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Brilliant! To prevent further Murders (yes, murders), Houston is considering banning the following, punishable by a Class A Misdemeanor...
1)Committing crimes
2)Gang colors
3)Gang members from hanging out together
4)Having cell phones in their car
So they are going to deter criminals from committing Murder with the threat of a Misdemeanor? They are going to Ban "Crime" in a 3 square mile area? And they better not carry their cell phones in their cars?
And if they ban Gang colors (and if the Gang members actually follow the new rules), how will they know if a group of people hanging out together are Gang members or just a group of kids.
Jo Ann Rios' home looked like a pincushion, with 18 bullet holes after a series of drive-by shootings.
The house is located in Bryan near the Texas A&M campus, not ordinarily the kind of place outsiders expect gangland crime.
Rios also has seen two boys shot as they walked past her driveway. Her 20-year-old son, Virgil Ponce, came within a hair-width of dying from a bullet lodged in his brain after a run-in with a rival gang member.
Now, Rios has another worry: Bryan authorities have taken the unusual step of suing Virgil, along with her other son, who's 14, and her stepson in civil court. The trio are among 38 the lawsuit has identified as members of the Latin Kings or Surenos gangs and being a "public nuisance."
"This is crazy," Rios said, after her release from the hospital last week following a stress-related heart attack. "Because of this lawsuit, my boys can't be around each other anymore. They can't go out at night or have a cell phone."
9 p.m. curfew
Bryan is the first Houston-area community to use a civil injunction to force identified gang members to abide by strict rules within a 3-square-mile "gang safety zone." To create the zone, law enforcement authorities had to prove to a judge that the specified area had rampant gang-related crime and the named individuals were participants.
The injunction, which can last up to 10 years, was implemented after a gang-related killing on Mother's Day.
Those enjoined are not only barred from committing crimes but also from associating with each other, going out in public after 9 p.m. or possessing a cell phone in a car. Then there are prohibitions against predictable gang activity: wearing gang clothing, making gang signs or possessing aerosol paint cans.
Violators can be charged with a Class A misdemeanor that is punishable by up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine.
The restrictions, which critics have said infringe on constitutional rights, are carefully crafted to cramp the style of "brazen bands of thugs" who like to intimidate through sheer numbers, authorities said.
"The threat of curfew, losing your cell phone and no longer being able to drive through town wearing your colors and flashing your gang signs takes away the coolness factor," said Kinley Hegglund, a city attorney in Wichita Falls who helped draft an anti-gang injunction there in 2007.
Pick 'a war zone'
San Antonio was the first Texas city to implement an injunction, in 1999, after the state passed a law permitting it. Fort Worth and El Paso also have created gang safety zones.
Now for the first time, Houston is collecting data on gang members to possibly seek its own injunctive relief, a Houston police spokesman said.
"You have to pick an area that's been a war zone, deluged with gang crime, to carve out a safety zone," said Carolyn Dozier, an assistant Harris County district attorney investigating the issue.
The law also requires the city to show those being enjoined have habitually engaged in at least five instances of organized criminal activity in a year's span.
"We're looking at one area that has been a problem for years," said Dozier, who would not identify it.
One of the main reasons Houston has not been quicker to seek anti-gang injunctions is that its street gangs tend to roam the entire city and not stick to four-block territories. "The law does not allow you to enjoin the whole city," Dozier explained.
On top of that, some cities wanted to know whether courts would view the civil injunctions as violations of gang members' constitutional rights of free expression and association.
"The ACLU and others argue these injunctions go too far, but gangs have no constitutional protection to gather for criminal activity," said Brazos County Assistant District Attorney Cory Crenshaw, who oversees Bryan's injunction.
So far, appellate courts in California and Texas have upheld the injunctions. Wichita Falls finished arguments June 30 before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on the third challenge of its restrictions.
A significant decline
Mario Martinez, who pleaded guilty to five injunction violations, including using gang signs and wearing gang colors, wants the city's injunction overturned for being "vague and overly broad." Meanwhile, 18 of the 38 individuals whom Bryan wants enjoined are still fighting it or negotiating an agreement.
Bryan attorney Craig Greening lowered his fee to represent 12 of the holdouts.
"Since this is a civil proceeding, they are not entitled to court-appointed attorneys," he said. "My biggest concern is those unrepresented might later be subject to criminal charges."
He also believes Bryan's injunction is "overzealous" when it prevents family members from associating with each other or having a cell phone in the passenger compartment of their car.
