Was the bath avenue crew basically a bunch of white gangbangers masquerading as mobsters? I guess the lack of car jacking, armed bodega robberies, and shooting innocent children on school buses, movie theaters, shopping malls, concerts, large public gatherings, or children getting caught in a crossfire kind of separates them from gangbangers.

You nailed it. They were. If not for being able to rat on local mob members they would be unknowns. LE and the news media built them up.

Here's a interesting article on them...https://www.cosanostranews.com/2014/07/bath-avenue-crew-rose-high-fell-hard.html

Not for nothing but what were the Rampers and the Five Points gangs, weren't those minor league teams from which associates are drawn, who then worked themselves into made men? Tommy Pitera took Paul Gulino under his wing and called them his G.I.T.s', Gangsters in Training and went to bat for them on more than one occasion.