How to increase SA by recognizing Gang Symbology?

[RJ]

I frequently travel into urban areas around the country. Sometimes I see graffiti or symbols on buildings which I later understand to be Gang-related.

To try and learn more, I went online, hoping to find some good info. I was surprised that, although quite extensive, I wasn't able to get what I wanted from the FBI's National Gang Center:

https://www.nationalgangcenter.gov/

However, I did find some good local sites. These are typical:

http://www.lapdonline.org/get_informed/content_basic_view/23468

http://www.polksheriff.org/InsidePCSO/LE/CID/BSI/Pages/IdentifyingGangMembers.aspx

I got to thinking, with all the LEOs here on p-f, as well as others, way more street-smart than I am, what general guidance would you give to civilians like me to increase their Gang member Situational Awareness?

Aside from the things mentioned in the links (Items of dress, Tats, Gang Colors, etc.) is there anything else that can be used to identify gang members sooner?

Obviously I'm not out to piss anyone off, but what behavior should one avoid when coming into occasional random contact with gang members?

[Maple Syrup Actual]

Obviously I'm not LE but my thoughts as a guy who has probably randomly wandered through more gang territory than 99% of people and repeatedly extracted himself from really, really sketchy encounters by sticking out a hand to incredulous locals for an enthusiastic handshake and the pronouncement "I'm from Canada!" (you would not believe how well this works)...

1) My personal experience is that gang tags are consistently terrible art. If you're seeing anything that could pass for interesting visuals, it's not gang tags.

2) Since they fixate on colours, if I start seeing really ugly, but large, graffiti in the same colour regularly, I assume I'm in gang territory.

3) This is just my personal experience but I haven't really found gang territory to have different dangers than other territory, I guess with the exception that there's probably more team crime. So I'd be really wary of accomplice-involved strongarm ploys. But that hasn't really happened to me, I think partly because every time I've thought it was about to happen, I announced that I was from Canada and started shaking hands, which REALLY throws people.

This is directly from East LA where I literally tripped over some kind of dice game being played on the sidewalk, knocking dice and money everywhere when I turned around a corner and fell on a bunch of heavily tattooed Mexican guys who were all just crouched there:

"Oh Jeez! Sorry about that, there, fellas, I just came down from Canada and never expected a street casino! We don't have anything like this in Canada! Sorry, what's that? I never met anybody who spoke Spanish before. What's the word, is it...hola? Hola, fellas. Sure am sorry about the game you had going there, can I give you a hand picking it up, or how does that work?"

This seriously disarms people to the point that they just stand there with their mouths open. If you can do a good rural Minnesota accent and they haven't seen your license plates I highly recommend it. Completely short-circuits the predatory response.

[Erick Gelhaus]

Where to start? It's regional and it can vary a lot by gang type, yet there are similarities. Keep in mind this comes from time working my gang participants and hearing about others elsewhere.

Their idea of "respect" is a big deal. Whether you agree with it or not is immaterial, it is a key. Some places are very much turf oriented, meaning specific geographical spaces, while others are much broader. Our neighborhoods tend to be fairly transient so areas that were historically gang X have shifted allegiances completely as Gang X moved out and Gang L moved in. Driving through Prescott, AZ in the late 90s (when I did my first stint working street gangs), I saw tagging remarkably consistent with my local gangs. Go figure.

Colors may or may not be a big deal (same with the sports teams) depending on how heavily they have been worked by street cops and hammered by prosecutors. If you are seeing a bunch of UNLV Rebels fans but you are in Modesto, CA that should be considered a clue. My two lead gangs are red and blue respectively but between them we handled sub-sets that wore grey or black as well. Asians can have some interesting spin-offs because of home country issues. And not every black street gang are crips or bloods (blue & red respectively). One example, Los Angeles has a southern California hispanic street with "14" in their name. My northern hispanic gang participants would flip their kitten because that is a rival gang, the enemy, using their number. IF I knew there was a specific color(s) in a given area that was problematic, I'd avoid wearing them ... that said, most of my local gang participants can figure out the difference between those playing in their world and middle aged men who aren't in the mix.

Nothing wrong with tattoos. Its the obviously visible ones in places not commonly inked that is an indicator ... face, neck, hands ... an indicator, not confirmation. Initials common across the group, numbers - especially roman numerals.

There are a lot of hybrid gangs race wise. Not just one race, but a mix of them in one group is not uncommon.

Behaviors when they encounter decent, normal humans is interesting. It depends on what they interpret as disrespect. The good news is that locally we did not see a lot (that means we did see a little) of attacks on those outside of the gang life style. Avoid places & times where they are likely to congregate. I like our county fair - pesto pasta & a couple other things - but I go weekday afternoons not friday and saturday nights. And I definately don't go to the nearby 7-11 after the fair closes. The caveat to this is when I'm not working, because on-duty I'm real likely to be there. Regarding the 7-11 near the fairgrounds, did an expert witness stint in civil court on a shooting there by Gang A who hit & paralyzed a member of Gang B. The victim blamed 7-11 not the gang life style.

I'll probably come up with a few more things later.

[schüler]

Nothing wrong with more SA savvy, but not sure it's worth a ton of time. Like McFee said, it is highly localized. Doesn't mean much if you're already inside their turf when you see signs. Or they're outside of theirs and hunting in yours.

Had a Hispanic Southside banger with last two of zip code, "41" tatted across half his body. Cuarenta y uno is slang for homosexual. On the way to booking I asked if he was advertising. Considering it was on his back...

[RJ]

Thanks for the input so far.

Yeah, it might not be as complicated as I thought.

Couple things I do if I get in an area that has a lot of graffiti is slow the truck down and make sure I don't cut off any '69 El Caminos with 22" spinners lol.

Another situation I found myself in was recently at a Sports Clothing Outlet Store. It occurred to me all the young fit guys in oddly large Short Pants buying all those same color ball caps might exactly not be a fan of that particular team.

[Jason M]

This group is local to me. I have attended some of their closed-door training. It is well reasoned and based on solid data. Additionally, they are not just street gang and narco-traffic savvy, but are also well versed in extremist symbology.
I'm not sure what is in the clear vs what is LE restricted but they may have some of what you are looking for.

http://www.symbolintelligence.com/

[Hambo]

Rich, a better plan might be virtual advance recon using crime mapping systems.

Here is Miami's as an example.

https://www.crimemapping.com/map/fl/miami

[RJ]

Hambo yeah, probably. Thanks for the link.

I use the RedZone App sometimes, but it's buggy and crashes a lot.

https://www.redzonemap.com/

This week, I'm under the blue dot:

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170719/7f050186350355c0e0fb047aa99bcef7.jpg

Message is probably 'stay out of downtown Portland' but I kinda knew that already.

[Odin Bravo One]

I'm not sure what to do with my hands.......

[Clusterfrack]

Hambo yeah, probably. Thanks for the link.

I use the RedZone App sometimes, but it's buggy and crashes a lot.

https://www.redzonemap.com/

This week, I'm under the blue dot:

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170719/7f050186350355c0e0fb047aa99bcef7.jpg

Message is probably 'stay out of downtown Portland' but I kinda knew that already.

You're not that far from me, Rich. But don't stay out of Portland! Food's amazing, so is the beer. So much fun to be had there. Definitely need to maintain SA, but in comparison to most other big cities, it's fairly safe here.