The Ongoing War Of Crips & Bloods | Crips & Bloods Made In America | Documentary Central

[Music] r r [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] there's a war going on in South Central these Crips and bloods have been worn for 30 eyed years one of the longest one wars in the history of this Always be someone outside that's ready to kill me because of where I live at he go over there and kill one of them and they come over here and kill one another it's like we born into it you can't dodge run away and get out of this this is what it is 911 your emergency over the past 20 years alone

in LA county there's been over 15,000 gang related deaths if you had 15,000 people killing each other in any other country there would be diplomats there would be Mediators it would go to the UN I grew up in the hood I was born in the hood I was raised in the hood I'mma die in the hood I didn't choose my destiny my destination chose me in the southern portion of the richest city and the richest state in America lays a cluster of neighborhoods the streets and boulevards laid out in a grid between concrete ribbons of

freeway 10 Mi to the West is the Pacific Coast Highway and the beaches of Santa Monica 5 mil to the north is Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills 7 m to the east is a corner of Hollywood and Vine 25 mil South lays Orange County in Disneyland surrounded by the California Dream this region has its own legacy on its streets erupted the country's most violent outbreak of civil unrest not once but twice it's also the home of America's two most infamous African-American gangs the Crips and the Bloods whose bloody 40-year Feud has taken five times as

many lives as that the long-running sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland yet whose devastating body count continues today but in South Los Angeles life wasn't always this [Music] way one 2 one two [Music] in the 1950s three friends from South La Ron bird and kamasi grew up reaching for their piece of the American dream the most significant thing was when I went to join the Boy Scouts okay the Boy Scouts of America my mother takes me up to the Scout TR and good your rubber plant where the original blimp from 1933 to 1983 parked in our

neighborhood right there so I go up there to join the Boy Scouts my mother tell the scout master uh he was nice but he tells my mother Well I don't know but some of the parents might object cuz it was a white truth see they say be prepared do a good turn daily a scout is is trustworthy loyal hopeful friendly cour is kind of beating cheerful Brave clean and Reverend that's the Boy Scouts of America a bunch of [Music] races we couldn't be cup Scouts couldn't be Boy Scouts couldn't be Explorer Scouts we couldn't get

involved in Organized activity that would take us anywhere that would bear us any kind of good fruit you see so we built an auxiliary alter [Music] alternative with names like the businessmen the Gladiators and the slaon black teenagers began forming their own Street Front fraternities our neighborhood was situated in an area where we were assigned and designated to a little Small park on 62nd in Hooper called sloon park that's where our name comes from [Music] the sloon would evolve into what many considered to be LA's first modern African-American gang but we never called ourselves a

gang that was something that the city and the police would describe us as we were [Music] Clubs What drew me to slaon was that they mirrored who I was and it made one feel like one had some status and you had an identity now an identity that you didn't have anywhere else there's a sense of family there's a sense of acceptance you also have a way to wield some power because now you've got numbers we had rivalries among ourselves and then we had rivalries with people in other neighborhoods yeah slon and is of Sosing and

wat or slos and C but our ring was on the sidewalks and in the Parks and in the alleys that's where our Rings was see in those days we give you an appointment for an ass whooping oh you had to be there because everybody else in town knew about it they said bird how good are those things I said these things right here I said I will beat your hairline all the way back to the center of your head whoop your sideburns off beat all the Eyebrows off your forehead that's what we call woing though

you know but I was good with my hands that's why they said man these are guns you know when you looking for somebody to tell them I'm gunning for him but it wasn't really about destroying somebody it was just a competitive thing you know just competing with each other [Music] I used to get stop by the police all the Time my mother always said you know what did you do this that's I didn't do anything you know see people including parents could not believe that the man just stopped you all the [Music] time young black

men in this Society have always always been represented as the most threatening figures across the board they're viewed as being people who will commit [Music] crimes from 1950 to 1966 the Los Angeles Police Department was commanded by Chief William Parker Chief Parker ran the police department like a military unit and the people who bought a Brun of this were the black residents cut it off get out of that car here hands up get your hands up I said drop that purse and get your hands up and so the cops were treating these young black men

As though they were enemies as though they were in Warfare get up get your hands [Music] up it was an Open Secret that when one of the tacit duties of the LAPD was to make sure people were in the right neighborhoods at the right time and Alam Boulevard was the white curtain in La you didn't cross Alama for no reason at all east of alam these were white areas Lynwood Southgate we couldn't go there You had cops that didn't want you there and blacks that dained to cross the line were quickly put in place by

police officers they are bar invisible barriers social barriers and their job is to reinforce that barrier we get stopped we get harassed what are you doing here you supposed to stay in your [Music] neighborhood one time I was walking down the street on 77th in Central and uh the Man said hey you I heard him but I kept walking he said hey you and they ran on the curve jumped out the car and said didn't you hear us calling you I said I heard you say you but my name is not you so you know

get up against the wall and such a so and they tell me I look like I've been robbing I said well how does a robbert look he said looks just like [Music] you and so you feel this sense of alienation you're culturally disoriented You don't have a sense of identity in terms of who you really [Music] are so the idea was to create not only a segregated Society but the idea that those of Darker Hue were inferior and should be treated as such [Music] and after a while you begin to internalize this and you develop

