Gang Deconstruction

installations both domestic and international although recruiting gang members violates
military regulations.
History
The earliest American street gangs emerged
at the end of the American Revolutionary
War in the early 1780s. However, these early
street gangs had questionable legitimacy,
and more serious gangs did not form until
the early 1800s. The earliest of these serious
gangs formed in northeastern American
cities, particularly in New York.
Early Street Gangs in The Northeast:
1780–1870
employed as common laborers.
Three immigrant groups entered the
Northeast via New York in the early 1800s:
English, Irish, and German. On the Lower
East Side of New York, these immigrant
groups formed into gangs in an area known
as the Five Points. Of these were the
Smiths's Vly gang, the Bowery Boys, the
Broadway Boys, all three of which were
predominantly Irish immigrants. Blacks living
in New York formed two main gangs, the Fly
Boys and the Longbridge Boys. These early
gangs were not exclusively engaged in
criminal activity; their members often were
After the early 1820s, however, gangs began to focus on criminal activity, one example
being the Forty Thieves, which began in the late 1820s in the Five Points area. Other
criminal gangs of the pre-Civil War era included the Dead Rabbits and the Five Points
Gang. The Five Points Gang in particular became influential in recruiting membership to
gangs and toward establishing gang relationships with politicians. By 1855, it was
estimated that the city of New York contained 30,000 men who held allegiances to gang
leaders. The New York City draft riots were said to have been ignited by young Irish
street gangs. Herbert Asbury depicted some of these groups in his history of Irish and
American gangs in Manhattan, and his work was later used by Martin Scorsese as the
basis for the motion picture Gangs of New York. However, these early gangs reached
their peak in the years immediately prior to the Civil War, and gang activity had largely
dissipated by the 1870s.
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