By Chris Levister

Richard Kotomori, Jr, M.D.

But as Riverside lawmakers prepare to deploy the county's first gang injunction, critics are asking; ‘Does the practice now in place in 36 states and counties including San Bernardino, San Diego fight crime or fill jails with vulnerable Black and Latino juveniles?' 

"The department's "assertive gang suppression" is appropriate for gang members "whose sole purpose is to wreak havoc on the community," argues Los Angeles assistant police chief, Earl C. Paysinger.

Yet, in a study conducted by the Long Beach Press Telegram nearly 80 percent of the members named in that city's injunction and a 1997 order against members of the West Coast Crips, have been convicted of at least one crime since the injunctions were imposed.

On Friday Superior Court Judge Edward Webster okayed the Riverside injunction saying, "It's clear to me East Side Riva is a criminal street gang." The injunction would apply to the entire gang - more than 500 documented members, many of them juveniles.

Pacheco argued the Latino East Side Riva is responsible for homicides and hundreds of other crimes in Riverside's Eastside neighborhood, many of which have targeted Black residents.

"It's frightening to me that hard line prison politics and correctional system practices of segregation and alienation among races is now making its way into more urban neighborhoods and becoming the norm," says Riverside adolescent psychiatrist Richard Kotomori. 

Kotomori says such aggressive suppression tactics often worsen gang problems by alienating entire groups of people from the police and stocking prisons with thousands of Latino and Black juveniles, many of whom are transformed into hardened gang members while incarcerated.

"Overtime we see these juveniles begin to feel increasingly alienated and volatile.

They see themselves as outside of the system," said Kotomori."

The injunction practice, which originated two decades ago in East Los Angeles, imposes safety-zone constraints. Gang members named in lawsuits face jail time for hanging out together in public, throwing gang signs, or recruiting new members. Members would also be banned from wearing gang apparel and are prohibited from being outside between 10 p.m. and sunrise. 

"This is the brave new world of Black and Chicano disenfranchisement," says nationally recognized scholar, researcher and UC Riverside professor of psychology

Carolyn B. Murray.

Dr. Carolyn Murray

"Inside these safety zones children as young as six and seven are being assaulted from every angle, abandoned by dysfunctional parents, put to sleep by under performing schools, threatened, taunted and recruited by gangbangers, humiliated and made to feel like animals by police." says Murray.

"There's a prevailing belief among some officers that anyone who acts or dresses like a gang member is a gang member. Literally entire families are being slapped with the gang label because of direct involvement or association. Basically, these heavy handed practices allow authorities to unilaterally track and harass poor often abused and emotionally fragile kids who stray.  It's a life sentence without due process," says Murray.

Once you're on the list, you're shackled for life, says a man in his 30's wearing jeans, a blue tank-top and a black nylon do-rag. He offers a blunt rationale for declining to divulge his name. In 2001 he was one of 29 San Bernardino defendants named in a sixth ward gang injunction.  He says he was erroneously branded "active gang member", a claim he vigorously denies. "I'm on the list," he says, referring to the San Bernardino injunction. His employer of 4 years fired him last year after learning of his alleged gang affiliation. He worries that history might repeat itself if his new employer reads his name in the paper. "It's a nightmare that won't go away."

"Somebody who is truly out of the gang and not committing crimes has nothing to worry about," insists Riverside Deputy District Attorney Jack Lucky. "The only people who have something to worry about are people who are members of the gang and engaging in illegal activity."

Still Kotomori believes police should focus more on education, prevention and intervention before making arrests. He points to his involvement in community-based programs in Long Beach that promote healthy identities through cultural and self awareness. 

"So that Mexican and Black children don't  see themselves as being a burden to society or somebody who is destined to become a criminal or gangbanger, but somebody who comes from a proud heritage and has something to offer society," said Kotomori.  

Paysinger admits Los Angeles has not been discriminating enough in dealing with juveniles suspected of being gang members who pose a lesser threat. "We're doing what we can to, as my son says, flip the script." He says new department guidelines call for officers to conduct more visits to homes of suspected gang members to encourage parents to become involved. We've become more discriminating how we apply the law.

"There is a written law and a living law. If you're going to have a written law you should apply it equally across the board, unless there are special circumstances," said Murray.

"Race is not a special circumstance and the system does not apply the rules and regulations equally to all people," says Murray. "Like it or not Black and Chicano families have little choice in his hard line approach to crime fighting but to wake up and take back the minds of our children and our communities or sit back and watch the emerging police state take hold."