The city of Stockton in known to be a hard a tough place to grow up, there’s a lot of bad ass people from Stockton. From athletes, artists, movie stars and musicians.

Stockton breeds tough people, and it is also home to a lot of hardcore people too. Stockton is known for its dangerous gang wars and violence. When you hear that someone is from Stockton you know they are tough as f***.

Stockton is home to a lot of immigrants, either from south of the border as well as over seas. For this reason it is home to a lot of different nationalities. Just like San Francisco Gangs there is a lot of gang diversity as far as nationality and ethnicity.

To understand why Stockton is what it is today, we have to know the history behind this crazy city.

History of Gang Violence

Just like most places in California, Stockton, was a place where a lot of people flocked to for Gold mining.

Stockton grew rapidly for this reason, it would be the home for a lot of gold-seekers for a generally short amount of time.

Around the same time as the gold rush, a lot of Chinese immigrants would come to America in search of gold, but would eventually miss the rush, and end up working on the railroads. By 1880s Stockton had the third largest population of Chinese people in California.

The city was incorporated in July 23, 1850 but the country court and the first city election was held on July 31, 1850.

In 1851 the city of Stockton received its charter from the state of California.

Early settlers of the city included the gold seekers from Asian, Africa, Australia, Europe, the Pacific Islands, Mexico and Canada. You can see the diversity of Stockton in the street names, architecture and many heritage festivals.

Fast forward 100 years, and just like the rest of California, Stockton is now a melting pot of a bunch of different residence of color and ethnicity.

You have youth from different backgrounds ganging up on each other and forming their own gangs. Which is how it is like for most street gangs in California.

Due to the poverty and low income housing in a lot of these Stockton neighbourhoods, gang violence and crimes are still very high, and will continue!

these numbers of crimes.

With more than 500 people being killed in the city in the past decade and almost a thousand people being injured by gunfire, you can believe Stockton has some active gangs.

Stats

Stockton Police say the vast majority of the city’s crimes and violence is due to gang related crime.

As recently as 2018, Stockton’s Homicide numbers dropped nearly 40 percent from other the previous year, which was great news for the city, but that didn’t last too long.

in 2019, the murder rate numbers spiked back up, in the late months of 2019, there was already a documented 34 murders in the city.

These numbers made the Stockton Police department roll out a new initiative called Operation RVN, or Raven, to combat and reduce Violence in the city.

The Stockton Police and U.S. Marshalls pulled off an operation that resulted in 101 arrests, which included 42 identified gang members, which included crimes for homicide, shootings and fire arms!

Crime Rate 1999-2018 Stats

• The Stockton CA crime rate for 2018 was 1399.61 per 100,000 population, a 1.06% decline from 2017.
• The Stockton CA crime rate for 2017 was 1414.56 per 100,000 population, a 0.44% decline from 2016.
• The Stockton CA crime rate for 2016 was 1420.8 per 100,000 population, a 5.09% increase from 2015.
• The Stockton CA crime rate for 2015 was 1351.96 per 100,000 population, a 1.54% increase from 2014.

Inside Look at Stockton’s Gang Issue

Many residents of Stockton believe that Gangs are the reason for the city’s history of crimes and violence. In reality gangs are only part of the issue, and there is an underlying factor. Regardless it is important to find out why Stockton youth are joining gangs.

The Stockton Police department have documented close to 70 gangs with 30 of these gangs being active, meaning they are currently involved in crimes or gang activity.

In 1989 the Stockton PD deployed a Gang Violence Suppression Unit to counteract the gangs.

With this unit they found that that a lot of of issues stemmed from Turf related issues. Just like it is for Los Angeles Gangs.

Reports are claiming that gangs are recruiting young members as old as 12. The reasoning behind this, is due to youths not feeling accepted anywhere else. They find that the gangs are family, and are a place that they can fit in.

A good statistic to understand is that 15% of kids under the age of 18 live in a single parent household, the highest of any city in the San Joaquin County. This percentage is also higher that the state average.

Joining a gang can be connected to the lack of father figures to a lot of these kids.

Notable Gang Busts

Operation Hybrid Havoc

Operation Hybrid Havoc was an operation the Stockton PD deployed to target some gangs in the area. The gangs that they were targeting were mainly:

• Northside Gangster Crips
• Sutter Street Crips
• Flyboys/MOB/Muddy Boyz
• Nightinggale/EBK
• Nortenos
• West Side Bloods

With this operation they were able to make 90 arrests and seize 58 guns along with drugs and money.

The operation was started due to the increase in gun violence from 2019 to 2021.

They also were able to seize:

• Of the 58 firearms recovered, 12 were ghost guns and 10 were assault weapons.
• $23,846 in U.S currency
• 394 grams of cocaine
• 959 grams of ecstasy
• 98 grams of methamphetamines
• 73 grams of heroin
• 54 grams of fentanyl
• 5.3 pounds of marijuana

Active Gangs

Black Gangs:

West Lane Crips, 44g Crips, Northside Gangster Crips, Sutter Street Crips, South Mob Gangster Crips, East Side Gangster Crips, Valverde Park Gangster Crips, Taliban, Fly Boys , Spring Street, South Mob Bloods, West Side Bloods, EBK.

Asian Gangs:

Asian Boyz, Original Crip Gang, Asian Street Walkers, Loc Town Crips , Crazy Town Crips, Asian Gangster Crips, Bad Land Boys, Asian Crips, Down Ass Juveniles , G Blocc Gangster Crips, Bedlow Gangster Crips, Tiny Raskal Gang, Crazy Brother Clan, Insane Blood Gang, Original Blood Gang, Moonlight Strangers, Cambodian Junior Gang, Asian Pride, Menace of Destruction, Hmong National Society.

Mexican Gangs:

South Side Stocktone, Triple Six Gang, Sixth Street Nortenos, Barrio Conway, North Side Nortenos, East Side Nortenos, Oak Park Nortenos (maybe not active), West Side Gangsters, Pilgrim Street Gangsters , Central Stockton Locos, Clay Street Nortenos, Seventh Street Nortenos, Valverde Park Nortenos, VLL, Playboy Surenos, Vickystown 13.

Other Gangs:

Sons of Samoa, True Pinoy Crips, Muddy Boys, Silent Money Boys.