Injunctions

Permanent injunctions were issued Friday against rival gangs in San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano forbidding members from engaging in a wide variety of noncriminal activities, including riding bicycles in public with other gang members. Law enforcement officials said the restrictions are necessary to stop the gangs from terrorizing citizens. Since the temporary injunction was issued in November, gang-related calls to police dropped 33% in San Clemente and 85% in San Juan Capistrano, authorities said.

Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas has spent three years defending an indefensible tactic that denies individuals the right to due process before they are named in a gang injunction. A federal judge has ruled it unconstitutional, but Rackauckas has now appealed that decision. He should abandon this costly and misguided legal battle that is little more than an attempt to bend the rules. Injunctions are powerful tools that can help law enforcement combat gangs. The theory is that by placing restrictions on the conduct of gang members - such as imposing curfews on them or limiting where they can congregate - the injunction will undercut a gang's ability to control the streets and commit crimes.

More than 200 opponents of Oxnard's 2-month-old gang injunction have filed court papers alleging it is being used to harass innocent people and trample civil liberties, while stigmatizing dozens of youths as "urban terrorists." Attorneys for the Colonia Chiques, the gang targeted in the June 1 injunction, will use the declarations filed by community members to make the case that the court-ordered crackdown is too punitive and should be thrown out.

OAKLAND — A judge Wednesday rejected nearly all attempts by a campus police union to block release of portions of a report on the November pepper-spraying of UC Davis students by university officers. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Evelio Grillo disagreed with assertions that large chunks of the report — designed to scrutinize the day's events and craft new policy — should be sealed because they contain the same kind of information as in officer personnel files compiled for disciplinary purposes.

A key strategy in Los Angeles' battle against street gangs -- the use of court injunctions -- has come under attack by state lawmakers who are moving to strictly limit it. The state Senate has approved a measure that would allow suspected gang members who do not commit a crime for five years to be automatically removed from civil injunctions unless prosecutors can show they remain a public threat.

In their ongoing battle against the city's entrenched gangs, Los Angeles prosecutors and police increasingly have relied in recent years on a favorite legal weapon: court-ordered injunctions. The injunctions aim to severely curtail gang activity by, among other things, prohibiting gang members and their associates from socializing with each other, carrying weapons or wearing certain clothing anywhere inside of so-called "safe zones" that typically encompass the neighborhoods where the gangs are active.

Re "Injunction Has Community Feeling Handcuffed," April 28 Gang injunctions are unconstitutional and need to be abolished. The 1st Amendment guarantees the right to peaceably assemble. These injunctions clearly infringe on that right. Furthermore, some of the people who are being issued injunctions aren't even gang members. (Not that injunctions would be justified if that weren't the case.) Preventing crime doesn't justify violating peoples' constitutional rights. And if eliminating gang injunctions means more crime, so be it -- nobody ever said freedom was free.

Riverside officials announced the county's first permanent gang injunction Friday, saying gang activity had eroded the community's ability to enjoy one of its oldest parks. Patterson Park was once a launching point for future major leaguers such as Dusty Baker, Bobby Bonds and Alvin Davis. But recently, it has become the domain of the East Side Riva gang, marked by killings and threats. "This is a park that has literally been taken over by the East Side Riva," said Riverside County Dist. Atty.

Declaring war on a local street gang tied to three recent shooting deaths, the City Council has agreed to seek a civil injunction that would bar members from engaging in a host of otherwise legal activities. Modeled after a similar action taken by the council in 1991, the injunction would prevent members of the Shaken' Cat Midgets from, among other things, gathering in public or on private property within the injunction area without written permission of the owner.

A county judge Wednesday granted a permanent injunction against two Harbor Gateway street gangs, prohibiting members from associating in public. Superior Court Judge Michael Stern granted the injunction against the 204th Street and East Side Torrance gangs. Both gangs have histories of racially motivated attacks against blacks, authorities say. Earlier this year, two East Side Torrance gang members fired into a car occupied by a black family, hitting a 6-year-old boy in the head.

