The City of Oakland recently filed a petition seeking an injunction against the Norteños street gang, which the City Attorney’s office states is one of the most violent gangs in the city. The City of Hayward is also taking steps to introduce new laws to reduce crime and violence committed by an estimated 2,000 street gang members representing more than twenty gangs or groups.
If ordered by a judge, Oakland’s injunction would restrict activity of 42 members of the Norteños in an area of Central Oakland, that according to an announcement from the city attorney’s office, “…has been terrorized for years by murders, assaults, robberies and other acts of violence committed by the gang.”
 
“In neighborhoods of Central and East Oakland, residents and businesses have been caught in the middle of a decades-long firefight between this gang and its rivals,” City Attorney John Russo said. “Bullets have taken the lives of countless young men who have been recruited…and shots fired at or by members of the Norteños too often injure or kill uninvolved bystanders – many of them children.”
 
According to Oakland Police data, members of the Norteños have been involved in at least 35 shootings this year either as targets or as suspects.
 
An injunction is a civil court order, much like a restraining order. It is designed to protect the community by restricting the ability of individual gang members to commit crimes within an area called a safety zone. The proposed Norteños safety zone is an area of Central Oakland roughly between 21st Avenue and High Street and below Brookdale Avenue.
 
Within the zone, enjoined gang members are restricted from carrying guns, menacing or assaulting witnesses, recruiting young people, selling drugs, vandalizing the city, associating with each other in public and being on the street during late night hours. City Attorney Russo and Police Chief Anthony Batts have also recently discussed an anti-gang injunction to protect the Fruitvale neighborhood from one of the city's most violent criminal gangs.
 
In Hayward, the police department presented a report at a recent city council meeting on the progress of a Gang Investigation Unit (GIU) and a gang injunction program. Three police officers have been assigned to the formation of a new GIU, augmenting existing prevention and enforcement strategies with increased investigative and information gathering efforts critical to gang violence reduction. According to Hayward police, staffing of the newly formed GIU is fully funded by grant money and the development and design of the gang injunction program is being handled by existing resources.

“The good news is that the city council, the city, and the police department have good and well intentioned people working on this issue and with good and cogent input from community members we really can set a comprehensive policy for Hayward,” said Hayward city council member Mark Salinas, who invited community leaders to the city council meeting to hear the police department’s report.

 

As in Oakland, Hayward’s injunction would provide police officers with a court order prohibiting gang members from participating in specific activities.

Gang injunctions have been implemented in several California cities, including Los Angeles, San Jose, San Francisco, and Oakland. Hayward police and the city council have reviewed Oakland’s first injunction, which was granted in June and targets fifteen members of the North Side Oakland gang. A violation of the injunction is considered contempt of court, which is punishable by up to six months in jail and up to a $1,000 fine.

The Hayward Police Department plans to continue its effort to gather the information necessary to establish gang-related evidence for an injunction. If the City moves forward with a gang injunction the court’s role would be to assure due process for gang members such that they receive notice of the hearing and have an opportunity to be heard.