I agree with you.
I come from a world of California street gangs and in recent years became increasingly interested in all things to do with LCN especially because The Sopranos is my favorite show of all time.
I think there's similarities in these two worlds but that's it.
Comparisons are apples and oranges to put in mildly.
I can't speak about street gangs in the northeast but I know many gangs have tried to model themselves after LA gangs, bloods and crips etc.
IMO gangs in LA traditionally has been a blood sport of rival tribes.
Gangs fight each other just to fight each other.
Gang members will literally sit around talking with one another and keeping score of how many enemies they picked off vs the nearby rivals.
I always would hear about how gangs are fighting for drug turf and stuff but that's overblown. There's truth to it but the vast majority of the violence is for no reason at all other than to prove which gang is the hardest and most dangerous.
There's been a shift in recent decades of street gangs organizing better to make money, but it still isn't the same as LCN which is in a totally different realm.
When people talk about power these groups hold vs the other, in makes no sense.
Street gangs have no real reason to fear LCN and LCN has no reason to fear street gangs. It's a different world.
There's some political history with the Crips and Bloods forming around the time the Black Panthers broke up, and how those gangs were formed, with Pirus, Brims etc becoming enemies with the Crips. I'm sure this played a key role in the early battle lines, although I'm also sure that in the crack era greed and drug turf became a bigger motive.
So little is known about the early days of Latino gangs in LA. When you consider how old they are, I wonder if there's a connection to the parts of Mexico they came from. There's a couple of Maravilla gangs that have namesakes that denote a connection to regions and families in Mexico, such as Juarez Maravilla, Lopez Maravilla, etc. Bet there's some history there, especially when you consider that the Maravilla neighborhoods have a history of breaking ranks with Surenos and la Eme.
