P to the Izzle Cool With Old Gangsters
Not that a huge coke bust isn't a story (and won't the Hill be so much sleepier this weekend with those 20 lbs off the street) but the story within the story is the grandfatherly manner in which the P-I talks about gangs. Hey, not that there's no one younger and hipper than Seattlest out there, but that doesn't stop us from pointing and laughing at the many shades of translation from street to cop to reporter to copy editor.
From the P-I:
It appears from court records that the feds intercepted more than 1,200 telephone calls, and the affidavit contained excerpts from several of those calls. For example, Fuhr was captured calling "J-Lee," but instead reaching his girlfriend, who told Fuhr that J-Lee "was trying to get rid of it all" (distribute the drugs) and "get the rest of his cheese (money) together," the affidavit said.
For those readers mistakenly under the impression that "trying to get rid of it all" was gang speak for "terrorizing old white ladies" the P-I has set the record straight.
Also of interest is this selection from the P-I's Crips primer:
Most agree the gang moved into the Seattle area in the 1980s, when some of the other Hoover street gangs were connected to drug crimes, shootings and killings in the Pacific Northwest."We actually had some of the OGs (Old Gangsters) come up here in the late '80s and early '90s," Morales said.
Old Gangsters? Like Capone? Or are we talkin pimp hats and blinged out walkers?
