Grove Street Families

The Grove Street Families (a.k.a "Families" or "GSF") is a gang featured in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Description
The are one of the oldest street gangs in Los Santos, San Andreas. They are also the native gang of Carl Johnson.

As far as street gangs in GTA San Andreas go, the GSF are depicted as more honorable than their rival gangs. Coming from a background of older traditions, they are against hard drugs being sold on their turf. They are well-known, however, for commiting numerous other crimes and violent acts including gun running and gang warfare.

GSF members listen to Radio Los Santos. They also have three different members that will walk and drive around their territories.


 * The first member has dreadlocks, wears a green button-up plaid checkered shirt, beige khaki pants and black and white sneakers.


 * The second member wears a green bandana, green sweater, black jeans and white shoes.


 * The last member wears a black cap, a green #7 Rimmers jersey, a cross necklace, black jeans and black and white sneakers.

They carry weapons such as Tec9s, pistols, Desert Eagles, SMGs and knives. They can occasionally be seen smoking marijuana and drinking malt liquor.

History
The Grove Street Families was formed in Ganton. They are headed by Sean &quot;Sweet&quot; Johnson and his previous lieutenants, Lance &quot;Ryder&quot; Wilson and Melvin &quot;Big Smoke&quot; Harris. While Sweet is adamantly anti-narcotic, Smoke believes that the GSF have fallen from power because of his refusal to sell drugs. Their unwillingness to enter the drug trade has dragged the Grove Street Families out of prominence in the years leading up to the game's storyline. The fact that Sweet insists the gang shouldn't deal in narcotics, the deaths of OGs such as Tony, Big Devil, and Little Devil, and the abandonment of Big Bear, B Dup, the Temple Drive Familes, and the Seville Boulevard Familes has led to the sorry state of the GSF upon CJ's return from Liberty City in 1992.

There are at least two other distinct sets of the Families: the Temple Drive Families and The Seville Boulevard Families, both of which were originally one with the Grove Street Families, but split up from the GSF during the five years of Carl's absence. Earlier in the game, they are not on good terms with each other, which is why the gang has weakened. Carl will occasionally make reference to Orange Grove Families; gang graffiti tags with the initials "OGF" also exist in the game. This was the gang's original name, though Rockstar changed the name before the release of San Andreas. Some references to this remain in the game, including graffiti that can be seen around Los Santos, tattoos that CJ can get with the name Orange Grove Families, and phrases that CJ will shout out while he talks to another gang (he says: Families, Orange Grove Families).

The rivalry between the sets mainly has to do with Grove Street's opposition to drug dealing; but later in the game, the Families are once more united into one gang.

Carl Johnson's Return
While Carl's return does help revive the GSF to a certain extent, Ryder and Smoke's betrayal of the gang, coupled with an ambush on Sweet and other high-ranking members by the rival Ballas gang and the police, much of the gang's influence in the city is destroyed. Consequently, the Ballas and Los Santos Vagos seize all of GSF's turf in Los Santos. Sweet is imprisoned, and Carl is forced to continue working for C.R.A.S.H., consisting of a corrupt group of police officers. However, Sweet's release from prison, courtesy of Mike Toreno, allows the gang to rise again (now co-headed by Carl and Sweet Johnson) and regain most of their lost turf from the Ballas and Los Santos Vagos. Depending on the player's actions, it is possible to take some or all of the Ballas' and Vagos' turf for the GSF. If the player successfully takes over the entire turf in Los Santos, then their turfs will no longer come under attack.

Members

 * Sweet - Leader
 * Carl Johnson - Second-in-Command
 * Big Smoke - Lieutenant (deceased)
 * Ryder - Lieutenant (deceased)
 * Big Bear
 * B Dup - (formerly)
 * Big Devil - Soldier (deceased)
 * Little Devil - Soldier (deceased)
 * Emmet - Former weapon supplier
 * LB - Supplier (although not physically seen, he was mentioned multiple times by Ryder.)
 * Tony - Soldier (deceased)
 * Denise Robinson - Member and fanatic (even though she does not wear a green attire.)

Mission Appearances

 * GTA San Andreas
 * Sweet & Kendl
 * Cleaning the Hood
 * Drive-Thru
 * Sweet's Girl
 * Catalyst
 * House Party
 * Los Sepulcros
 * Reuniting the Families
 * The Green Sabre
 * Home Coming
 * Grove 4 Life
 * Los Desperados

Trivia

 * If CJ recruits GSF members, they will shoot at the other gangs on first sight. Also, while in a car, if CJ crashes it or runs over pedestrians, they will shout at him.
 * CJ has the ability to respond positively or negatively to GSF members if they speak to him. However, unlike pedestrians, they will not attack him if he answers negatively.
 * If CJ recruits unarmed GSF members, they will receive a pistol.
 * If a gang territory is under attack, and you lose it, it will become inhabited by both GSF and the rival gang that attacked it.
 * The Grove St. gang member with the dreads is based on Larenz Tate's character O-Dog from "Menace II Society".
 * There are also two other Grove St. gang members that are seen in the mission cutscenes "House Party", "Los Sepulcros" and "The Green Sabre". One member has a bald head and wears a dark green khaki suit and a green t-shirt. The other member has a taper fade haircut and wears a green long-sleeve button shirt and dark blue jeans. He is also seen DJ'ing at OG Loc's house party. They are only seen in the said mission cutscenes (the latter member only being seen in House Party) and it's unknown why they're not seen in the streets outside of the cutscenes or in the missions.
 * The Grove Street Families consider the Ballas to be their sworn enemies and the two were often at war for territory before the GSF's loss of prominence in the city, and again after they begin their revival. This rivalry is often thought to be inspired by Los Angeles' Bloods and Crips gangs. Violence in Los Angeles hit a peak during the early-nineties crack epidemic, a situation mirrored in 1992's Los Santos.
 * Two of the Grove Street gang member character models have known names Tony (The member who has dread locks and wears a checkered shirt) and Tarnell (The member with a green bandana and green sweater) both of these are multiplayer characters.
 * There is a beta screenshot of a GSF member that wears a green hoodie with the hood up, a green hat under that, and was overweight, but not to the extent of the obese GSF character model.
 * If you recruit GSF gang members and other GSF gang members attack you, your recruited members will fire at the attacking gang members but will miss every shot. This was probably as a way to avoid friendly fire when gang members move into the crossfire at a shootout.
 * If you recruit a GSF member while equipped with a camera CJ will have the option to ask them to take a picture of the player.
 * Holding down the command buttons will cause CJ to tell the recruits that they may go.