INJUNCTION: WILL IT HELP RESCUE MCCLATCHY PARK?

A Judge's Order Targets 24 People And Requires Them To Stay Away From
A Park

Marcell Toliver thinks the court order barring him and 23 other
alleged drug dealers and users from James McClatchy Park in the Oak
Park neighborhood is unfair. "I'm homeless. I live in the park,"
Toliver told The Bee's Christina Jewett. "They're trying to say we're
a nuisance and we're not."

Residents think otherwise. They are tired of calling the police to
report drug dealing in McClatchy Park -- 15 acres of green lawn,
trees, ball fields and meandering foot paths that families feel are
off limits. Joggers, picnickers, people who want to play tennis or
hoops or send their kids to the playground avoid the Oak Park
neighborhood's signature park because drug dealers make it unsafe.

Civil injunctions are controversial crime-fighting tools. As an
alternative to arresting people for specific crimes, injunctions
allow communities to sue them. Typical targets are the owners of
problem liquor stores, slumlords, street gangsters, prostitutes and
drug dealers. Judges are free to fashion creative remedies to
alleviate the nuisances that targeted defendants cause. In the case
of slumlords, judges have sentenced the offending party to live in
their property. Prostitutes have been ordered to stay away from
stroll areas, and gang members have been barred from apartment complexes.

Civil injunctions have a mixed record of success. Overly broad gang
injunctions that target hundreds of unnamed individuals can create a
siege atmosphere in communities and end up alienating the very people
the injunction was intended to help. That happened with West
Sacramento's gang injunction last year. Prosecutors and judges
subsequently scaled it back.

But a more limited injunction imposed at Sacramento's Franklin Villa
two years ago is credited with helping transform that troubled
housing complex. Crime has plummeted, and the area is thriving again.

Still, there is always a legitimate concern that those subject to
civil injunction lack the protections of the criminal justice system,
specifically, the right to be represented in court by a lawyer.
Sacramento Superior Court Judge Loren McMaster responded by narrowly
targeting the McClatchy Park order.

It applies only to people who have been arrested and convicted two or
more times for using, selling or purchasing drugs in the park. The
targeted people have been personally served, and they have the
opportunity to make their case in court as to why the order barring
them from the park should not be enforced.

Police want this tool. They will no longer have to observe someone
named in the court order committing a crime in the park to take
action. The person's mere presence in the park violates the order and
can justify an arrest or citation.

Police and the city attorney's office consulted with neighborhood
groups before seeking the injunction. City Councilwoman Lauren
Hammond, who represents Oak Park, strongly supports it.

No one believes it will solve drug addiction or homelessness. It
wasn't meant to. No doubt the targeted individuals will move to
another park, street corner or neighborhood. But for Oak Park
families looking for a safe place to enjoy a picnic or send their
kids to play, the injunction should give them welcome relief.