A Suffolk man will serve a year and six months in prison for participating in a gang, a judge ruled Thursday.

Rasheed Ahmad Brown was sentenced to five years in prison, with three years and six months suspended, for participating in a gang. The charge stemmed from a Nov. 27, 2007 incident when he and four others assaulted and brandished weapons at a member of a rival gang on Spruce Street.

Misdemeanor charges of assault and brandishing a firearm were not prosecuted under a plea agreement.

Suffolk Police Officer Lyons testified that Brown was associated with the Cypress Manor Posse, which is affiliated with the “Crips,” a national gang. The Cypress Manor Posse has become increasingly violent over the past couple of years, Lyons said.

On Nov. 27, 2007, Brown and the other gang members assaulted a member of a rival gang, Lake Kennedy, which is associated with the “Bloods,” another national gang.

Brown had no record of previous convictions, although he has been in contact with the court system before, said Judge Rodham T. Delk.

“This is not the way to live out your future,” Delk told the defendant just before the sentencing. “Gang involvement has been shown in the court’s experience … to be nothing but destructive.”

Delk ordered Brown to be on indefinite supervised probation upon his release, and also to have no contact with any gang members.