Opinion: Smokin’ Out Gangs, One Butt at a Time

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The City of Los Angeles has more than two dozen gang injunctions, making about 60 square miles of the city off-limits to members of some 40 gangs.

The city attorney’s office jumped through who-knows-how-many legal hoops to get court-ordered injunctions to keep gangs out of public parks, too.

As that great statesman Homer Simpson would say, ‘Doh!’

Now we find out how much easier it could have been.

Last week the Los Angeles City Council passed a law banning smoking in city parks.

Bada boom, bada bing! Gang members aren’t going to want to hang out where they can’t smoke. If the city had done this in the first place, it wouldn’t need park injunctions.

Now, just extend the ban to public streets and you’ve got yourself some instant injunction muscle without the legal hassle.

Don’t believe me? Calabasas effectively banned all smoking in outdoor public areas — and you don’t see Mara Salvatrucha 13 thugs setting up shop in the Calabasas Hills, do you?