Let's Talk About Gangs

By John Thompson

(EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first in a multi-part series written by a former gang prosecutor.)

There has been a lot of news recently about gangs, particularly MS-13, a gang that started in Los Angeles, California. Gang culture is its own unique culture, and to the average American, it is completely foreign. This article is a primer on gangs, not intended to be all-inclusive as that would require writing a book, but hopefully timely and informative.

What Is a Gang?

Let’s start with the technical stuff, a definition of a criminal street gang. Back when California was red, they did some smart things with law enforcement. One of those things was passing what was called the ‘STEP’ Act, the Street Terrorism Enforcement and Protection Act. That Act added enhancements for various crimes by gangsters, and defined ‘Criminal Street Gang’ as “an ongoing, organized association or group of three or more persons, whether formal or informal, having as one of its primary activities the commission of one or more of the criminal acts enumerated in subdivision (e), having a common name or common identifying sign or symbol, and whose members collectively engage in, or have engaged in, a pattern of criminal gang activity”. See CPC 186.22 (f). It is the best definition that I know of. See also, the Federal counterpart, 18 USC Section 521 which is similar.

The pattern of criminal gang activity that brings the enhanced penalties mentioned in the Act is what you might expect, things like murder, rape, robbery, arson, and other crimes of a similar nature. Further, the STEP Act also requires a name and identifying signs or symbols for a gang.

Tattoos

One of the items in the news lately has been the MS-13 gang and their tattoos. Again, an entire book could be written just about gang tattoos alone, but there are two main points to remember. First, even more than what tattoos on the average person might tell you, a gangster with tattoos is almost certainly telling you critical parts of their life story. Various numbers and symbols tell you where the gangster lives, what gang they claim, who their closest associates (‘home boys’ or ‘homeys’) are, where they’ve done time in custody, and many other things. Second, and this is critical to the current controversy about the democrat hero Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the dearly deported who has at least one MS-13 tattoo is this:

It is difficult to emphasize this enough in plain English, but you would never, ever get a gang tattoo of a gang you didn’t belong to unless you decided that you wished to die a painful death, and that right soon. This is even more so because not all gangs are alike, and MS-13 is an actual terrorist organization. They wouldn’t just kill you; they’d torture you and take pictures of body parts that they separated from your corpse. In the gang culture, tattoos are a symbol of pride and a badge of honor, they are not for lightweights to get inked as a form of bling.

Some common but more generic gang tattoos would be the three dots in a triangle pattern. That symbolizes, "Mi Vida Loca," meaning, "My Crazy Life."

Another one is the combination of a laughing face and a sad one, symbolizing a gangster’s choice to live with the consequences of short-term excitement, and long-term costs, appropriately named "Laugh now, Cry later."

One other part about ‘symbols’ mentioned in the Act is important, and it is in the form of graffiti, sometimes called tagging, or ‘placa’ as they say in the barrio. Most folks have seen graffiti, but just like tattoos, they don’t realize how much it communicates. Generally, the more ornate the graffiti, the more likely it was done by a ‘tagger’. A tagger is someone who is basically a combination vandal and wanna-be artist, but not a gang banger. For instance, when you see railroad cars or semi-trailers marked up, those are most likely done by taggers.

Gangsters, on the other hand, have a particular style and meaning to their work. Their ‘placa’ not only delineates what they see as their gang territory, but also will present things like honoring fallen members, sometimes having a roll call of some of the existing members, or maybe making boasts about their superiority. An example might be something like, ‘Calle Cinco Rifa’ or simply ‘CCR’. That means ‘5th Street Rules’ (rifar is the Spanish verb which technically means ‘to raffle’, but in street-slang usage means ‘to fight’ or ‘to rule’).

The above photo, seemingly of unintelligible scratches, actually tells quite a bit. First, a blood (red) gang has proclaimed itself. The letters CVTF stand for the blood gang, Compton Varrio Tortilla Flats. They have threatened two specific rivals, a gangster named 'Jasper' and another named 'C-Mac' by 'crossing them out', which is more than disrespect, it is an actual death threat. You can also see a Crip (blue) gang which almost certainly is Jasper and C-Mac's gang, has come back and crossed out CVTF and some associated gangs in the 36th Street area of Compton.

Why The Gang?

Now for the gang members themselves. Most gang members come from broken homes, that’s no surprise, but why they join might not be so apparent. For most of us, we were on various teams or in the band or debate club or participated in other activities that required at least some base level of competence, training, and hopefully excellence at the chosen activity.

What you find with most gangsters is that they lack both intellectual and physical prowess. They didn’t make the team, the grade, the band, and they didn’t get the girl. However, by joining the gang they instantly transform into something far greater than what they would be on their own. They are now feared by many, have a group that is loyal to them and has their back, and have street cred that they could never get if left to their own devices.

It must also be said that sometimes joining a gang is simply a matter of survival in some neighborhoods– if you aren’t part of the gang, you won’t just get your lunch money stolen; you’ll be robbed, beaten, sexually assaulted, or even killed.

Candidly, the nature of most gang members is that they are like a pack of wild dogs. They are neither big nor handsome nor great hunters, but as a pack, they can be effective. Consider a real-life illustration from a guy I played football with, another offensive lineman. Let’s call him ‘Miguel’. Miguel was a big guy with a good head on his shoulders and a fine ball player. His description of his neighborhood was this:

“If you see one or two gangsters walking in the barrio, heck, they’ll cross to the other side of the street so they don’t have to pass by me. You see three or four? Well, you might get some jawing. But you see five or six? Then they are real brave and you’re gonna have trouble.”

There is one other part of gang membership that has become more prominent in our news cycles as the years have gone on – the financial incentives. Unsurprisingly, drugs are a main driver of the finances and activities of the gang. Selling drugs, buying drugs, using drugs, robbing others of drugs, and defending drug territory make up a significant portion of their activities and can yield tremendous financial benefits. Relatively new and explosive, at least thanks to the last administration, is human trafficking. That was almost unheard of back in the day but now pays huge amounts of money and tragically, victimizes women and children in unspeakable ways. Combine that with the other ‘normal’ gang activities of theft, extortion, fraud, and the like, and you can see the economic incentive to be a gangster.

John Thompson is a former prosecutor from Southern California who spent years assigned to a specialized Gang Enforcement unit.

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