One of America’s most notorious street gangs … By 1979 gang-related homicides are averaging almost 1 murder every 32 hours. What the press apparently did not realise at the time was that the victim, Raymond Lee Washington, was a founder of the notorious street gang called the Crips. Once a handful of teenagers dedicated to protecting their turf, by the 1990s Crips numbered in the tens of thousands. Lords of the Mafia with Robert Stack X: Crips
Raymond Lee Washington was a soft-spoken charismatic leader intent on building an empire. ibid.
There was power to be found in numbers. ibid.
By 1972, 8 Crip gangs were thriving in Los Angeles County boasting a total membership of approximately 200 members. ibid.
In the early 1980s a new influence arrived in Los Angeles – crack cocaine. ibid.
Descended from centuries-old bandit gangs and spawned by the Vietnam War this new breed of criminal is young, tough and fearless, dispassionately dealing violence to their own people. With extreme prejudice. They’re into drugs, forgery, and extorting computer technology. The creeping new force vying for world organised crime domination – the Vietnamese Crime Gangs. Lords of the Mafia with Robert Stack X: Pacific Rim, 2006
California’s Justice Department estimates that that sate alone now has at least 15,000 members in Asian street gangs. ibid.