Court Approves Gang Injunction

Superior Court Judge Robert Freedman issued a preliminary injunction earlier this week including all remaining defendants in the City’s lawsuit against the Norteños gang.  The City asked the court to grant an injunction against 40 members of the Norteños based on their proven ties to the gang and crimes they have committed in the zone covered by the injunction.

The two injunctions in effect in Oakland (Norteños and North Side Oakland) are different from most of the other gang injunctions in California. Oakland’s injunctions are similar to restraining orders against individuals. Each defendant had the right to contest the lawsuit’s claims before the court, and the City had the burden of proving to the court, by clear and convincing evidence, that the gang is a criminal enterprise and that each defendant is a member of the gang. Importantly, anyone who leaves the gang can go through an “opt-out” process and seek to be removed from the order.

The 40 individuals named as defendants in the City's lawsuit have close to 200 adult arrests and at least 106 adult convictions among them. Their adult criminal convictions include: multiple cases of assault with a deadly weapon, multiple robberies, robbery resulting in great bodily injury, carjacking, shooting at an occupied home, dog fighting, fighting in public, numerous incidents of domestic violence including one resulting in traumatic injury, felony drunk driving, obstructing a peace officer by use of force, battery, carrying a concealed weapon, carrying a loaded firearm, felony possession of an assault weapon, possession of body armor, felony possession of a controlled substance while armed with a gun, felony manufacturing a weapon while in prison, discharging a firearm in a grossly negligent manner and many other gun crimes; also numerous vehicle thefts, drug sales, vandalism, residential and non-residential burglaries, grand theft, receiving stolen property and forgery. Most of these crimes occurred in or were committed against people who live or work in the Fruitvale neighborhood. In most cases, evidence submitted to the court included the individuals’ own claims of gang membership.

Within the injunction zone covering most of the Fruitvale District, the court’s order restricts the defendants from carrying guns, threatening witnesses, selling drugs, wearing gang colors, associating with each other in public or being on the streets during late night hours (10 p.m. to 5 a.m.). There are clear exceptions to the last two restrictions for lawful activities such as work, school and medical emergencies. Violation of the order is a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and/or a $1,000 fine.

“This order protects civil liberties while imposing restrictions on defendants that are designed to curb gang violence in Oakland, thereby saving lives and improving public safety,” City Attorney Barbara Parker said.

The Chamber supports the City Attorney in pursuing the Gang Injunctions and adding to the tools available to the Oakland Police Department to keep our citizens safe.

Public Safety Action Delayed at City Council

The council voted 4-4 Tuesday night (Mayor Quan made the tie-breaking vote) to send the Loitering, Curfew and Gang Injunction measures on last night’s Council agenda to the Public Safety Committee which next meets Tuesday October 25 at 5:30 pm. Those who wanted to act on the 3 measures last night were De La Fuente, Reid, Schaaf and Kernighan. Those urging delay and further study were Brooks, Kaplan, Brunner and Nadel.

The Shot Spotter contract award was part of the consent calendar and passed unanimously.

The three hours of discussion at Council last night mainly centered around the idea that Curfews and Loitering (also Injunctions) do not work and people holding this view insisted the facts supported their side. Proponents pointed to their own studies and noted that many other cities’ have these type of laws. In fact it was said California state law has loitering prohibitions and that a city ordinance would simply give police the chance to write a ticket instead of making an arrest which is the only action the state law allows.

The Chamber and a broad coalition of business groups is supporting all these Public Safety measures and more (see our letter here).

Public Safety dominates Council Agenda Tomorrow Night!

A loitering ordinance, a youth curfew and extending the gang injuction are all included on the City Council Agenda Tuesday Night (10/4).  They are agenda items 13, 14 and 15 respectively.  The meeting is scheduled to start at 5:30 pm but these items are not likely to come up in the agenda until 7pm at the earliest.  If you’d like to attend the Council meeting and speak on these topics you will need to fill out a Speakers Card.  You can fill out the Card in person or on-line.  One other Public safety measure on the agenda is award of a shot spotter contract that will help police quickly and accurately identify where gunshots have been fired.  This contract award is part of the consent calendar, is not expected to be controversial and will come up before the other public safety issues.

Also on the Council Agenda tomorrow night the Council will consider recommendations to make Building Inspections more consistent from one city inspector to another.  And two recommendations by the Mayor for new Port Commissioners. Victor Uno would retain his seat and Jakada Imani would fill a seat currently held by Margaret Gordon.

To watch a live broadcast of the City Council Meeting, visit the City's Live Video webpage.