a deep-seated self-hatred because you see yourself as having Almost no [Music] value in a free Society I'm walking down the street police got the ner to ask me where you going where you coming ain't nothing of your damn business where I'm going and ain't nothing done of your damn business where I came from [ __ ] you talking about where are you going he going to ask me what are you doing here you go anywhere and ask anybody else what they doing there you stopp and ask Anybody else in this Society man why do you

exist you understand what I'm saying but you got the know to ask me that all day every day now what do you think that does to me psychologically what does that tell me what message of I being fed every day see he don't understand that every day he's feeding me a spoon spoon full of hatred every day that's my diet spoonful of Hatred you see and it's just a question of when is this going to erupt and upon whom is it going to erupt am I going to attack myself am I going to attack my

brother you understand am I going to attack my own image in the mirror or am I going to eventually attack the car cause of my anger and my frustration but the point is I'm going Walk In Time B I'm going to go off someday somewhere on somebody the Question is upon whom at 7:00 p.m. on August 11th 1965 in the corners of 116th in Avalon 21-year-old Watts resident Marquette fry was pulled over by the California Highway Patrol on suspicion of drunk driving a routine traffic stopped until police insisted on impounding Fry's car despite being less

than two blocks from his home Fry's mother Reena who owned the car joined the rapidly growing crowd who along with Marquette grew Increasingly belligerent over what they felt was the heavy-handed police Poli response LAPD reinforcements are called in a scuffle broke out and Fry his mother Reena and brother Ronald were all taken into custody the squad cars rolled away but the crowd continued to swell as word of the incident swept through the neighborhood when I walked up on 115th in Avalon Charles mcarter from the Dalian I said man what happened he said They jumped on

Marquette we just got more and more upset it was a cumulative thing it was one racist traffic stop too many by 8:15 over 1,000 Watts residents were surging up and down Avalon Boulevard but by 1:00 a.m. despite 29 arrests and sporadic reports of vandalism the situation was assessed by the LA d as being under control where are the sidewalks up ahead please go in your homes please go in Your homes Thursday morning dawn tense but relatively quiet at 2 p.m. a meeting was called at a neighborhood Rec Center assembling representatives from various Community groups elected

officials the LAPD the media and even Reena fry I think that we must stay off the streets I think the Civil Rights Drive in America has demonstrated that violence will never be the just end to the Grievances we have but cutting through a call for order Came a voice that only the night before was raised by thousands in the street see and I'm going to tell you something tonight it's going to be another one whether you like it or not no no wait wait wait listen listen we the Negro people down here have gotten completely

fed up our elders is fa you should bite the bullet suck it out we know it's wrong that you can show that you're greater than oppression by outliving it show That it doesn't work it doesn't destroy you that in the process we will take the be their parents are coming from places where black men are expected to step off the street and say yes sir to a 12-year-old white boy where black men are lynched with regular Po ity and so from their perspective Los Angeles looks wonderful they're certainly aware of the flaws but they recognize

it's such an improvement their Children however have a very different perspective we come along say we ain't going to take [ __ ] you took it and we're [Music] not by that afternoon crowds of African-Americans again f fill the streets but this time facing over 200 LAPD and deputy sheriff officers so here we are in a crowd at night on Imperial and Avalon things went such disarray and we're facing cops in the Street and they went to move the crowd back see so when the man moved on us we moved toward him and so you're

looking at one another and you're reading the eyes of people in the crowd there's the body language that says let's go and do this and then they fired some rounds in the crow all right it's on now get on the ground get on the ground everybody back Back right now you're [Music] we were throwing rocks at police who were in the street and they were taking position up behind their cars and firing and I said damn they they're shooting at us cops have weapons and they had a law behind them the citizens don't have anything

behind them but their own heart their own desire their own determinations and they're really fighting to survive and you cannot whoop Us we're already dead we're already beaten down we've been beaten down for 400 years we already got the wounds inside and outside our bodies how you going to hurt us you cannot threaten us you cannot frighten us we live in the most frightening places under the most frightening conditions we are immune to fear we are immune to harm you see what I'm saying you have stepped into a Cess pool you're the only one going

to get infected By Friday morning additional police were called in from All Points of LA to squash what authorities were now terming a fullscale riot he see they call it a riot it was no Riot we knew what the hell we were doing what you're seeing is Guerilla Warfare but the reason that you can't say it is because you never gave the so-called nio credit for having enough intelligence to be strategist enough to practice Guerilla Warfare But then what happens is that it becomes a big newspaper story which increases political pressure on the authorities to

do [Music] something and then they brought in 16,000 m National Guard who don't know the [Music] terrain the National Guard in particular is not necessarily trained to engage in civilian crowd [Music] control we wanted to drive them out and so the question then is what do we do and we were opportunistic Fighters we didn't need stock PS we got dilap ated buildings here's a brick pile just waiting to be thrown at your ass here's a dilapidated build ain't nobody living there you didn't fix it you didn't remove it okay it ain't a pile of bricks

anyhow that's coming at you that whole building Brick by Brick is coming at Your ass that's what we throwing into the building the [ __ ] the rubble the rubbish that we live in that's what's coming at your ass those are our weapons the filth the FK the [ __ ] you can't stand that you defend that you put a barrier between us and yourself that's coming at you it's coming at you at that point they went to the Other Extreme which was the iron fist the iron Hammer this leads to a virtual free fire

