PANORAMA CITY : Judge Asked to Put Limits on Blythe Street Gang

Comparing a Panorama City street gang to an occupying army that confines law-abiding residents to a prison of fear, attorneys for the city of Los Angeles asked a judge this week to curtail members’ freedom to gather, to travel and to possess such otherwise innocent materials as marking pens, mechanics’ tools and flashlights.

Deputy City Atty. Robert A. Ferber told Superior Court Judge John H. Major that legal activities such as hanging out on the street help the cocaine-dealing gang enforce a virtual stranglehold on the Blythe Street area and that traditional law enforcement methods have failed.

But the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California contended that the city is seeking to suspend the Constitution in the area around Blythe Street just west of Van Nuys Boulevard rather than attacking the gang problem by prosecuting crime.

ACLU staff attorney Mark Silverstein said the city had failed to compile evidence that any of the 350 or more individual, unnamed gang members targeted by the lawsuit had broken the law. Instead, the city wants the judge to declare that mere gang membership justifies trampling on civil liberties, a tactic which he said has no legal standing.

Major said he will issue a decision by Tuesday.