RSSTHE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW: There Will Be Bloods
[Photos by JUSTIN ROMAN]
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Valley of the Shadow is an ongoing series documenting how those in Philadelphia’s poorest and most violent neighborhoods publicly mourn and commemorate their dead. Jeff Deeney knows these neighborhoods well from his days as a social worker. The hope is to shine a light on the city’s untouchables, brighten the darkest corners and gather-and-share ultra-vivid and all-too-real stories of loss, grief and remembrance.
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BY JEFF DEENEY The air around the Norris Apartments — the high-rise housing project on the eastern fringe of Temple University’s campus — is thick with blunt smoke on a sunny Saturday afternoon. The skunky aroma wafts genie-like through the air, down the street and beneath the bulbous red nose of an oversized Sylvester the Cat, propped against a black iron fence. Tied to the railing to the left of Sylvester’s head are two red bandannas.This the street memorial for 22-year-old Kevin Parker, who was gunned down in the early evening of Easter Sunday.
While we shoot the scene, a group of three project boys sitting on another low-slung railing closer to the front doors start looking over their shoulders at us. One is wearing a white hoodie and bright red Phillies cap; he stares at us hard, then gets up to walk inside, waving over his shoulder for his friends to follow. I pretend to take notes while watching out of the corner of my eye as they duck in the front door. They linger there, cracking the door open and peeking out at us until deeming it safe to return the railing. They fire their blunt back up and continue passing it around.
Around the corner on 10th and Diamond, there’s red-painted graffiti on the concrete pilings supporting the train
tracks overhead. One scrawled piece reads, “Got Red Bull?” Another says, “Red Bull gives you wings.”
The bandannas, the graffiti and possibly even the brand-new Phillies caps that the project boys seem to favor are ominous signs that the national Bloods gang continues to make inroads in Philadelphia. In this instance the phrase “Red Bull” is a play on the term “young bull” that kids in the neighborhoods have used to reference an up-and-coming hustler. A search on MySpace including the phrase “Red Bull” and keywords relating to the Bloods brings up scores of pages decked out in virtual red bandannas. One Philadelphia teen with the Red Bull phrase referenced on his page states his Blood affiliation boldly; he has a picture in his profile of red bandannas knotted together to look like a pot leaf and a picture of a man wearing red pants and red Chuck Taylors standing on a blue bandanna – that’s the Crips’ color. There’s also a picture of a blue bandanna cast on the ground and set on fire. The burning blue bandanna picture is captioned, “This iz how I feel aBout U if U fuck wit a cKraB.” cKraB being Blood slang for a member of the Crip gang; the letters “cK” stand for “crip killer” and B’s for Bloods are always capitalized.
Back in January the Inquirer reported that the Bloods were taking root in Southwest Philly; two months later there’s evidence that the gang is in North Philly, possibly operating out of a high-rise public housing tower two blocks from the heart of Temple’s campus. Philadelphia has historically resisted the spread of national gang franchises, for reasons most people I’ve asked can’t quite put their finger on. Philly’s gang culture has always been a fractious collection of cobbled-together elements representing different blocks in different neighborhoods. Whatever the reason for this resistance to national gang franchises, it seems to be disappearing, and the Bloods are putting down roots that seem to be spreading.
Last summer a former client of mine got locked up. He was a longtime streetwise hustler and drug addict who had spent a number of years clean and getting his life together. He relapsed on heroin and crack and within weeks was locked up on a possession charge. When the police ran his name through the system, an old warrant from when he got arrested in Trenton decades ago popped up (“No joke,” he told me, “this warrant was for stealing somebody’s Betamax, it was that old”). He was shipped over to Jersey for a stay in the Mercer County jail. What he saw there terrified him.
“It’s all Crips and Bloods in there,” he told me, “and they’re wild, man, wild. Packs of these young boys are runnin’ the jail, 18-19 year olds, and the second I got there they were up in my face, ‘What gang you wit’?’ I was scared for my life the whole time. They all had weapons, it was like everyone but me had a shank. I never slept for more than 20 minutes, walked around with magazines taped around my chest for protection, the whole nine. It was ready to pop off any second with all these gang kids roamin’ around.”
