Re: Is there a street gang-related graffiti expert in da house?
It is kind of a mixed tag though. The numbers are not goth or anything special in design. They probably mean something, but the style is not very remarkable. Most of the Latinos in this area "the 8 tres, sereno 13's, Gothic 13's all use some style and flair with their numbers. <br />The star is also something interesting. I have not seen that one yet. The tridents are popular with several, but a star doesn't fit. <br />The back to back K's are also different. That is usually a white supremist sign, which doesn't fit with the latino notation padisis. <br />Also with the mix it looks almost like 3 painters. <br />Gangs usually used to use tags to mark their turf. They would paint like this on an intersection marking the start of their territory. Rival gangs would challenge or mark over these tags with their own as a form of counting coups or showing bravery of their set at entering the other territory unchallenged. This would usually be derrogatory writing like "crab" being derrogitory for Crips. CK or Calvin Klein for Crip Killa, BK or British Knights footwear for Blook Killer. This doesn't really show any specific identifiers. It almost looks like individuals messing around. Like the star and tridents, could easily mean B@stard you have a B then a star then a D. The tridents and the markings under could just be decoration. There is an M under the star with the tails making two T's. Padisis sounds more like a name than anything.<br />Around here in the last 9 or more years there has been some well respected truces. Back in the day the Bloods and Crips had a meeting and basically made a treaty so to speak. There is still a lot of violent acts with the hispanic gangs and the aisan gangs. The hispanic gangs leave tags, but they are usually close together and one symble or one picture. This you have is spread and not too uniform. The aisan gangs do not typically tag. <br />I may be way off base and completely wrong but it looks like a couple of punks together, maybe with weak gang ties, trying to make a name or trying to establish. One probably went to Juvey or to jail and came out with some friends and some ideas.<br />Here we had a group of upper class white boys got together and formed their own "gang". They called themselves the eastside white boys. They went to work tagging, mostly copying the style of graffiti they had seen around town but their own signs. It didn't take long before they crossed the Kings and decided the gang thing wasn't so cool after all. Then the Cereno 13's moved in and cleaned out the Kings. <br />I may be wrong but it looks like some punks trying to make it in a world they don't know. Your lcoal PD will probably have a database and knows what this means, but they probably won't tell you to keep fear and panic out of the neighborhood. <br />The city I grew up in had 3 major gangs active. Mostly it was a hiding place for those hiding out from the law on the coastal cities. The tags were up everywhere, the homicides and assaults were up, everyone had their colors and flashed sign everywhere, the police knew all of this and kept up on it. BUT the city counted on investors for new business and economic growth. The city leaders felt that if it was known that this city had a gang population and the gangs were sort of at war (back in the 80's during my high school years), the investors would pull out. SO the police were not allowed to tell anyone about the gangs. The police were not allowed to publicize the serious assaults and even a few murders. Other agencies (FBI, DEA, State Police) often made public statements about the problem, but this was always followed by a city rep going on the news saying there were no gangs in town. This made a perfect place to hide out. 2 years after I became an officer the city changed their tune and decided that instead of hiding it we would crack down and "run them out of town". By that time they were established and had their own little communities. <br />Anyway, I wish I had a definate answer, but this is my opinion. I will check the neighboring cities gang units and see if they have ever seen anything like it, but it does look like local punks playing a big boys game. They are usually the most dangerous because they lack the structure and rules true gangs have but they usually don't last long.
