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Long Beach Hustlers - Vigilantes or Villains?
A SAN News Article
Date: 19/08/2018
Tag(s): Gangs, Crime
Criminality is a world of constant change: old gangs are falling, and new ones come to Los Santos. Some of them are very successful, filling the void old gangs left behind. Today, we are looking into one such gang: The Long Beach Hustlers (LBH). Although they are a newly-formed crew in town, their members are experienced and street-hardened criminals. This article further investigates into what goes on behind closed doors in LBH, and provides insight into how they succeed in gang warfare. We will also be looking into the gang's history, conception and motivations.
Long Beach Hustlers - Genesis
A few days before the gang signed and diffused it's official declaration (''The LBH Manifesto''), I arranged talks with Dan Devil and Tito Freeman, the brains behind this group, about their goals. What follows is only part of the interview, as many things had to be censored for common decency:
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Q: So Mr.Devil, what is your gang all about?
A: We are here to save the people of Los Santos from Norteños. We will bring them down, while we climb up.
Q: By people you mean citizens?
A: Correct. We are not like the other gangs in Los Santos. We give money and stuff to people to feed their family and live. We even got a few people under our pockets such as cops and government agents.
Q: You know that with this statement you're saying "We are here to bring justice to the citizens'. If this is fake or you are distorting the truth, then you are going to get into a lot of problems.
A: I understand that, but we stand with our words, that's a fact, we do not lie.
Q: How do you know that you are not going to fall into the same pitfalls as Pig Pen Pimpz did? They acted noble and innocent too, turns out..-
A: Pig Pen Pimpz? Well the thing is, they never had anyone who knows the streets like we do. They where a bunch of weak, sex-addicted degenerates who could not handle the heat. But we are not, We are the true heroes of Los Santos. We seek to take power from the oppressors and give it back to you, the people.
Listen, I am going to tell you something that none else knows, The Nortenos leader, Donald Wazowski ,Told me he wanted to be our ally. You know what I said? I said F*** that. See, they already scared of us.
Q: Why you are still assuming Nortenos as a threat, right?
A: Well, that's one reason why we decided to form this group in the first place. Everyone wants us to take them down, and that's exactly what we will do. People in Los Santos can't go to the cops of FBI, but they will come to us. And we will protect them.
(Dan Devil and Tito Freeman after the interview Photo: Hlias Papas)
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The fall of Norteños and its consequences
Following a week of violent bloodshed in Glen Park and a SWAT raid in Las Colinas, most of Norteños La Familia fled into exile, while members who remained in the town joined smaller clandestine cells of the same group. After the fall of NLF, the Long Beach Hustlers started to fill the power-vacuum, performing bank robberies and other criminal activities associated with the previous hispanic-descended gang.
(Bank robbery from LBH gang)
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Q: I asked a lot of your gang members about your goals, and a lot of them told me different things that conflict with each other.
A: Well, let me tell you the main goal of the gang. It's to take over Los Santos, simple as that, and guess what? we're already near to achieving that.
Q: Take over Los Santos? And what are you going to do when your gang takes over Los Santos?
A: Then we lay back and watch the money come through.
Q: Before the gang was declared, you told me that your gang was going to be the ''true heroes of Los Santos'' for its people, right?
A: Well... That was true, until the FBI raided our drug house in east Los Santos. They took 3 million dollars and arrested 5 of my members.
Q: So you are not here for the citizens of Los Santos anymore?
A: Well I am, but not for law enforcement, that's for sure. Every one in my hood is eating good and living in peace. I do not care about the cops or any other government official. As long as my members and people in my hood are eating then we good.
Q: How do you know that you are not going to make the same mistakes that Norteños made?
A: Well the difference between our gang and Norteños is that we are organized. We know about each person in Los Santos and how to control them. Most leaders, myself included, are hidden in the shadow, watching over the people of Los Santos. We let the soldiers do the dirty work.
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After concluding this final interview, LBH allowed our camera crew to briefly film the crew near their base of operations. Click the video below to view the clips:
