Thread: Public reacts to gang injunction

Public reacts to gang injunction

10:08 PM PDT on Friday, August 31, 2007

By SONJA BJELLAND, PHIL PITCHFORD and JOHN ASBURY
The Press-Enterprise

Video: Reaction to the gang injunction

http://www.pe.com/video/index.html?nvid=171343

Community activists and residents have questioned whether Riverside County's first-ever injunction targeting a gang is necessary and why District Attorney Rod Pacheco launched his effort now.

Last week, Pacheco's office filed a civil suit requesting that a judge prohibit 114 listed members of Riverside's East Side Riva gang from congregating in public or being out past 10 p.m. The injunction still needs to be approved by a judge, and a hearing is scheduled Sept. 14.

The complaint against the gang calls it a violent criminal enterprise that threatens and intimidates area residents and also sells marijuana and methamphetamine.

A day after Pacheco announced the injunction with a press conference and a full-page newspaper ad, a classified ad appeared in The Press-Enterprise that mentioned a "Rod Pacheco Memorial Fund" and listed his cell phone number and home address. Pacheco said he considered it a threat on his life. The incident remains under investigation.

Violence in Riverside's Eastside neighborhood, located east of Highway 91 off University Avenue, has fluctuated over the years. In 2005, a war between the Riva and a rival gang left two dead and eight injured.

Residents say the worst of the gang members are either dead or incarcerated. Community and police efforts have made Patterson Park, which is in the center of the Eastside neighborhood, graffiti-free for several months. Residents say they can now walk through the area without fear. The last known East Side Riva-related homicide was in March 2006, police said.

Reports of violent crime in the neighborhood for the first six months of this year were down 11 percent from the same period in 2006, according to police statistics. Those statistics also cover some streets that lie outside the Eastside neighborhood.

"He's trying to stop the violence that has already been stopped," Francine Barbarain, an 18-year-old Riverside City College student, said of Pacheco. Her father's name is on the DA's list.

The district attorney's office worked on the injunction with the Police Department for more than a year, said DA's spokeswoman Ingrid Wyatt.

"East Side Riva is the oldest and most violent gang in Riverside. The district attorney's office and the Riverside Police Department intend to rid the Eastside of this gang and make the community a safer place for the honest men, women and children who live there," Wyatt said. "That's the all-encompassing reason why we filed this gang injunction."

Community Concerns

Neighborhood leaders say the district attorney should have talked to them more before announcing the injunction, so they could better prepare the community and have answers for residents' questions. Now, they are calling for a meeting to find out exactly what the injunction is and how it will be enforced.

Riverside Councilman Andy Melendrez said he has requested representatives from the Police Department and the district attorney's office attend his monthly meeting with Eastside residents at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the Cesar Chavez Community Center.

"I think there really needs to be clarity," Melendrez said.

Lt. Larry Gonzalez is scheduled to be at the meeting, according to the Riverside Police Department. No one from the district attorney's office will be attending because of security concerns, Wyatt said.

The Police Department said the injunction provides officers with an extra tool for dealing with known gang members and those associating with gang members, said spokesman Steven Frasher. It also means that if gang members are arrested on another crime, they can be charged with violating the injunction as well.

"It's basically a tool to say 'We know who you are. We're watching you. Don't screw up,'" Frasher said.

The Eastside's most recent gang war was between the East Side Riva, a Hispanic gang, and the 1200 Blocc Crips, a black gang.

Local NAACP President Woodie Rucker-Hughes said African Americans realize they could be next in this type of effort, and is urging the community to bridge the divide between black and Latino residents.

Community leaders are talking with youths to keep violence at bay and are teaching them what to do if they are pulled over by police.

"Some say it's a long time coming, but mothers and sons and daughters have a great deal of anxiety about what it means," Rucker-Hughes said.

Community activist Christina Duran said the youths on the list will no longer be able to attend outreach programs, and parents are wondering if one of their sons will have to move out because of restrictions that prohibit gang members from gathering.

"It's almost like putting them on house arrest," Duran said.

Timing Questioned

Those who question the timing say community residents have been working with success to persuade gang members to stay out of Patterson Park, said Suzie Medina, a longtime Eastside resident. She worried that Pacheco's action could undermine that progress.

"It's like he pulled the carpet out from underneath us," she said. "We've had people take ownership in the community. Now, it's like 'What the heck is happening now?' We have gone two or three steps back, and I am not sure how we are going to get that back."

Some mothers are concerned that their sons' names are on the list because of something that happened years ago.

Lorraine Moreno said her son, Nateno, was an active gang member in the early 1990s. But she said he is out of prison, living in a halfway house, and plans to stay away from gangs when he is free again.

"All that was a phase," she said. "He has two sons and is thinking about their future. There is no future in that life."

Moreno said she has no problem with the parts of the injunction that attempt to reduce the amount of guns and drugs. But she said she is concerned about how the injunction could affect her son's ability to talk with his family because some relatives have been identified as members of the gang.

This concern is echoed by mothers who have multiple sons on the list or women whose husbands and brothers are listed.

Nellie Vazquez, 54, known in the neighborhood as "Paloma," was born and raised in the Eastside and has seen its transformation. Her stepson is on the list and in Robert Presley Detention Center on charges of attempted murder.

She said Pacheco only did this for political benefit, does not know what it's like to live in the area and does not understand the lifestyle they face.

"When someone's hungry, they'll do what they have to in order to survive," Vasquez said.

Is It Effective?

A study of gang-enforcement tactics released this summer questions the need for the injunctions, which are primarily used in California. Criminal justice policy analyst Judy Green of New York-based Justice Strategies worked on the study that was produced for the Justice Policy Institute, a think tank that believes society puts too many people in prison.

There is little evidence that injunctions reduce crime, but publicizing a gang problem can help law-enforcement agencies acquire federal funds or increase officers, Green said.

When an injunction is issued for an area where crime is going down, that should be cause for suspicion, she said.

"You've got to scratch your head and wonder what's going on," Green said.

People she interviewed in Los Angeles suggested the injunction might have been counterproductive because the gang problems just spread to other areas and other gangs moved in after the crackdown. Such enforcement can also damage neighborhood confidence in police.

Los Angeles has sought gang injunctions since 1987 and currently has 29 injunctions against 38 gangs in the city. The most recent crippled a gang called Dogtown almost into non-existence, said Lt. Paul Vernon of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Now, when police see groups of youths gathering or notice gang members in rival territory, they can take action.

"In the past we wouldn't be able to do anything about it, but this gives them probable cause to detain them," Vernon said.

A variety of factors including smarter policing, the three-strikes law and adding prison time to gang-related crimes have led to a drop in crime, Vernon said. The number of homicides in Los Angeles has dropped more than in half since 1992 to less than 500 annually. About 55 percent of those are committed by gangs, Vernon said.

But Vernon knows police are not enough.

"We have to remember we can never arrest our way out of the gang problems," Vernon said.

That depends on families, schools and choices. He said change has to be generational. In some areas, gang membership goes back three and four generations.

"You have to break that cycle, and the police department is not the best suited entity to do that," Vernon said.

http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stor ... b501b.html

Reach Sonja Bjelland at 951-368-9642 or sbjelland@PE.com

Reach Phil Pitchford at 951-368-9475 or ppitchford@PE.com

Reach John Asbury at 951-368-9288 or jasbury@PE.co

An injunction??? This is a civil process that requires a petition to be served on the defendants. They have a certain period in which they may file their written answer admitting or denying the allegations in the petition. After the case is put at issue the court hears it and determines whether to enjoin the defendants from the behavior complained of in the petition. If the court issues the injunction and the defendants violate it, the petitioner files a new civil complaint asking the court to hold them in contempt.

This raises the phrase 'coddling criminals' to a new level.

what the hell is going on in riverside? you have to go to court to get permission to enforce the laws and do your job....no wonder the gangs are running the place

I do not even know where to begin with this article!
ONE-You've got to love that the citizens are against making the town safer because most of their male family members are on the list!
TWO-The logic of the person who said arresting/police won't solve the problem!
do tell us what will, since-
THREE-It is stated in the article that cracking down with arrests and injunctions pretty much crippled a gang called dogtown.
FOUR-The "family values" of the citizens,saying about gangs
"just a faze"
"some peoples sons will have to move out because of the gang gathering rule"
"some gang membership goes back 3-4 generations"
"when you are hungry you will do anything"
"does not live in the area so doesn't know the lifestyle they face"

These are all excuses.

This poor police force and Pacheco guy REALLY have their work cut out for them.I do not envy them one bit and I wish them the best of luck.

"some peoples sons will have to move out because of the gang gathering rule"

OOOHHHH.....POBRECITOS!

WHY ARE THEY GOING TO HAVE TO MOVE? BECAUSE THEY ARE GANG MEMBERS? HOW TRAGIC. GANG MEMBERS WILL BE LEAVING. OMG.

WHAT AMAZES ME IS THESE STUPID PEOPLE LIVING IN THE MIDDLE OF THIS ARE COMPLAINING ABOUT GOVERNMENT TRYING TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE MESS.

DO THEY STOP TO THINK THAT THEIR SONS MIGHT GET KILLED BY FOLLOWING THE "GANGSTA" PATH? THEY SHOULD BE GLAD.....BUT NO.....THEY WANT THEIR SONS TO STAY IN THE AREA, STAY IN THE GANG....AND END UP DEAD. MAKES LOTS OF SENSE.

Some say it's a long time coming, but mothers and sons and daughters have a great deal of anxiety about what it means," Rucker-Hughes said.

Community activist Christina Duran said the youths on the list will no longer be able to attend outreach programs, and parents are wondering if one of their sons will have to move out because of restrictions that prohibit gang members from gathering.

"It's almost like putting them on house arrest," Duran said.

how PATHIC...........EXCUSES, EXCUSES, EXCUSES WHY LAWS AREN'T ENFORCED.....GANG BANGERS, PROBABLY ILLEGAL GET AN OUT-REACH PROGRAM??