Almighty 12th street players

Basic Information

The Almighty 12th Street Players (TSP) are a Chicago gang based in the city's West Side Island neighborhood. The 12th Street Players have been a member of the People Alliance since it's incorporation in the late 1970s. As a mostly white gang, the Players chose to side with the People Alliance, as did the Almighty Gaylords, Noble Knights, and southside Insane Popes, all gangs with a proud Stoned Greaser heritage. The only major white gang to join the mostly black and Latino Folks Alliance were the Simon City Royals.

History

The 12th Street Players were a formed in the late 1960s in Cicero, Il., on the corners of Roosevelt Road and Austin Avenue. They were comprised mostly of Italian-Americans, and later, Slavic-Americans. Territory extended from Roosevelt Road to the North, to 16th Street on the South.

Although they originated from Roosevelt and Austin, the gang had expanded into a number of different territorial areas. The early 80's saw the Players spread into Berwyn ( Freedom Park and 37th and East Ave), and in the mid-to-late 80's, into Lyons, Brookfield, Lagrange and Countryside. The Countryside crew, started in 1987, was the only People gang being represented in the area, excluding the Latin Kings from Hodgkins, Illinois. The primary focus of the Players in Brookfield, Lagrange, and Countryside was the contention with overwhelming Folks Alliance member gangs; 2-6 (now Gangsta 2-6), 2-2 Boys, Black Gangster Disciples, and a few Simon City Royals. 1990 saw the set close, with members moving away, or showing their American pride prevalent among all Stoned Greaser gangs; joining the U.S. Military. Extreme warfare between the 12th Street Players and various Folk gangs and former allies, the Latin Kings, and Latin Counts in the Grant Works and The Island (Roosevelt Rd. and Austin Ave.) sections of Cicero, and police pressure, caused the 12th Street Players to abandon their original corners in the early 1990s.

By the mid-1990s, the 12th Street Players made a comeback, setting up a new headquarters in the Clearing District of Chicago. The 12th Street Players are the only gang in the history of Chicago to make such a comeback, mostly in part to leader Jake Lane who was later indicted on weapons charges.

The People and Folk Alliances: A Brief Summary

During the late 1970s, streetgang members in Stateville Prison, Joliet, Illinois, were beginning to group together for protection behind bars. Jeff Fort, leader of the now defunct El Rukn's, formed an alliance with other black gangs to counter the Latino and white gangs, who had smaller alliances of their own. In effect, the Latin Kings, who saw the alliance of major black gangs into the Folks Unity as direct threat to themselves and the brutally fought over drug trade, decided to counter this alliance by forming one of their own. Hence the People Alliance was formed.

Intra-Alliance Warfare

The 1990s were a very turbulent time for the Alliances, and tested loyalties to race, set, and neighborhoods. The 12th Street Players were not immune. As with the other white gangs within the City of Chicago and suburbs, the 12th Street Players were feeling the pressure of mass immigration into their neighborhoods. As many of the Greaser gangs from the 1950s and 1960's were formed to protect their neighborhoods, the Latino population kept growing, with inevitable circumstances. The Latin Kings, with their cousins the Latin Counts, began to heavily recruit in the once exclusively white suburb of Cicero, Il.. They found no lack of recruits, as the demographics of the near West suburb were shifting to a largely Latino population, much to the dismay of the Folk gangs present, and even to "allies" such as the 12th Street Players, and the Noble Knights. The battles over territory were inevitable, and the one-time allies were now bitter enemies. With the lack of recruits, and overpowered by sheer numbers, the Players eventually gave up their original stronghold on Roosevelt Road and Austin Ave.

Signs and Symbols

The group's colors are black and white, and their symbols are a 5-point star and a Playboy bunny. The gang also uses a top hat and a cane as symbols, which may have been adopted from their allies, the Vice Lords. The Player symbol, the bunny, should not be confused with the bunny used by Gangsta 2-6, which has one ear bent in the middle.