SM police chief defends lack of gang injunction

By Samantha Yale Scroggin, Staff Writer, Santa Maria Times
Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Santa Maria doesn’t have a gang injunction, and some city residents aren’t happy about it.

At recent City Council meetings, several people have come forward during the public comment period to tout the need for a gang injunction in the city, and to read lists of crimes reported in the media.

Police Chief Danny Macagni has heard the remarks, and read letters to the editor published in newspapers on the topic.

He said he is frustrated that some people don’t understand — or believe — that he would seek a gang injunction if he thought one would work in Santa Maria.

“I find it quite bothersome for people to think that we’re not doing everything possible to make this a safer community,” Macagni said. “I live here. My wife lives here. My kid lives here.

“Why would I not do everything in my power to make this a better place?”

Injunctions, which must be ordered by a judge, create “safety zones” where it’s illegal for documented gang members to participate in such activities as congregating, wearing gang clothing, using gang signs and intimidating and harassing people.

Macagni said the Santa Maria Police Department looked into gang injunctions years ago, and is constantly reviewing whether one would be appropriate.

However, gangs have become spread out in the city, Macagni said, making it impossible for police to pin-point an especially gang-infested part of town that would benefit from a gang injunction.

Mickey Freeman, a member of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, a group that promotes greater border security, was among those who spoke at a City Council meeting requesting a gang injunction in Santa Maria.

“Crime seems to be getting worse and worse and worse,” she said by phone. “We need something to be done before it’s too late, and it’s almost too late.”

The city of Lompoc adopted a gang injunction in 2005, and Sgt. Danny Rios of the Lompoc Police Department said it has proven to be an “effective tool” and a “great resource.”

The area covered by the gang injunction encompasses most of the central part of the city, and has a crooked border that reaches west to Y Street, east to 4th Street, north to North Avenue and south to Olive Avenue.

The injunction does not prevent gang members from just associating in the designated safety zone, but other activity violates the terms of the order, including intimidating witnesses, fighting and wearing gang clothing.

Rios said the injunction makes certain behavior illegal in the safety zone that otherwise wouldn’t constitute a crime.

The safety zone was placed in an area determined to have more gang activity than other parts of town, Rios said. Still, he acknowledged that gang members don’t just reside in one location in Lompoc.

“They live all over the city,” Rios added.

“It’s working for us,” he said of the injunction. “It’s definitely proven to be an effective tool, and we see it doing a lot of good for the city.”

Macagni said that in the late 1960s and the ’70s, Santa Maria’s two main gangs — Northwest and West Park — lived in the parts of the city that their names indicate.

About 25 years ago, a gang injunction could have been effective, he added.

Northwest gang members have since been thrown out of the housing projects under Section 8 low-income housing guidelines, he said, and West Park gang members, many of whom are undocumented immigrants, don’t own homes and have moved to where the apartment complexes are.

Macagni said that a gang injunction would not keep gang members out of town as some believe it would.

To say a gang member can’t come to a certain location is a violation of the person’s First Amendment rights, he said.

A gang injunction, which Macagni said is basically a civil restraining order, can be very limited, he explained.

Pursuing a gang injunction is also labor intensive, Macagni said, as police would have to produce documentation concerning gang statistics going back at least 10 years. Each gang member must be personally served with a notice of the injunction, he added.

Despite the effort involved, Macagni maintained he would seek an injunction if he felt it would help.

“I would do it in a heart beat if I thought it would be an efficient, effective tool that would work,” he said.

The Santa Maria Police Department, made up of 111 officers, is cracking down on gang members in other ways, according to Macagni.

For entire article: http://www.santamariatimes.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/article_64440596-e55a-11de-99b8-001cc4c002e0.html