Some of the 5,000-plus words and phrases in Savelli’s book, “Gang Related: Signs, Signals and Slang of Modern Gangs and Organized Crime” - a work in progress intended both for cops and general readers - have already made it into everyday use: bling, chilling and po-po, for example. No wonder Police Commissioner Ray Kelly recently called for doubling the size of the NYPD’s gang unit. 12 noted that 48 percent of the crime nationwide is committed by gangs. He noted that a federal gang-intelligence report on Oct. “There’s more sex-trafficking and prostitution from last year,” he said. Savelli says the emergence of small youth crews and the rising power of outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMGs) pose significant threats. They also don’t want other criminals ripping them off.” “The slang they develop helps protect them from law enforcement. “Gangs have their own language to represent who they are and to show their camaraderie,” says Savelli, a leading consultant who founded the NYPD’s gang unit and is now deputy director of the nonprofit East Coast Gang Investigators Association. They operate in a shadowy underworld with their own signs, signals and terminology.īut a forthcoming book by gang expert Lou Savelli pulls back the veil, revealing thousands of insider terms for everything that makes up gangster life: guns, drugs, money and murder. New York gangs aren’t just a frightening menace driving up crime in the city.

Translation: a Crip gang member has a gun and is looking to kill a Latin King rival. The crab got a biscuit and is drinking the bumble bee’s milk.

Bloods gang signs