Los Angeles police scored a victory in their war against gangs with a massive takedown of nearly three dozen Crips gang members Thursday (August 29). Dubbed “Operation Thumbs Down,” the LAPD went after one of the city’s oldest and most notorious gangs in the Rollin’ 30s Harlem Crips.
The Los Angeles Times reports that the LAPD had been investigating the Rollin’ 30s – a gang that rapper Ice-T once belonged to – on social media and found evidence that school age children had been exposed to gang culture. The gang-bangers were taken into custody with the use of 34 federal warrants and slapped the Crips with gang, drugs and conspiracy charges.
From the Times:
The investigation’s name refers to a Rollin’ 30s hand gesture — two thumbs pointed up, representing the “H” in Harlem.
The multi-generational gang operates primarily within Jefferson and Martin Luther King Jr. boulevards, and Normandie Avenue and Crenshaw Boulevard. That area has been the scene of 29 homicides in five years, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
In addition, about 1,100 robberies and 1,075 assaults have been reported in the 1.5-square-mile area that comprises the gang’s area.
Assistant United States Attorney Christopher Pelham named the Crips the most “sophisticated” of them all, and it appears that the gang activity has moved beyond their home base of southern Los Angeles.
Next on the Los Angeles city attorney’s office’s list is to work alongside the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s inspector general to oust gang members from housing units.
Watch a video report of the arrest from KTLA below.
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Photo: KTLA
