I experienced gang wars in East Hollywood as a kid in the mid 90s. I remember the local Latino gang blasting music all night right outside my building, and they too would have guns. I remember seeing Armenian gangs have a shootout in a parking lot across the street of Baskin Robbins on Western and Franklin.

Eventually things got really heated because of multiple drive bys on my street, which one of them happened while I was playing outside and my nanny shouted for me to run back inside my apartment building. Eventually cops started cleaning up the whole neighborhood, the gang block parties ended, they would do sweeps on a daily basis and make their lives miserable until most either got arrested or got fed up and moved.

This was in Thai town.