All About Gangs

« Paul V. Coates--Confidential File | Main | Random shot » Asian gang war June 4, 1957 Los Angeles Meet the city's Japanese American gangs: The Black Juans, the Dominators, the Koshakus, the Ministers, the Algonquins and the Little Gents. Unfortunately, The Times wrote very little about them. One exception was a 1970 story about the Yellow Brotherhood , a self-help group founded to help get gang members off drugs and back in school. One unidentified founder, a former gang member, said: "The kids aren't happy. The parents are working so hard to give the kids the things they didn't have but they are thinking in terms of material things. Not love." Tadashi Nakamura 's 2004 film on the Yellow Brotherhood won an award for best documentary short at the San Diego Asia Film Festival.

( excerpts from Territoriality Among African American Street Gangs in Los Angeles by Alex Alonso, PhD Candidate . In Los Angeles and other urban areas in the United States, the formation of street gangs increased at a n alarming pace throughout the 1980s and 1990s . The Bloods and the Crips, the most well-known gangs of Los Angeles, are predominately African American [1] and they have steadily increased in number since their beginnings in 1969. In addition, there are approximately 600 Hispanic gangs in Los Angeles County with a growing Asian gang population numbering approximately 20,000 members. Surprisingly, little has been written about the historical background of black gangs in Los Angeles (LA). Literature and firsthand interviews with Los Angeles residents seem to point to three significant periods relevant to the development of the contemporary black gangs. The first period, which followed WWII and significant black migrati...