Actually, let me re-state my previous post. I didn't grow up in any particular hood...my neighborhood was a melting pot back in the late 80's-mid 90's. Cats moved into the neighborhood from EVERYWHERE. So, we had some crips from down south, a couple of which were cousins of my best friend...and then we had northerners. Towards the mid 90's, we had a bunch of Asian gangsters move in...and that's just how it was. We all lived on the same block and we got along...watched out for each other...even though some of us didn't bang.
As far as Sureno's being all bad, not true. Like Stomp3r said, a lot of cats follow the code...some don't. I lived in a Sureno neighborhood in West San Jose, and none of those cats did anything but say "What up ese?" when they walked by the house. Now on my 21st birthday, I was in Goleta (to party in Santa Barbara), and we got ran up on after being there for maybe 10 minutes. They surrounded us, said "Where you from aye?". Our response? "We're from the Bay fam...we're not flaggin'...we're here to get our drink on." They moved and let us go about our business. You have to expect to get questioned if you're in an area that's run by a specific crew. If you have heart, and you're true to yourself, you'll be true to others. Cats that bang can sense that shit, and I think that's why we got a pass that night.
A lot of cats from a lot of gangs these days are out of pocket, but a lot do still follow the code...because they're seasoned and they understand that shit.