zone where people could be shot He for making the wrong turn at the wrong intersection the claimed by police is that these were looters that were refusing orders to Hal the autopsies clearly show that people were shot in the back one has to really question whether or not a human life is worth a bottle of beer a case of beer that is to say people were being killed for what in retrospect were the most trivial of offenses the Looting didn't undermine Anything because we're talking about desperate people we're talking about people who have nothing who

see no hope this is a criminal a lawless element with which we're confronted and that the only thing they understand is force and [Applause] power that's been the one taboo is that black people and other oppressed people in this country are never to use violence to achieve what it is they Want but this country uses violence whenever it chooses and then it legitimizes the [Music] violence when you send me the message my life is of no value and how can your property how can your Society how can your civilization How can any of the Moors

or the rules or any of The Monuments How can any of that be of any value to me when all it has on the door for me is a rejection notice I'm not Allowed to look I'm not allowed to touch I'm not allowed to partake I'm not allowed to participate all my life I was rejected before I was born I am the most rejected reject nothing is open to me and every time I knock on the door and get rejected it takes a little something out of me so how does it mean anything to me

that I should try to salvage it or I should respect it or I should try to Preserve it it stands as a barrier before me it was there when I was born it will be there when I die [Music] the fact that it took him 5 days to shut down something they thought they could shut down in a day is a testament to that revolutionary spirit and so there was this sense of Pride that we had taken a stand and that we had sent a message out to the [Music] World newspapers in Europe and other

parts of the world carry the story carry these images and so in a sense it unmasked this country showed this country for what it really was prior to the 1960s race riots as they existed were really Riots of white people marauding through neighbor hoods where blacks were living and attacking blacks the Riots of the' 60s Detroit Chicago New York La these riots are completely different because they Are really manifestations of black anger black hostility and that's very new what distinguished Watts from the riots in Chicago and Detroit is that nobody thought it could happen here

the whole environment of was supposed to be so much nicer than other parts of the country but yet that image of La that's in the public mind had nothing to do with the large numbers of black people living here in segregated [Music] Conditions the other thing that the Rebellion represented for us was it helped accelerate our consciousness from 65 until about 71 gang activity in La was at a all-time low because so many young people with joining organizations like the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee like the panther [Music] party this growing black pride movement saw the

development of dynamic African-American organizations committed To instigating change from within [Music] keep former Street Fighters like Kumasi bird and Ron now fought the power rather than other gangs working alongside groups like the Black Panthers on Civic programs that range from free breakfasts to Neighborhood restoration to political activism [Music] Believers keep on all them young were busy trying to Rebuild their communities trying to build a future trying to figure out where the [ __ ] do we go from here together and how do we give ourselves some kind of a future but this new black power

structure quickly found itself in the crosshairs of government agencies like the FBI according to recently Declassified documents FBI director J Edgar Hoover launched a covert Counter Intelligence Operation against the Black Panthers an organization he described as the greatest threat to the internal security of the country they turn around and squash those MERS former Lawson and panther chapter founder out print Bunchie Carter and John Huggins were gunned down at a UCLA black student meeting while black panther Founders huie Newton and Bobby seal faced arrest and lengthy jail [Music] sentences within a few short years many of

America's most influential iconic black leaders had either been incarcerated or assassinated they ran him down they chased them down they hunted them down they murdered everybody that they could and made everybody else either go to Exile or they locked them up in the penitentiary and when all that was over with a new element rose up called the Crips you see and the [ __ ] started again [Music] the original Crips came out of our neighborhood they were the children we passed by every day and paid no attention to but they watched us we had the

generation our parents came from and we had the great personalities of their generation to connect with we had something to attach ourselves to they Didn't they were born in a state of suspended animation they were totally disconnected and disenfranchised they're like a planet out of orbit in the late 1960s from the black top playgrounds of Fremont High School emerged this new order led by South La teenager Raymond Washington generally credited as the Crips founding member in response a number of rival gangs formed an alliance calling Themselves Bloods a moniker adopted by African-American soldiers serving in

Vietnam with the opposing armies now in place battle flags were raised bed blue for Crips and red for Bloods did exactly which set our neighborhood Dre first blood and why may never be known much of the firsthand knowledge has been taken to the Grave by gang leaders like Raymond Washington who was shot and killed in the corner of 64th in San Pedro guys don't fight anymore they don't use we used to fight but they don't do that anymore all about you taking them out part of the mechanics of oppressing people is to pervert them to

the extent that they become the instruments of their own oppression over the next four decades Waring [ __ ] and blood sets would car the streets of South La into a grid of rival [Music] territories today these fractured communities are home to five generations of urban [Music] soldiers these are crys and bloods of all different eras and ages from different neighborhoods loyal to different sets yet they share one thing in common all have grown up at War on the streets of LA [Music] [Music] you ain't from where I'm from [ __ ] you that's just

how it is where we come from that's just the whole model killer be killed [Music] once you go to Enemy Turf anything can happen to you come across Normandy you die come across Vermont I feel bad for you when I was gang banging if you was from my hood you don't come to my hood if you come to my hood and you don't Know nobody in my hood then you die west side of us is bloods on the east side of us is cribs we just surrounded in a box you know what I mean we

