Crips–Bloods gang war

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The Crips and the Bloods, two majority-Black street gangs founded in Los Angeles, have been in a gang war since around 1971. While it has mostly taken place in Los Angeles and other major American cities, it has presence in Australia, Belize, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom as well. The war is made up of small, local conflicts between the two gangs' chapters, or "sets". An estimated 20,000 people have died from the overall war as of 2014. In the 1970s, a wide variety of socio-economic issues in South Central Los Angeles led to the emergence of gangs like the Crips, who claimed city territory and guarded it from other gangs. The Bloods formed to counter Crip influence. Both groups started extorting money from local businesses and distributing crack cocaine. In the 1980s, the war reached other countries. By then, the gangs' members often identified themselves using clothing colored blue for Crips and red for Bloods. Those wearing a gang's colors in an opposing...

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