Law Office Management
Jul. 2, 2008
Gang Warfare
As gangs clash on the streets, lawyers head to the courtroom to fight over the increasing use of gang injunctions.
A typical gang injunction applies within a narrowly defined area called a "safety zone" and prohibits gang members from certain activities in that area, such as associating with other gang members or violating a curfew.
Helped in part by a new law requiring that local criminal justice agencies and the attorney general supply local criminal-history information to city attorneys pursuing civil gang injunctions, the use of such injunctions is on the rise in places such as Riverside, San Francisco, Ventura, and Los Angeles. For example, since July 2001 Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo has increased the number of gang injunctions from 8 to 33.
Marty Vranicar, assistant CEO of the California District Attorneys Association in Sacramento, says he has been getting calls every week since the beginning of the year from police departments and DAs interested in learning more about the process of obtaining civil injunctions. It's no wonder, because the injunctions appear to be effective: In Los Angeles, in fact, street gangrelated crime has declined 13 percent overall and 53 percent in the designated safety zones since 2001, according to the city attorney's data.
But even as crime has fallen, objections have risen. Late last year, for instance, San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi and City Attorney Dennis Herrera had a public spat over Adachi's support for legislation to help individuals get their names removed from gang-injunction lists. And the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California has filed amicus briefs in three San Francisco injunction challenges.
In West Sacramento, where Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig filed an injunction against the Broderick Boys gang, some local residents dispute that the gang is a criminal organization, says West Sacramento police lieutenant David Delaney.
Such objections have had some effect. West Sacramento, San Francisco, and a handful of other California cities now offer a petition process by which alleged gang members can ask to be excluded from an injunction. And in San Francisco, Herrera has agreed to review each injunction every three years to determine whether it is still necessary.
In the meantime, at least one court has found fault with the injunctions: Last year the Third District Court of Appeal vacated an antigang injunction for the first time in California because the city of West Sacramento served only one person prior to the injunction and failed to show that the gang was an unincorporated association formed for a lawful purpose (People ex rel. Reisig v. Broderick Boys, 149 Cal. App. 4th 1506 (2007)). (Groups that associate for lawful purposes can be subject to blanket enforcement of a civil injunction. In criminal matters, the bar for injunctions is higher.) The West Sacramento district attorney then filed an amended complaint, arguing that the Broderick Boys street gang was formed partly for legal purposes, and a superior court judge reissued the injunction.
To be sure, the dispute isn't over. Sacramento-based civil rights attorney Mark E. Merin has formed a team of civil and criminal attorneys throughout Sacramento and Yolo counties to help alleged gang members challenge the injunction.
Alexandra Brown
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