Crenshaw said that in the short time the injunction has been enforced, gang crime has seen a significant decline.
cindy.horswell@chron.com
1)Committing crimes
2)Gang colors
3)Gang members from hanging out together
4)Having cell phones in their car
So they are going to deter criminals from committing Murder with the threat of a Misdemeanor? They are going to Ban "Crime" in a 3 square mile area? And they better not carry their cell phones in their cars?
And if they ban Gang colors (and if the Gang members actually follow the new rules), how will they know if a group of people hanging out together are Gang members or just a group of kids.
Jo Ann Rios' home looked like a pincushion, with 18 bullet holes after a series of drive-by shootings.
The house is located in Bryan near the Texas A&M campus, not ordinarily the kind of place outsiders expect gangland crime.
Rios also has seen two boys shot as they walked past her driveway. Her 20-year-old son, Virgil Ponce, came within a hair-width of dying from a bullet lodged in his brain after a run-in with a rival gang member.
Now, Rios has another worry: Bryan authorities have taken the unusual step of suing Virgil, along with her other son, who's 14, and her stepson in civil court. The trio are among 38 the lawsuit has identified as members of the Latin Kings or Surenos gangs and being a "public nuisance."
"This is crazy," Rios said, after her release from the hospital last week following a stress-related heart attack. "Because of this lawsuit, my boys can't be around each other anymore. They can't go out at night or have a cell phone."
9 p.m. curfew
Bryan is the first Houston-area community to use a civil injunction to force identified gang members to abide by strict rules within a 3-square-mile "gang safety zone." To create the zone, law enforcement authorities had to prove to a judge that the specified area had rampant gang-related crime and the named individuals were participants.
The injunction, which can last up to 10 years, was implemented after a gang-related killing on Mother's Day.
Those enjoined are not only barred from committing crimes but also from associating with each other, going out in public after 9 p.m. or possessing a cell phone in a car. Then there are prohibitions against predictable gang activity: wearing gang clothing, making gang signs or possessing aerosol paint cans.
Violators can be charged with a Class A misdemeanor that is punishable by up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine.
The restrictions, which critics have said infringe on constitutional rights, are carefully crafted to cramp the style of "brazen bands of thugs" who like to intimidate through sheer numbers, authorities said.
"The threat of curfew, losing your cell phone and no longer being able to drive through town wearing your colors and flashing your gang signs takes away the coolness factor," said Kinley Hegglund, a city attorney in Wichita Falls who helped draft an anti-gang injunction there in 2007.
Pick 'a war zone'
San Antonio was the first Texas city to implement an injunction, in 1999, after the state passed a law permitting it. Fort Worth and El Paso also have created gang safety zones.
Now for the first time, Houston is collecting data on gang members to possibly seek its own injunctive relief, a Houston police spokesman said.
"You have to pick an area that's been a war zone, deluged with gang crime, to carve out a safety zone," said Carolyn Dozier, an assistant Harris County district attorney investigating the issue.
The law also requires the city to show those being enjoined have habitually engaged in at least five instances of organized criminal activity in a year's span.
"We're looking at one area that has been a problem for years," said Dozier, who would not identify it.
One of the main reasons Houston has not been quicker to seek anti-gang injunctions is that its street gangs tend to roam the entire city and not stick to four-block territories. "The law does not allow you to enjoin the whole city," Dozier explained.
On top of that, some cities wanted to know whether courts would view the civil injunctions as violations of gang members' constitutional rights of free expression and association.
"The ACLU and others argue these injunctions go too far, but gangs have no constitutional protection to gather for criminal activity," said Brazos County Assistant District Attorney Cory Crenshaw, who oversees Bryan's injunction.
So far, appellate courts in California and Texas have upheld the injunctions. Wichita Falls finished arguments June 30 before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on the third challenge of its restrictions.
A significant decline
Mario Martinez, who pleaded guilty to five injunction violations, including using gang signs and wearing gang colors, wants the city's injunction overturned for being "vague and overly broad." Meanwhile, 18 of the 38 individuals whom Bryan wants enjoined are still fighting it or negotiating an agreement.
Bryan attorney Craig Greening lowered his fee to represent 12 of the holdouts.
"Since this is a civil proceeding, they are not entitled to court-appointed attorneys," he said. "My biggest concern is those unrepresented might later be subject to criminal charges."
He also believes Bryan's injunction is "overzealous" when it prevents family members from associating with each other or having a cell phone in the passenger compartment of their car.
Crenshaw said that in the short time the injunction has been enforced, gang crime has seen a significant decline.
cindy.horswell@chron.com