Santa Monica precious metals dealer Goldline International Inc., one of the nation's largest gold retailers, has resolved a criminal prosecution by agreeing to refund as much as $4.5 million to former customers. Goldline agreed to an injunction that requires the company to "change its unfair sales practices" and to disclose price markups in recorded telephone conversations with customers, said Adam Radinsky, head of the Santa Monica city attorney's consumer protection unit. The Santa Monica city attorney in November filed a 19-count criminal complaint against Goldline, accusing the company of running a "bait and switch" operation in which customers seeking to invest in gold bullion were instead sold gold coins that were marked up more than 50%. Six current and former employees were also charged.

City Atty. Carmen Trutanich is a man of his word. OK, perhaps not when it comes to his campaign promise to serve out his full term, but certainly when it involves the city's homeless policies. Last June, his office vowed to appeal a preliminary injunction by a federal court that temporarily barred the city's Bureau of Street Services and police from seizing or destroying the unattended property of homeless people in downtown's skid row neighborhood. This month, he followed through, asking the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the injunction on the grounds that the city's homeless are in effect using the sidewalks as "their own public storage area.

A Cal State Los Angeles student lost a round Wednesday in his legal battle to prevent a tuition increase when a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge rejected his claim that the Cal State board's recent approval of the hike was illegal. Robert W. Bates, a graduate student who is seeking a teaching credential, had sought a preliminary injunction to block the 9% increase for next fall, arguing that the university's trustees violated public meeting laws during a tumultuous Nov. 16 session that was disrupted by protesters.

Two reputed gang members have been charged with violating an injunction prohibiting gang and narcotics activity on Los Angeles' skid row, the first such legal action since the broad-reaching injunction was issued, city prosecutors said Thursday. Briant Hicks, 22, and Mirando Faulks, 30, each face one criminal count of violating a court order barring them from being present within the "Central City Recovery Zone," bordered by 3rd Street on the north, 9th Street on the south, Broadway on the west and Central Avenue on the east.

Dozens of leaded-glass windows and brass rail chains, door knobs and drinking water fountains at some of Disneyland's most popular attractions expose children to high levels of lead, according to an environmental group seeking a court injunction Tuesday to require the amusement park to cover the items or post health warnings. The Mateel Environmental Justice Foundation filed a lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court in April against Walt Disney Parks and Resorts U.S. Inc., alleging excessive levels of lead in such commonly touched objects as the Sword in the Stone attraction, where Disneyland photographers encourage children to pose while pulling on the sword handle.

Question: A specific carpet choice for the common hallways was approved by homeowner majority vote and purchased. I later attended a board meeting and learned directors took it upon themselves to change the carpet that was already purchased, approved and voted on by the owners and instead buy a more expensive carpet without owner vote or approval. There are over 23 floors to carpet, and the board's choice raised the carpet price by $3 a yard. The burden of paying this overage is on each owner.

Tucson shooting suspect Jared Lee Loughner can refuse anti-psychotic medication until his appeal of the treatment prescribed by prison doctors is decided, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. Loughner, who has been deemed mentally ill and incompetent to stand trial in the Jan. 8 shooting rampage that killed six and injured 13, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, is in custody at a federal prison medical center in Missouri. Doctors there began treating him against his will with psychotropic drugs a month ago, prompting his lawyers to ask the courts to halt the forced medication that they said could irreparably harm or even kill the 22-year-old suspect.

A federal judge in Oakland has denied Apple Inc.'s request for a preliminary injunction to stop Amazon.com Inc. from using the term "appstore. " U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton said she didn't agree with Amazon's argument that the names "app store" and "appstore" were generic and could be used by anybody, but she said Apple had failed to show "a likelihood of confusion" for customers who use the Apple App Store and the Amazon Appstore for...