I'm from Cali. My hood was so bad that the Feds had to come in to take over a few times because nikkas in the hood in Cali known for not being afraid to spray up the cops. 
After a while, the cops wouldn't even really police the hood anymore, they would just slide through sometimes and not stop because they were justifiably shook. They wouldn't even reopen the old police substation in my old hood unless the whole building was wrapped in bulletproof glass. Is it because the cops in NY were being paid off? Or is it because the cops where you were at weren't around much because they were scared to come to the hood when it got real bad?Going by what older people told me, my west indians older people told me, and reading, most came here in the mid 70's-the early 80's. The blacks who lived in Flatbush/crown heights/ 90's were black americans, but it wasn't much, those areas were mainly jewish, and italian, with some P.R.'s. This makes sense because the drug crews got big in the mid 80's when a lot more poor west indians who weren't as educated started coming. As far as the other groups, they were VERY little, except Trinidadians. Haitians weren't really known for doing it in the drug game like that. I only started hearing about Haitians doing their thing in the mid 90's, and on.
NY nikkas banged on cops so much they have a 1-800-cop shot number.Why do you think the hood never went to war with cops in NYC?
Do you think NYC adopting gang culture is stupid? I know the older heads with the hustler mentality generally look down on the new generation adopting gangs, let alone gangs from other cities, even if it's just using the same name like the original NY Bloods in the mid 90's.
Do you find it hard working in the white collar office world where most of the people you interact with day to day have lived very sheltered/privileged lives? Do you feel like you're hiding a secret identity from all of the uptight white folks you probably deal with at work daily?
Ever seen someone get bodied right in front of your eyes?
Did NY have a lot of large caliber weaponry on the street back then? Or was it mostly handguns? Were drive by's ever big in the hood in your area? I'm guessing no.
Did your hood beef with the other side over some dumb shyt that had nothing to do with money or the dope game that resulted in a lot of your homies getting killed and a need for retaliation?
They went up and down the east coast taking Ls to JBM in Philly...and 4th X Kdy in DC
Probably about 50%. Keep in mind tens of thousands of people in the early 90s in NYC were involved in drug dealing in one capacity or another. There was a difference between selling crack here and there for extra $$ and rising to a lieutenant or boss in an organization. The higher you went, the more likely you ended up incarcerated or dead.
Why do you think the hood never went to war with cops in NYC?
Cops did get shot in NYC in that era. A lot of people were armed and there was always someone especially wild with nothing to lose who would take it there. Then there was Larry Davis (no, not) who had that infamous shoot out with the police and hit a bunch of them. Larry's defense was that they were dirty and they were coming to kill him which we all believed. Fortunately a lot of Bronx juries back then were awake to the lies and deceit of the government.
As for normal, every day street dudes taking it upon themselves to blast cops...? What would the point have been? Like I've said before we were out there to get paid, we didn't have gangs that were interested in violence or targeting the government just because. And when you kill one of them anywhere in America they come down on you like the wrath of God... It's fundamentally bad business.
Back then there were less police in NYC. And policing was hands off to an extent. I think they just didn't really care what we did in the streets unless they started getting pressure from their bosses/politicians. As long as we kept that shyt in the hood and killed our own they were content. This is pre-stop and frisk New York. I would typically walk around with a pistol in my waistband just to have it on me in case. Never caught a hammer charge.
Do you think NYC adopting gang culture is stupid? I know the older heads with the hustler mentality generally look down on the new generation adopting gangs, let alone gangs from other cities, even if it's just using the same name like the original NY Bloods in the mid 90's.
I don't think it's more or less stupid/destructive than what my generation was doing in the streets. I think it's a way for kids without an identity to find one, so the purpose is a little different. A lot of people who hustled in the crack era did it because we were coming from very extreme poverty and it was seen as a necessity (myself included). It was an economic imperative (to a lesser extent social)... There are a lot of gang members who don't necessarily come from the worst socio-economic conditions and still join a gang because they feel an emptiness and need that identity. So I don't know.. They seem to serve purposes that are similar but different than what we used to do. Not better or worse. It's all counter-productive.
Do you find it hard working in the white collar office world where most of the people you interact with day to day have lived very sheltered/privileged lives? Do you feel like you're hiding a secret identity from all of the uptight white folks you probably deal with at work daily?
I don't feel like I'm hiding some sort of secret identity. I've been living as an educated taxpayer much longer than I was ever in the streets. This is my identity now. I wouldn't even know where to begin if I found myself back on a corner/in the underworld.
Most of them come from MUCH more privileged backgrounds so I think the biggest advantage I have is that I can maintain perspective. I take chances professionally (all successful people need to) because I'm less afraid of the consequences. If something doesn't work out and I lose my position, I circulate a resume and I'm somewhere else within weeks. Not the end of the world. Consequences are definitely not like they are for messing up in the streets or just being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Ever seen someone get bodied right in front of your eyes?
Multiple people. Friends and strangers.
Did NY have a lot of large caliber weaponry on the street back then? Or was it mostly handguns? Were drive by's ever big in the hood in your area? I'm guessing no.
Handguns were the weapon of choice. Easy to conceal and sneak up on someone with. Cheaper. Large organizations like the ones I hustled for had artillery stashed but for day to day issues that stuff didn't need to come out.
One of the groups I worked for ran into an issue and the boss started a stockpiling arms race. Bought all types of machine guns (mac-10s, mini uzis), big shyt I had only seen in the movies like streetsweepers. After all that nothing even popped off, we ended up selling most of it.
Drive-bys existed in NYC. I don't know why everyone thinks that was just an LA thing. They used to pull them in old gangster movies about the Prohibition era, they weren't invented in 80s Compton.
A drive-by tended to be a way to attack a corner indiscriminately, not even necessarily kill someone but let them know it wasn't safe anymore. A lot of the killing in that era was contract killing--someone wanted someone dead for whatever reason and paid a guy to get the job done. That shyt tended to be close range, executing style, pistols.
Did your hood beef with the other side over some dumb shyt that had nothing to do with money or the dope game that resulted in a lot of your homies getting killed and a need for retaliation?
Not really. It was rare to see a whole team go to war with another whole team just over personal bullshyt. At the end of the day we hustled together but we worked for our own pockets. Why would we lay our lives on the line because some other dude is fukking the boss' baby moms? Or some other petty nonsense? People with money and beef would contract the shyt to a professional hitman. We didn't have wars just because.
