California Gangs - Tiny Rascal Gang

In 1975, after the fall of Phnom Penh and the regimé, the United States started receiving its first Cambodian refugees, most of whom were concentrated in California, Massachusetts, and New York and in Canada, Toronto and Montreal. As with many refugee groups, lack of knowledge concerning the culture of the host nation and limited command of English language ultimately created a barrier that isolated the newly arrived Cambodians. These groups initially were not so accepted by the established street gangs and were often viewed as community outcasts by the general population.

In the mid-1980s, a fight occurred between a Latino and a Cambodian in Long Beach, an event which led to the formation of the Tiny Rascals. As a means of protection, other young Cambodians began forming several street gangs which later laid the foundation of TRG. While conforming to the American culture, members of these gangs began to adopt grey as their representative colour, by which they were identified. Gang signs, graffiti, fashion, and gang customs were established and developed throughout the 1980s and 90s. Members of TRG began committing several crimes which primarily included extortion, murder, kidnapping, robbery, burglary, home invasion, drug and weapons trafficking. Some of the Tiny Rascal members were originally members of the Asian Boyz, a rival gang, and transferred gangs due to friction between other fellow Tiny Rascal members.

Throughout the early 90s, The Tiny Rascals had a violent rivalry with the Long Beach-based East Side Longos MUIE who were predominantly Hispanic.

Two more recent rivalries which has been relevant over the past decade is the clashes between Insane Boyz and Rascals in Seattle and Latin Kings in Holland, Michigan.