Gossip flocks together like gulls

Apparently gang symbols and sports gear seem to be a prevalent problem to the the worried citizens of America, meanwhile they prevail as an urban fashion assault for many consumers. I remember the days of Raider Starter Jackets being banned from many schools while British Knights were rocked by bangers. I truly believe that whatever somebody wants to identify themselves by, they simply will, despite how much grief is given to specific brands. If it's not sports logos, it's something else and so on...big deal. Blue plaids, dallas cowboys, red chucks, etc...there's more important issues in this country other than sports logos used by gangbangers.

Stamping Out Gang Symbols on Sports Gear
By Jennifer 8. Lee October 20, 2008, 4:04 pm

Who bears the responsibility for gang symbols being sold on sports gear?

Is it sports leagues like Major League Baseball, which claimed last year that it was unaware that some Yankees caps were being sold with red and blue bandanna patterns and other gang insignia?

Or is it clothing manufacturers, like New Era, which last year said it would pull such caps from sale? Or is it retailers who continue to put such products on the shelves? Or is the use of colors — like black and gold — more a fashion statement than any signifier of gang allegiance?

On Monday morning, the City Council’s committees on consumer affairs and public safety held a joint hearing on the continued sales of clothing with gang symbols. Last year, parents pointed out how New York Yankees caps had been interwoven with red bandanna pattern (symbolizing the Bloods gang), blue bandannas (symbolizing the Crips) and gold crowns (symbolizing the Latin Kings).

The products were the subject of parental protests in August 2007, and the City Council held holding a hearing last December on this issue. On Monday, council members complained that the products were still being sold, months after the Brooklyn district attorney’s office alerted Major League Baseball and New Era to the continued sales.

Leroy G. Comrie, the chairman of the Council’s consumer affairs committee, said he found the products being marketed this past weekend at three stores in his district in southeastern Queens and a store outside of his district.

“If it’s an oversight by some of the retailers, it’s a gross one,” he said. Last year, he noted, New Era and Major League Baseball said they would pull the offending merchandise. “It’s therefore difficult to take New Era and Major League Baseball at their word,” he said.

When the issue surfaced a year ago, “everyone was unaware it was gang colors,” said Peter F. Vallone Jr., the chairman of the Council’s public safety committee. “Now they are aware, and they are still doing it.”

A cap with a gold crown, symbolizing the Latin Kings was still available on DrJays.com, an online store, though a cap with a five pointed-star, a common Bloods indicator, had been taken down.

And even as New Era pledged to stop making the products, councilmembers said that other apparel companies were now in the business of selling hats with gang symbols. Mr. Comrie’s office said that staff investigators had discovered hundreds of Latin King-related hats being sold to street vendors by businesses located in Midtown Manhattan.

Matt Bourne, a Major League Baseball spokesperson, said in a statement:

New Era and MLB stopped production on the caps we understood to be gang-identified last summer and asked all retailers to remove those hats from their shelves and return them for a full refund, which most did. Any questionable caps that might remain in the market are available because retailers did not comply with our request, and more likely given the long period of time since this incident occurred, might very well be counterfeit.

At the hearing, two investigators from the gang bureau of the Brooklyn district attorney’s office testified about the continuing efforts to combat gang-related colors and clothing.

Deanna Rodriguez, chief of the Brooklyn district attorney’s gang bureau, said the sellers cannot be prosecuted because the First Amendment protects the sale of such merchandise. “We all know we can’t legislate against corporations for making these things and we can’t ban stores from selling them,” she said.

Therefore, the office has focused on education, going into schools and meeting with parents to make them aware of the problem. There have been cases where victims were attacked in part because they unwittingly wore clothing that was interpreted by others to be gang-related.

The Brooklyn district attorney’s office has met with Major League Baseball officials, who said they wanted to take the anti-gang message nationwide, said Edward Carroll, head of gang investigations.

Mr. Carroll said the Major League Baseball officials were not alert to all the different meanings of the fashions. “They are not aware of different symbols, different numbers,” he said.

While some gang identifiers are fairly obvious, others are more subtle, law enforcement officers say. Robert K. Boyce, the head of the New York police’s gang division, explained at a City Council hearing last December that a sports jersey with the number “32″ could symbolize the five points of the Latin Kings’ crown. Even mainstream names like Calvin Klein’s “CK” brand has been co-opted by certain Blood members to stand for “Crip Killer” while Ralph Lauren’s CHAPS label has been used by Crips to stand for “Crips hate all PIRI Slobs.”