Gang Injunctions Go Beyond Politics: They Curb Crime

Civil injunctions, as they pertain to combating gang crime, are simply a tool that cities may use to help neighborhoods reestablish themselves.

When a gang claims an area as its turf, the neighborhood loses its sense of community. The residents live in total fear and commonly feel, at the very least, disenfranchised from the government. This creates an environment that allows the gang to fester because its members can conduct the criminal aspects of gang life with little or no fear of apprehension. Unfortunately, the gang members then become role models to neighborhood children.

Lawfully obtained injunctions designed to halt gang crime have proven to be the springboard to help neighborhoods regain peace of mind. Unfortunately, the injunctions have become a political issue.

Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon wants to spend over a million dollars hiring city attorneys and obtaining injunctions. Los Angeles Police Department Deputy Chief Michael Bostic wants to use the same money on computers and such. The American Civil Liberties Union thinks the whole idea stinks. They say that “mammoth resources” needed for injunctions are not sustained and that other areas of the city pay the price for the allocation of these resources. Meanwhile neighborhoods, as well as young men and women, are dying.

I participated in the first neighborhood gang injunction in California and, to the best of my knowledge, the country. I can tell you that the route to the injunction is long and labor-intensive. I can also tell you that the payoff is immeasurable.

The Burbank neighborhood where we obtained the injunction, an area along Elmwood Avenue, has transformed into a safe place for kids to play and grow. The “mammoth resource” concern was not a problem because once the gang members were gone, the community started to take care of itself. Critical to the process was Burbank’s willingness to use community redevelopment money in the area. With the injunction, we swept the place clean of its gang problem but we were left with a neighborhood that was still sick. After redevelopment came in, I believe we created a neighborhood where gangs will never return.

Regardless of the rhetoric and politics, injunctions work and every effort should be made toward identifying those areas in need. The real emphasis should be on what we do in the neighborhood when the gangs are gone to ensure they won’t come back.

Gang injunctions are not the answer to the city’s gang problem. They are the answer to a mother’s prayers.