Officials Seek Injunction Against 92 Gang Members

City and county prosecutors today will announce an effort to use a powerful legal weapon to crack down on members of the notorious 18th Street gang in the MacArthur Park and Shatto Place areas west of downtown Los Angeles.

City Atty. James Hahn and a district attorney’s representative will hold a news conference this morning to unveil the filing last Friday of a lawsuit seeking court orders restricting the activity of gang members in the two areas.

The civil suit, brought in Los Angeles County Superior Court, seeks an injunction against 92 gang members that would prohibit a wide variety of activities, including loitering and associating with other gang members inside designated zones near the park and Shatto Place.

Deputy City Atty. Nicole C. Bershon said the suit is the latest in a series of cases that target gang members believed by authorities to engage in violent crime and drug trafficking.

“These guys are bad, really bad,” Bershon said of the 18th Street gang.

The defendants, some of whom were served copies of the suit over the weekend, include juveniles as young as 14 and some repeat criminal offenders in their 30s, she said.

The injunctions would make it a misdemeanor for gang members to associate with fellow gang members or to use pagers, cellular phones, police scanners or radios to facilitate drug sales or criminal activity.

In addition, the court orders seek an 8 p.m. curfew for juveniles and a 10 p.m. curfew for adults inside the areas.

“The gang has such a reputation for violence,” Bershon said. “The victims don’t come to court.”

Added Deputy Dist. Atty. Lisa B. Fox of the district attorney’s Hardcore Gang Unit: “You can just see the damage the gangs have caused. It’s overwhelming. The graffiti . . . just covers the area. Property values have plummeted. You see for-sale and for-lease signs marred with graffiti.”

The mile-square Shatto Park zone would encompass Normandie Avenue on the west, Beverly Boulevard on the north, Vermont Avenue on the east and Wilshire Boulevard or 7th Street on the south.

The MacArthur Park zone, which is about 1 1/4 square miles, would encompass Alvarado Street on the west, Beverly Boulevard on the north, Beaudry Avenue next to the Harbor Freeway on the east and Wilshire Boulevard or 7th Street on the south.

The injunction request is the latest in a series of such court actions brought by prosecutors and law enforcement agencies from Long Beach to Pasadena.

The use of the court orders to counter gang activity has been upheld by the California Supreme Court--over objections by the American Civil Liberties Union that such injunctions are unconstitutional. The ACLU also has warned that the injunctions may have the effect of moving crime from one area to another.

Bershon, however, said an injunction against the 18th Street gang in effect since 1997 is responsible for a sharp reduction in the overall violent crime rate in a targeted area of the Pico-Union district.