Street gang members served an injunction
Visalia police hand out order that imposes curfew, other rules.
Visalia police served members of several street gangs with a court injunction Friday that bars them from congregating and imposes other limitations within a “safe zone” on the city’s north side.
The civil injunction was issued by Tulare County Superior Court Judge Lloyd Hicks, and police spent Friday afternoon putting members of the gang Oriental Troop, or OT, on notice of the order’s restrictions.
The injunction also applies to two other Asian gangs, the Mongolian Boys Society, also known as MBS, and Lahu Pride or Lahu Pride Crips, or LPC.
It comes a week after police served notice on Hispanic Norteño gang members of identical restrictions.
The injunction and enforcement effort comes in response to increased gang activity and violence that threaten residents throughout north Visalia, police and prosecutors said.
The “safe zone” established by the injunction amounts to about one square mile, reaching from Race Avenue on the south to Riggin Avenue and St. Johns Parkway on the north, and from Dinuba Boulevard on the west to Burke and Santa Fe streets on the east.
Within that zone, the order imposes a 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew on gang members and prohibits them from hanging out with other gang members. Besides requiring gang members to obey all laws, the injunction also bars them from intimidating witnesses, possessing guns or dangerous weapons, using or possessing drugs, selling drugs, acting as a lookout, using or possessing alcohol, graffiti tagging or possessing graffiti materials, forcing anyone to join a gang or preventing someone from leaving a gang.
Violating the order is a misdemeanor punishable by jail time, but if gang members are found violating other laws, prosecutors could press additional charges.
