WHATS THE DEAL WITH THE LOS ANGELES CRIPS AND BLOOD GANGS?

I didn't live there my whole life, just a smallish chunk of it (3 years).

If it needs to be said, don't believe everything you see in the movies.

I worked in an area where there was a lot of gang activity. Lots of tattoos, which meant specific things (the meaning was always changing as the stuff the hardcore guys got was adopted by wannabes). A blue tear by the eye meant you'd killed someone; several tears indicated the number of people you'd killed; that sort of thing.

That said, it didn't really affect my everyday life much. I didn't see any shootings or anything; car accidents were far more common. One gang member (4 tears) was stalking one of my clients -- she was in the process of separating from him and he was suspicious of what she was up to in my program, and would park across the street and watch us. She got a restraining order but begged us not to call the police because he'd be so mad. Everyone was paralyzed by his presence, though, so I got pissed off that he was freaking everyone out and marched out there to talk to him. I was respectful, he was respectful, he left. Everyone was aghast, but the actual confrontation wasn't scary at all. (I don't know if I would do that again. It was just a reading of the situation -- could easily have been a really stupid thing to do.)

Anyway, point is that even though I was right in the thick of things, there just wasn't that much actual activity.

I also drove through South Central a couple of times -- lots of pit bulls, to be sure, but not that much else that was remarkable during daylight hours.