The State - News from Oct. 20, 1987

Street gang violence is increasing in San Francisco, and police are afraid youth gangs from Oakland and other areas may be looking at the city with an eye to expansion. Members of the police anti-gang task force told the San Francisco Examiner that at least 27 different youth gangs--16 of them black, with the rest composed of Latino, Samoan or Asian youths and young adults--are battling for a piece of the lucrative illegal drug trade. “We’ve got kids as young as 14 years old running around in $300 warm-up suits dealing dope and knocking off whoever tries to move in on them,” one official said.