London Borough of Lambeth, originating predominantly from around Stockwell in the SW8 postal district. The gang covers a number of estates on the borders of Lambeth and Wandsworth, incuding the Patmore, Gaskell Street, Studley and Hartington estates.031, pronounced O-Tray One, was the first “official” Bloods gang to be created in London. In reality, the 031 Bloods movement is not a certified Blood gang. Whilst there are links between its founding members with gang members in New York City, it does not qualify them to be certified. The vast majority of Bloods gangs that exist outside of California, regardless of how violent or criminally active they may be, are nonetheless copy-cats. This includes a number of Blood gangs in America.Certified, or official, Blood sets outside California must have gained blessing, given the green light, to set up in their respective city. This often involves taking on the same name or similar variation of the neighbourhood giving permission. There is no 031 Bloods gang in California. The number sequence 031 in ‘United Blood Nation’ (USA East Coast Bloods) code translates as ‘I got love for you Blood’. The numbers also represent United Blood Nation (0), which has 30 rules (3) and all are equal as one nation under Blood (1).
The reason for choosing 031 Bloods is unknown. There are a number of theories that combined go a way to explaining this. The founding member of 031 is former PDC gang member ‘Tanna’, also known as ‘Bloods’ in the book Street Boys by Tim Pritchard. Tanna was born in 1979 in the Kingston 13 - which could be a contributing factor to the influence of 031 - district, Jamaica. He moved to England in 1985 with his mum, his older brother and his uncle who one person alleges was a former Piru. His father was already residing in Brixton on the Angell Town estate. He was sent to live in Birmingham and did not come back to Brixton to live until 1990.
By 1990, his brother had joined a gang called the Untouchables whilst his uncle and cousin were linked with the 28’s. At the age of 15, in 1995, he and his crowd, which included Elijah Kerr, formed a gang that was initially known as the Peel Dem Crew. Whilst Tanna came up with the name Elijah Kerr is often credited as the founder and man behind the development of the PDC. By 2006, the older members of the PDC were undergoing ‘conflicts of interest’. Tanna had decided to break away and start his own gang 031 Bloods. He and Elijah Kerr later fell out and continued their rivalry through music tracks.
031 came to be the overarching allegiance of several Blood gangs, or sets, in south London, usually taking their name from the estates in which they reside. For example, G-Street (Gaskell Street), ABG (Albion Blocks), Union Blocks and Patmore G’s are all names which refer to geographical gang areas. There are also affiliations with other gangs in Brixton who arose following the split of PDC membership. The CFR and RSG gangs, also music crews, distanced themselves from PDC by adopting red bandanas and later came to be considered part of the 031 movement.
The CFR, G-Street and RSG sections are independent gangs rather than cliques of 031. Another set under the guise of 031 is the “Killa Gangsta Bloods” (KGB) from near Dorset Road. There are affiliations also further south in Croydon borough (Byrdgang and KGB). Although 031 are the most well publicised some consider the G-Street section to be the most thorough gang of Stockwell.
Tanna has bred a generation of youths who are now firmly fixed on this Bloods identity in south London. Their natural rivals became the Dorset Road Cripset, who may have been the influencing factor behind the adoption of Bloods identity amongst 031, and the ABM gang from Stockwell Park – who identify with blue although not necessarily as Crips. The violence between the 031 Bloods and ABM has become one of the bloodiest rivalries of recent years in the borough of Lambeth. It has claimed several lives since 2007.
The following section is a brief rundown of all killings taking place in Lambeth with alleged links to Blood and Crip influenced gangs – gang names are mentioned throughout as these are not all specifically to do with 031, however, their prominence in the beginning of the Bloods and Crips trends makes it relevant to this profile page.
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