Crips Street Gang

Eastside vs. Westside: 5 Ways of Looking At It

How you think of as the Eastside or the Westside might not necessarily be how Latinos, African Americans, gangs, history or the map of Los Angeles see them. Yet few crosstown rivalries involve such ingrained and often wrong-headed notions as L.A.'s own Eastside-Westside divide. It's as if self-proc ... More >>

How Did the FBI Determine the Juggalos Were a Gang?

For those among you who are "down" and perhaps for those who are not, you know that much brouhaha was made by the FBI's inclusion of Juggalos -- ie fans of Insane Clown Posse -- in their 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment. This, of course, put them in the same category as well-organized Mexican-he ... More >>

Andre Lowe, 19, Had Been At 21 Empire Club In Hollywood Before His Murder Outside

The 19-year-old gunned down outside the Empire Club in Hollywood two weekends ago in violence caught on tape had been inside the venue despite its 21-and-older policy, police tell the Weekly. Both the victim, Andre Lowe, and the alleged shooter, 22-year-old Robert Earl Thomas, are believed to have ... More >>

Best L.A. Novel Ever: Chester Himes' If He Hollers Let Him Go vs. Yxta Maya Murray's Locas

L.A. Weekly is determining the best L.A. novel ever by holding a tournament featuring 32 of our favorites in head-to-head matchups, until there's only one novel standing. For further reading check out: *Best L.A. Novel Ever: The Tournament Brackets *Best L.A. Novel Ever: More Matchups Bob Jones, th ... More >>

Santa Monica College-Adjacent Shooting Injures Teenage Woman; Waiverly Thomas Arrested

People are often surprised to learn that Santa Monica has crime, gangs or a historic barrio near Santa Monica College. It does. A shooting over the weekend proved that point. An 18-year-old woman was gunned down on Pico Boulevard but survived with non-life-threatening injuries, according to Santa ... More >>

KDAY, the Gangsta Rap Oldies Station, Breaks New Ground by Playing Music From the Bad Old Days

Here's an Epic Ice-T Interview: Sure, He Once Wore Leather and Spikes, but He'll Still Fuck You Up

See also: *The Original Original Gangsta: Ice-T talks about his star-studded directorial debut, his famous affiliates and his life with Coco in New York *Here Are Pictures of Dr. Dre's New $13 Million House Perhaps because he moved back to the East Coast and became an actor, Ice-T is sometimes over ... More >>

Compton Rapper 'KP Dolla' Cuts off GPS Tracker, Walks Out of Court, Drives Away in Maserati

Well, this is embarrassing. According to the LAPD, "convicted violent felon and registered sex offender" Perry Pemberton, 29, is on the loose after cutting off his GPS tracker during court recess, strolling out of Van Nuys Superior Court unnoticed and possibly driving away in his Maserati. The fac ... More >>

Thurz: The L.A. Riots Were The Most Historic Event In The City's History

See also: *Tupac on the L.A. Riots: "I Hate to Say I Told You So, But I Told You So" *Thurz on Reinventing Himself and U-N-I's Break-Up [Editor's note: All this week West Coast Sound is speaking with rappers and writers whose work has been influenced by the L.A. riots, to coincide with their 20th ... More >>

Brody Brown: From the Compton Crips to the Grammy Stage

Inside a white-walled room in Interscope Records' co-founder Ted Field's film production company, a relaxed Brody Brown leans back into his chair. "You know, I feel like it's coming true, the dream I have been fighting for my entire life," he says. "It's unfolding in front of my eyes." That will ne ... More >>

Schoolboy Q's Questions and Answers

He didn't know what to do with his life. Rap was the last resort

Watts Towers at Pacific Standard Time: How their legacy is more confusing than you'd think

Venice Shooting Behind Whole Foods: Young Victim in Hospital, Gunman on the Loose

Cops congregate under the iconic Lincoln & Rose mural at Whole Foods. ​A shooting around sundown, in a dark back-alley near 7th and Rose -- just behind Venice's fancy Whole Foods shopping hub -- left one unidentified man with a gunshot wound to the torso. More than a dozen LAPD investigators ... More >>

Westside Gang War? Innocent Teens, Father Shot in Del Rey: Feud Between Venice Gangsters, Culver City Boyz Suspected

Google MapDel Rey (not Mar Vista).​A man, his son, and his son's girlfriend were wounded in a gang-related shooting in Del Rey over the weekend that might be tied to what appears to be an ongoing feud between Venice gangsters and their rivals, the Culver City Boyz. The attack outside Bill's L ... More >>

Up From the Streets: A Scene From Occupy L.A.

