Ban Loosens Gang’s Grip on a Burbank Street

The Los Feliz woman was driving along the Golden State Freeway when her car broke down near Elmwood Avenue in Burbank. When she got out to investigate, she was shot several times.

About an hour later, a motorist who thought the freeway was accessible from Elmwood was turning around in the cul-de-sac when several gunmen opened fire. They missed the driver, but stray bullets wounded a 54-year-old woman who was sitting in her living room in a nearby apartment.

Both victims survived the Feb. 22 incidents. But Burbank police realized something drastic had to happen in the 100 block of West Elmwood Avenue.

“Burbank was caught off guard by the level of violence there,” said Detective Eric Rosoff of the Burbank police gang unit. “Traditional police methods weren’t enough.”

So authorities sought and received an unusual court order that bans 88 suspected gang members from congregating on the street, including about 15 who live there.

Under the order, any two people named in the complaint who are seen together can be held in contempt of court and arrested. The order was issued Oct. 23 by Burbank Superior Court Judge Thomas Murphy. The permanent injunction follows a temporary order issued Oct. 7.

Residents, police and city officials have applauded the ban, while gang members and some of their family members said they are being singled out. It has raised the concerns of some civil libertarians.

The court order allows the 88 defendants to enter the block as long as they are not with another defendant. It also does not prevent them from gathering together inside any residence on the block.

Each member caught violating the order could face up to a year in the County Jail or be fined at the discretion of the judge.

“If any two gang members congregate publicly there, they can be held for contempt,” Burbank Police Chief David Newsham said. “They just can’t hang around outside anymore. If they just walk from their car to a home, we won’t bother them.”

The goal of the injunction is to keep the gang members off the street, which police said would reduce the overall level of crime and violence there. The one block of run-down apartment buildings is in the center of Burbank’s highest crime area, the scene of numerous gang-related shootings and 57% of the city’s reports of gunfire during the past year.

Police concede that gang violence may move elsewhere, but said that Elmwood had gotten out of hand.

Many residents echoed the sentiments of Martin Hernandez, 40, who lives with his wife and two teen-age daughters in an apartment at Lake Street and Elmwood.

“It’s like a new neighborhood. No guns, no drugs, no fights,” he said. “I used to think about moving, but not anymore.”

But gang members see it differently.

“It’s like a communist country,” said one, who asked that his name not be published. “They say I can’t even help my homeboy work on his car on the street here. That’s stupid.”

One recent night, gang members gathered warily in small groups after dark. Some said they were being chased away from their homes and speculated that the street would no longer be safe because police “won’t let us protect our own turf from other gangs.”

But it was the violent attempts to protect their turf from interloping rivals that drove authorities in Burbank to seek a court order.

“It had gotten to the point where it was out of control,” said Rosoff of the Burbank police gang unit.

“There were people who were having their kids sleep on the floor to avoid gunfire . . . People in Burbank really hadn’t seen anything quite so bad.”

From July, 1991, until August, 1992, there were 30 reported incidents of gang violence on the block, including an attempted murder.

The 150-member gang that controls the street is at odds with rival groups from other parts of Burbank as well as North Hollywood and Sun Valley.

The area around Elmwood and Lake is separated from other neighborhoods by the Golden State Freeway on the east and a flood control channel on the west. The areas to the north and south are largely industrial.

Newsham said officers did not feel safe patrolling the area and the gang was “starting to think they ran the place.”

Inspired by a San Fernando city ordinance barring gang members from congregating in a park there, Burbank officials decided to seek a court order for the same purpose.

“In this case, we felt a court order was a more effective tool” than a municipal ordinance, said Burbank Assistant City Atty. Juli Scott, who sought the order.

“These citizens were not assembling innocently. They are a certified criminal street gang, with a long history of violent, illegal activity.”

Each gang member was served with court papers linking them to one of the gangs in the area. Since then, about a dozen of the 88 youths, who range in age from 18 to about 26, have asked to have their names taken off the banned list.

But so far none have succeeded.

Several gang members criticized the court order at a hearing before Murphy. One man was represented by an attorney because he faces charges of attempted murder. The attorney asked unsuccessfully to have his client’s name removed because he is in custody awaiting trial.

The other gang members--who were listed in court documents by given names as well as their gang nicknames--which include Goofy, Shortie, Sparky, Bam Bam, Boo Boo, Silent, Thief, Trouble, Stumpy, Spooky, Sharky, Wimpy, Husky, Vampy and Little Cartoon--have been unable to mount a legal challenge to the injunction.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which unsuccessfully challenged the San Fernando ordinance, was not familiar with the Burbank situation and declined to comment on it.

But Jerome Skolnick, a UC Berkeley law professor who has written books on community- based policing and police brutality, expressed concern that the Burbank court order would limit civil liberties.

Skolnick, who had not read the order, said it represents “a lowering of the threshold of evidence” that ultimately can threaten the right of due process.

“It’s not the behavior that is unlawful,” he said. It’s not unlawful to wear a tattoo. It’s not unlawful to hang around with other people of your age, gender and race on the street. The problem is that it is assumed that you are part of criminal conspiracy. Police don’t have proof they committed a crime but, with this order, don’t need to have enough proof.”

Skolnick, who advises the Oakland police on anti-crime strategies and community relations, concedes that gang warfare has forced police to develop new tactics.

“Undoubtedly, some of these kids are career criminals who should be off the street. But we need to have more evidence than the bad choice of friends and a tattoo,” Skolnick said. “You give a lot of discretion to an officer. Where will this all lead?”

Scott and police officials said the order conforms with state laws defining criminal street gangs.

“It’s narrowly drawn, crafted for a very specific, well-documented problem,” Scott said.

Police defend the method for identifying gang members, which includes such things as gang tattoos and arrest records. But the most common way of establishing gang affiliation is to ask the youth.

“Many of them will gladly tell you of their gang membership. Many of these guys have admitted to our officers that they are gang members,” Lt. Larry Koch said.

“I’m not ashamed no matter what the cops say,” said one youth, who held up his T-shirt to show a reporter a large tattoo on his chest with the gang’s initials.

Judge Murphy, who compares the gang members to Brown Shirts in Nazi Germany, said his court order is a necessary tool to keep society from descending into violent chaos.

“I don’t care whether it’s in South Central, Beverly Hills or Berlin, where skinheads are beating up immigrants, you cannot tolerate this violence,” Murphy said.

“These guys can’t just say it’s their turf. That turf is the city of Burbank, the state of California and United States of America. They have no right to terrorize people there.”