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Borderland Thursday,
May 15, 2003 Daniel Borunda El Paso Times Officer Jesse Rodriguez Jr. looks out the
window of his police cruiser as the Segundo Barrio bustles with life under
a glaring sun.
Mexican shoppers, viejitos and children
walk the sidewalks of the old, mural-filled neighborhood as the
temperature tops 94 on a recent afternoon.
It is not the only heat rising on the
streets near Downtown.
Police have a new weapon -- a civil court
injunction that bans 39 listed Barrio Az! teca gang members from a laundry
list of activities in a ! "Safe Community Zone" established in
part of the Segundo Barrio.
Most of the prohibitions are already
illegal, but there are also bans on actions legal for others:
Members cannot associate with each other.
"I think it's wrong," said
Lorenzo McGee, 47, who is listed in the injunction, as he sat
handcuffed Tuesday in the back of a patrol car after officers said
they saw him violating the injunction by drinking in public.
McGee, who police allege is a member of
Barrio Azteca known as "G burglar previously jailed for robbery, said the injunction would
prevent him from finding a job. "In second place, I'm not an
indio," he said referring to what street soldiers are called.
McGee and the 38 other gang members
here are just a small part of the 2,000 members scatt! ered throughout
the Southwest. Created in the mid-1980s by five El Pasoans while they
were imprisoned in East Texas, the gang has a hierarchy of soldiers,
sergeants and capos. It "taxes" and sets quotas for street
drug sales, namely Mexican black tar heroin. Members have been linked
to burglaries, assaults and murders.
Local police asked the county attorney
to seek the injunction -- the first of its kind in El Paso, though one
of several nationwide -- because of gang activity in the area.
"The need for the injunction is
evident if you lived in the Safe Community Zone," County Attorney
guez said, citing drug deals, assaults, robberies and
extortion.
Taking back the 'hood
While El Paso was ranked as the third
safest city in the nation with crime down citywide, the Aztecas are
trying to solidify control of the Downtown area, law officials said.
"These residents for years have
been terrorized. ... Nobody in this town should ... live in!
guez said. Some neigh! bors are
afraid to report crimes, police said.
"The Aztecas have long been
passing out the message to other gangs that that's their 'hood, that's
their barrio," said Sgt. Marylou Carrillo, who heads the
Community Response Against Street Hoodlums unit in the Central region.
"To tell you the truth, where I
live it's peaceful. ... I haven't seen any gang around here,"
said Socorro "Sukie" Rodriguez, who has lived in the area
for more than 80 years.
But that's understandable, police say,
because illegal activities are often underground. A swap meet on
Paisano Drive served as sales spot for heroin and stolen goods. Pagers
and cell phones were used for drug deals. And whistles were gang
signals.
Injunctions
The El Paso injunction is temporary,
but a hearing June 24 could extend it for two years. Violations are a
Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $4,000
fine. Or violations can be civil contempt subject to 30 days in jail
or a $10,000 f! ine.
The injunction zone can be expanded,
and names can be added to the list if the gang moves or recruits new
blood, officials said.
The civil gang injunction was born in
Los Angeles in 1993 as the nation's gang capital was awash in violence
in the early 1990s. Los Angeles police report having about 50,000 gang
members within its jurisdiction, with 350 gang-related homicides in
2002.
"The gang problem (in Los Angeles)
is a very complex one," said Martin Vranicar, supervising
attorney for the gang unit of the Los Angeles city attorney's office.
"In a lot of communities, gangs are multigenerational and firmly
imbedded. ... We had to look for nontraditional tools."
Gang injunctions reduced violent crime
by 5 to 10 percent per neighborhood, according to an April 2002 study
by Jeffrey Grogger, a University of California at Los Angeles
professor. The report, published in the Journal of Law and Economics,
looked at eight years of data from various injunction zones in the!
Los Angeles area.
For police on the street, the rules!
have changed in fighting the city's largest and most organized gang.
"Who do you run with, se?"
asks Officer Rodriguez, looking over the tattooed arms of a suspected
Barrio Azteca gang member pulled over on St. Vrain Street after he
allegedly left the home of a heroin dealer.
Mario Davila responds that he is 58
years old and not in a gang. Rodriguez and his fellow members of the
police antigang unit in Central El Paso are not convinced. Gang
members range from teenagers to 65-year-olds, and the average age of
those in the injunction is about 27. The ink on Davila's flesh links
him to the gang, police said.
Crime and Constitution
When the California Supreme Court
upheld the "do not associate" provision in 1997, injunctions
"really took off," Vranicar said. There are more than 15 in
the Los Angeles area. San Antonio, Phoenix and other cities also have
them.
"Our most effective order is the
one prohibiting them from associating with another gang mem! ber from
the same gang," Vranicar said.
The U.S. Constitution protects one's
right to associate as one wishes, argued Michael Wyatt, an El Paso
attorney who works with the American Civil Liberties Union's local and
state branches.
"The police have the authority and
mechanism ... to arrest people who commit crimes," Wyatt said.
"They do not have the right and power to tell people who they
cannot hang out with."
Injunctions have been criticized for
abridging free speech -- whistling and cursing are prohibited in
public -- while raising concerns that they allow police to detain
anyone resembling a gang member.
guez defends
El Paso's injunction, saying those listed in it have extensive
criminal records.
"The Constitution does not extend
guez
said.
As for being barred from the area
McDonald's, gangsters and junkies would lock themselves in the
restroom to take heroin, po! lice said. There have been two overdoses
in the last six ! months, Carrillo said.
One "guy actually passed away in
the restroom," she said. "It's ridiculous for these kids to
be seeing that while they are having their Happy Meals."
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