The New York Times reported in 2006 that a statewide sweep in New Jersey netted 60 gang members. They were all Bloods, and all sent to Mercer County jail. Bloods-related prison violence has been on the rise in Camden, as well.
It’s not just Bloods making their way into Philly; on Lena Street between Church Lane and Armat in Germantown the graffiti is blue. The phrase, “BYM CRIP” is painted next to the Star of David, a symbol long ago co-opted by the gang. BYM stands for Brickyard Mafia, which was the gang’s name before Philly began embracing colors from California. Apparently the Brickyard Mafia, like other Philly gangs, has aligned themselves with a national organization.
Did the Crips and Bloods make their way to Philadelphia by migrating through New Jersey from New York? Or did they come from down south and take New Jersey first? At this point, I don’t think there’s enough intelligence to say for certain how the Crips and Bloods got here, though I feel fairly certain that this won’t be the last memorial adorned with red or blue bandannas that I’ll see this year.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jeff Deeney is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in PW, City Paper and the Inquirer. He focuses on issues of urban poverty and drug culture.
April 8th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
Bloods and crips have been, I say again BEEN in Philadelphia. I had a friend killed YEARS ago becuase of that BS.
JUDGE DISMISSES MURDER CASE VS. CRIPS
Source: Dave Racher, Daily News Staff Writer
The Bloods may have won the South Philadelphia “turf war” that resulted in two deaths and several injuries on May 28, but the Crips won the battle in the courtroom. Two frightened teen-agers took the Fifth Amendment yesterday, refusing to implicate four reputed Crips gang members charged in one of the killings. So, after a six-hour preliminary hearing, Municipal Judge Felice Rowley Stack dismissed murder, conspiracy and aggravated assault charges against the four,
Published on October 9, 1997, Page 16, Philadelphia Daily News (PA)
April 9th, 2008 at 8:41 am
Sorry to hear about your friend, Jay. Why do you think it’s taken so long for the Bloods to start making inroads into the Philly gang culture? I understand that they’ve been around here and there, on the fringes, for a long time but now there does seem to be some organizing and a greater presence citywide. Why now? Why not ten years ago?
Doron at the City Paper laid out really well how local gangs have resisted national influence in this article from 2004:
“The gangs from the ’70s are not coming back. Those gangs were huge and meticulously organized. Today’s groups are not. Nor are large national gangs, such as the Bloods or the Crips, taking root in Philadelphia…There have been rumblings that Asian youths here have been calling themselves Bloods and Crips, and that the city is seeing a surge in its Latin King population. These communities do have gangs, but national gangs traditionally have a hard time taking root in Philly. At an April city summit on gangs, a Department of Human Services employee, Jascinth Scott-Findley, said that when Philadelphia youths get sent to detention centers in the South, they often come back claiming to belong to the Bloods or the Crips, and are immediately reminded, ‘You’re in Philadelphia now.’ The biggest concern in Philadelphia seems to be the small groups of kids taking the names of old local gangs.”
http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2004-12-16/cover.shtml
Doron heard that the influence might be coming from down south. I’ve read elsewhere that it’s coming from New York, by way of Jersey. As I stated above, I don’t think the intelligence is there quite yet to say for sure where it’s coming from, but the influence is most certainly there and not letting up. The Brickyard Mafia, one of the Germantown gangs profiled in Doron’s article, was resistant to national influence four years ago when he wrote the article, now there’s BYM CRIP graffiti all over their part of town.
June 9th, 2008 at 12:43 am
IF KNOW WHAT U R TALKING ABOUT U SHOULD BE TALKING ABOUT KEVIN AND NOT NO BLOODS. HE WASNT A BLOOD AND NOBODY FROM AROUND THE WAY WAS HIS FAVORITE COLOR WAS RED AND ITS THE PROJECTS PEOPLE SMOKE WEAD U KNOW NOTHING ABOUT US AND HOW WE LIVE
June 9th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
Like when did yall ever hear of bloods n norris street projects u disrespectful for say the project boys u piece of shit like u dont know nothing like u saying it like they are not human beings like get ya fucking mind right before u talk shit get ya sources right bitch!!!!!
