Pirus

The Pirus, also known as Piru Street Family, West Side Piru, East Side Piru Relatives and Piru Gangsters (PG), are an African American street gang alliance based in Southern California. Piru sets make up most of the original Blood Alliance in Los Angeles. Pirus use the colors red or burgundy to signify affiliation.

Pirus
Founded1969 (1969)
Founding locationCompton
Years active1969–present
TerritorySouthern California
EthnicityAfrican American
Criminal activitiesMurder, drug trafficking, robbery and extortion
AlliesBloods, People Nation (Midwest), Black P. Stones, Harvard Park Brims, ES 20s Outlaws,Van Ness Gangster Brims, Fruit Town Brims, Fruit Town Pirus
RivalsCrips, Hoover Criminals, Asian Boyz, Folk Nation (Midwest)

The Pirus comprise various sub-groups known as "sets" between which significant differences exist such as colors, clothing, operations, and political ideas which may be in open conflict with each other. Since their creation, the Pirus gangs have branched throughout the United States.

History

In 1969, the Pirus were created by teenagers and young black men based in Compton, California. The term originally refers to Piru Street, a residential street in Compton and neighboring Willowbrook; it has been adapted as a backronym for Powerful Indestructible Revengeful United , or alternatively Political Inner-city Revolutionary Union. In 1969 the Crip alliance made by smaller gangs, the Pirus also joined, making a large "set" of the Crips. At that time, there were various sets throughout the region of Los Angeles, California. However, these sets were small groups of hustlers. In 1969, fifteen-year-old Raymond Washington started the Crips street gang with friends from his neighborhood on the East Side of South Central Los Angeles. The Crips began to attack hustler groups and cliques in order to create a larger organization.[1]

The Pirus soon joined with the Brims gang, a victim of the Crips attacks, and together in jail they created the Bloods, starting off at first as a way to address one another. Following this, new inmates entering the LA County Jail were asked by intake/deputies, "Who do you run with, the Crips or the Bloods?" Those who were victimized by the Crips joined the Pirus and Brims and ran with the Blood identity, which is how the Blood gang was formed. The Bloods started in jail in LA County in 1974, and the Pirus and Brims both formed on the streets in 1969.

Subsets

A subset, Murdaland Mafia Pirus, was created in Baltimore, Maryland. In 2018, Dontray Johnson was convicted of murder for shooting and killing two fellow members in November 2012 for violating rules of the gang. Johnson had posted on his Facebook profile, "198 n risen" referring to Baltimore's homicide toll of that year.[2]

In media

Films

West Side Pirus are shown as prominent characters in the 2020 feature film Bompton Had a Dream. The lead character, Phoolie, is a West Side Piru, and the film was entirely shot in the Piru side of Compton.[3][4]

See also

References
  1. Martinez, Juan Francisco Esteva (2008). "Bloods". In Kontos, Louis; Brotherton, David (eds.). Encyclopedia of Gangs. Westport, Konnecticut: Greenwood Press. pp. 12 –13. ISBN 978-0-313-33402-3.
  2. "Baltimore gang member who killed two fellow members for violating rules enters guilty plea". Baltimore Sun.
  3. "Bompton Had a Dream". IMDb. April 22, 2020.
  4. "Meet the innovative minds behind the film "Bompton Had A Dream"". Gritty Vibes. April 22, 2020.
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