surrounded by by enemy sets this was created over 20 years years ago to where the Geographics in the neighborhoods have been separated by gangs certain streets certain alleys certain stores certain schools certain Parks were claimed as turfs you can't go to this gas station Put some gas in your car you can't go to that ber King over there cuz you in the wrong neighborhood [Music] you got some [ __ ] that ask you where you from and you can tell them you know I ain't from nowhere homie you know what I'm saying but you got

some [ __ ] that won't ask you [ __ ] just blow your head off just cuz where you at I done been jammed up guns and all in my face where you from I have to Tell them you know what I mean told them where I was from Guns come down and I'm out of situation I wish I can just go and just be wherever I want to chill with man there other girls and other projects is man I just want to go through and just see man you feel what I'm saying my little

young hotti man I can't even go there and see my young hotties on everything I can't man you can't do [Music] It my little brother walk out the door to school 6:00 in the morning and they shoot at him as he going to school so you got think what type of sick [ __ ] in this world be up that early in the morning just you know what I'm saying to do some cruel [ __ ] like that we've been burying one of our friends and one of our comrades and we've had shootouts at the

funeral where another one of our homeboy gets killed at the funeral you Dig so as we live amongst each other there might be one street it might be one gas station that service two or three different gangs well when I get to the gas station I have to find out what are your intentions with me while I'm pumping gas so I cannot turn my back and allow you to shoot me or hit me in the back of the head I have to look you in your eyes and see your intentions and when I look you

in your eyes I'm looking to see if you're a wolf if you're a wolf And I'm a wolf then we need to come to some sort of agreement so we can both get out of here peacefully and if you're a pork chop I'm happy let me go on and get my gas pork chop I appreciate you being here when I was in the communities talking to guys in the gangs in watts and Compton and Englewood that so many of these particularly the younger guys had never seen the Pacific Ocean in a gang infested Community there

are situations Where people will not leave a given 10 block radius for years put it like this man for those that don't go nowhere they got a [ __ ] up attitude about a lot of [ __ ] why because they don't know nothing else and he's been taught man that if you ain't quick you dead it's what they call slipping don't get caught slipping slipping means relaxing being off guard not on point not always hostile hard ready to do and die and be the one who does instead of the one who Dies you can't

have heart living there you have to be on your toes at all times man because anything at any time can happen to you wait a minute you you can't have a heart no no no you can have a heart but you better not show it it's sort of never let yourself be weak never letting yourself be seen as someone with feelings emotions except for brutal force [Music] In the ghetto you will be taken advantage of you will be targeted sharks that just eat you up so out here in a concrete jungle you got to be

respected as a man but in most cases respect is actually fear you better respect me you better fear me you want to have that hard look everything is hard you want to be in That right state of mind if you feeling good about your dress code going represent you don't want to dress like no sucker not out in the world not in the game that's all we know man is looking good feel good about your and do whatever it takes to look good I was on book tour and two guys were with me in San

Francisco to be interviewed I knocked on the door of their hotel room and they said come in And here are two the most hardcore gang members and one of them has got his ironing board out and he's got his traveling iron he's ironing his clothes it's the look man you know we just get some starts and we iron our [Music] [ __ ] it was like fashion to make your pant stand up in the corner where nobody in them what about that you know what I mean [Music] for somebody that has no idea why a

young man would do it what is the alluring stuff I joined the gang not only for the protection but for the love for the unity to be a part of a family if you living in a ghetto and you living in an environment where you're being assaulted like I was I just got tired of being a victim it's like either you're the victim or you the Victor raised into it it's not like you Going to get out of this somewhere you raised into it like this is what they teach you at a young AG I

was really a good dude then you know getting chased out of school getting shot at all the time and you like [ __ ] it I'm damn if I do damn if I don't sh I didn't get jumped in this I grew up in this my mom grew up in my neighborhood my dad from my neighborhood all my uncles from my neighborhood so I don't look at it as like no gang thing It's just family looking up to all my big homies and [ __ ] they look down on me and bless me you know

they give me what I [Music] [Applause] [Music] need and that's why when he's hooked up with his crew they feed and they looking out for him they putting clothes on this back okay but now it's time to get in this car and go get these [ __ ] that Just shot up my house what you going to do what you going you obligated to do that man just fed you all month so how can you say no to that let's go kill these [ __ ] because man [ __ ] you feed [Music] me how

old were you when you first got a gun my first gun I was like 10 I probably was about 12 man I got my first gun when I was 13 years old we got guns just to go to school you know if you Don't have one you got to be around somebody that got one I carry two or three guns cuz if I run out of one I have another one I got a backup the AK-47 the uzi the Mac 10 you got big guns you ain't got 22s 38 these cats pulling out 9 mm

with 16 bullets in them come on man how you going to survive that gun shot my generation was the last that fought after my generation it was gun play it was no such thing a fight the Kids today came right in the game with gun that's why so many murders that's made a 12 year old 13y old King for a Day oh my God put you in a whole another state just a sound within itself said that you cleared the block bow bow bow you cleared the block people closed their Windows shut their doors car

alarms go off the dogs and cats run ain't no rats I mean you cleared the Block and you standing there 12 13 years old with the pistol smoking and you sticking in your pocket and you walk on [Music] home I think it's very hard to use a gun against another individual or human being but once you block that part of your mind now it becomes very easy you can watch them they become numb the first time jittery you can just see the nervousness in them and you come back And look at that same person after

