Part 4 (1/2)

AMBUSH

By noith the wars raging out of control and nize people-that is to say, gang nizable as streets or sets Further recognition fell into ”eneories, which of course ot individual names, but I never failed to link a face with a set With the exception of my particular ho names in my memory bank I tried to store more crucial data, such as the addresses of ene to eneer

I believe that I survived those chaotic times because I took my existence seriously Since the ti was a full-ti falls short of the level of organization of, say, an institution that was for structured, so there is no coned to him, where his efficiency can be er often finds hi several ”jobs” in the course of his career For years I found iven time I was the minister of infor on walls, declaring ere and anted to kill, and verbalizing our intent at gangland supremacy on street corners, on buses, in school yards, and at parties;general troop hly visible, ency of soldiers who, at a moment's notice, could be relied upon for rapid deployuess, would fall under the heading of instructor; and combat soldier and on-the-job trainer

All participants are obligated to represent their allegiance to their respective sets everywhere they go You are taught fro to be proud of Each set actually functions like the different divisions of, say, the US Ar to the First Infantry Division, 196th Infantry Brigade, Second Battalion, Delta Co to the West Side Crips, Eight Tray Gangsters, North Side Eighty-third Street, or West Side Harvard Park Brims, Sixty-second Street My point here is the coanizations There is the Crip Army and the Blood Army Each has various divisions or chapters These are noted by streets and initials or abbreviations Sets use abbreviations sters would simply be abbreviated to ETG

As of late, sets-which are the equivalent of a coon-have started to use individual colors, outside of the universally worn red and blue, to denote their particular chapters Most notable is the purple flag of the Grape Street Watts Crips and the all-black flags of the Coreen flag of the San Diego Lincoln Park Pirus, Skyline Pirus, and 5-9 Brims of the Bloods

With each new generation of Crip and Blood bangers co institutional proportions It is precisely because of this type of participation in the developroups'will never be stopped fro successful is as realistic as the People's Republic of China telling A er a need for their sets to exist, banging will cease But until then, all attempts by law enforcement to seriously curtail its forward motion will be in vain

As November 1980 came to a close, several developed an alliance with the Playboy Gangsters who, as we duly noted, were situated behind the Sixties Their 'hood was far west, out of the chaotic labyrinth of South Central This gave us an escape place to plot and plan, rest and retreat

At this time we'd also seriously pondered the possible unification of all gangster sets, to roll back the united front of the city-wide neighborhood threat And ere in desperate need of weapons The Sixties had just hit an army surplus and secured hundreds of se to use nightly Arms proliferation was definitely an issue An arms race is what ca on numbers, or checks and balances, the proliferation continues to date

Our goal was to wait until New Year's Eve, when the entire co, and run a truck through the wall of the Western Surplus and secure as ood plan, we thought, as ould supply security for a store on New Year's Eve?

It was also during this time that Crazy De and I took the ”split-side” proposal to Sidewinder for possible approval Sidewinder was the closest our set cahty-third Street and was solely responsible for the set's break with Tookie's regieles Tookie is the founder of the West Side Crips Before there were any divisions by street, there was one big Crip army Sidewinder, in effect, won liberation of the set, which was then sister Crips (OGC) This is where the tere of it to denote our break and thus our independence from Tookie's West Side Crips (WSC)

So, as I explained above, with each generation comes new, eneral and of one's set in particular, as shown here with Sidewinder's idea of an individual set on Eighty-third Street While re in conjunction with West Side Crips, the set would not necessarily be controlled by them Its conception was to promote autonomy

All attempts at new ideas are not successful Sets fail,a set With the success of a set conition Sidewinder reached Ghetto Star status by this act alone, but he still was active in all of our wars and still lends his experience to the set's ascent today

Our proposal, our contribution, was based on war strategy For it seemed like every time we'd neutralize one Sixty, tould be recruited They have always had great success with recruitment I would honestly say that today the Rollin' Sixties have the third largest set in South Central, following the East Coast Crips and then the Hoover Crips We took notice of this threat early on and tried tiain to reduce their population by any means necessary, all to no avail So our last resort was the psychological approach Make theht-deceive them

What blew me away later on, while I was a prisoner in San Quentin, hen I read Sun Tzu's Art of War and he said ”War is deception” We had figured aseven were

Our deceptive tactic was this: We would seem to divide the entire 'hood up into sides-North, South, East, and West-thus e that we had to break the 'hood up into subdivisions It was our belief that they'd fall into confusion, trying to find the sides they most wanted to attack We also believed they'd feel enveloped by a larger, inally anticipated

But when I explained this to Sidewinder, he rejected it out of hand, citing so up the 'hood This was straight hypocrisy on his behalf, because earlier that sa the whole set into a new gang, calling it ”West Coast Gangster Trays” (WCG3s) Crazy De and I backed hih it was iested we change the color of our flag

Despite his adamant disapproval, De and I went forith our plans Ironically, the sareed with Sidewinder's idea about the WCG3s backed our develop the set Initially, we had four sides, but the East Side fell off the following year when its staunchest ht away on our ca community about our latest develop on walls, turning out parties (”turning out” means to disrupt with violence) and at schools- our presence out

