Citizens Call For Renewed Scrutiny of Anti-Gang Practices in Yolo County

Posted June 13th, 2009 by JTjaden

Citizens Call For Renewed Scrutiny of Anti-Gang Practices in Yolo County

Written by David Greenwald Thursday, 11 June 2009 10:23

    Opponents of the West Sacramento Gang injunction gathered this morning in front of the Yolo County Courthouse ahead of yet another hearing as defendants seek to overturn the gang injunction which was originally filed in 2005, thrown out by the courts, and then the District Attorney's office sought to have it reinstated last year.

    Opponents of the gang injunction argue that while there is crime in West Sacramento and a small number of gang members, neither the level of violence nor the number of gang members justify an injunction.

    Rebecca Sandoval, one of the organizers for the citizen's based effort against the gang injunction argued:

      "There has been a message put out there that there is a Broderick Boys gang. What we are saying... is that there is no Broderick Boys gang. There is a certain amount of crime that exists in West Sacramento just like in any city but not anywhere to the point where it requires a gang injunction."

    According to Phil Barros, a law enforcement officer for the department of corrections and certified gang expert in California and Nevada, the District Attorney had issued the injunction back in 2005 based on the argument that crime had increased in the Broderick and Bryte areas as the result of the increased Mexican population in these communities. But Mr. Barros argues that the actual crime statistics do not bear out those claims.

    Mr. Barros had met with the West Sacramento Police Chief back in 2005 when the idea of the gang injunction was being considered.

      "When they stated that there was a Broderick Boys street gang, I was very concerned. I met with the police chief and explained to him that there was no organized Broderick Boys street gang--never has been and hopefully there never will be. However, I did explain that there are some Norteno prison gang members who do reside in the West Sacramento area along with prison gang members from different motorcycle groups... They didn't want to listen to that."

    [...]

Pics and the rest of the article at the link

http://davisvanguard.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=28...