The walls might not have ears, but they certainly are talking

Earlier this week I noticed some fresh gang graffiti on a wall near my house and told my wife what it meant as we walked past. She was shocked that to learn that what she had previously written off as useless scribble and vandalism was actually a very clear message, if you knew what to look for. Gang tagging, not to be confused with street art, has been an interest of mine for a while and I often forget that it’s not as blatantly obvious to everyone so I took this photo and wrote up a translation which you can read here if you are interested. The long and short of it is that 3 different but clearly recognizable gangs are competing for that location, which means there could be trouble ahead.

This got me thinking about how often in an urban environment the walls themselves can give us as much if not more information than a local newspaper about what is going on in an area, if we know what to look for. Unfortunately most people don’t, so I think when talking about urban survival brushing up on some of these languages and codes can be very useful. That said, there are a very few universal codes blended together with a near endless amount of specialized local ones but knowing a few things can help out a lot.

One thing to note is I’m not exclusively talking about gang tags, though in most cities they are the most common thing you will see. While not so frequent these days, for much of the last 100 or so years hobo code was used by “travelers” to tip off others about things they had found. Knowing a few of these ahead of time could mean the difference between warm food and a place to sleep or abuse and hunger. Before Wi-Fi became omnipresent in most cities, those in the know were using warchalking to let others know about open wireless nodes. New codes are often suggested though not many are actually in use nationally or globally.

Personally one of the first things I do when in a new city is start looking at the walls for patterns, when I see something showing up repeatedly I go to the web and start researching it. Often a collection of letters combined with the city name will give you exactly the info you are looking for. Going back to the impetus of this post, this is especially true of gangs. Since gangs are numbering in the millions now and individual offshoots and cliques make knowing everything about all of them near impossible, but luckily you don’t need to. Because of their territoriality, chances are wherever you live there are only a small handful of gangs and with a little research you can find out who they are, and just as importantly who they like and who they don’t. This is info that came come in handy if you find yourself lost, seeking shelter, or getting caught in a dark alley with the wrong people. Respect is an important part of gang culture, and knowing who to respect in what areas can go a very very long way.

If you live in Los Angeles or Southern California the book Wallbangin’ by Susan A. Phillips is chock full of info about the history and culture of gang graffiti in the area and picking it up will open your eyes to a whole new language that certainly surrounds you. If you don’t live in SoCal, it’s still worth reading because while the specific gangs she talks about may be different near you, much of the culture probably overlaps. Streetgangs.com is also a fantastic collection of gang information. Something as simple as seeing a 6 pointed star or a word with the letter “C” with an X through it can tell you a great deal about who lives in an area.

One of the most valuable things you can learn from neighborhood graffiti is what the neighborhood is called by the locals. Often it’s not the same thing that is on a map, or it’s a tweek on the official name. Knowing that one piece of info can go a long way when asking for help or info from neighborhood shops if you need to. As I mentioned in the start of this post, this post tells a lot about the gangs hanging out on my block. Who lives near you and what are they up to?