18th Street Gang - History

History

18th Street gang started near 18th Street and Union Avenue in the Rampart District of Los Angeles. There is conflicting information as to the exact area, but this is a generally accepted area by most academic sources. They were originally part of Clanton 14 but wanted to make a separate clique called Clanton 18th Street and allow immigrants the opportunity to join. This proposal was rejected by the Clanton 14, which led to the formation of the 18th Street gang. The two gangs have been bitter rivals ever since. The 18th Street gang grew by expanding its membership to other nationalities and races, and it was among the first multiracial, multi-ethnic gangs in Los Angeles. In the beginning, they were made up largely of second-generation Hispanic immigrants. As the 18th Street gang began to battle with more established Hispanic gangs, they began to recruit outside of the Hispanic community. There are approximately 200 separate individual autonomous gangs operating under the same name within separate barrios in the San Fernando Valley, the San Gabriel Valley, the South Bay, East Los Angeles, South Los Angeles, Downtown Los Angeles, Mid-City, Pico Union, Inglewood, Cudahy, Lynwood, South Gate, Huntington Park, Maywood and Orange County, according to the latest figures from the NDIC. In the last decade, The Federal Bureau of Investigation has initiated wide-scale raids against known and suspected gang members, netting hundreds of arrests across the country.