JUDGE GRANTS AN INJUNCTION AGAINST L.A. STREET GANG

The Highland Park crew, which allegedly sells meth, is the 50th
organization in the city to come under permanent restrictions

Reaching a grim milestone, city prosecutors announced Tuesday that
they have obtained a permanent court injunction against their 50th
Los Angeles street gang, this time the 300-member Highland Park gang,
which allegedly uses violence to protect a major drug sales operation
specializing in methamphetamine.

By converting the injunction from what had been a preliminary order,
a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge gave the city attorney
long-term authority to put members of the gang in jail if they are
found to be congregating, loitering, trespassing, intimidating
residents, possessing weapons or possessing tools for graffiti.

The injunction also establishes a 10 p.m. curfew for gang members and
prohibits them from entering school safety zones, extending 1,000
feet in all directions from campuses in portions of Highland Park and
Eagle Rock.

"Highland Park is considered one of the most organized, most
profitable and most dangerous gangs in Los Angeles," said Bruce
Riordan, who heads the gang prosecution program for the Los Angeles
city attorney's office.

City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo said the injunction, in addition to court
orders won in the last two months against the Dogtown, Clover,
Eastlake and Lincoln Heights gangs, are part of a larger campaign to
clamp down on gang violence and activity in a section of northeast
Los Angeles where Delgadillo happens to have grown up.

Delgadillo said he plans additional injunctions in the coming months
as part of a crackdown to address the 14% increase in gang violence
last year in L.A.

The three injunctions secured since December cover about 1,000 gang
members. In all, the city has 33 court injunctions against 50 gangs
with about 11,000 members in an area of more than 61 square miles of
claimed gang territory.

No other city in the country has used injunctions as widely against
gangs, cementing L.A.'s reputation as the gang capital of the United
States, said T. Rodgers, head of Sidewalk University, an L.A.-based
gang intervention program.

The use of injunctions to limit the activity of named gang members is
controversial. Groups including Rodgers' and the American Civil
Liberties Union of Southern California argue that such court
restrictions can be overly broad and violate the freedom of
association rights of people who have not been convicted of crimes.

"It's strange that they are celebrating this landmark when there is
so much we don't know about the effectiveness of gang injunctions and
so many problems that have to be addressed," said Peter Bibring, an
attorney for the ACLU.

He said problems include a lack of due process for individuals who
wish to challenge their inclusion in an injunction.

The city attorney said injunctions have played a key role in the 33%
decline in gang membership in the city in the last five years. Los
Angeles Police Department officials estimate there are 39,000 gang
members in about 720 gangs in the city.

"Gang injunctions are a highly effective tool when it comes to
tamping down gang crime," Delgadillo said. "But they're no silver bullet.

"Suppression needs to be joined by prevention and eradication if we
are to succeed in the battle against criminal street gangs."

The Dogtown injunction, won in December, has already begun producing
results, officials said.

"What LAPD tells us is the Dogtown gang used to reign over the
William Mead housing project," Delgadillo said. "Crime is down
dramatically and the LAPD tells us Dogtown is no longer in the
injunction area."

At the same time, Delgadillo said Tuesday, six months after launching
the city's First Chance intervention program, which allows gang
members named in injunctions to be excluded once they enter job
training and education programs, 21 gang members have signed up.