Deciphering Gang Graffiti
Where graffiti is concerned, the writing truly is “on the wall”. It’s an annoyance, to be sure, but it’s also somewhat interesting - at least the gang-related graffiti, anyway. In many ways, gang graffiti is a code - and like most codes, it’s susceptible to analysis.
Here in the U.S., at least, the first thing one should do when finding graffiti is to look at the letters, if any, and the overall design. If it has “bubble letters”, more than one color of paint or ink, or shows even a hint of artistry, it’s almost certainly not gang related. If it has sharp, angular stick letters, or contains religious (including “satanic”) imagery, or is done in one color of paint, it’s probably gang related.
A lot of times, the graffiti will be very simple, and flat-out say, for example, “West Side Bloods”. That, obviously, is easy to figure out. But what if you see just a series of letters or numbers that don’t seem to make any immediate sense? That’s the fun part, which requires some rudimentary code-breaking skills.
First of all, look for numbers. If you see two digits - especially “13″, “14″, or “18″, you’re probably looking at graffiti for a hispanic gang. If you see three digits - especially if they’re your, or a nearby, area code - it’s almost certainly not a hispanic gang, but your typical prison/street sort. There’s an easy exception to remember: If the numbers are followed by “K”, you’re looking at a threat from a rival gang. “WS18″ is a tag for the (hispanic) West Side 18th Street gang out of California; “WS18K” is a threat towards 18th Street by a local gang. (”K” is short for “Kill”.) If there are two digits, see if they’re prefixed by “N”, “S”, “E”, or “W” - (or “NS”, “SS”, “ES”, or “WS”) - which relate to the cardinal directions, and form part of the gang’s identity. Here in the Twin Cities, for example, you see a lot of “S13″ tags - they’re promoting “South 13″, or more properly, “Surenos Trece”. You’ll see 13 and 14 a lot in graffiti for hispanic gangs - the 13th letter of the alphabet is “M”, which generally stands for “Mexico” (but sometimes “La Eme”, the Mexican Mafia); the 14th letter is of course “N”, which generally means “North”, or “Norteno”. “Norteno” has nothing much to do with the US-Mexico border; it instead means which end of California the gang originated from. Much like the divide between east-coast and west-coast rappers, gangstas from the north and south parts of California frequently “got beef” with each other.
But what if there aren’t any numbers? What if you come across something like this, and want to know what it means:
This is where the true fun is. At first, it looks like a meaningless series of letters, but after you’ve seen a few hundred, you start to notice some patterns. As any good cryptographer knows, patterns in codes are usually a bad thing - except for anyone who wants to break it. Here are the secrets, such as they are:
As before, a trailing “K” is a threat to “(K)ill”, as are any crossed-out letters. (More on this in a minute.) An “A” at the very beginning pretty much always stands for “Almighty”; it can be safely ignored. Likewise, if the tag ends with an “N”, that virtually always stands for “Nation”; it can be safely ignored. Those two usually occur together, and show up surprisingly often, as pretty much every two-bit bunch of street thugs takes to calling themselves the Almighty Whatever Nation. Looking at our tag above - ACVLN - we’ve gone from five indecipherable letters (a note to a repairman: Air Conditioner, Very Loud Noise?) down to just three, which is a more manageable number.
There are a pretty finite number of “real” gangs in this country, and it’s fairly easy to recognize the abbreviations for most of the most common ones. “GD” are the Gangster Disciples, for example; “VL” are the Vice Lords. “LK” are the Latin Kings, and “LQ” the Latin Queens; sometimes when they’re getting along, they’re the LKQ - Latin Kings and Queens. (And, like every other gang, they’re an “almighty” “nation”, and tag up buildings and fences appropriately - ALKQN.) In our case above, it’s pretty easy to figure out that we’re looking at a tag from the Almighty (something) Vice Lord Nation. The extra letter right before the gang initials probably refers to the “set” name - the specific local bunch of playas, pushers, and pimps who are staking their turf. In some instances - as here - it can provide a little extra information, as well.
Above, I made mention of crossed-out letters in gang graffiti. These aren’t a sign of the author not being able to spell; rather, they’re messages - usually threats. If you see the letters “B”, “C”, “F”, “P”, or “S” crossed-out in a piece of gang graffiti, it’s a threat towards a gang whose name, “nation”, or nickname begins with that letter. B and C are Bloods and Crips, respectively, while “S” is short for “Slobs” - a derogatory nickname for the Bloods. (The Crips are referred to as “Crabs”, incidentally.) “F” and “P” stand for the “Folks” and “Peoples” “nations”, which are sort of loose regional or nationwide alliances of street gangs. In any event, in the Vice Lord tag shown above, you will of course note the letter “C” is not crossed out - which tells you the local Vice Lords don’t have beef with the Crips. This isn’t necessarily huge intelligence, but all too often, little slights in graffiti - crossing out letters, or painting over rival gangs’ tags - are a very real warning sign of impending gang war, so it’s something to keep an eye out for.
So, as you can see, with a few tricks you can whittle a seemingly incomprehensible series of letters down to a more manageable size, and get the gist, at least, of what is being said - you’ve got Vice Lords in your neighborhood! (In this case, the “C” is short for “Conservative”, of all things; the “Conservative Vice Lords” are one of several dozen larger Vice Lord “sets” around the country.) Obviously, this isn’t as challenging as a vignere cipher, but it’s still interesting - and if nothing else, figuring out who’s saying what to whom can help you kill time while waiting for the bus. Besides, knowledge is power, even if it is mostly useless knowledge. Right?
