LA Mayor Unveils Stupid Plan to Pursue Overbroad Citywide Gang Injunction

Mayor James K. Hahn said Monday that he would pursue a far-reaching injunction to prevent street gang members from gathering and causing trouble throughout the city of Los Angeles — though he offered few details of a proposal that would likely face both logistical and legal hurdles. Hahn's announcement came in the midst of his mayoral campaign against City Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa, who lost to Hahn in the last mayoral runoff in 2001. In that campaign, Hahn argued that he was the tougher anti-crime candidate and contrasted his vigorous support for gang injunctions with Villaraigosa's more cautious endorsement. The city currently has 22 injunctions that restrict gang members from such activities as congregating in public, carrying cellphones and entering private property without permission. They typically cover a few defined blocks. If gang members violate the rules, they may face sentences of a few months in jail. Critics, including the American Civil Liberties Union, have long maintained that the injunctions violate the constitutional right to associate, although the state Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court have upheld them. Hahn unveiled the citywide plan in front of a group of young children at the Challengers Boys and Girls Club in South Los Angeles.  On Monday, Ricardo Garcia, criminal justice director for the ACLU of Southern California, called the plan a "non-solution to a very serious and real problem" and said it would violate the rights of innocent residents. "A gang injunction of this broad of a nature permits the targeting of those youths who are not engaged in criminal conduct," he said. [more]