Oakland

Established by Chicano juveniles from Los Angeles while they were incarcerated together at the Duel Vocational Institution.

Frank Ward and his brothers controlled a massive sex worker industry, probably involving several hundred workers. Some of their most active territories were the entire length of East 14th Avenue, and San Pablo Avenue from upper West Oakland all the way into West Berkeley. This was the epicenter of the informal economy from the 1960s until the 80s.

Correctional authorities, hoping to quell violence at Duel and break the organization, sent La Eme members to San Quentin and Folsom. This repressive measure obviously backfired, as the founding member of Eme, Rodolfo Cadena, stabbed a black inmate to death in front of the entire prison yard on his first day, which marks the debut of a new era of unprecedented power and success for Cadena and Eme. The organization underwent rapid structural and strategic development, establishing an expansion-oriented policy of uncompromising political centralism, vestiges of internal democracy, and consensus-based decision making processes. They soon gained control of the Chicano prisoner population in most significant west coast lock-ups. However, reports of abuses and excesses remained commonplace from Chicanos, especially northern Californians and others with no close ties to the southern (sureno) cliqas.

By 1970, preexisting ties to the Aryan Brotherhood were solidified as a general alliance, which was at least in part a power-move to check the growing power of the Black Guerrilla Family after 1966.

Established in Soledad State Prison two years after the BGF by Chicanos from northern California disgruntled by abuses at the hands of La Eme. Derided by surenos and Eme, who mostly had roots in Mexico City and/or LA, for being farm-workers and campesinos. This difference may have been real or entirely fabricated, but it became an important element of the oral retelling of the split. NF and their sympathizers were also perceived as sell-outs for their association with blacks.

Reportedly sparked by a southerner stealing a pair of shoes from a northerner (norteno) in San Quentin, the war between La Eme (Mexican Mafia) and Nuestra Familia (NF) opened up with a massive riot in Quentin and remains unresolved to this day. It is at the heart of most of the gang violence in Chicano communities in CA.

Doc Holiday is largely responsible for shifting the BGF away from Jackson's minimalistic stance of non-alignment wherever possible, to a more aggressive rivalry with Eme in particular. As the war between sureno chicanos and BGF-led blacks intensified, Doc overlooked the problematic behavior of new BGF members and could not enforce the disciplines his more politically uncompromising comrades demanded. Stamping out heroine dealing and prostitution left the BGF agenda by necessity of war, and a new generation emerged whose entanglement with both was overlooked by much of the post-Jackson leadership.

Black inmates with BGF alignment abused unaffiliated black inmates with impunity, and the rock bottom of BGF decadence was marked when they reputedly began openly tolerating rape as long as it was targeted against inmates with no political relationship to the Family.
Kumi was founded by a handful of inmates who banded together to protect themselves from this unbridled hegemony. They began taking other unaffiliated blacks under their default protection, and grew into a force to be reckoned with, with a very heavy street presence in Oakland to date.

Early deterioration of organized crime syndicates among blacks (Nortenos too???). Most of these organizations either preceded or rode the wave of the crack boom to power but deteriorated during this period. The resulting vacuum is the most immediate cause of dramatic escalations of violence. Political de-centralization precedes the end of specialization of economic roles and division of labor. Rap music from 1994-2011 chronicles this devolvement into an era when it was no longer enough to "slang or bang" but one had to do both to survive. The end of strict divisions of labor and specialization runs parallel to the general political economic disorganization of urban black communities in this period. Yukmouth's "Free At Last" album and Antoine Fuqua's documentary "Bastards of the Party" both touch on this, to name only a couple sources.

With Felix Mitchell gone, the 69 Village Mob decentralizes gradually. Lost territories as far-flung as Funktown, West Berkeley, and a vital trap-house in South Berkeley knocked over by Funktown soldiers. When Lil Darryl lost power in the 90s i think this process was complete......anyone know a date for that?

Orders are handed down from Eme generales to camaradas (essentially, lieutenants) on the street that all internecine beefing among surenos is to cease. Killing of fellow "familia", and particularly drive-bys, are outlawed.

While consolidating their hold on the south, Eme captains financed the relocation of several sureno veterans, with their families and, in some cases, extended families, in tact to homes mostly in East Oakland and perhaps other northern California cities. Networks are established swiftly and an offensive begins as "Upstate Surenos" stake out turf in East Oakland and San Francisco, the historic heartland of Norteno identity and home-base of NF. Northern Californian Chicano youth who identify as Sureno "Upstaters" refer to this ongoing offensive as "the Takeover".

One alleged differentiation in the rhetoric of newer "Upstaters" versus old-school, "born Southerners" is the use of the word "Takeover" in place of "La Causa". Which was the term most of the original veteranos used to describe their attempts at unifying all southern gangs under the banner of Eme.

The Afghanistan War flooded the international drug market, from Iran to the UK to US, with quantities of opium and heroin unprecedented since the Taliban came to power in 1996. This at least partially contributed to a general over-saturation of the market in the US. The resulting collapse of profit margins from drug sales was linked directly to the collapse of the social division of labor associated with that era of high profits and low overhead.

Sex workers and drug sales severely affected. There was no recovery.

This could be bullshit. Needs further investigation. But the media and the State presented Operation Nutcracker as a successful destruction of a well-organized and extensive organized crime unit, the Acorn Gang, which was based in the Acorns but operated all over West Oakland and beyond. It is true that whatever happened in '08 resulted in a power vacuum and violent power struggles as a result, but as yet this seems to be all that can be confirmed outside of State- and media sources......??