Brits Have Their Own Charming Versions of Bloods and Crips
After McDonald's and the Black Eyed Peas, America's most successful cultural exports are the Bloods and Crips. Londoners have recognized that our gangs are much stronger brands! But they're doing Blue-on-Red gang war the UK way.
A full quarter of London gangs are now either Bloods or Crips, according to The Sun, meaning this may or may not be made up. (It's understandable; would you rather tell a rival you were a Crip, or a Yiddisher?) But while the Brits have picked up the colors and the gang signs, they've continued with their own idiosyncratic idea of "weapons":
Ex-LA gangster Twilight - who now works to curb gang violence in West London - said kids as young as SEVEN are carrying knives and swearing allegiance to UK Bloods and Crips...
Ex-LA Crips member Melvin Johnson, 38, said youth knife crime in the UK has "shocked" criminals in California.
"Knives" are what guns are called in England, I think. You Brits are taking this too far. Violence, in a street gang? Over here the Bloods and Crips settle things with dance contests. "Get with it!"