Thursday, February 10, 2005
Crime - Injunction targets West Sac street gang - sacbee.com
Fed up with three generations of crime by the Broderick Boys in West Sacramento, authorities in Yolo County went to court to launch a rigorous crackdown on the 350-member gang.
Taking a page from anti-gang tactics used in San Jose, Los Angeles and Fresno, the West Sacramento Police Department and the Yolo County District Attorney's Office announced Wednesday that they had obtained a permanent injunction to shut down the gang.
Crime - Injunction targets West Sac street gang - sacbee.com: "Agreeing that the Broderick Boys gang is a public nuisance, Superior Court Judge Thomas E. Warriner issued a 'gang injunction' allowing police to prevent gang members from 'standing, sitting, walking, driving, gathering or appearing, anywhere in public view or any place accessible to the public.'
The court order, issued last week, imposes a curfew on gang members from 10 p.m. until sunrise. It prohibits them from intimidating witnesses, possessing guns or other weapons, spraying graffiti or owning spray-paint cans, and trespassing. It also bans them from drinking in public or being around anyone with open containers of alcoholic beverages.
'We're under no illusions this is the panacea,' West Sacramento Police Chief Dan Drummond said at a news conference Wednesday. 'But it provides us with an early intervention tool, an opportunity, when we see these individuals congregating, to intervene before serious violence occurs.'
The court order designates a 3-square-mile area of West Sacramento as a 'safety zone' where the injunction is in effect, and it includes the historic neighborhoods of Bryte and Broderick, the gang's home turf.
'Most of these people have a criminal history,' the chief said, 'for everything from murder to assault to robbery to drug dealing.
'Since the 1980s, they've committed hundreds of crimes in the safety zone. These are supported by police reports, arrests and convictions.'
Drummond said he expects no outcry from civil rights advocates 'because we're being very careful about labeling people.
'We're not going to put them in a database until we're sure they meet the (state) Department of Justice gang validation criteria. It's all based on prior criminal conduct.'
Some residents, however, expressed concerns that Mexican Americans would be unfairly targeted. Val Ganz, 50, of Bryte said he and a friend 'are afraid to walk down the street. The cops "
Taking a page from anti-gang tactics used in San Jose, Los Angeles and Fresno, the West Sacramento Police Department and the Yolo County District Attorney's Office announced Wednesday that they had obtained a permanent injunction to shut down the gang.
Crime - Injunction targets West Sac street gang - sacbee.com: "Agreeing that the Broderick Boys gang is a public nuisance, Superior Court Judge Thomas E. Warriner issued a 'gang injunction' allowing police to prevent gang members from 'standing, sitting, walking, driving, gathering or appearing, anywhere in public view or any place accessible to the public.'
The court order, issued last week, imposes a curfew on gang members from 10 p.m. until sunrise. It prohibits them from intimidating witnesses, possessing guns or other weapons, spraying graffiti or owning spray-paint cans, and trespassing. It also bans them from drinking in public or being around anyone with open containers of alcoholic beverages.
'We're under no illusions this is the panacea,' West Sacramento Police Chief Dan Drummond said at a news conference Wednesday. 'But it provides us with an early intervention tool, an opportunity, when we see these individuals congregating, to intervene before serious violence occurs.'
The court order designates a 3-square-mile area of West Sacramento as a 'safety zone' where the injunction is in effect, and it includes the historic neighborhoods of Bryte and Broderick, the gang's home turf.
'Most of these people have a criminal history,' the chief said, 'for everything from murder to assault to robbery to drug dealing.
'Since the 1980s, they've committed hundreds of crimes in the safety zone. These are supported by police reports, arrests and convictions.'
Drummond said he expects no outcry from civil rights advocates 'because we're being very careful about labeling people.
'We're not going to put them in a database until we're sure they meet the (state) Department of Justice gang validation criteria. It's all based on prior criminal conduct.'
Some residents, however, expressed concerns that Mexican Americans would be unfairly targeted. Val Ganz, 50, of Bryte said he and a friend 'are afraid to walk down the street. The cops "
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