Judge OKs Modified Measures to Curb Gang

After gutting the more restrictive measures sought by the Los Angeles city attorney against a violent Westside street gang, a Superior Court judge Friday issued an order prohibiting members of the Playboy Gangster Crips from intimidating neighborhood residents.

In approving a modified preliminary injunction, Judge Warren H. Deering also ordered 23 hard-core gang members not to trespass on or deface private property or litter or urinate on public property. Those caught disobeying the order will face civil contempt proceedings that could result in five-day jail sentences and additional probation violation sanctions.

In striking down 18 proposals sought by City Atty. James K. Hahn, Deering termed several of the measures “unconstitutional” and “over-broad in content.”

Judge’s Words

“Other provisions seek to enjoin the commission of crimes,” Deering added in his written opinion. “Still others include restrictions even while the persons are lawfully on private property.”

Among the proposals Deering rejected were prohibitions against gang members congregating in groups of two or more in public places or remaining in public streets for more than five minutes at any time of day or night.

Deering’s order was praised Friday by Hahn, as well as by Joan Howarth, a staff lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California, which entered the case in opposition to the city attorney’s office.

“Any relief I got has got to be considered a defeat for the gang,” Hahn said. “This will definitely give additional tools to the police.”

‘Very Satisfactory’

“It’s a very satisfactory result for everyone,” Howarth said. “The city has an order that would allow it to focus attention on particular individuals in the area. And the objections that we had on the constitutional problems have been satisfied.

“One of the problems with overreaching law enforcement tactics is that people then get the idea that the Constitution is protecting the criminal activity--which is not true at all,” Howarth added. “The truth is that the Constitution would permit, and the ACLU was encouraging, that more serious tactics be used against the alleged perpetrators of criminal acts in the neighborhood.”

Representatives of the 200-plus-member gang, which authorities say sells rock cocaine on the streets and in houses in a neighborhood bordered by La Cienega and Robertson boulevards, 18th Street and Cadillac Avenue, did not attend the hearings.