Bloods Street Gang

Celina A. Colclough

Intoduction To Criminal Justice

Professor Drew
Bloods Street Gang

Abstract

In this essay you will read about some of the history of the street gang called

Bloods. Through some research I found you will read about where the Bloods

originally started, what the original reason it was formed, for what purpose

it was formed and how they spread throughout the country. There is also some

information about one particular leader who is currently servign a life plus

one hundred and fourteen year sentence for several murders he committed.

He is known by the name “Pistol Pete” amongst most his real name is Peter

Rollack. In this essay there is also some names of the different sets of the

Bloods and the first Blood set formed.

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Bloods Street Gang

The Bloods is a street gang formed in 1972 mainly of African American youths

in reaction to the Crips street gang. There is no known national leader of the

Bloods but there are sub-groups or sets that have their own leaders. As far back

the 1950's African American youth groups were coming up in South Central,

Los Angeles. They were known back then as social groups known for parties,

car clubs and meeting up at certain skating rinks. Rivalries began to start among

these groups of youths and some smaller groups banned together for protection.

These groups are no longer known for social gatherings but for violence and

other illegal activitiess.(Al Valdez, April 2001). What was just a Los Angeles,

California issue has now spread throughout the country. According to the Bureau

of Alcohol,Tobacco and Firearms, the Crips and Bloods have expanded their

drug trafficking business to over one hundred cities and over thirty states

nationwide with the help of other gangs. They also claim the increase has been

the reason for the rise in the violence in America.

The Bloods gang is most known for its continuous rivalry with the Crips. They

became very violent partly because they were out numbered by the Crips, this

is how they asserted their power. According to an article by Robert Walker's

Gangs Or Us, there are some myths about the Bloods one being the first Bloods

set was originally called the Piru Crips but he states there is no evidence

supporting that. Original Piru members have denied any truth to that claim.

Sgt. Curtis Jackson of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department witnessed first

hand factual information about both the Bloods and Crips gangs. He was

recognized domestically and internationally as one of the nations experts on

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Bloods Street Gang

street gangs. He was considered to be the “Godfather” of Black Gangs and was

there at the beginning of the Black Street Gang phenomenon. In the early 1970's

the Crips started calling the Pirus Roosters and the Pirus called the Crips Crabs.

Around this time anti-Crip gangs joined together and called themselves Bloods.

This is why the Pirus are considered to be the founders of the Bloods.

Blood sets on the East Coast are seen as connected to United Blood Nation, a

gang that originated in Rikers Island formed in 1993,in the New York City jail

system on Rikers Island's George Mochen Detention Center. The Latin Kings at

this time, made up of Hispanics, were targeting Black inmates with violence.

These inmates banned together with some of the more violent inmates to form a

protection group, this is where the name United Blood Nation came from. The

United Blood Nation was imitating the Bloods street gangs in Los Angeles,

California. The prison gang formed sets to recruit in their neighborhoods across

New York City. By 1996 members of the gang were more violent then other

gangs. Slashings reported during robberies were considered to be Blood

initiations. Most Blood members are African American males,though some sets

have recruited females as well as members from other races. Blood sets have

individual leaders. The set leader is not elected but asserts himself by managing

the gang's criminal activities with a reputation of being ruthless and violent and

his personal character. The other members are called soldiers who are committed

to their set and will do anything to gain respect of other gang members.

Associates are not full members but participate in many of the gang's criminal
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Bloods Street Gang

activities and identify with the gang. Most of the female members are more likely

to be considered Associate members and are used to carry guns and drugs and

or prostitute themselves to make money for the set.

Bloods identify themselves by the color red most often but they also use other

colors to identify themselves as well one being brown. They aalso use a certain

language, hand signs tattoos and symbols. The Bloods most common symbol

used is the number five, the five pointed star and crown. They also use graffiti

to mark their territory it may include the word Piru being the first known Bloods

gang. Here are some of the different set names and Bloods terms they use:

9 Tray, Brims, Beven, 135 Piru, 706 Blood, Sex Money Murder

000- Blood 001, 013-Blood love, 023-watch your back, 187- California police

code for homicide, 311-Crip Killer, B's up C's down...

