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LA gangs ally for financial gain
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder passes memorial murals upon which are written hundreds of names of people killed by gang violence at the Nickerson Gardens Recreation Center after meeting with community youth and families participating in the Los Angeles anti-gang program, Summer Night Lights, and the Watts Gang Task Force on July 16, 2009 in South Los Angeles, California.
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Law enforcement officials said in comments published today that peace has broken out among some rival L.A. gangs, with their common greed supplanting their historic enmity.
"They were talking. There was hugging and high-fiving. It was unbelievable," Los Angeles County sheriff's Detective Robert Lyons told The Wall Street Journal in describing a friendly restaurant meeting he witnessed between Bloods and Crips.
Lyons, who has spent nearly 20 years fighting gangs, told the newspaper he now hears gang members say, "red and blue makes green," meaning "Bloods and Crips makes money.''
The world of gangs is characterized by strict territorial boundaries and racial divisions. But investigators say they are seeing cooperation that crosses these lines.
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"You see African-Americans dealing with Hispanics on obtaining narcotics and weapons. We're seeing Hispanic gang members involved with the Eastern European criminal figures," Robert W. Clark, acting special agent in charge of the criminal division of the FBI's Los Angeles field office, told the Journal. "Where they see opportunities to collaborate, they do."
Gang-related violence in Los Angeles is at a 30-year low. Aggressive law enforcement and gang-specific programs may have lessened the violence, but cooperation between gangs may also be a factor.
"Now, instead of having 200 guys that are arch-enemies with 200 other guys, you have 400 guys working together against law enforcement,'' Lyons told the Journal.
Los Angeles police Chief Charlie Beck told the Journal gangs are "treating their activities more like businesses than before. In business, you work with whoever you have to."
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