 |
The Chicago Folk Gangs outnumbered People Gangs by large numbers.
The Gaylords have one of the fullest fighting schedules of any city gang; their gang engagement book must be crammed with upcoming Imperial Gangster, Spanish Cobra, Latin Panthers, and Latin King bouts.
FAVORITE LINKS
Another example of savage conditions was the Lawndale and Altgeld Gaylords. Before the Folk unity, these paticular Gaylords had themselves an easy fight with just the
Imperial Gangsters and Orchestra Albany. Once the Folks united, the Gaylords at this set now found themselves also fighting the Latin Lovers, Simon City Royals, Latin Disciples,
Spanish Cobras and a smaller gang calling themselves Maniac Destroyers. There was also a nearby dance club called Jenals that Folk gangs from all over the Northside of Chicago attended on the weekends.
The weekends saw shootings, stabbings and open gang warfare between the Gaylords and Folks trying to attend Jenals. The Gaylords were besieged on all sides. Here too, like the Palmer Street Gaylords,
they fought like wild animals day and night. The City of Chicago even sent special task force units in to the area as the fighting reached its peak in the summer of 1986. The Gaylords here were used to this though.
For years, the Chicago Police visited and arrested them for what seemed daily, as these Gaylords were the center of attention. Sadly, after deaths and losses the Gaylords could no longer bear, they dissolved their hood and parted.
An older Imperial Gangster said of the Lawndale Gaylords: "put it like this: the L/A G/L's fought like old gangsters; you knew you had a fight when you entered that hood and you better have an exit plan!!!"See Spanish gangs.
Now a person reading this may ask themselves a question like, "how does a Gaylord set that seems to be so strong, such as the Lawndale and Altgeld set, fall apart and close up shop?" Well, this seems to be in the main fact that the neighborhood goes through a cultural and racial change. The makeup of the area changes as the new immigrants move in. The Gaylords find it hard to adapt when the area they once knew as home, no longer seems to be home. The new immigrants usually bring their whole culture with them. You see this in the new stores coming in as they sell products or speak a language that is foreign to the way the Gaylords were used to living.
As time goes by, the Gaylords numbers at a certain set shrink. This is mainly due to deaths, prison sentences, retirement or members moving out of the area.
The Gaylords are unable to get new recruits as the new culture coming in also brings its own gangs with it. Instead of wanting to be a Gaylord, which is pro-American,
a person that moves into the neighborhood is already a member of a new gang moving in or he joins a new gang that is coming in, as it is probably
made up of his culture, racial ideas or way of thinking. The remaining Gaylords must decide if it worth the costs anymore. Its just like pulling american soldiers out of a
bad position that is over run by the enemy, like in the jungles of the Vietnam War. If they do decide to pull out, most members usually join up with another Gaylord set.
Some members just quit entirely as the set that they are leaving, probably was where they grew up and called home and now the idea of the set closing means the battle for
them is over because home was what the battle was about.
The one thing that irritates the Gaylords the most after they close up a section or set and pull their guys out is when you have one folk gang brag about how they took the set all by themselves.
The Orchestra Albany probably claims that they got rid of the Palmer Street Gaylords all by themselves. The Spanish Cobras, Latin Lovers and other Folk related gangs in that area probably each
say they did. The truth is that it was their combined effort under the Folk unity and the cultural change of the neighborhood by an entire race that actually did it.the Palmer Street Gaylords
could have easily taken anyone of those gangs on a one on one basis. Again, look at Lawndale and Altgeld where the Gaylords were for at least 20 years. They fought over six different gangs that
were around them before they Gaylords packed up and left.the Imperial Gangsters swear they got rid of those nasty old Gaylords but all one has to do is take a tour of that neighborhood to see that
the racial and cultural makeup of that neighborhood does not support a mostly white street gang or even one of American pride as the many flags that fly in that area today are not American.
About this situation an older L-A gaylord said,"Yeah, I heard that the Imperial Gangsters claim Lawndale now. They didnt show us much in the 1980s. If they think that they took that hood all by themselves,
they got to be really f__kin crazy."