- Images from 2016 are shared on social media to suggest that two rival gangs from Los Angeles demonstrated side by side for the first time after the death of George Floyd.
- Members of these gangs have already demonstrated together in the past.
Two men side by side, symbolically wearing a red bandana and a blue bandana. This image, symbol of unity between two American gangs, the Bloods and the Crips, whose rivalry dates back to the 1970s, has gone viral. Blue is the color of Crips, while Bloods are associated with red.
Several Internet users explain that these two gangs in Los Angeles, known for their violence, "joined yesterday [June 2] in the protests against the death of George Floyd, which has never happened in gang history".
FAKE OFF
If certain members of these gangs took part, in Atlanta and Houston, in demonstrations which followed the death of George Floyd, the photo of these two men actually dates from July 2016. It was taken in Atlanta, at a demonstration to denounce police violence. Protesters had taken to the streets of several American cities after two African-American men had been killed by the police, CNN said at the time.
The photo went viral at the time. Its author Weysley Taylor posted the photo on Facebook and Instagram.
View this post on Instagram
UNITY. #blacklivesmatter #atlanta #weloveatl @weloveatl
A post shared by Balewlight Special (@thewesleytaylor) on Jul 8, 2016 at 6:50 pm PDT
To go back to the source of this image, we performed a reverse image search using Google images. This sent us to a blog that mentioned the name of the photographer. Thanks to this clue, we found the photo, on the accounts of its author.
Three other photos are sometimes also shared with the first image. Again, these photos do not show demonstrations that followed the death of George Floyd.
The photo above also dates from 2016: it was taken up by the Telesur media and shows participants at the same demonstration in Atlanta. Another image, posted on Twitter, confirms that these three men participated in this event.
For these last two images, we were able to trace them back to 2016. The first would also show participants of an event organized in Atlanta, while the second was taken in Ohama, in Nebraska, as we can confirm with Google Maps.
The Bloods and the Crips are two rival gangs that formed in Los Angeles. It is wrong to say that these gangs demonstrated for the first time side by side in 2020: in addition to 2016, they already participated in the same rallies in 2010, in 2015 or more recently in 2019.
Do you want the Fake off team to verify an info, photo or video? Fill out the form below or write to us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/20minFakeOff
20 Minutes is a partner of Facebook to fight against fake news. Thanks to this device, users of the social network can report information that they believe is false.
Did you see ?
Police violence: How youth mobilizes massively on social networks
By the Web
United States: No, George Soros did not say he was going to "bring down the United States"
- Society
- Fake Off
- Fact checking
- Atlanta
- United States
- George Floyd
- World