(Edit: There’s more on this subject here, if you’re interested.)
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I would like to correct something: they’re promoting “South 13″, or more properly, “Suremos Trece”. Suremos is WRONG!. Surrenos or Sur. Southerns or South. One reffering to the prison gang, Surrenos and Sur reffering to the Street gang in East LA/City of Commerce/Montebello. there is also the “F” and “P”. you failed to mention that the “P” could stand for Piru. The reason I point this out, is the sentence before that you explained bloods and crips, this could confuse new comers. FYI Piru == Crip backwards with the C on it’s back.
Overall tho nice topic, growing up in LA myself traveling RTD (before MTA
) yeah needed something to read and graphiti was my hobby and past time.
Yeah, it’s incredibly complicated, and for most “rules” there are of course exceptions. Incidentally, you are wrong, too - it looks like it’s actually supposed to be “Surenos”, not “Surrenos”.
Then again, to be fair, literacy doesn’t seem to be a requirement to join any of these organizations. I’m pretty sure I have a photo somewhere of a tag that says “Suremos 13″, and I know I’ve got photos of two or three different ways to spell “rifenos”. I’ve changed “Suremos” to “Surenos”, though; thanks.
the C is for “conservative.” the CVLs are not really a “local” clique, but a pretty important force in chicago, and around the region.
also, the 13/M connection is also very important for MS13. they aren’t as powerful in your area as they are some places, but nation wide, it is a tag you see a whole lot.
Very interesting…the school I work at was hit very hard last night and the following was tagged everywhere…tell me what you think.
xBLOPx note: the X’s were very small and situated to the lower bottom corner’s of the first and last letters used. The “O” most of the time was a face with two x’s for eyes and a smile.
Steve - good news, of sorts; your school has been “tagged” by a graffiti artiste, not a gang member. As you might guess, the fellow’s nickname is “Blop”. I’m not very familiar with tagger culture, as their graffiti has much less meaning - and thus holds less interest for me - than gang-related stuff, so I don’t know the meaning, if any, of the small x’s, but they’re a quite common embellishment to tags.
By the way, if you think “Blop” is a weird tag, a quite prolific tagger in Minneapolis goes by - or at least used to - the handle “Urine”. Go figure…
Does anyone know what SHAKB might stand for? Our building just got marked last week. (I’m reluctant to say “tagged” because I don’t believe that it’s a real threat right now. There’s that denial!)
Anyway, it’s in one color, looks like a tangle of letters. We’re in a suburb of Detroit — well north of the city. Any ideas?
have new latino neighbors. when they bought the house next door they repainted it. about a week later someone spay painted what looks like BMS on the side of the house that is visible from the street. i could not figure out why they did not paint over it. a young friend stopped by one day and said it was a gang marking. she said it is not a sloppy B, it is 13. there is always a lot of young men coming and going. they are not disruptive but i am uneasy at the thought of gang members next door. they do not bother us because i have 135lb. rottie that does not like them. is this a gang sign? it has been almost a year and the BMS is still there and they painted the garage and left it on the house????
Marie-
Are you sure it’s “13MS” and not “13NS”, or “18NS”? Without seeing a picture, I’m going to guess it’s one of the latter.
Pretty literally any graffiti you see with the number “13″ in it is going to be gang-related, so, yeah, it’s a gang sign. Without seeing it, I can’t tell you much more; if it really, truly is “13MS”, then it might be a tag for Mara Salvatrucha, which would be extraordinarily bad. (You could try calling your local police department’s intelligence division; if Mara Salvatrucha are in your city, the police are definitely going to know.)
Hi, can anyone tell me if there is a website that i can go
and decipher gang signs? I am recently out of the military
and i come home to my alley bieng sprayed. I am done with
violence and want to know if this is bad or just kids messin
around.
thanks.
I have a met a guy that does have a 5 pointed star tattooed on his neck with a number 3. He said he was part of Hellorado.. Do you know anythng about that? If so, what type of gang is it?
We are doing some security assessments for government facilities. WE have the following gangs signs around the facility: 13 $T N.C.C.G BK
C-CRUC Thent here is a verticla line with an X at the bottom. What is your best guess as to the makeup of this group?
Dan: “13 $T NCCG” is “13th Street North Coast Crip Gang”, about which Google will provide a little info. “BK” is a threat towards Blood gangs - “Blood Killers”, or similar. C-CRUC is probably the “name” of the person who left the tag (”C-Crook”, phonetically) but could also be an abbreviation for a motto.
The “vertical line with an X at the bottom” sounds like an upside-down pitchfork, which is usually a sign of the “People Nation” - but Crips are usually part of the “Folk Nation”, not the People. I would consider it odd if local Folk/Blood members were just tagging up territory with the pitchfork alone, but it’s probably not unheard of.
I could be wrong about the pitchfork - a photo would really help - but otherwise it sounds like your client’s facilities are in territory claimed by a reasonably well-established Crip set. I have no idea where you are, but I’m going to guess the “makeup” of your local set is fairly typical of Crip sets - predominantly black, with perhaps a small number of white and latino members. (If you search for “NCCG crip” in Google, you’ll find, among other things, a photo gallery of one NCCG member.)