Gang codes: The next thing is texting
With the popularity of "texting" in our society, we see that texting abbreviations are being added to gang documents and written in code
Gang codes change, adapt and mutate just as any language does. As new words and concepts are added to language, they are also added to communications that gang members write in code. Gang codes have long used street and prison slang as part of the communication process. Now with the popularity of “texting” in our society, we see that texting abbreviations are being added to gang documents and written in code. But before we can try to understand the meaning of slang, we have to decipher the code…
I received an eight (8) page document that was confiscated in a correctional facility. Sample pages are shown in (Illustrations #1- #3).
As I examined these pages, I noticed that the document was written in a mix of English alphabet letters and code symbols. For example in the paragraph shown in (Illustration #4), I have indicated some words that helped to identify some of the code symbols. The words and symbols identified say: “to make you mad!”