January 31st, 2009 at 11:16 am
I Been All Over The World and been to mostly every state in the U.S And No City Is Like Philly……Philly Is Not A Gang City…I Mean They Rep What Block There From But Thats About it….if gangs try to work there way in To Philly They Will Get Killed by the people who stay in philly or the cops ..nobody from Philly is gone let some out of town people come it and take over there and the drug dealers is not gone let gangs member sell drugs on there block taking money from the Philly Drug dealer who got to take care of there kids or family…Philly is not gone let that happen in a million years….dont matter is u crip or blood MS-13 LATIN KING where gangs will never take over Philly.
April 4th, 2009 at 5:45 am
Well I know the hood I’m from in north niggas iz hungry and aggitated ready to die. Dey don’t give afuck who u iz they will murk you flat out shit get real how u beef wit a nigga you live down da sreet from a knew ya whole life to be a pussy. And he get a gun pop hiz zanies smoke his wet now he a stone cold killer murkin everything for nothing but a conversation about what he did dat ain’t tuff at all riding for a color red,blue,yellow, dat ain’t tuff etheir but shit is real out here dem gangs really got history and niggas dat did time behind dat shit so it ain’t gonna just die out any color except green as in money dats our(niggas in philly) only friend see how we feel wit out it see how you can function wit it bloods and crips won’t get respect in north philly trust me the through niggas I know from da norris st jects is not bloods just hustling ass goons that won’t hesitate to push ya shit back deffinetely no bloods doe.
June 30th, 2009 at 10:35 pm
I have been living in the 215 for a stretch now & you know what I rep…i’m a L.a nigga & all that hateing add up to nothing. I had some run ins wit philly niggaz since I been here & i’m still standing, had 2 put a lil work in but let me stop becausa a nigga aint fin ta snitch on himself & no disrespect but philadelphia is a playground compared to L.a even tho philly was the murder capitol for a couple of years blood. My peoples from right here in philly seen a program on tv & told me that it stated some murders in L.a are not being recorded so that the city can make the murder rate lower & so the people won’t move away from cali & to keep people moving in. In L.A in da hood people can’t just walk around in any hood like you can in philly…you’ll get smoked right away blood! 1st day homey! if you don’t have a pass & a strap aint enough…it aint gon serve you but here in philly I been in every neighborhood, flamed up wit red rags, L.a fitted cap by myself & had no problems from no nigga for roaming around. I hold my own like a man str8t soldier even tho i’m not active in the gang life anymore…the landscape might change but the nigga remains the same & we aint trying to recruit any nigga from philly, gangbangin is a westside…my badd BESTSIDE thing palm tree’s & bomb weed. I know all niggaz in philly can’t be ridin the mob but majority of deez niggaz that I run accross eatin joey merlino’s dick, niggaz like that get’s no respect…& on the coast merlino! get’s no pass, we don’t ride on nobody’s jock but on the other hand I have some respect for your city because i’m a real nigga & it’s foul to dis a niggaz city but fuck the bustas fake phoney niggaz in philly dissin on the coast, all those disrespectful comments you can shuv str8t up your asshole homey! you bitch niggaz might like it. No dis 2 my real niggaz in the 215 & I know only the haters will send a diss, we call em busta & marks I expect a response from you on some weak shit because bitch niggaz are in every city even L.a & I know your type so handle your business but after this serving there will be no sequel…I said my piece & it’s real, some time you can lie to yourself but when the real prevail…the truth hurts! back home in L.a & in other states that I been in & I been in most, philadelphia aint even on the radar…anyway BPS Black P Stone Bloods, west L.a Crenshaw district, Baldwin Park homey, we don’t hate…wherever we go we dominate! Str8t like dat!