Always been somewhat confused about this, each gang has seperate "sets" but no actual hierachery or organization. You read about some sets, such as the Rollin' 60's who have about 1600 members, which seems far too powerful and you never read about one such person being head of that set. If there is no hierachery offering protection to its members and each set has different factions within it that no have no contact with one another, whats the point of being in the gang if there are no clear benefits?
they are called 'hoods because in LA the gangs are essentially just nicknames for the neighborhoods that they live in. so the 60's is a nickname for the territory of the 60th streets. their rivals, 8 Tray is just slang for 83rd street,etc. So it's hard to prove or denote membership. Anyone that lives in a neighborhood with a slang name, or nickname, could be considered a member. so in that sense, in LA people are born into the gangs. let's say you were born and raised on 60th street in south central LA, well then you are from rollin' 60s, by virtue of where you live. it's not as regimented or organized as the news media or Hollywood would have you believe. now, with that said,there are distinctions between people "from" a hood, and the "hardcore" members,but the hardcore are always the small minority,sometimes as few as 1 or 2 people per neighborhood.
