The writer is a Party for Socialism and Liberation organizer in San Juan Capistrano who has helped lead the struggle against the SJC gang injunction. He presented this at the Nov. 10 Socialism Conference in Los Angeles.
The district attorney of Orange County filed a gang injunction on Oct. 11 against 140 alleged gang members who reside in or around San Juan Capistrano. All but two are Latino.
San Juan Capistrano is a small town of 37,000 people located in South Orange County. Latinos make up about a third of the population. We pride ourselves on having a small, close-knit community. It is even smaller if you are Latino; most of us live within a three-mile radius of each other.
The racist SJC gang injunction seeks to create a “safety zone” around the area where Latinos live. The injunction would prohibit the people named in it from certain activities, such as being out after a 10 p.m. curfew.
It also would prohibit any “suspicious” hand gestures, “gang clothing,” carrying “burglary tools,” consuming alcohol—even in the privacy of your own home—or acting as a “lookout.”
The SJC injunction paperwork also wrongly claims that 100 percent of the crimes that have been committed in the “safety zone” were all for the benefit of a street gang.
In San Diego County, a similar gang injunction prohibits the use of cell phones. In other places, being on a roof is prohibited.
People who violate the restrictive terms in the SJC injunction would face at least six months in jail.
Many of the people named in the SJC injunction are not professed gang members, as the Orange County Sheriff’s Department falsely claims. For example, one of the people named is a U.S. Marine whose last documented legal infraction was committed more than five years ago. This is not an isolated case.
If the injunction is approved, who is or is not considered a gang member would be open only to police discretion. This is how the cops and county authorities want it to be.
If you are listed in the injunction, there is no clear way to get your name removed. Some people could remain on that list for the rest of their lives. Even if someone is able to get off of the injunction, they could easily find themselves put back on if they still reside in SJC’s “safety zone,” where law enforcement would have almost limitless power.
Gang injunctions are racist tools used by law enforcement to criminalize minority youth from oppressed communities. They are another form of racial profiling used against Black and Latino communities.
Courts initially struck down injunctions because they were overbroad and violated the right to freedom of assembly enshrined in the First Amendment. Now, cities and counties have learned to carefully word them to identify alleged gang members by name. In this way, the injunctions successfully prohibit activities that are perfectly legal otherwise.
Because gang injunctions are civil court orders, people named are not entitled to paid legal representation. The injunction is also passed in secret, and a court date is set to give as little time as possible to establish legal representation. In SJC, the injunction hearing starts on Nov. 16.
The struggle against the SJC gang injunction is not just about those people named in the injunction. The injunction is a vicious attack on the whole Latino community by the repressive institutions of the capitalist state.
Democratic Party support for new federal “anti-gang” legislation is set to take the issue facing the residents of SJC well beyond any “safety zones.”
To successfully combat racism, we have to fight against it. That’s why the Party for Socialism and Liberation has organized a petition campaign, community meetings, and protests against the SCJ gang injunction.
Our goal is to not only stop the injunction but also help stimulate a movement among working-class people of all nationalities that is united in the goal of changing the system.
