Whose Freedom of Assembly? : A city tries to ban gangs from a local park

The City of San Fernando is going after a problem that troubles many Southern California communities--gang violence--in an unusual way. Its strategy bothers civil libertarians . . . but not local residents.

Las Palmas Park is a small facility in San Fernando’s west-side barrio. For the last few years it has been the site of a turf war between two gangs, one long-established in the area, the other composed of immigrant newcomers.

Matters came to a head in July when a mother and three children were wounded in a cross-fire between the warring gangs. The incident so angered community activists and city leaders that they began looking for a way to crack down.

Using a 1988 state law against street terrorism as their starting point, city officials and the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office drafted an ordinance that bans gang members from the park and fines them up to $250 for each violation of the ban. The ordinance defines a gang member as someone who has committed any two of the felonies on a list contained in the state’s gang law.

Some similar efforts in the past have not been upheld by the courts. Officials of the American Civil Liberties Union have said they may file a lawsuit against the San Fernando ordinance, arguing that it can be used in a discriminatory fashion--say, to keep anyone out of the park whom the police just don’t want there. “If the idea is to arrest people who are carrying guns illegally, that is a different question,” said Ramona Ripston, the ACLU’s Southern California director. “But if the idea is that a gang member simply because he is in a gang may not go into a park, that is something that should be challenged.”

That point should make for a fascinating and nuanced debate in court. But in the meantime, if this ordinance allows San Fernando’s kids to go onto a basketball court without being shot at, is that such a terrible thing? The San Fernando City Council obviously doesn’t think so.

Council members voted for the ordinance unanimously--and they are hardly reactionary Neanderthals. One is a Chicano studies professor.

The council members know the harsh realities of life in the barrio. They also know that their new ordinance will not do away with the gangs or related social problems.

The San Fernando ordinance is just a small step that allows peaceful and law-abiding residents of a community to reclaim a part of their neighborhood from its worst elements. It may not even work anywhere except a small town like San Fernando, where everyone tends to know everyone else, including the troublemakers.

If it proves to the gangs that they can’t claim turf with impunity, that will be a useful lesson--a lesson that, at least to the people of San Fernando, is every bit as important as the freedom to assemble. Especially because residents who aren’t in gangs are being denied precisely that freedom by the park terrorists.

Who could be so arrogant as to tell the good people of San Fernando they can’t at least try to win back a part of their city from gangs? Not us.