Before Crips

Much of the history of how young people in South Los Angeles came to form gangs has never been written down. This book works to recover it. It grew out of a close friendship between John Quicker and Akil Batani-Khalfani, who goes by Bird, and the two worked together to show how structural disadvantage turned loose, hang-out street groups of non-White young people into full gangs. That process laid the groundwork for the Crips and the Bloods.

The authors apply a macro historical approach to weigh the political and economic forces behind the creation of gangs. Their sources include a critical archive, direct interviews with men who were among the original gang members, and a review of relevant theory and scholarship, all used to place gang life and gang formation in context.

The book covers the criminal economy, ideas of masculinity, racial and gender politics, and attitudes toward violence. The co-authors openly debate many of these subjects with each other. Writing from both inside and outside the gang world, they explain gang values and organization, what members did and why, and how the groups expanded amid inequality and police brutality that culminated in the 1965 Watts Rebellion.

The book provides a foundation for understanding early gang life in South Los Angeles. It identifies what has stayed the same over time, what has changed, and the origins of the violence that persists.