Editing Raymond Washington (section)

====Unification of South Central gangs====
{{Main articles|Debate over the origins of the Crips gang}}
In 1971, Washington approached [[Stanley Williams|Stanley "Tookie" Williams]], a similar gang leader from South Central's West Side who used his reputation as a fist fighter to unite gangs under his control, at Washington Preparatory High School where both were attending. Washington had heard of Williams through a mutual friend, who had informed Washington of Williams' toughness and his willingness to fight members of larger, more established street gangs such as the L.A. Brims and the Chain Gang. According to Williams' account of the meeting, what struck him about Washington was that, besides being incredibly muscular, he and his cohort were dressed similar to Williams and his clique, wearing leather jackets with starched [[Levi Strauss & Co.|Levi's]] jeans and suspenders. Washington proposed to Williams they form a [[confederation]] of the gangs under their influence in their respective areas along with another teenage gang leader called Mac Thomas in [[Compton, California|Compton]], to form a single large street gang. The proposal would see Williams' gangs adopt the Crip branding and would be allied with other Crip gangs outside of the West Side, but would retain ultimate leadership in the East Side. Williams accepted Washington's proposal, uniting the West Side gangs under his influence as the West Side Crips.

The Crips quickly established themselves as the largest street gang in Los Angeles, with increasing numbers and territory as their influence spread across low-income black neighborhoods. Washington, Williams and Thomas effectively held a [[monopoly]] on criminal activity in these areas, and became the dominant [[Boss (crime)|crime bosses]]. Street gangs that had resisted being absorbed into the Crips soon formed their own confederate alliance, the [[Bloods]], to protect their independence and their interests in the criminal market. The founding of the Bloods sparked an instant rivalry between the new large gangs that saw a surge in [[violent crime]] in Los Angeles, as neighboring Crip and Blood sets began using increasing violence to fight over territory and personal feuds. With the rise of media coverage, which put these new violent gangs on the [[Newspaper|front page]], soon many disaffected black youths were running to join the Crips, many without ever being contacted by gang leaders. One story at the time stated:<ref name=lycos.com>{{cite web|title=Crips |publisher=Lycos.com |url=http://lycos.com/info/crips.html |access-date=January 15, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071228085102/http://www.lycos.com/info/crips.html |archive-date=December 28, 2007 }}</ref>

{{blockquote|One of the gangs,  in the area is known as the Crips which started out at Washington High School as an [[extortion]] and [[terrorism|terror]] organization and spread to other schools where the gang members enrolled after being expelled from Washington, the police said.

The Police also said that this gang has been spreading "like an octopus" and now has members throughout South-Central Los Angeles, [[Inglewood, California|Inglewood]], [[Gardena, California|Gardena]], Compton, [[Lynwood, California|Lynwood]], [[Lancaster, California|Lancaster]], [[Palmdale, California|Palmdale]], the Firestone [unincorporated] area and the [[San Fernando Valley]].

Gang members, to identify themselves, wear black gloves on their right hands and gold-colored earrings in their right ears, which are pierced, according to police. They sometimes carry [[Walking stick|canes]], which they use as [[weapon]]s.

There are two stories circulating on the derivation of the word Crips. One is that it stands for a cripple, because some of the founders were injured and had to carry canes for a time. The other is that the founders once wore [[Afro]]-style hairdos and their parents made them "crip it."{{citation needed|date=October 2014}}}}

Within a few years, much of the original Crip leadership were either imprisoned or dead. On February 23, 1973, Curtis "Buddha" Morrow, a close friend of Tookie Williams and a high-ranking Crip [[Mob enforcer|enforcer]], was shot to death in South Central following a petty argument. Mac Thomas was murdered under mysterious circumstances in the mid-1970s.