All the research I’ve done Seattle is just crazy when it comes to the gang territory. It’s sort of uncharted territory they go and sell their drugs and go back to their neighborhoods. I don’t know who is running the drugs there, but a lot of CD gangs will sell up on the Ave. It also kind of happens in the University District. They’ll come to downtown to sell drugs and go home when the day is over. I’ve heard that happens with a lot of drug dealers from Kent. Yeah, they’ll put in their eight hours and go home at the end of the day. So the gangs are actually commuting to downtown? That’s like their day job, working at Third and Pike. I’ve been told gangs will come in from outside areas, they’ll come from the CD and West Side to do drug dealing downtown, where they make the most profit. But those two are the gangs that dominate that area. It does fluctuate when people get arrested, or some people get harassed by cops for selling drugs and get pushed off the corner. I don’t know why, but it has always been a Blood area. The area at Third and Pine is notorious-tell me about the two gangs that are active there, according to your map? Some people have said it’s the I-90 bridge, but I think where that Burger King is is accurate. I’ve asked others, and they’ve had the same response: That general area is the dividing line. I very rarely find CD tags south of that, and South End north of that. Anywhere north of the Burger King is CD territory, anywhere south is South End territory. That was actually told to me by a Down Wit Tha Crew member . . . He just said it’s common knowledge within the gangs that the Burger King on Rainier Avenue South is kind of like the dividing line. How did you decide on the dividing line between the Central District and the South Side? That tends to mix in a little of everybody, no matter where you’re at. The more sketchy areas are in West Seattle and White Center. I read about a lot of crimes committed by their members there, and I’ve seen their graffiti. Since as far back as I could track down, to the early ’90s, that’s been their territory. I have a lot of evidence with graffiti and from people I’ve been contacted by that various Sureño gangs pretty much run the South Park neighborhood, with a little influence from Crip gangs and Tiny Rascals, an Asian gang.Īlso, Down Wit Tha Crew: Their main territory is 53rd and Henderson. What is the most established or well-defined stretch of gang turf in Seattle? They’re building condos and pushing out those older families, so you’re seeing CD gangs in Kent and Renton now. You can find Hoovers all the way up and down Pacific Highway, as far down as Federal Way and Tacoma. It’s not that they’re not based there -they do have a strong membership there-but they have scattered around all over the place. When a lot of the old housing projects got torn down and they built all those new projects along Martin Luther King, those gangs are now down in Kent and Federal Way and different parts of Seattle. I think they really are, but the members are just scattered around so much. At one time I was told the Holly Park Crips weren’t actually in Holly Park, which didn’t make any sense to me. I didn’t want to post info I wasn’t sure about. I was able to pinpoint a couple different territories. How has the map changed since the last version? There’s really no way to pinpoint some of those areas. A lot are allies with different gangs-you’ll have different Crip gangs hang out with each other. Our gangs tend to go to different neighborhoods to sell drugs. But the gangs in Seattle aren’t like L.A.’s, where if you cross a certain street you know you’re in trouble. I know certain gangs hang out in certain areas. To me it seems like they all blend in together. Northwest Gangs: The most difficult part was mapping out the South End area, which is traditionally the Gangster Disciples and the Crips. SW: What was most challenging about putting this thing together? Brad defends his methodology, but also includes a disclaimer that acknowledges that the map is a “rough estimate of where certain gangs hang out and operate.” He took a few minutes to discuss some of the more interesting elements of the map, and Seattle gangs in general.
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