Suicidals

In the early 80's when dangerous punk gangs such as the "L.A. Death Squad" and "Circle One Family" were running rampant, few of the gangs stood out as much as the Suicidals, who dressed like Cholos. Formed from punks who grew up and lived in the ghettos of Venice, Long Beach, Santa Monica, and other parts of LA. Their name comes from the "Suicidal Tendencies" punk/thrash/crossover band from Venice. Mike Muir along with the rest of the band were known to dress like "Cholos" even though they were punks. The Suicidal gang color is blue, which leads most to think that at first glance they are Crips, but Suicidals have no association with Crips. For the Suicidals rarely contended with typical major race gangs such as Bloods, Crips, Surenos, Nortenos etc. since they are of a different caliber and Suicidals only fought with other punk gangs. Gang attire consisted of a lot of blue: Blue bandanas worn around the forehead and covering most of the eyes, Flipped up hats with the words "Suicidal" under the bill, flannel jackets buttoned on the top only, white shirts tucked into ironed dickies pants or ben davis jeans, and Vans skate shoes or Zig Zag shoes. Also noteworthy are the custom hand drawn white dress shirts worn by most of the Suicidals and Suicidal affiliates to shows which had skulls and other frightful things drawn on them with the words "Suicidal" used often. Serious gang members would get numerous things tattooed on their bodies such as Suicidal, Suicidals, Suicidalx13, STx13, and also tattooes of Razor Blades on the wrist were not un-common The Suicidal gang members dressed like cholos and vato Mexicans rather than dressing like British Punks because of their love of their hoods and places they grew up. Its argueable to say when the gang was started, most likely it was early to mid 80s. Closely associated with the "Venice 13" gang(Note:Amery Smith, original drummer for Suicidal Tendencies was a Venice 13 gang member, this is proven by looking at their original band lineup photo in which Smith is wearing a flipped up hat with the marking "V13" underneath), in their hay-day, the Suicidals were one of the most dangerous punk bands around. Just like any real gang, you had to have been initiated into the gang by getting jumped numerous times among other things, and in some very rare instances, self mutilation. In the 80s, hardcore punk concerts would most likely have Suicidal gang member attendees which would result in people getting beat up, stabbed, and sometimes killed. For this reason, the Suicidal Tendencies band was blamed for many violent outbreaks at their shows and murders, they were also banned from playing in LA for up untill the 90s because of their "Suicidal" following. The gang is much less active now, but is also now worldwide. Suicidal gang members don't really "bang" anymore or nearly as much as they used to, but they still are considered dangerous. Most of the older generation Suicidals from the 80s are in jail for serious crimes. Nowadays the "punk-cholo" look which was started by the Suicidals has taken a fashionable appeal for some punk fans and skaters.