Teens Celebrate Gang Inquiry Changes

On Monday, two young Asian Americans who contended that Garden Grove police had violated their civil rights by detaining and photographing them as possible gang members celebrated a settlement requiring the department to change its procedures.

The settlement, which was filed on behalf of Minh Tram Tran, Quyen Pham and three other youths, requires officers to seek written permission to photograph youths unless they can specify a suspected connection to a crime.

Under the settlement approved Feb. 9 by U.S. District Judge William D. Keller, the five youths will share $85,000 in damages and attorney fees and receive letters of apology from Garden Grove Police Chief Stan Knee.

The letters state: “We assure you that we do not consider you a gang member and you have not been entered into any file or system associating you with gangs. . . . We apologize for any misunderstanding or inconvenience your contact with our department might have caused.”

Flanked by family members and their lawyers at the American Civil Liberties Union headquarters Monday morning, Pham, a Tustin High School honors student, and Tran, a Century High School senior, both 18, said they hoped the settlement would spare other teens their ordeal. They said that pressing the issue after the July 1993 incident has taught them they can take on authority and triumph.

“It’s made me believe that I have rights too,” Pham said. “I used to believe [the police] were powerful and high and had more authority, but the settlement has made me see they can’t control me.”

The teens’ troubles began when Tran, Pham and another friend, who was not a plaintiff, went to a restaurant at a Garden Grove mini-mall to take part in karaoke singing. The teens, then 15, called a friend for a ride home. While they waited, police pulled up and accused them of being gang members, photographed them and wrote down their height, weight and other information. They were never charged with a crime.

In spite of the victory, Tran said, the settlement has not restored her “childhood conditioning” and faith in police officers.

“The settlement . . . can’t erase nor take back the times I felt suppressed or worthless. The settlement can’t make me retrieve the tears I’ve shed and the dignity I’ve lost,” Tran said.

An attorney for the Garden Grove Police Department could not be reached for comment.

Attorneys for the ACLU said they consider the settlement the most significant victory in their efforts to keep Southern California law enforcement agencies from violating civil rights in their efforts to crack down on gangs, although the terms of the settlement apply only to Garden Grove.

“From now on, the Garden Grove Police Department is going to have to depend more on police work, not stereotypes,” said Robin S. Toma, who helped bring the suit for the ACLU.