ALKQN Latin Kings & Queens Links and Notes

Just research notes for my use. Updated November 28, 2009.

IMHO: In general, the Wikipedia article, the NGCRC article by Knox, plus some number of visual aids tells you everything that's on the net. There's a lot of repetition in the visual aids, which shows that the research isn't deep enough on visual items. Most of the photographs and sites concentrate on Chicago, but most of the videos about New York.

People Nation or set, but may have moved past the set as the LK is very large. (a little red, no blue).
January 6th--King's Holy Day (or is it Epiphany, from the Church Calendar?)
First week of March "King's Week."

Graffiti
"ADR" in graffiti = "Amor del Rey" or the Love of the King.
360 = "360 degrees strong".

News
--2009 Nov. 25--WashPost--"Arrest of 19 Maryland Royal Lions Chapter of Latin Kings"
--2008, June 15--NYDailyNews--"How one Latin Queen mother saved herself and kids." NYC.
--2007, The Independent(UK)--"The Mob comes to Spain with trial of Latin Kings." Article observes that Barcelona has named the LK a "heritage organization" an Ecuadorian connection. Three LK leaders (2 men, one woman) indicted in Madrid.
--2005, August 18--NYDailyNews--"Latin Kings Leader Indicted"  King Lucky in NY State.
**2003, March 3--ChrSciMonitor--"A street gang with MBA order and Mafia cruelty." Testimony on an LK to LK homicide in San Antonio.
--1997, Nov. 20-- New York Times--"Man of vision or of violence? Where gang leader talks Peace, Police Just See Talk."  About "King Tone" in NYC.

Photos:
Credit: 20 minutos. es for the 5-pointed star sign.
Credit: avm.gangs.tripod .com for King with a Tear.

Quotes:
"Black and gold with the five dots on my hand" . . . . from a music video.

Video:
--A photo series:


--On YouTube, a lot of photo series of LK gatherings, with faces disguised--or not (!), mostly in Texas, New York, and Chicago, set to rap music. The rap music doesn't always seem to fit.

--These videos are documentaries from a series "Gangland" (Episode Four) uploaded onto DailyMotion. These videos should be watched with skepticism--1. The video doesn't differentiate between documentary footage and over-dramatized re-enactment. 2. Some of the members may be newbies or low-rank, or possibly giving some mis-information. Still, they're worth a look if watched critically.
Called 1/3 on YouTube
Called 2/3.
Called 3/3

Web Sites  (best ones are marked with asterisks)
**Florida Department of Corrections site. A good flashcard for tattoos, graffiti.
--Gang Research.net on Chicago LK.
--Know Gangs. com (undated article) "Chicago PD estimates 25,000 members".

**National Gang Crime Resource Center article, 2000, updated 2008, author George Knox. Good source, but no pictures and visually hard to read. Includes reports from interviews and some basic stats.

--From rapdict.org:  "The Latin Kings have the easier way to communicate that you'll find in gangs:hand signs. The FBI believes that the gang has more than 5000 hand signs. The main symbol of the gang is the five point crown, five point star, the "lord"  the picture of the King of cards with a black tear in his right eye.

Their colors are black and gold representing life and death. Also, if you mix the two colors together, you'll have the color brown, of which most of its members are."

--UIC.edu site on the Latin Kings, with links to other educational sites. Some links are broken.
**Wikipedia has a good quality, thorough article.