Back in the 1980s when Skipp Townsend was an active member of the Rollin’ 20s Bloods, gang threats were handled by word of mouth and gang members would use barren walls as their bulletin boards by spray painting the names of their targets or calling out people as “snitches.”
“Writing on the walls was the No. 1 way of getting the message across,” he said.
Now, there’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and rumors are easier to circulate. For Townsend, who now works as a gang interventionist trying to reduce gang violence, social media has become a tool.