Luigi VenturaDito Montiel and Aqeela Sherrills at Occupy L.A.​Woodrow Coleman came all the way from Long Beach to see the Arab Spring bloom in downtown L.A. The African-American septuagenarian with deep-set brown eyes and a woolly white tangle of beard sports a well-worn baseball cap that sug ... More >>

Ice Cube's Death Certificate Turns 20: The True Story Behind "My Summer Vacation"

​This week Ice Cube's Death Certificate celebrates its 20th anniversary. The album -- which we ranked number seven on our list of the top 20 greatest L.A. rap albums of all time -- is politically bombastic in a way hip-hop albums no longer are. Taking specific aim at the police, the government ... More >>

Cop's Book Says Sean Combs, Suge Knight Ordered Tupac and Biggie Killings

Top detective on rap murders says LAPD pulled the plug despite confessions

Compton Rapper Game Returns to an Industry That's Gone Soft

Will his old tricks still work?

Double Murder on Grape Street

Who killed young Emmanuel Berry and Angelica Escalante?

Tupac Shakur, Notorious B.I.G. Murders and ex-LA Times Reporter Chuck Philips: A Timeline

Chuck Philips, award-winning LA Times journalist, is out of a job.​Chuck Philips, once a top reporter for the Los Angeles Times, spent over a decade investigating the murders of West Coast rapper Tupac Shakur and his East Coast rival, the Notorious B.I.G. But in 2008, when it was revealed tha ... More >>

Shaquille O'Neal Sex Tape? Former Staffer Claims He Had It, Was Kidnapped by L.A. Gang on Search-and-Destroy Mission

Shaq.​This gets pretty complicated, so sit tight. But we will say: It involves Shaquille O'Neal allegedly having a sex tape he made with multiple women while married to Shaunie (though she could probably care less now), and allegedly having ties with a South L.A. gang called the Main Street Ma ... More >>

[Video] Venice Shooting, Fights Mar Summer-Like Weekend on the Beach

YouTubeA crowd disperses after shots are fired near the beach in Venice.​It was an almost anarchic weekend for police in Venice as an injury shooting broke out Saturday near the beach, followed by at least three major fights on the sand Sunday. Some of the events were caught on tape (after the ... More >>

Aaron Shannon Jr., L.A. Homicide No. 214: Five-Year-Old Boy In Spiderman Costume Shot In South L.A. Backyard On Halloween

Associated PressFive-year-old Aaron Shannon, Jr.​Update: Two suspects have been arrested for the murder. Known gang members Marcus Denson, 18, and Leonard Hall Jr., 21, are each being held in lieu of $1 million bail. A Black boy fatally shot at about 2 p.m. on Halloween day has been identifie ... More >>

Santa Monica Council Launches Inquiry Into Police Investigation Of Latino School Board Member Oscar De La Torre

Oscar de la Torre.​The Santa Monica City Council has agreed to look into possible police misconduct after authorities put a school board member under suspicion for child endangerment and then dropped the investigation. The Santa Monica Police Department opened an investigation into Oscar de la ... More >>

L.A. Police Union Urges Denial Of Parole For Female Cop Killer

Officer Daniel Pratt.​The union representing Los Angeles Police Department officers this week urged a state parole board to deny freedom for a woman convicted in the 1988 murder of a Los Angeles police officer in South L.A. Raylene Brooks was the 17-year-old driver of a vehicle that made a u- ... More >>

Shootings Rock The Westside (Updated)

UPDATED: Whomever says the Westside sees no action hasn't been paying attention this week. On Tuesday night a 20-year-old man was fatally shot in Santa Monica and early Thursday morning Los Angeles police opened fire on a robbery suspect, wounding the boy in the Sawtelle neighborhood of West Los Ang ... More >>

Mark Sarvas on His Elegant Variation and the Inelegant Review of Harry, Revised

Yes, but can he write?

Gang Crackdown or Police Overkill

Delgadillo spun a Venice raid as a success. Suck and excess might be closer, residents say

Greens Seeing Red

Our readers write

The Gangs of Los Angeles

Our readers write

N.W.A: A Hard Act to Follow

Hip-hop and hype from the streets of Compton (reprint of May 5, 1989, Weekly cover story)

Don’t Look Down

And the opinions of others

Street Justice

Remembering a 19-year-old African-American killed by police

Time’s Up, Clarence

Why the crowds aren’t shouting to spare an aged death-row inmate

Letters

Must-Scare TV

Sleeper Cell raises the unthinkable; Homecoming raises the dead

Quik As F**k

The violent life, tumultuous career and fundamental goodness of DJ Quik

Drug Profits and Gang Wars

Compton Rises Again

Lil’ E on the legacy of Eazy and being his own man

“Lowest Grade of Ignorance”

George Bush and his influence on the Republic

Burning Blades

Riding high with the LAPD’s Air Support Division

No Escape for an O.G.

Kershaun “Li’l Monster” Scott thought South-Central was tough. Then he moved to Kern County

Killing Time on the Ghetto Blue

The nation's busiest- and deadliest - light rail line

Is That a Threat?

Ignoble Sentence

Death row's nominee for peace prize might be helped by high-court ruling on racial bias

Soul Battle

The 9th Council District has new candidates and old problems

Rap and Revelation

Words to the wise from Blood of Abraham

Letters

Magic Marker Dragoon

Polls, Pols and Propositions

Twenty years of political coverage