City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo Launches Injunction Against Rolling Sixty Crips
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Frank Mateljan
July 10, 2003
(213) 978-8340
City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo Launches
Injunction Against Rolling Sixty Crips
Councilman Parks, Chief Bratton and community leaders join
Delgadillo in move banning activities of L.A.’s largest “Crip” gang;
Measure part of amplified strategy to combat summer gang violence
SOUTH LOS ANGELES – City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, joined by Councilman Bernard
Parks and LAPD Chief William Bratton, announced details of a lawsuit seeking an injunction
against the Rolling Sixty Crips – one of South L.A.’s most notorious and deadly street gangs.
The injunction places severe restrictions on gang-related activities of Rolling Sixty members,
including a ban on public association with other members, loitering, gang speech and gang attire.
“Rolling Sixties subject the South Los Angeles community to utter fear,” Delgadillo said at a
news conference at Van Ness Recreation Center. “Their activities are nothing less than domestic
terrorism.”
Delgadillo said the injunction – combined with the current use of undercover stings, probation
sweeps, foot patrols and special operations – should significantly aid police efforts to suppress
gang activity in the Hyde Park area.
“The strength of this gang injunction will give us the tools to make Hyde Park a safer, healthier
community,” Delgadillo said.
The injunction, filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, creates a “Hyde Park Community
Safety Zone.” The measure prohibits Rolling Sixty gang members from the following activities
within the Safety Zone:
Associating with other Rolling Sixties in public;
Intimidating any person in any way for any reason;
Approaching any occupied vehicle on the street;
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Rocky Delgadillo Launches Injunction Against Rolling Sixty Crips
Warning others of police presence;
Possessing any pager, cellular phone, two-way radio or scanner;
Possessing any alcoholic beverage in public;
Carrying any weapons or objects commonly used as weapons;
Using gang verbiage or displaying gang signs in public;
Wearing gang attire or other identifying clothing; and
Entering the territories of neighboring gangs, including those of the Van Ness Gangsters,
Eight Trey Gangsters, Crenshaw Mafia Gang, Inglewood Family Gang and 62 Brims
Gang
Councilman Parks, who as police chief oversaw enforcement of several gang injunctions,
supported the action against the Rolling Sixties.
“I commend the City Attorney’s office for strategically removing these gang members from our
streets,” Parks said. “Each and every day that they roam our communities, they put lives in
jeopardy.”
The Rolling Sixty Crips are named after the Hyde Park neighborhood located along 60th street
where the majority of its members live. The gang has approximately 1,200 documented
members of which the juvenile members of the gang carry out the majority of the violent crimes
or gang activity.
The Rolling Sixties accumulate most of their income from the sale of rock cocaine and members
are linked to over 32 murders as well as several bank robberies, felony assaults, graffiti and auto
thefts. The gang also has been known to rob juveniles on their way to school and use juveniles
to solicit the sale of drugs. The gang uses pagers, cellular phones, scanners and two-way radios
to facilitate narcotics sales and avoid arrest by police.
The Sixties also are notorious for violent intimidation of witnesses to crimes, thereby hampering
law enforcement’s efforts to prosecute.
“Gangs have terrorized our community with violence, crime, and blight. This injunction is an
important step toward putting an end to this domestic terrorism and will help make our
neighborhoods safer and healthier,” said Councilwoman Jan Perry, whose district includes much
of the police department’s 77th Street Division patrol area.
Local community and religious leaders joining Delgadillo in support of the injunction included
Rev. Leonard Jackson of First AME Church, Rev. Ferroll Robbins of Loved Ones Victims
Services and Najee Ali of Project Islamic Hope.
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Rocky Delgadillo Launches Injunction Against Rolling Sixty Crips
The Rolling Sixty gang injunction is the 13th such action taken by the city to combat gang
violence. Los Angeles is home to 800 known gangs and more than 56,000 gang members,
according to the LAPD.
Six years ago the California Supreme Court ruled that cities could use public nuisance laws to
obtain injunctions that prevent suspected gang members from engaging in gang-related activities.
(People ex rel Gallo v. Acuna, 1997)
The court held that gang injunctions do not infringe on gang members’ constitutional rights,
because individual rights cannot be protected at the expense of a community’s right to safety and
security.
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