Hahn, who faces a tough re-election battle against Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa in the May 17 election, said the sweeping injunction would cover every neighborhood and likely apply to 10 percent to 50 percent of the city's 49,000 gang members. The ordinance would target only gang members who commit the most serious crimes.

"We're going to show other cities around America what you can do to rid your city of the plague of gang violence," he said. "And we're going to do it in a way that has never been tried before."

Los Angeles mayor proposes citywide injunction on gangs

 

 By David Zahniser
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE

LOS ANGELES – Promising to make Los Angeles a "gang free" city, Mayor James Hahn called yesterday for the filing of a massive citywide injunction prohibiting gang members from congregating with other gang members, drinking in public and possessing spray-paint cans, among other activities.

Hahn provided no cost estimate for his initiative. He launched his proposal without consulting City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, whose office would research and write up the citywide injunction.

Hahn's proposal, offered hours before the first candidate debate of the runoff campaign, provided an echo of the 2001 mayoral election, when Villaraigosa and Hahn debated the merits of gang injunctions secured by Hahn as city attorney.

Villaraigosa, formerly the president of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, argued four years ago that gang injunctions were the wrong tool to use against gangs. Yesterday, his campaign had no comment.

Gang injunctions have been used in the Harbor Area, South Los Angeles and on the city's Eastside, covering limited geographic areas and targeting primarily high-profile gang members.

Hahn argued a citywide initiative would address one of the main complaints about gang injunctions that typically regulate activity in smaller geographical areas: They simply push gang members across the street or to another part of a neighborhood outside an injunction's boundaries. Civil liberties advocates denounced the plan, saying it will ensnare youths who don't belong to gangs.

Los Angeles has 22 gang injunctions in place covering roughly one-fourth of the city. Hahn argued the citywide injunction would build on those efforts, as well as Police Chief William Bratton's success at reducing gang crime by 24 percent over the past two years.