The United States of East Germany!!!!
Sig Heil!!! It's AmeriKa now!!!!
Also see: Land of the Free?
"Bill bars gangs from 'safety zones'; Initiative seeks fines, jail for loitering in parks, neighborhoods"
Gang members seen talking to one another or standing together on public property could be fined or jailed under a new bill being pushed in the Legislature and supported by some prosecutors and Boston police.
The bill would give broad authority to police and prosecutors to bring civil lawsuits against reputed gangs or their members, forbidding them to hang out together in the neighborhoods and parks that police say they terrorize.
Such a law has been hailed as a successful crime-fighting tool in cities such as Fort Worth, San Diego, and Los Angeles, which has been imposing civil injunctions against gangs such as the Crips and the Bloods since the 1980s.
But the approach has drawn the ire of civil libertarians who say it is too sweeping and violates the constitutional rights of people who have not been charged with any crime and may be wrongly identified as gang members.
Boston Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis, who estimated that Boston has about 2,000 gang members, said he believes the injunctions would help neighborhoods.
"These groups of kids that hang around together that sell drugs, that run guns, if you're able to separate them, that's a huge benefit," said Davis, disputing assertions that the measure would violate the rights of some individuals.
Government does it and you fascista fucks don't seem to concerned about that!!!!!!!!!!
"People will argue that not allowing people to stand together in a place is wrong," Davis said. "But no one has a right to commit a criminal conspiracy and hold a community hostage, and that's exactly what happens in some of the areas where gangs are well established."
But it is O.K. to hold a country hostage on the basis of a crockshit of lies!!!!!!
Under the bill, suspected gang members would be barred from parks, neighborhoods, and other areas designated as "safety zones," and police could order groups of three or more gang members found there to leave. The restriction, which would not extend to church or school events, would also impose a 10 p.m. curfew on gang members.
Police said the theory behind the measure is that disrupting gangs will reduce crime and restore peace to neighborhoods plagued by violence. The legal enforcement tool would be civil injunctions against identified gangs and gang members who have been involved in a "pattern of criminal activity."
Gang members would face criminal contempt charges, fines, and possible jail time if they violate the order barring them from congregating in certain areas. They would have 10 days to challenge the injunction in court.
Gang members would be identified by police, based on prior convictions or intelligence linking them to gangs, according to law enforcement officials.
Whose intelligence?
Somebody who doesn't like the kid?
The bill, which was sent to the House Ways and Means Committee this month, has the support of numerous politicians, including Mayor Thomas M. Menino of Boston and House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi.
Representative Eugene O'Flaherty, a Charlestown Democrat, said he filed the bill last summer, after some parents in his district complained that their children were afraid to walk by street corners where they would be bullied or harassed by gangs.
"Some neighborhoods are really hurting, and we need to help," said O'Flaherty, whose cosponsor on the bill is Senator Robert S. Creedon Jr., a Brockton Democrat.
California's law, the model for the bill in Massachusetts, has been upheld by that state's highest court.
But John Reinstein, legal director of the ACLU of Massachusetts, said the bill raises constitutional concerns because it is overly broad and could sweep up nongang members seen talking or standing with gang members who live in their neighborhoods.
"I'm troubled by the extent to which the thumb of the state could come down on activities that are otherwise protected," Reinstein said, referring to the right of people to gather for a wide range of purposes.
Hey, this is AmeriKa, dammit!!!
Sig Heil!!!!!!
Eugene F. Rivers III, pastor of the Azusa Christian Community and cofounder of the Boston TenPoint Coalition, said he is worried injunctions could be filed against people wrongly identified as gang members.
"At first blush, there are too many opportunities to abuse this," he said. "We have no way of independently verifying the quality of what passes for law enforcement intelligence. . . . It seems at first glance that there are too many opportunities for some black or brown kid who has no taste in clothing to be confused for a young hoodlum."
Not all law enforcement officials embraced the idea.
In a statement, Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley expressed guarded support for the proposal, but also concern that injunctions could place more burdens on a busy and financially strapped prosecutor's office and violate the rights of a young person without a criminal past.
"Gangs drive a significant amount of violent crime in cities across the country, and as prosecutors we need all the tools we can get to fight them, while also respecting the constitutional rights of law-abiding residents to congregate, associate, and travel wherever they wish," he said. "I'm not opposed to this strategy, but I do think we should examine it more closely to ensure that it will be properly and ethically used."
In Los Angeles, gang injunctions apply to the entire gang, even members not charged with crimes, because the membership is constantly changing, said a 2007 report by Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky DelGadillo.
"The gangs continue to commit crimes, regardless of who its members are at any given time," the report said.
Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton, a former Boston commissioner, said he believes the injunctions would be more successful in Boston because the city is so much smaller.
"It will work beautifully here," Bratton said yesterday in an interview at the Boston Harbor Hotel, where he appeared with Davis for an award presentation. "Gangs here tend to operate in a very small area. . . . The ability to identify players and identify a geographic area, I think you would have a much bigger benefit here because you have such a smaller area of concentration."
Bratton said the injunctions do not help bring down the number of gangs, but he believes they help reduce gangs' illegal activities.
Essex District Attorney Jonathan W. Blodgett and Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe, who both signed on to the bill, said it has safeguards that help protect the rights of individuals, including the ability to challenge the injunctions in court. But it also gives police and prosecutors another tool to try to disrupt gang violence, they said.
Yeah, you can challenge it in court!
That ain't gonna be a pain in the ass for you, is it, 'murkn?!?!
As for "another tool" in the tyranny basket, fuck that!!!!
That's what they said about spying on "terrorists," then it turns out it was to spy on us all!!!
So FUCK the "we need the tools" argument, fascistas!!!!!
"Nobody thinks that this is a panacea or that this is going to solve the problem in its entirety," O'Keefe said. "This is a problem that has so many different dynamics to it, it requires any number of tools. This is just one of them."
Yeah, yeah, Sig Heil, shit bag!
NO MORE PROTESTS, right?!
After all, they are a GANG, right?!
WAKE UP, lefty shit-head, kumbaya fucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
