West Sacramento cracks down on gangs

West Sacramento cracks down on gangs

The Yolo County District Attorney's Office and the West Sacramento Police Department have obtained a gang injunction establishing a safety zone to abate West Sacramento gang activity.
The court order is against the Broderick Boys, or Norteno, criminal street gang. Continuing criminal conduct by the gang in certain parts of West Sacramento has had substantial effect on residents. The goal is to deliver relief to the citizens in areas that have been afflicted with street gang activity.

"It was a this harsh reality that triggered the Yolo County District Attorney's Office to team up with Chief Dan Drummond and the West Sacramento Police Department to seek a gang injunction against the Broderick Boys criminal street gang to abate this public nuisance," said Jeff Reisig, deputy district attorney.

The injunction is groundbreaking, according to Reisig, and is believed to be the first in the state to target the Norteno gang as a named defendant in the civil injunction.

The gang injunction is a civil court order approved by a Yolo County Superior Court judge, and it prohibits Broderick Boy gang members from engaging in specific conduct within a defined are of West Sacramento, designated as a safety zone.

Prohibited conduct includes no association by gang members in public, no graffiti or graffiti tools, no drugs or alcohol, no weapons or witness intimidation and no trespassing. A curfew will also be enforced from 10 p.m. until sunrise.

According to West Sacramento police and the district attorney's office, local history has established that certain conduct often leads to the most serious criminal conduct by Broderick Boy gang members.

The gang injunction is tailored to address the activity that creates a public nuisance and leads to the most serious and violent criminal conduct. The injunction's prohibitions only apply to active and validated members of the gang, who have been served with notice of the injunction's provisions and only to conduct in the safety zone.

The penalty for violating any term of the gang injunction is six months in jail and/or a $1,000 fine.