Dominicans Don't Play (143) is a
Dominican-American street gang
A gang is a social group, group or secret society, society of associates, friends, or members of a family with a defined leadership and internal organization that identifies with or claims control over Wiktionary:territory#Noun, territory in a ...
started in
Manhattan
Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
, New York in 1991. They are known for primarily using
machete
A machete (; ) is a broad blade used either as an agricultural implement similar to an axe, or in combat like a long-bladed knife. The blade is typically long and usually under thick. In the Spanish language, the word is possibly a dimin ...
s and knives as weapons. DDP is located across New York City, particularly in
the Bronx
The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...
,
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater ...
and the
Lower East Side
The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Historically, it w ...
. They are also located in New Jersey, cities such as like Union City, North Bergen, Paterson, Passaic, Elizabeth, Jersey City, Perth Amboy, and South Amboy. They are also located overseas in various countries.
Recruiting
Recruiting efforts have been pursued via websites such as
YouTube
YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
and
Myspace
Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace, currently myspace; and sometimes my␣, with an elongated Whitespace character#Substitute images, open box symbol) is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it w ...
as well as in schools. Members have to be at least in their teen years to become active members in the gang.
Drug trafficking
The gang holds a large share of the
cocaine
Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...
market
due to an association with the
Colombian crime cartel,
and as such, many members of the group have been arrested for drug-related crimes.
Members have drawn the interest of the
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE; ) is a Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Homeland Security. ICE's stated mission is to protect the Un ...
, and some have faced
deportation
Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people by a state from its sovereign territory. The actual definition changes depending on the place and context, and it also changes over time. A person who has been deported or is under sen ...
hearings. The DDP has also drawn the interest of the
U.S. Marshals.
Throughout the group's relatively short history as a gang they have been involved in numerous violent altercations in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Florida, Germany, London, Belgium, Dominican Republic, and Spain.
Notable criminal acts
Pelham and murder
A scuffle between DDP and the
Bloods
The Bloods are a primarily African Americans, African American street gang which was founded in Los Angeles, California. The gang is widely known for Crips–Bloods gang war, its rivalry with the Crips. It is identified by the red color worn ...
at
Pelham Prep High School in the Bronx on March 11, 2005, resulted in the stabbing of two teenage boys.
Coney Island arrest
A contingent of 47 gang members who were allegedly planning to wreak havoc on the
Coney Island Boardwalk were arrested. One gun and 30 machetes were found and confiscated.
February 20, 2007 murder
On February 20, 2007, an 18-year-old boy was stabbed 21 times in
Boston
Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
's
Back Bay MBTA station by a gang of teenagers as part of their jumping in process. The man subsequently quit the gang, and the DDP code orders that past members must be killed.
Murder of Marviel Martinez
On April 13, 2005, 15-year-old Alex Ramirez, a member of the DDP offshoot Bones, was charged with second-degree murder after witnesses said he slashed 17-year-old Marviel Martinez (rival gang member Trinitario) in the neck and then thrust the blade deep in the teen's back Tuesday morning at the Jerome Avenue IRT
183rd Street station.
Murder of Mark Tyrell
A 16-year-old, Mark Tyrell, was stabbed in March 2007 outside of the Pizzeria in
Union Square. Mark Tyrell had gotten into a fight with members of the DDP which forced him to be transferred to Chelsea.
December 2006 murder
A brutal fight among almost 50 teenagers in Union Square left one teen dead and two others injured.
Police Commissioner Kelly said it was a "planned confrontation": Some
Washington Irving High School female students were "insulted," so they enlisted their boyfriends at Science Skills High School to defend their honor.
Taishawn Bellevue, an aspiring basketball player, was killed during this altercation.
Commissioner Kelly also suggested that the fight was gang-related, as some Washington Irving students are members of DDP - Dominicans Don't Play.
Other students who were based at Science Skills could not have been members of a gang.
According to an official who spoke to ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', someone whistled to start the fight, and the girls' contingent from Science Skills had 15 people "with no plans for a confrontation and found themselves outnumbered."
Police reviewed surveillance footage from a nearby store that captured the fight. Around 50 teens involved used belts, pieces of wood, and bats during the altercation. 16-year-old Francisco Baez was charged with murder, gang assault and criminal possession of a weapon.
after two people picked him out of a line up. He later confessed to the crime as a result of being identified.
Other incidents
In 2004, several people associated with DDP were arrested in connection with the fatal stabbing of a
River Edge, New Jersey man after the
North Hudson Dominican Day Parade in August 2003. They have had an ongoing feud with other area gangs, including the sets affiliated with the
United Blood Nation and the Trinitarios, a group comprised also of Dominican youths. There was a recent arrest of three members of the DDP by the FBI.
On January 1, 2007, 3 members of the gang DDP were arrested in New York City. They were wanted for multiple charges relating to a shooting incident at a restaurant in which the three subjects fired several rounds killing one person and critically injuring three. They were arrested in NY with a .38 caliber hand gun.
Other incidents include a large brawl in Manhattan's Union Square.
There have been incidents of individuals who have been attacked with machetes after being asked if they were members of the DDP. Some attacks have been deadly.
Potential for expansion
They are currently the second largest gang of Dominican descent behind the
Trinitarios gang. The group has limited potential for nationwide expansion and is largely confined to areas with significant Dominican populations, in particular Washington Heights Florida, Atlanta, Boston and New Jersey. It is the fastest growing gang in the Bronx,
and among the largest in New Jersey. They are considered to have the largest concentration of Dominicans of any neighborhood in the United States, combined population of Dominicans residing in New York and New Jersey totals around 1.2 out of an overall US Dominican population of 2.3 million as of 2001.
In other countries
Spain
On March 7, 2006, Spanish police in
Madrid
Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...
noted a growing gang presence of the DDP.
Spanish police report 130 documented DDP members, making them the largest in Spain. DDP is the largest and most violent street gang in Spain.
The gang has become one of the most prominent gangs in Madrid.
On November 5, 2009, Spanish security forces arrested 40 DDP members, all of them between 16 and 29 years old. The security forces confiscated 5 guns, one grenade, one machete, ammo, 3 baseball bats, 400 grams of cocaine, and 200.000 euros in cash. As of 2021, DDP is still active in Spain, where they have recently murdered an 18 year old rapper with Asperger and schizophrenia.
The Spanish Inner Affairs Ministry has record of 620 youngster gangs operating in Spain, of which 88 are Latin. Only in Madrid, the Spanish Police has record of 400 active gangsters (2500 on the national record).
Gang rivalries
The
Trinitarios
are DDP's biggest rival gang since the early 2000s, they were once united in the 1990s. They also are at peace with the Latin Kings, a Puerto Rican-based gang who has had previous problems with their rivals the Trinitarios. The gang also has an ongoing rivalry with anyone who is or has an association with their rivals the Trinitarios.
See also
*
List of gangs in the United States
A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dominicans Don'T Play
Organizations established in 1990
1990 establishments in New York City
Hispanic-American gangs
Latino street gangs
Gangs in Massachusetts
Gangs in New Jersey
Gangs in New York City
Gangs in Spain
Dominican-American culture in New York (state)
Organized crime in the Dominican Republic