In the 1980s, gang signs were the secret visual language of the streets

In1988, Los Angeles was <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1988/02/08/us/gang-violence-shocks-los-angeles.html?pagewanted=all" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">in hysterics over the mounting visibility of its homegrown street gangs</a>. Public shootouts and innocent victims in affluent neighborhoods were making national headlines, and all of a sudden local gangs hailing from discrete pockets of South Central and East L.A. were coming up in cameo appearances in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI47M6cB7s8" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Hollywood films</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nCB5SBAASs" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">pop music</a>. The Los Angeles Police Department dubbed it “The Year of the Gang.” Attention on this scale may have been unprecedented for L.A.’s network of loosely affiliated neighborhood “sets.” But in many ways, grabbing for visibility was embedded in gang identity. Graffiti, clothing, and tattoos constitute a layered vocabulary for members to communicate with one another. Complex hand symbols, or “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt4xpHHsB5g" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">stacking</a>,” are also a gestural code to be brandished at will. <a href="https://timeline.com/gang-signs-secret-language-d1671aa6281c">Learn More</a>