There was a time when gangs had an easily identifiable color — or specific dress code — red for Bloods, blue for Crips, or black for Folks. But gangs in Toledo and elsewhere are less likely than they once were to publicly identify themselves with head-to-toe colors associated with any particular organization.
“Certainly gangs have some identifying symbols, colors being one of them, but they’re not as prevalent as they used to be,” said Toledo police Sgt. Joe Heffernan. “It just brings attention to them, and they know they’re more apt to get stopped or questioned as far as their gang affiliation. They’ve learned that they don’t want that kind of attention.”
In Toledo, dress for gang members now seems to be more “neutral,” the sergeant said, and gang members might be seen in plain white T-shirts and black or gray sweatpants.
Johnmichael O’Hare, a Hartford police sergeant who monitors gangs, said the most identifying use of color you might see is a handkerchief hanging out of a back pocket or a hat in typical gang-related colors.
Law-enforcement officials also suggest that gang members are less likely than in previous years to tattoo their gang affiliations onto their bodies, or at least so obviously.
Gang members also don’t want to stand out because they are committing more white-collar crimes, such as credit card and identity thefts, authorities say.
“If you want to go into Macy’s or Neiman Marcus and use a fraudulently obtained credit card, and you have all these tattoos, it’s more difficult,” said William Dunn, a Los Angeles police detective and author of the 2007 book The Gangs of Los Angeles.
Sergeant Heffernan said gang members in Toledo don’t limit themselves to one type of criminal activity.
“Theft and fraud are things that they do to get money for themselves and their gangs, but that isn’t really anything new. I would say how the gangs are primarily funded is through drugs,” he said.
Social media, for several years, has been a major outlet for gangs to share their message and to identify themselves.
In a video posted recently to YouTube, members of the Geer Gang Crips, a Toledo gang in the B.U.M.A. Neighborhood — Bancroft Street, Upton Avenue, Monroe Street, and Auburn Avenue — were seen wearing T-shirts that said, in bold type, “Geer Gang Crips” with a reappropriated North Face logo. The gang also used a disclaimer at the beginning, white text against a black background, that claimed the guns used in the video were not real, only props.
Sergeant Heffernan gives some credit for the gang subtlety to gang charges that the Lucas County Prosecutor’s Office started using several years ago.
In Connecticut, officials can use racketeering laws once reserved for the mob to go after gangs. In Los Angeles, court injunctions allow police to enforce nighttime curfews and arrest people for hanging out in public and wearing gang colors.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
Contact Taylor Dungjen at tdungjen@theblade.com, or 419-724-6054, or on Twitter @taylordungjen.
First Published September 17, 2014, 4:00 a.m.
