb of San Francisco have been beaten for wearing their trademark red shirts.

In my area, gang activity has been rather quiet but from time to time some independent gangs show their face.

What should one watch for? What can one do?

 

[tshadowchaser]

What I say next will ring true to those that live near gang areas but will not help you much. You live in an area you know what the gangs wear and look like. If you live near a Blood area you may not want to wear blue, etc.
When the guy coming down the street towards you has only his top button buttoned and his bandana on a certain way you may want to give him a little more room and respect because he may be carrying and looking for trouble. If everyone in the area has pink eye shadow or lime green pants on you might consider that they might belong to some neighborhood organization

 

[Makalakumu]

This is a parochial question, Carol. It really depends on where you live and what gangs live near you. Every single one of these organizations has their own rules, their own colors, their own symbols. And sometimes things are different between two branches of the same gang.

All I can say is that gang representation can get very sophisticated. "Colors" isn't an all this color or all that color issue. Sometimes its just a particular splash of color in a particular place that makes all of the difference.

My advice is that you talk to a police officer in your area. They should be able to tell you what to look for.

 

[Kacey]

Here's part of a Power Point our School Resource Officer updates every year and presents to the staff. I took out information on specific gangs, as most of it is based on what's in the area of the school, but left in the general information. Drop me a PM if you'd like the full presentation; our SRO told me I could share it with anyone who wanted the information, after people in one of my grad classes heard me talking about it and asked if they could get the information. Sorry it's zipped - but it told me that *.ppt is not a valid file format.

 

[jks9199]

Everyone else has pretty well answered this. Gang colors and gang identification is something that is locally driven. In my immediate area, for example, it's not nearly as common today as it once was to see bangers flying their flags and openly identifying themselves for everyone to see. (It seems that they didn't like the police attention they were attracting...) Or, we've had gangs that traditionally wear blue use other colors to differentiate themselves from MS.

With experience, you learn to identify the look -- but there's just no easy way to describe them. And the gangsa-look is in right now... Very loosely speaking, look for neatly folded (often pressed) bandanas, possibly trailing out of a pocket, baggy clothes (which may just be a fashion statement), and flashing hand signs. You can see some examples by searching for gangs, or at KnowGangs.

 

[Last Fearner]

WOW! I think the others here have answered this question with excellent responses. I was going to say much of the same things. I think this great that we keep posting information about gangs, because it is ignorance of the subject that will get people killed more often than what we typically think of as a "real-life self defense scenario."

It really is not so much about looking for gang colors, but being aware that wearing the wrong colors in the wrong neighborhood can get you killed. Gang members pretty much know who lives in their turf, and who is in their gang (with the exception of larger cities where sub-factions of the same gang are more spread out). They flash unique gang signs with their hands, and use other subtle methods of identifying each other, but I think it is done more to warn of other gangs trespassing in their neighborhood. The way a bandana is worn, the pocket it hangs from, or the direction that the bill of cap is pointing on their head is just as much an indicator as the "colors."

At clubs and other places where rival gangs might meet up, clothing and hand signals are more to tick off the other gangs, establish territory, and even to provoke fights. Innocent people are often targeted just because they don't know they are in gang territory, or that they are wearing a color of a rival gang (be neutral in colors, or find out from police what colors and symbols are used in your area, or where you might be traveling).

The fashion statement mentioned by jks is one of the problems that gets people in trouble. Often times, non-gang affiliated kids will think they are being cool by dressing with the "gangsta" look, or like a favorite rap artist only to unwittingly show some kind of dress pattern, color, or tip of a hat that represents a rival gang - - and they are knifed by a passing gang member, or shot in a drive-by. One of the problems within the gang culture is that they are constantly recruiting new members, and this might require them to commit a crime such as assault, armed robbery, rape, or even murder just to get into the gang. Anyone can become a target. We've had several such problems in our area in the past. Also, drive-by shootings pop up out of nowhere, and innocent bystanders are often the victims.

It has been said that many of these colors, symbols, and gestures are different from place to place, but also can change from year to year, or month to month. The best bet is to learn where heavy gang activity exists, and avoid those areas (especially at night), and contact any local police, or gang task force that collects and distributes current information about gangs in your area.

CM D.J. Eisenhart

 

[Hawke]

The website JKS gave http://knowgangs.com/ has lots of info on gangs. Red, blue, and black appears quite often, but when I used to work with juveniles I remembered one gang who would wear purple.

Definately talk with your local police dept. They can inform you which gangs are close to your neighborhood and where they like to hang out.

If you see graffiti and the marks are clear, that usually means gangs. If the graffiti looks fancy and not too clear then it might be a tagger (generalizations). If you have graffiti outside your property there may be a city service that will remove it for you.

Some of the people you meet might just dress that way because they like the look, but if they had tattoos that might raise a red flag inside me.

 

[Drac]

Cannot add anyting that hasn't been posted except NEVER under estimate these "bangers"..Most of them are armed and have to hesitation to use their weapons...

 

[kidswarrior]

If you see graffiti and the marks are clear, that usually means gangs. If the graffiti looks fancy and not too clear then it might be a tagger (generalizations).

Good points (many good points here, but don't want to walk over what others have already covered, or has been done in other threads ). the one thing I'd add to graffiti is, gangs and even tagging crews--which now also fight over turf and often are armed (so have become small time gangs) is often done in the color claimed by the gang.

but if they had tattoos that might raise a red flag inside me.

Also a good point. Taggers don't usually go to the lengths of ink, in my experience--at least not tats that advertise their affiliation. That's usually more a gang thing.

 

[LawDog]

The posting on this thread are very good, I was envolved in a county gang unit/tast force during the 80's. This is a general guide to help recognize a gang.
1) Unity markings
* same type of patch,
* same type of tat,
* tat's in the same location,
* pins/buttons,
* some of the clothing is the same
* clothing worn in the same fashon / manner,
* similar way of walking,
* same hand recognition signals
2) those of authority will be out towards the front,
3) security enforceres will maintain a certain position within the group either while walking or on m/c's,
4) everyone will be checking out who is around them.
These are but a few.

 

[jks9199]

Cannot add anyting that hasn't been posted except NEVER under estimate these "bangers"..Most of them are armed and have to hesitation to use their weapons...

In VA, it is (as of last July) illegal to brandish a machete (or other knife longer than 12 inches), and machetes are specifically mentioned as prohibited concealed weapons. This is purely in response to Mara Salvatrucha (MS13).

Assume bangers are armed. Expect them to be ready and willing to use weapons. And, for what it's worth, baseball bats and clubs ARE deadly weapons.

 

[Darth F.Takeda]

In VA, it is (as of last July) illegal to brandish a machete (or other knife longer than 12 inches), and machetes are specifically mentioned as prohibited concealed weapons. This is purely in response to Mara Salvatrucha (MS13).

Assume bangers are armed. Expect them to be ready and willing to use weapons. And, for what it's worth, baseball bats and clubs ARE deadly weapons.

Yes it's gotten to the sad point in our area, that if you come across a group Salvadorian youths together, you have to pressume they are MS-13, for safty sake.

If we ever have a Katrina like event, these are the Rats that will be scurrying around, doing harm, I saw it in Florida after Andrew from the gangs down there.

As long as we let criminal and seditious groups hide behind our laws,then we will have to put up with them to some extent, even when there is Historical presidence for the singling out and elimination of such groups.