The original THUGS were from India/Pakistan and were highway bandits and assassins.
In an 1852 article in the New York Times about the original thugs, they wrote that our "rowdies" in NYC are very similar, and so the tradition of calling bad guys THUGS was born.
Blue Thugs (known as crips, enemies of Red Thugs, known as Bloods)
Italian Thugs (more often called gangsters since they dressed better)
Brown Thugs
Pathetic wanna be white Thug
The use of Thugs to describe criminals of all types was in widespread use by media, elected officials, even by the Thugs themselves until sometime in January 2017 it transformed into a coded racial slur.
The End