The injunction being sought in Los Angeles Superior Court would prohibit at least 50 gang members and another 250 still to be listed from standing, sitting, walking, gathering or appearing in groups of two or more in a one-square-mile area of the Pico-Union district.
"This is the beginning of the end," James Hahn, a city prosecutor, said of the lawsuit filed jointly Friday with the Los Angeles District Attorney. "You are not in control any longer. We're going to take back these streets."
A hearing on the request for a preliminary injunction is scheduled for Aug. 29. Last month, a judge approved a similar injunction curbing the activities of 18 alleged members of the same gang in a 17-block area of Jefferson Park, a southwest Los Angeles neighborhood.
This injunction, which must be approved by a judge, would cover the Pico-Union area west of downtown the widest area of any order officials have so far obtained, authorities said. The area is considered the heart of the gang's territory.
Police and other officials fanned out this weekend to serve gang members with official notices, but didn't announce it until today to protect police. Thirteen of those named in the lawsuit were in jail on a variety of charges.
Officials are confident that the injunction will be approved. A dozen such orders have already been granted to curb activity in Los Angeles, Inglewood, Burbank, Pasadena, Long Beach and unincorporated portions of the county.
One such lawsuit previously reached the state Supreme Court. The city of San Jose successfully argued that gang activity in the Rocksprings area was so menacing that police couldn't fight crime with traditional policing.
The Pico-Union neighborhood has nearly 28,000 residents, most of them Hispanic, and is one of the poorest and most crime-ridden in the nation, police said. It's not a coincidence, police say, that the area also is the birthplace of the 18th Street group, a gang that has grown over the past 30 years.
For several years, the gang has engaged in large-scale drug trafficking and extortion of residents and merchants for everything from protection to parking spots.
"They are terrified of the gangs," one law enforcement official told the Los Angeles Times. "They know the size of the gang. They know its capabilities. They know it controls the area."
Denise Levin, Copyright 1997, The Associated Press
18th Street Gang: Another Injunction?
Officials Seek Another Restriction Against Notorious Gang
LOS ANGELES, Posted 5:20 p.m. August 4, 1997 -- Fresh from a recent victory over the 18th Street Gang, officials said Monday they want another court injunction against members of the notorious gang in the heart of the gang's territory. 
"We've come together to end the reign of terror of the 18th Street Gang in the Pico-Union district," District Attorney Gil Garcetti (pictured) said.