The gang is also associated with a gang symbol: spelling out blood with their fingers. Red was originally worn to distinguish members of the Bloods from the Crips, who commonly wore blue since the early 1970s. It’s popularly said the name Bloods is an acronym for “Brotherly Love Overcomes Overrides and Destruction.” However, the Bloods, given their origins as a counter-Crip alliance, likely take their name from 1960s slang, blood, short for blood brother, referring to a “fellow (young) black person.”īloods also references the signature red color members wear, often featured in do-rags, bandanas, hats (especially professional sports teams with red team colors, like the Cincinnati Reds), and other clothing articles. Dozens of these loosely affiliated sets make up the Bloods. Due to the Bloods’s degree of influence, there are many gangs under different names who are still affiliated with the Bloods they are known as sets. Sometimes also called the Original Blood Family, the gang, with a reputation for its merciless violence and drug-dealing, has expanded throughout the US, forming the East Coast Bloods (or United Blood Nation). Eventually, dozens of smaller gangs in Los Angeles like them formed an alliance to fight back against the Crips, creating what’s known as the Bloods. They targeted and harassed smaller gangs like the Pirus and Black P. Back then, a powerful gang called the Crips dominated the city. The term Bloods originates from an organized street-gang rivalry in Los Angeles that dates back to the 1960s.

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