The Crips are one of the Los Angeles, California gangs. The Crips are identified by the blue color worn by their members and the gang is largely composed of African Americans. The Crips were formed by Stanley "Tookie" Williams and Raymond Washington in 1971, after the two became fed up with random violence in their neighborhood.
The Crips quickly became popular throughout southern Los Angeles as more and more youth gangs joined it; at one point they outnumbered non-Crip gangs by 3 to 1. In response, some of the besieged smaller gangs formed an alliance that later became the Bloods. Some of the most notorious Crip Sets (a subgroup of a bigger gang) include LA's Rollin 60's Crips, Watts' Grape Street Crips, Long Beach's Insane Crips, and Compton's South Side Compton Crips.
The Crip gangs have branched out throughout the United States and even internationally. Due to the loose network of territorial gangs, there are significant differences between the various cliques. Even in Los Angeles there are new gangs with Crip affiliations emerging. Crips can be found everywhere from North and South Carolina to New Jersey. In 1989, Belizian immigrants in New York City formed the Harlem Mafia Crips in Harlem.
While there have been bloody rivalries between the Crips and Bloods, a peace treaty was recently negotiated, the treaty being largely based upon the ideals laid forth by Nobel Peace Prize nominee and original Crip founder Stanley "Tookie" Williams in his "Tookie Protocol For Peace" ideals. Though violence levels have been reduced somewhat after the conclusion of this peace treaty, gangland killings and warfare still persist in heavily gang-controlled areas. Some high profile rap artists such as Snoop Dogg are members of the Crips.
There have been many different explanations for the origin of the name of the gang. For example, "Crazy Real (or Ruthless) Insane People", "Community Revolution (or Restoration) In Progress", "Criminal Riot In Progress", a misspelling from "Tales from the Crypt", a shortening of the word "cripple", etc. These may all be folk etymologies.
They are known to feud with Chicano gangs. The Crips, who wear blue, and the Bloods, who wear red, were originally inspired in their color choices by the Chicano gangs of California, each representing a different area; the Norteņos, who wear red and represent the North side, and the Sureņos, who wear blue and represent the South side.
External link
