ACLU Challenges San Fernando’s Ordinance Banning Gangs at Park

The American Civil Liberties Union on Tuesday filed suit challenging an ordinance that bars gang members from a San Fernando park where a woman and her three children were wounded in gang cross-fire.

The suit, alleging that the ordinance violates rights to free assembly, was filed the day after Pomona adopted a similar measure and as Los Angeles officials are considering a sweeping proposal to counter gang activity in all city parks, beaches and recreation centers.

The suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, seeks to block enforcement of San Fernando’s ordinance, which threatens members of two local gangs with $250 fines if they enter Las Palmas Park. In bringing the action, ACLU officials also challenged the rationale for any such “quick fix Band-Aid solution” to gang problems.

In a 33-page report issued at a press conference to announce the filing, the ACLU said the ban on gang members at Las Palmas Park merely shifted gang violence “to nearby neighborhoods.” Two shootings, it said, occurred within 100 yards of the park on Sunday, Oct. 20, during a celebration of “its alleged liberation from gang elements.”

Impetus for the San Fernando ordinance came from a July 3 gang shootout in which the mother and children were wounded. The law, adopted Sept. 16, instructed police to compile a list of gang members and give them written notice that they were banned from the park.

ACLU officials agreed that the park “is less openly violent” now, but said gang activity “went nuts” in surrounding areas.

San Fernando Police Chief Dominick Rivetti did not dispute that gang violence continues, but said the ordinance has achieved its purpose of making the park safer by dispersing the Shakin’ Cats and SanFers gangs.

“I would much rather deal with a gang that is fragmented and meeting in someone’s home than have 40 of them in the park every night,” Rivetti said.

Several gang members said they were staying away from the park, except for occasional nighttime forays to spread graffiti in defiance of police.

“It isn’t fair that we can’t go there anymore,” said Martin Gonzalez, 22, who described himself as a member of the Shakin’ Cats. “They’re picking on us and we don’t do anything.”

Despite the legal challenge, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner, whose office drafted the ordinance, has encouraged other cities to copy it.

The Pomona City Council voted 6-to-1 Monday to bar two gangs from two parks--Philadelphia and Cherryville--that generated nearly 700 calls to police in a year.

The Los Angeles measure, submitted this month to the Los Angeles City Council’s Public Safety Committee by City Atty. James K. Hahn, would not categorically make parkland off limits to groups such as the Bloods and Crips. In a bid to stave off a legal challenge, Hahn’s ordinance would allow gang members to use park and beach areas “to play football . . . or conduct a legitimate recreational activity,” a spokesman said. But it would be a crime for gang members to assemble there “with the specific intent to commit, promote, further or assist in any criminal conduct.”

The ordinance proposed for Los Angeles declares that its parks and beaches “are in a state of crisis” because of gangs. In a letter to the public safety committee, however, Hahn suggested that a complete ban on gang members, such as the ones in San Fernando and Pomona, might not be legal.

Times staff writer Mike Ward contributed to this report.