CHAPTER 1-part 2-Birth of Criminal & Thief

It was a hot summer night. My best friend Chris and I were sitting outside of my apartment building laughing and talking, we had been playing basketball since sunrise and were trying to cool off. When I moved to the block, he was the only boy my age that was funny. He would play crazy tricks and jokes on the big kids, piss’em off and then run away laughing. Most of the time they couldn’t catch him. “I’m gonna get you Fatboy!” they yelled as he got away. That was his nickname, he was a fat fast muthafucka, but the times they caught him that shit was HILARIOUS!!! “OoOoW!!!!” Chris cried. The big kids beat his legs up giving him frogs with every blow. Chris would get to yelling causing a scene and acting like they were killing him. Hoping that some adults would come to his rescue, sometimes they did “Leave that boy alone” they’d yell. But most of the time they didn’t say a thing. They knew he was what the old folks liked to call a “bad seed”. Meaning he wasn’t just an innocent; he did shit.

Now we’re 15 yrs. old, all grown up, and Chris no longer has baby fat. In fact he’s turned it into muscle. And we’re known for being the athletes and practical jokers of the hood. The dream we both shared up until this time was to play Professional basketball for the L.A. Lakers. We got up everyday at the crack of dawn and played Ball from Sun up to Sun down; until we couldn’t see the rim.

Our sense of humor and family circumstances were almost identical. We both had angry, mean, oppressive Mothers. Chris, at least had his Pops living with him though. But he could barely leave the front yard of his Apartment building. My “moms” on the other hand let me do about as much as Chris’ mom let him, which would be nothing. I was a good kid though. I never disrespected my mother, I didn’t talk back not even when I was being unfairly treated. Whatever she said do, I did. But
anytime ‘moms” would ask my older brother, Kelsey, to clean up his room. He’d get mad sock a whole in the wall, bust a window out or some shit and she’d leave him alone. My lil brother on the other hand, since an embryo, could talk back to my “mother” like white kids get to talk to their parents; with attitude. I’d watch this and remember how that woman would publicly beat me in the mouthif I just asked a question and embarrass me.

So we’re outside in the night air chopping it up and like all teenaged boys the conversation turns to girls. Except in L.A. you couldn’t talk about the girls without talking about the Gangstas. Because every chic you wanted to get with was already with a

CHAPTER 1-part 1- The birth of Criminal & Thief

HEADLINE: COURT REJECTS CITY ATTORNEY'S BID TO CURB WESTSIDE GANG'S MOVEMENTS

November 6, 1987, Friday, Home Edition
SECTION: Metro; Part 2; Page 1; Column 4; Metro Desk
LOS ANGELES TIMES

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge Thursday rejected immediate legal steps that would have banned members of a violent Westside street gang from associating with each other and would have required them to stay inside their homes from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.

Terming the city attorney's request for a temporary restraining order against the PLAYBOY GANGSTER CRIPS "too broad to grant," Judge Warren H. Deering continued City Atty. James K. Hahn's nuisance abatement lawsuit against the gang to Nov. 18.

On that date, Deering will hold a hearing on Hahn's request for a preliminary injunction against the 200-PLUS MEMBER GANG, which prosecutors say sells rock cocaine on the streets and in houses in a neighborhood bordered by LA CIENEGA and ROBERTSON BOULEVARDS, 18th Street and CADILLAC AVENUE.

Authorities say they have made 517 arrests in the 26-square-block Cadillac-Corning neighborhood so far this year, 323 of them for drug-related offenses. Authorities blame Uzi-toting members of the gang for both the drug trafficking problem and for six killings and a series of 14 disappearances in the past year.

This is a nice neighborhood, a lot of good people live in this neighborhood," Hahn said. "Unfortunately, this gang won't allow people to do that. They have systematically taken over the neighborhood, and they engage in drug sales, shootings, murders and assaults. People are afraid to sleep in bedrooms close to the street."

Penalties for disregarding the restrictions could range from five days to six months in jail, Hahn said.

Chapter one
The birth of Criminal & Thief


The year is 1985, Ronald Reagan is in office, the Jherri curl is the popular hairstyle, Hip-Hop is just born, Crack-Cocaine is exploding on the streets, Scarface starring Al PAcino is the #1 box office hit, and the PlayBoy Gangster Crips are one of the most notorious Gangs in L. A. As I tell this tale of Gangsta shit. Let it be known that I am in no way glorifying “Gangsterism”, but it is a historical account of one of the most feared and respected gangs in Los Angeles.

My name is Thief from PBGC. I grew up on the Westside, not South Central, of Los Angeles. 5 minutes from Beverly Hills, 15 minutes from the Sunset strip, 20 minutes from the Beach, and 30 minutes from Downtown. I was 9 years old when we moved to Playboy Hood. 1928 Garth Ave. apt. #2 was the address. This would be the street where my childhood memories would give birth, take shape, and some die. Hm. Either I was adventurous or I was stupid. But this is the backdrop for some shit that you only see kids getting into in the movies. It’s funny, I remember the exact moment when I decided to become a Gangster, and not just any gangster a “Playboy Gangster Crip”.