Injunction Severely Restricts 2 Gangs

A Superior Court judge has granted a permanent injunction that severely restricts the activities of two gangs accused of terrorizing and intimidating residents in a Harbor City neighborhood.

The order, approved Monday by Judge James L. Wright, bars 24 reputed gang members from gathering in public with other members of their gangs. The named defendants also are banned from approaching, signaling or talking to people in any vehicle, except for police cars or public buses.

The injunction targets an area of about a half square mile near the Harbor Freeway. In announcing the injunction in November, City Atty. James K. Hahn accused the gang members of turning the working-class neighborhood into a “24-hour-a-day drug-dealing hell.”

The Harbor City injunction is the first since a growing corruption scandal exploded in the Los Angeles Police Department’s Rampart Division. Two highly touted injunctions in the Rampart area have been put on hold while authorities investigate a wide range of alleged police abuses there.

On Wednesday, prosecutors overseeing the Harbor City injunction said they relied on evidence from numerous sources and that the order will help create a safer community.

The injunction “will force these gang members to make a permanent change in their lives and give up their gangster behavior,” said Deputy City Atty. James McDougal.