being involved with the hood for a year and I mean they soldiers they ready to get [Music] out these wars go farther back than most of these kids been around a lot of not true about why the war was going on but they started doing what was being [Music] done don't nobody like us but that's even before our time before I was born it would been like that so I just grew Up into making more enemies we at war with a lot of people right now but being who I am and the [ __ ]

that I've been through I got a lot of love for being a real [ __ ] out here and that has saved my life a many times you know what I'm saying but at the same time it's another generation that don't know me and feel like they can get a stripe if they get rid of me you see me you give me a pass I see you I might give you a pass depends on how I Feel don't give me a pass then you already know what time it is next time you see me the

game is to hunt your enemy and whatever they do you Counterattack They Ride On The Wall you ride on the wall they beat up somebody you beat up somebody they shoot somebody you shoot somebody they come over here and shoot one of us we go over there and shoot like three or four of them and it became a doggy dog War One your loved on get killed then what you expected is you got to retaliate because your heart is broken not their you know what I'm saying you in tears of fer not them so now

you got to make them feel where you feel and it's is a vicious cycle it just goes over and over and over again that natural white T-shirt no further description even though I'm in the game I'm in I pray but how do you deal with The moral argument man I ignore it I don't pay attention to it there's really no room in this in this world for soft [ __ ] man soft [ __ ] don't eat I wrestle with my moral issues a lot man because I know that ultimately this ain't the way that

God or Society intended it to be so a lot of times man I know morally I'm a good individual but sometimes I got to put that moral State of Mind behind me and become an animal what that [Music] I prior to World War II 85 90% of the black population of this country lives in the South you are you are black people had primarily lived in the South because of slavery and the South was a rural agrarian a farm [Music] [Music] economy World War II ushers in a series of Transformations that radically change The nature

of black history in this country blacks for the first time are in invited and Mass to work in America's industrial Arsenal for democracy building those tanks building those planes building those [Music] ships between 1940s and 1970s you see over 4 million African-Americans leave the south in ways that had never never occurred before head for New York head for Chicago head for Los Angeles for the first time they were integrated into the American work economy they were earning enough to be lower middle class homeowners in LA and to establish if not exactly a very close similarity

to the American [Music] dream La didn't have the overt history with racism that one had in the South there were no laws that said blacks had to ride on one part of the bus there Were no laws that said blacks had to be in certain schools there were however an extremely exclusive web of racially restrictive housing covenants that kept blacks in particular areas and out of other areas these covenants mandated the sale of real estate along racial lines in an effort to keep traditionally white neighborhoods free of non-desirable homeowners sometimes non-desirable meant Latino sometimes non-desirable

meant Jew sometimes non-desirable meant Asian but It always meant black and so those racially restrictive covenants which didn't disappear until the late 40s and early 50s essentially kept black circumscribed in a very narrow portion of the LA County region black people were sort of forced to live on top of each other because it just wasn't possible to live where you chose even though you might have been able to afford it [Music] [Applause] South La residents responded by transforming their allotted territory into a thriving cultural Hub with Central Avenue developing into a sort of Harlem [Music]

West West Coast's best jazz clubs dozens of black businesses lining the street people dressed in their Sunday Best on the weekends a period during which the most affluent and the poorest blacks Live essentially side by [Music] side and then with World War II's end LA's wartime economy adapted itself to a booming automotive industry with major corporations like GM Chrysler Ford Goodyear and Firestone all establishing factories in South Los Angeles you work in a factory you got good benefits you can buy a house you could buy a car you could raise a family you could live

A working class a lower Middle class life it was a moment of unprecedented black prosperity in which the trajectory of Black America was on the rise people were getting jobs people were buying homes people were buying cars sending their kids to colleges it was a moment of real optimism [Music] in the late 1950s you begin to get the first wave of what came to be called [Music] Deindustrialization the American economy is changing we're moving from an industrial economy to an economy based on service based on information rooted in technology that is it's high skilled High

wage high training on one hand very low skilled sweat shop labor on the other hand blacks find that their skills don't fit into either of those demands they don't have the education or the skill or the training because of Historic discrimination to work in Aerospace on the other hand they don't feel any desire or need to go into the low skilled service sector jobs like hotel cleaning like sweat shop work in downtown LA because they don't perceive that as jobs that American citizens should have we're not talking about people who had careers we're talking about

people who had jobs if you have a job you are dependent upon that job so when that Factory closes you are in essence ass out by the late 60s you see those plants beginning to disappear when they disappear there is virtually nothing left in their wake [Music] and so it leaves a gaping hole in the economy of that [Music] region with consequences that are just [Music] enormous generation In America it's supposed to be about the American dream people are supposed to move up they're supposed to elevate we're talking about a situation where in actuality it

went in reverse the children over time began to do worse than their parents in 1975 the Los Angeles Times sent reporters into the streets to assess progress in the city's black communities 10 years years after the Watts Rebellion the fearful live behind protective bars and double locks high schools are graduating functional illiterates some black people have got businesses some professionals have gotten into significant jobs but if you talk about the masses or that guy who was in trouble in 1965 it is more difficult [Music] now for the black in the ghetto the goal is Survival

e can I ask you a few more questions yes definitely keep hold on let's just let this up I don't want to lose what you say [Music] huh siring huh how about up they going on all night and all day all night all day you on your own your Own got a hurricane Katrina going on right here been going on gang of refugees if you want to call them that we displaced like a [ __ ] a helicopter flying overhead might not be acceptable on Brentwood however it's something that occurs every 2 or 3 hours

