Gang Injunctions

History

The primary goal of a gang injunction is to eliminate a public nuisance caused by a gang or gang members within a specified target area. Although a couple of gang injunctions have been granted in Texas and Illinois, the overwhelming majority of injunctions have been obtained in southern California.

The use of gang injunctions can be traced back to Santa Ana, California, where, in 1980, a court issued a temporary restraining order that forbade gang members from gathering and drinking at a known gang hangout that was the source of widespread criminal activities in the surrounding area. Over the next couple of years, a few other building abatement injunctions addressing gang activity (i.e., graffiti, drinking, loitering, etc.) were obtained by both the Los Angeles County District and Los Angeles City Attorneys.

The success of these early abatements led to the first court order representing a gang injunction. Although it was quite controversial (even the judge questioned the use of civil sanctions against gang members), 23 named members and all other known members of the Playboy Gangster Crips were prohibited from certain activities, such as trespassing, vandalism, littering, and harassing and intimidating citizens, under civil law. The first injunction to prohibit defendants from appearing in public view with any other defendant within the target area was obtained in 1992 by the Burbank City Attorney's Office against members of the [Page 313]Barrio Elmwood Rif a gang. It was this injunction that led to a constant course of filings over the next decade.

Strategy against Gang Environments (SAGE)

A year after the 1992 injunction in Burbank, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office establishedthe Strategy Against Gang Environments (SAGE) program. Although SAGE uses community outreach as well as other interventions, its focus is primarily on the use of injunctions. In fact, SAGE attorneys have even been involved in training or assisting prosecutors in other jurisdictions on the injunction process. Additionally, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office has published a guide to the SAGE program that includes more than multiple steps in the injunction process.

The Injunction Process

Because the process used to obtain gang injunctions may vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, the following discussion refers to the procedures in the SAGE manual. The injunction process usually consists of two phases: acquisition and implementation.