This can was actually carried out by no s Diaan to produce serious strategic results Just as we had anticipated, confusion as to ho set in over in the Sixties 'hood, and ere able tostrikes in the aining n for their respective sides, though all in unity with the original idea of deception

In mid-December I broke into a house and secured two9 an to put serious dents in the Rollin' Sixties' offensive capabilities On a cold, glooht, the Sixties tried to drop some of our West Side soldiers and were cut down On the South Side a similar situation befell one of their units when one of their shooters hung out of the backof a rolling car in an attempt to shoot some homies and was instead blasted back into the car with a full charge froun The car sped aith the would-be shooter-turned victi up, and our level of recruits we did to our own set during this tis where hip our troops and kick certain people off the set, taking for granted we'd always be strong When we later found ourselves at s with as few as thirty-five soldiers in attendance, we began to regret our earlier acts of irresponsibility in regard to the treatment of troops

I shot two people in Deceht at McDonald's on Florence and Crenshaw, and the other I shot on Tenth Avenue and Hyde Park Both I sprayed with buckshot I liked to see the buckshot eat away their clothing, aleous exploits were ringing with alar coht beside nition De, however, had been captured for aa solo while fashi+oning Li'l Monster, who had gotten released from camp by this time, Li'l Harv, Li'l Crazy De, Joker, and Li'l Spike into an awesoun to put in work on a constant basis, really getting a kick out of the whole thing

We all aiting for New Year's, not necessarily to usher in the new year, but to hit the Western Surplus and procure the uns anda final offensive on the Sixties-our own little Tet offensive

December 31, 1980, was an ordinary day, overcast and a bit chilly Putting on h so as not to have to coreed to htieth, which in accord with our subdivision of the 'hood was now the South Side At approximately 4:00 PM I left my house on Sixty-ninth Street, which was in the North Side I was dressed in white Chuck Taylor Converse All-Star tennis shoes with black and white shoestrings, heavily starched 501 Levis, a blue sweatshi+rt under an XXL blue penitentiary shi+rt, and a thick Pendleton jacket I had cornrowedin bandana fashi+on

Feeling very confident, I walked through the 'hood, up through the Seventies to the South Side Of course I had the Browning 9 millimeter in my waistband I reached the South Side without incident Upon entering the apartment co back drinking Night Train wine and san to talk, Li'l Crazy De and Joker pulled up on ten-speeds Joe Joe, e had been considering giving the na for the pot and cheap wine to start having itseffects on me Never much of a drinker, I felt the alcohol hit me first My equilibrium was shot

By noas dusk, and I was brandishi+ng my 9 millio to my house and retrieve the double-barrel I called from one of our supporter's ho after the strap

By the ti the shotgun, I instructed everyone to come out into the street Once all had assembled out in front of the apartments, I ments rained all over my head and shoulders

As I stepped onto the curb to shake the shards of glass out of ht a black-and-white police car hitting the corner Spinning with surprising quickness, as I was quite drunk, I tossed the shotgun to Joe Joe and told him to ”break” But he was not aware of the police car and ran right into it He was i the 9 h the apartment complex and discarded e

Watching the goings-on fro and confiscating ht, ”two da in ht-the surplus

Once the coast had cleared I made my way back out front Joe Joe had been captured and taken, along with the guns Standing around now unarun I had siun, but I was reluctant to walk or ride anywhere unar around Peaches's apartment and listened to music

Darkness finally descended on the city In front of the blue apartments it was especially dark, because I had neutralized the light A car bent the corner off of Norhtieth with a precautionary pace that could have been misconstrued as a ”shooter's coast” We shrunk back further into the cae of darkness in an atte unfriendly fire

The car came to a California stop in front of the apartments I was able to discern three occupants, all in the front seat From their silhouettes it appeared that all three were fe women drivers for missions as of late and this was not a patented tactic Soun, or hand weapon could quite easily be lying down in the back seat waiting for the wo victie for execution We watched and waited After a couple of uish ere and us trying to differentiate the us made their ID

”That's Pah the darkness

Pa with Li'l Hunchy (This was the first Li'l Hunchy He has since been replaced by a hteous soldier) She had, however, in the past dated a member of the Rollin' Sixties Shaky and elusive is the best description I can offer for her relationshi+p with the set Her sisters' dealings with our 'hood fell even shorter than this But she was Li'l Hunchy's girl now, and those were her sisters

I had e about the escalated developments of the war Their position in this matter was neither pro nor con in respect to us In reference to the Sixties, they had taken the Fifth I had never trusted thes with theusted me hell, I would have felt better if they had just come out and said they were pro-Sixties, which did not necessarily uity threw me off

I sallied forth from my seclusion in calculated steps I walked on the balls of my feet so that in case a shooter did materialize from the back seat, I'd be ready to retreat and would hopefully escape with h for theer-sideShe leaned out with both hands open in a ”I'ed me to the car

”Hi, Monster,” she said in a squeaky voice ”How you doing?”

”I' ”What's up?” I was clearly suspicious now

”Oh,” she began, ”we're on our way up to the surplus and wanted you to co

”Why you want ht here Butimpaired by the earlier consu to let no one bother us,” she responded

During this exchange I began to think of the advantages of going to the surplus with theht raid, then have them transporthtieth Hht,” I said after debating it ”I'ill go with y'all”