Peter “Pistol Pete” Rollack was one of the most ruthless leaders of the Bloods,

his set is Sex,Money,Murder in the Soundview section of the Bronx, NY. Pistol

Pete was sentenced to life plus an additional 105 years this is what the article

read in the Daily News:

In January, Rollack pleaded guilty to his involvement in six murders in the early 1990s. Thirteen other

gang members targeted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms have been convicted of

various crimes and sentenced to years in prison.

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Bloods Street Gang

As the gang's leader, prosecutors say, Rollack really stood out.

He "seemed to relish" murder, hanging on the walls of his bedroom lists of Mafia hit men with the

names of their victims, prosecutor Nicole LaBarbera wrote last week to the judge sentencing Rollack.

He allegedly committed his first murder when he was 18, and referred to murders as "wet T-shirt

contests" because the victims' clothes were drenched in blood, LaBarbera said.

Rollack admitted to ordering a notorious attack on two former underlings during a Thanksgiving 1997

tag football game in the Bronx. Two men were killed and three bystanders were wounded.

Particularly galling to law enforcement was the fact that the gangsters of SM&M evolved into twisted

folk heroes.

Their reputation allowed them to affiliate themselves with the Bloods street gang, and they were brazen

enough to incorporate themselves as SMMC Inc. (Sex, Money & Murder Corp. Inc.).

At one point, police even saw Soundview teens wearing T-shirts with Rollack's likeness under the

statement, "Free Pistol Pete.''

Though Rollack was arrested in 1995, his gang continued to control sections of Soundview'drug trade.

SM&M graffiti cropped up throughout the neighborhood.

In 1998, a rapper, Lord Tariq, released a CD featuring a song, "Sex, Money, Life & Death," that offered
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Bloods Street Gang

hagiography of Rollack. The CD thanked the Rollack family and boasted, "SM&M, it ain't over."

In a September interview on a local radio station, Lord Tariq discussed the gang and sent "shoutouts" to

gang members, LaBarbera wrote.

"Rollack's influence and the reach of his gang is not limited to the Bronx," LaBarbera stated, alleging

that new inmates at federal prisons in New York, "many of whom have never met Rollack," speak of

Rollack "reverently."

But law enforcement officials are now trying to turn Rollack's notoriety on its head, slapping up the

"Life Without Parole" posters on buildings and lampposts near schools and where gang members were

known to hang out in Soundview.

On Oct. 7, federal probation workers painted over the gang graffiti throughout Soundview. As of

yesterday, the walls remained free of gang tags, prosecutors said.

Yesterday, Manhattan Federal Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum sentenced Rollack and ordered him

to pay $25,400 toward the funerals of his victims. The mothers of three of those victims asked her to

show no mercy.

In 1994, Rollack murdered 23-year-old Karlton Hines, a one-time high school basketball star from the

Bronx, simply because Hines was friends with a man who tried to shake down a member of SM&M.

During yesterday's emotional hearing, Hines' mother, Theresa, glared at Rollack, who sat staring at the

table, and declared, "I hope that when you go to sleep, you see all these bodies that you murdered."

"They'll come to you," she said. "That's your penalty."

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Bloods Street Gang

There's a lot of information some proven some not about the Bloods Street Gang.

The fact they exist is fact enough, I have learned about many different things in

researching this gang. Our society has to really come together to make a better

way for the future of our youth as well as our selves. The youth of today are

suppose to be the future of tomorrow but I dont see how this is possible without

the guidance and help from the youth of yesterday. If the same effort is put into

our youth as it is in starting wars and solidifying its reasoning it can change the

impact these gangs have on our children. If they believe there is nothing else

for them it will continue and there won't be a future for them or us.