Los Angeles Death Squad - The LADS

This is James Genocide’s story about his life in The Original Punk Rock Set of The Los Angeles Death Squad AKA The Hollywood Lads or The Lads from 1980 to 1985.   Click here to visit James's site

The LADS (Los Angeles Death Squad) we're a group of friends with common ideology that was formed in the early days of the Los Angeles punk scene. "(...) Which is just as well, because fights were becoming a regular occurrence in LA. Word had spread to certain sections of the city that punk rock was the hop for the cool set, and with it came a set of rules and conventions that the early protagonists simply didn’t care to understand. The scene was quickly annexed by gangs, who would latch themselves onto particular bands and fight with each other at shows. Fight over bands, over territory, over anything. There would be the gangs from Huntington Beach — a particularly bad set, everyone interviewed mentions this location; the Hollywood crew — who later became the Los Angeles Death Squad (LADS); there were gangs from Ventura and a nasty collective from Venice Beach, turned on by the crossover fury of early Suicidal Tendencies.” Jay Bentley is seen wearing the LADS logo in photos fr

The Southern California 80’s hardcore was a many things and part of it was rooted in gang culture. Being from Venice claiming Suicidal Punx was a natural thing but I always thought of it more of a family than a gang. The hardcore scene was mainly a white middle class world but for the Westside Punx many of us did not have the money that Hollywood,Valley or Beverly Hills Punx. So dressing like a cholo was not something we did as a fashion statement it’s what we wore because thats all we could afford. Out of any punk gang I would say the LADS aka Los Angeles Death Squad was our nemesis. I won’t front the two crews would fight but the fact that we were all punks unified us in a weird way. The LADS also like to dress like cholos as you can see from the photos below. Link to the article on CVLTNation