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How New York Gang Culture Is Changing

Violence in the NYC criminal landscape is increasingly dominated by small, neighborhood-based factions, though "super-gangs" like the Bloods and Crips linger.
Seth Ferranti
Some gang graffiti on Troutman Street in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Photo via Flickr user Hrag Vartanian

The gang landscape in modern urban America can be tough to wrap your head around. Most of us have heard something about the Bloods and Crips, but those gangs have plenty of factions and rivals.

In New York City, cops attribute much of the lingering gun violence to a relatively small group of men wrapped up in localized gang activity, as the New York Times reported last month. As violence began to move into tourist-frequented areas earlier this year, officials responded with grassroots initiatives led by former gang members. Meanwhile, as VICE recently reported, the NYPD has arguably gone off the deep end in its efforts to rein in gang activity, targeting dance teams for special treatment.

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To get a sense of just how real the gang threat is, VICE reached out to renowned New York State gang expert Ron "Cook" Barrett—he has served as a gang prevention specialist in Albany—and Kevin Deutsch, the award-winning Newsday crime reporter and author of The Triangle: A Year on the Ground with New York's Bloods and Crips.

Here's what they had to say.

VICE: What are some of the biggest gangs in New York today, and why are they the most prominent?
Ron "Cook" Barrett: The biggest gangs in NY are obviously influenced by the Department of Corrections (DOC) and filter to the streets. Traditionally, since 1993, the Bloods have been the power within Rikers Island and many state correctional facilities. Sets like the Mac Ballers, G Shine, Brims, and Gorilla Brims have been active and constantly fight for control of facilities. They outnumber many rivals. There are Crip sets, Latin Kings, Trinitarios, Gangster Disciples, MS-13, and others active.

Every nationality is represented within the gang culture… and with the African-American population in New York State prisons being the largest, the gangs will reflect that. In California, for example, because of the Mexican population, the Mexican Mafia (Sureños, Nuestra Familia) are the power groups. With the Hispanic population growing in New York State, these groups are starting to become more visible in our state. The largest ethnic group in the area will dictate what type of gangs you see.

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The staying power of many local Bloods sets—despite scores of gang sweeps and crackdowns over the years—has been remarkable.

The biggest trend in New York State has been the influence of hybrid gangs—these groups are known and represent in their cities only… They represent local housing projects, parks, city blocks, and streets…. Buffalo, Syracuse, Albany, Newburgh, Poughkeepsie, and obviously the boroughs of New York all have a heavy presence of local territorial hybrid gangs with nontraditional names like Wave Gang, 4 Block, YGz….Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, Mount Vernon, Washington Heights, you name it… they all are seeing a rise in hybrid gangs that are not connected to the traditional "super-gangs" (Bloods, Crips, Kings, etc.).

Kevin Deutsch: During my reporting In New York City and its suburbs, I've found that the Bloods and Crips are likely the largest gangs in the region, with each boasting dozens of sets across the five boroughs and Long Island. The Bloods appear to have more members, due to especially high membership rates in and around low-income housing projects in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens, as well as on Rikers Island. The Bloods boast higher membership numbers largely because of their decades-old presence in impoverished pockets of the city—areas that have withstood several waves of gentrification. The staying power of many local Bloods sets—despite scores of gang sweeps and crackdowns over the years—has been remarkable. Collectively, however, the number of young men belonging to independent neighborhood cliques and crews still outnumber Bloods and Crips. They are so abundant, and densely spread across the region, that it's difficult to say which of them is the largest in terms of membership.