oped a tradition of signaling their allegiance by dec-
orating one side of their bodies more than the other
side. The Folks identified themselves by emphasiz-
ing the right side of their bodies with their clothing,
jewelry, and so on. Their members might wear base-
ball caps facing toward their right sides or roll up
their right pant legs, for example. Similarly, the Peo-
ple identified themselves by emphasizing the left
side of their bodies.
Impact By the 1980’s, the Crips became one of the
most powerful gangs in Los Angeles, with a thriving
cocaine business. Once they realized that they could
maximize their profits by exploiting the crack epi-
demic, they sought to control the cocaine market,
propelling themselves to spread their gang from one
coast to the other. They established smaller chapters
in other urban cities and rural areas, reaching from
the Midwest to the East Coast. In response to the
spread of the Crips to all corners of the country, the
Bloods also successfully spread to nearly all fifty
states. Throughout the 1980’s, the Bloods began to
dominate the East Coast, becoming the largest gang
in New York City. The Bloods also exploited the
crack epidemic of the 1980’s, establishing a lucrative
crack trade rivaling that of the Crips.
Further Reading
Delany, Tim.American Street Gangs.Upper Saddle
River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice-Hall, 2006. Compre-
hensive description of gangs, discussing the dif-
ferent types that exist, why they form, and how law
enforcement copes with the increasing threat.
Hagedorn, John.People and Folks: Gangs, Crime, and
the Underclass in a Rustbelt City.Chicago: Lake View
Press, 1988. Two gangs from Los Angeles and Mil-
waukee are portrayed as institutionalized entities
in impoverished areas, where gang members move
underground to perpetuate the underclass.
Huff, C. Ronald.Gangs in America.Thousand Oaks,
Calif.: Sage, 1996. Collection of academic writ-
ings that address methodological issues in analyz-
ing gangs, criminological and ecological factors
used to explain gangs, the socioeconomics of
gang operations, and behavioral aspects of eth-
nicity and gender.
Kilby Raptopoulos
See also African Americans; Crack epidemic;
Crime; Hip-hop and rap; Organized crime; Slang
and slogans.
Garneau, Marc
Identification Canada’s first astronaut
Born February 23, 1949; Quebec City, Canada
Garneau, the first Canadian to fly in space, made Canadi-
ans more aware of the accomplishments of their space pro-
gram, paving the way for Canadian participation in the
International Space Station.
Canada and the United States have cooperated in
space exploration since the beginning of the Space
Age. Canada’s first satellite, Alouette 1, was launched
on a U.S. rocket in 1962. The development of the
space shuttle, which could carry seven astronauts
into orbit, provided an opportunity to extend this
cooperation to human space travel. In December,
1983, Marc Garneau was one of six Canadians se-
lected from about four thousand applicants for as-
tronaut training.400 Garneau, Marc The Eighties in America
Astronaut Marc Garneau prepares for a space shuttle mission in
1996.(NASA-KSC)