in my community in the South Central Community Based basically what you have is empty Fields broken down businesses if you have any Businesses every corner you got a liquor store you got all the different things that help make you less [Music] stable take a walk down Isam Boulevard from crunch to Vermont and you tell me the opportunities that are available low-income housing five or six churches gang violence crack the introduction of crack cocaine onto the streets of LA in 1981 proved to be a major Tipping Point For an already vulnerable Community when cocaine came into

our area it broke up a lot of homes you know a lot of people just thought crack was the way out you know without even thinking about their kids you know what I'm saying that would broke a lot of homes up if that crack would never came probably still have nice little homes and nice little families you know but when that came that like tore everything apart but let me ask you man did you Have a conventional childhood hell no I'm dysfunctional ass family can you tell me about it [ __ ] up father see

out of here he been gone since 93 I was raised without a daddy basically so I had to be a man on my own take care of my mom and [ __ ] my G my family my little brothers and sisters I to do this [ __ ] by myself how do you advise your little brothers and sisters do what you do what else can I tell him look at [Music] Me I grew up watching my dad beat the hell out of my mom I watched my father alcoholic I smoke PCP with my mother you

know I mean I grew up on drugs man I mean you know I got kicked out of 10th grade for selling weed for my my [Music] mom my mom was on drugs you know what I'm saying now she cool no but back when I was younger my dad he in a federal penitentiary 12 years no I grew up in a house where my Grandmother my uncle everybody was selling drugs you know what I'm saying I grew up to where when the police rating they handed me drugs to hide and all this old stuff I grew

up in a home where my mother worked two jobs but had three boys so you can imagine we were unsupervised so I found my supervision outside of the home she was too busy making a living than to love Me even though she tried and did the best that she could it was not enough I can say that my whole life I was trying to figure out why my mother didn't love me or why my mother didn't show show me love if she could say it she couldn't show it meaning that she never once gave me

a hug or a kiss it'd be $20 because she would have to go somewhere but all the while s chasing other men other people and giving them the love I thought I should have it made Me act out it made me resent her in a certain way only because I could have resented my dad but he never showed me the negative imagery he just was gone so all I had was a thought of who he was and who am [Music] I there was a lot of black kids in the neighborhood that just went the opposite

way or when the gangs was outside they didn't come outside you know what I'm Saying they had some parents that get in your books and stayed on but if everybody had that then a lot of things would have been different but that wasn't the case a lot of minds are messed up because they don't have that support they don't have no one that really got their back they don't really have no who understand [Music] them you got the homies down the alley Drinking some eightball and they tell you you are something we love you and

you can be a part of this then where you going to go [Applause] the Common Thread throughout all of these conversations and throughout our community it seems to be for the most part the absence of a father a male figure father figure in the [Music] home I wasn't taught At all about manhood I was raised by my great grandmother my grandmother and my mother there was no male figure there was no role model for [Music] me so you come up in a home when there is no male influence there's no strong male influence then uh

everything is going to be out of whack the people that taught me taught me wrong taught me how to be Hard T it taught me how it was about being tough you going to teach me how to be a man by just fighting tell me fight somebody or go shoot somebody that's the way they Tau me being a man you have a subculture of young black men pretending to be men by killing each other or by standing up in a bado manner [Applause] but they're [Music] misguided well I'll sit here and I'll Tell you that

I didn't become a man until I was 38 years old because I had to hold the hand of a man it was just that simple a man had to stoop low enough to take me out of the gutter and say hey this is the way to go this is what you do this is how it's done nowadays the fathers or the black men my age are either dead or in jail and one of the problems we have is if they're going to try to arrest the problem that means they're putting all The black men in

[Music] jail a 2003 Bureau of Justice report reveals that 28% of African-American men more than one in four will be jailed or sent to prison in their lifetime we have engaged in this country country in an absolutely historically unprecedented experiment in Mass imprisonment we now have an imprisonment rate that is 6 to seven times higher than it has ever been before in our History it's a hustle called capitalism got my [ __ ] in prison or stuck in the system yeah and in 2007 California's governor announced plans to spend 7.4 billion to build 40,000 new

prison beds I'm from a place where a [ __ ] Terminator is the governor you look at the population of the people in the penitentiary particularly from the 1980s going forward black men are disproportionately represented that's the new cotton field Right there the pin concrete slave ships never move when [ __ ] like us get used like a m don't let them catch you arrest you stripping and dress you you in a pool what this means is we are breaking up even the possibility of there being intact families with a mother and a father present

raising a child together because we are sending the men off to prison at unprecedented rates usually for nonviolent offenses you do it here come the police Invented and design for us to fail when you going to end up even with time served many of those determined to start a new life find little freedom in their release I go to get a job I'm working for Xerox and I lied on application and they found out I was on Parole and I lost my job I used to be jealous of my wife going to work every day

this is my wife a woman that stood by me grew up with me been with me ever since we was Kids and she would go out the house and go to work and I would be mad at her because she could go to work and I couldn't go I would be mad because she's paying the bills and I couldn't pay the bills man I feel like man we over here man we locked in the box man matter what we do you get a record you not getting nothing I just got the pen they don't hire

me cuz I'm a parole leag that's what I'm going to do just sit out here and be broke stop it either on myself Some weed some dope some Crystal some Heron or I'm going to rob to make me that's the bottom line I'm not going to see my nephew my son my mama or nobody star because these [ __ ] won't give me no job so I got to do what I know how to do there's never no cycle to get us out of this there just a cycle to get us back into it so

of course people are going to behave in ways that are antisocial if we don't let them behave in pro-social Ways when you hear America saying there's going to be a war on crime to a black person that means that's a war on black people when they say a war on gangs I say that's a war on me when they say War on Drugs I say that's a war on me every war they got is a war against me and my people we need to come in here and solve this problem not attack this problem cuz

here's a people that's already angry I don't have nothing to Lose if you attack me sir I'm being attacked every day anyway I'm being shot at every day anyway so you shooting at me you putting me in jail don't mean nothing to me that's where the gang problem so-called is it's it's been redefined as a crime problem and a gang problem but it's really uh an issue of no work and dysfunctional schools and so on we know that what we've been doing to deal with gang violence isn't working but we just Keep doing the same

thing over and over again and then we say well the fact that it isn't working doesn't mean that we're acting out of ignorance or maybe we need to learn something we say it just proves that these kids are unredeemable it's a belief that our society did not contribute to the formation of this problem that's the story of the scapegoat the gang member is the scapegoat nothing's our fault it's their Fault we didn't create them they're inevitably [Music] encourageable this continuing atmosphere of denial brutally guaranteed that history would repeat itself on April 29th 1992 27 years

and 5 miles away from the flas point of the 1965 watch Rebellion rioting again broke out andcome the most violent costly outbreak of civil unrest in US history so much trouble on my mind Refuse to lose here's your ticket the Dr Get Wicked the explosion of angry protest was touched off by the outcome of the controversial Rodney King LAPD police brutality trium the message to the community is that the system does not deliver Justice it does not work for us so we have to find our Justice in the streets my home is your home [Applause]

no justice no but welcome to the [Music] [Applause] [Music] terod but unlike the 65 Rebellion which was primarily contained to Watts flames of 92 burn their way to the very doorstep of bordering affluent [Music] communities would you join me please and welcome in Marcus Garvey used to say that when all else fails to organize the people conditions will and therefore in 1992 the reasons all clustered together and it happened again [Music] in the aftermath of' 92s Uprising a high-profile private sector initiative was formed to create rebuild La the $6 billion investment program defined its goals

as long-term systemic change and promis to create 74,000 new jobs within the riot Zone over the next 5 [Music] Years at the same time a tentative troop between several [ __ ] and blood sets helped establish a tone of optimism for South LA's War weary Community but just one year later with many South La neighborhoods still in ruin rebuild La quietly closed its doors a young generation of kids heard about this promise they momentarily got their hopes up they committed to this peace treaty and instead they learned that it was just another Fork tongue Promise

of the [Music] man it failed we should have known what the future would be in other cities from here to Baghdad gang Warfare would resume and for the next 15 years contined unchecked with almost no effective outside intervention I'm the [ __ ] the is Cle the wit of you know what everybody looks at him and says you're The worst [ __ ] in the world we don't like you we don't want you we don't even want you to survive we want you to go away we want to pretend like you don't exist I'm coming

straight out [Music] of this is my grandson his name was Mark conelius he was 17 years old very promising young boy and in 1996 he came here to Los Angeles to visit me I begged my son to allow him to come from Yuber City California to visit me he was here three weeks and he was shot and killed 10:30 in the morning walking across the street headed for dorsy high school he didn't have gang colors on he didn't even know too much about the gang as a matter of fact he said to him when I

warned him about where to go and where not to go he said Grandma this is America this Is where we're supposed to be free this is where we're supposed to be able to walk down any Street we choose and the next day he died doing what he thought was his right [Music] death is a way of life now in our communities [Music] [Music] [Music] Can you imagine a society where mothers are burying their children instead of their children burying their mothers [Music] that [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] I have to cry in order to to

to keep going I have to cry cuz if I don't cry And I keep on the anger up in me I may do something you know people say oh you can get over it hell no we can't we just just get through it just get through it we'll never get over this you didn't take my dog you didn't fore clothes on my house you know you didn't you know repossessed my car my son was murdered he just didn't die he was [Music] [Music] murdered so when I finally went back to School I'm a always crying

and it it's amazing all the kids look around and they're like all you know lot of the girls all teed even some of the boys and then I would ask them how many of you guys know somebody Uncle a father a friend a schoolmate who was murdered and when they first I asked that question and 3/4 of the class raised their hand I just broke down in tears [Music] [Music] the a recent comparison of twin psychological Studies by the lanet and Rand Corporation indicates that children in South Los Angeles are exhibiting greater levels of post-traumatic

stress disorder than children of a similar age in Baghdad the war torn capital of Iraq and if they don't get resources for the youngsters what's going to happen you got another group of angry children Another group of [Music] killers if someone right now said what do you want in your life I'll give you anything you want what would it be man one thing just one thing Freedom my wish would be for Crips and bloods to realize that everybody else is against us and if we don't come together it's going to be over for us so

if the resources were here you're saying These kids wouldn't choose game no man no man you choose that cuz there's no hope you you you in no man's land there no hope people taking choices of going to college and like that's like making a choice here you ain't making no choice there no choice it's like you waiting for somebody to come save you man and you just ain't going to never get saved man I did the gang bang and The Stomping out the sets to getting shot to drive buys to getting shot and drive buys

to Going to jail to all that right but had I had a chance or someone else tell me fool you playing the devil's gang since I've been in the gang man I've done been to the county jails to several penitentiaries and back and forth through War as far as gunfights and stuff so this perception they gang banging is wonderful that is the lifestyle to live it's no lifestyle to live period your reward for gang bang is to be crippled laned for Life your Greatest reward is life plus 40 years your ultimate reward for gang banging

is death and you don't come back from that [Music] [Music] today the streets of South La have given rise to a new sort of gang determined to fight not simply for turf or colors but for the lives of the Next Generation I work with about 4 or 500 high-risk youth every month the first Thing I do I apologize to them because I have to let them know my generation has failed you miserably see I'm 51 years old I've been through Decades of this structure so let them know that hey we have done some wrongs just

like you doing wrong these peacemakers many of them former gang members have stepped out from behind the guns and are now standing between them literally risking their lives with the formation of street level gang intervention Organizations privately funded receiving almost no support from either state or federal governments these Grassroots movements are taking the first crucial steps towards stopping the cycle of gang violence people who care who want to see a better Community who want to see a better country and we got to start getting together and having some sit Downs so that we don't keep

breeding generations and generations who only think that that's the way to go An alternative to that lifestyle has to be put in place and if they want to see change then they going to have to be willing to invest in that alternative lifestyle one thing my son told me one day was Daddy I said what's up he said I know how you get your money I said how I get my money son he said them dirty people come up you give them that white stuff and they give you money I said is that right so

he took off and rolled off on his bike and it set me I said there Thinking and wondering damn my son really out here watching me doing what I do so if I still continue on robing whatever it is he's going to do the same [Music] thing right then I made a choice in my life whe I was going to stick by them or stick by us us is meeting me in my neighborhood my gang them meaning my kids so I chose to stick with them turned around a little bit now I'm a coach role

model proud Parent and I'm living I'm the one who prevented my own self from going to different areas I prevented it because of my mentality and because of what I did how I dressed how I carried myself if I went into an area and I'm dressed in all red I'm looking for problems and I would be looking for problems I'd be looking for the guys in blue I'd be looking for the guys that look at me when they looked at me now I'm ready to deal with with this problem I'm ready to show my anger

I'm ready to show my ignorance that I can get just as stupid as you but when I stopped that mentality when I started dressing differently I started thinking differently I've increased my freedom to where I would go anywhere and when I get there and and see certain individuals they will say well that skipped from over there and we can hey how you doing and we could talk now and it's not a problem I go to everybody's neighborhood and it's not a problem how do you like that love it I love it I truly enjoy it

[Music] we are a democracy we have the resources we're the richest country on Earth it is absolutely outrageous it is inexcusable that we have failed to meet the most Elementary tests of what it means to be fellow citizens and build a community [Music] see the ingredient is to care about people and to love them that's the ingredient cross the board and to understand that they are human they're not gang members they're human beings [Music] one thing you have to realize you open them up there would be a stamp under their shirt that says Made in

America okay not no place else they Weren't made in Taiwan or you know Indonesia they were made in America [Music] [Music] see was manufactured imp package H American bastard tragic born in the Rapture story classic with blasting cadillacing was smashing my stashing that cashing hustling that's what was happening in 82 wh was backing Bing back then we had it K up in that plastic M tricks like magic papy disappear can Imagine if I seen him today walk P him with from Adam Adam from ad Adam ad from Adam Adam yep I'm from this familiar cuz

mentality my community man I kill you but I hope is homie I feel you I was raised up on welfare embarass spending food stamp in the store even when the cler was there they [ __ ] for free food banks and government cheese funded do and every H Pay attention closely crack was the commodity a classic USA biography I was just a CH that honestly See [Music] [Music] [Music] see I was labeled and Shi exported like 36 imported keys of bricks slanging trying to get rich 1900 91 running holding big guns gang banging feeling the

love slugs instead of hugs my auntie was [ __ ] D my cousin was locked up when I popped that pistol I felt up major Pap I wanted to touch not just Busting but really Hing struggling trying to make something out of nothing buting living body gun the distribution prti ball the street shooting Nars got to eat get a smash you Dr it than you can cop it never exchange hands with a s a police man sering right after B Supply for the large Dem man had what you need staging Grand daily mentality [ __

] you bayy locality 080s South Central crazy Los Angeles guys save me from the plans of the Country that may [Music] [Music] [Music] my warranty guaranteed for my full life expect past 21 and expecting me rather three strike and six slavery Modern Day USA even after the CIA gave us to Kan and then they taught us how to slang we just Children of the game following our for father's name we all trapped in the Fallen brain trying to survive and Escape the pain nowadays they scaven a bang trying to survive the world with God don't

take no more my speak the truth it's the truth daily in these La Streets between cribs and bloods and black something you got to see cons of the mark of the beast they want toar me with a chip revolution in these streets calling us terrorist don't you read to watch the news on is war Time Can't Be Peace got to have a dream to succeed so many people rest in peace from all these Neighborhood beads deadly politics with the heat blood stain and concrete police harassment this case you see wake up and fight free free

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