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Spitzer right to dismiss endless gang injunctions

June 25, 2025

It’s not always easy to strike the right balance between protecting law-abiding citizens from street crime and respecting the civil liberties of criminal suspects. Two decades ago, prosecutors aggressively adopted a policy of civil gang injunctions, which gave police the power to limit the ability of suspected gang members to associate with each other, wear gang attire and engage in gang-related activity. We never thought such broad injunctions came close to being appropriate.

They reminded us of former Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s litmus test for obscenity: “I know it when I see it.” Police and prosecutors think they know gang activity when they see it, but it gets pretty tricky when you delve into the details.

Fortunately, Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer has put an end to these open-ended injunctions. He petitioned the court to dissolve the county’s existing 13 injunctions, which apply to several hundred people, per a Register report. “Gang injunctions are not intended to last for perpetuity,” Spitzer said. “They are designed and implemented to correct criminal behavior” and these ones “have served that exact purpose.”

Orange County imposed its first injunctions in 2006. In an editorial the next year, we expressed sympathy for residents of neighborhoods that were overrun by gang activity, but had huge problems with their lack of due process: “While it’s certainly reasonable to require that convicted gang members stay away from each other, injunctions such as this one target people simply because police and prosecutors believe them to be gang members.”

They cast too wide of a net and entrap many innocent people for the “crime” of living in a neighborhood where they have no choice but to coexist with gang members. The DA’s office didn’t make that particular point—arguing instead that it was bringing the county in line with a new state law that narrows legal gang definitions.

Regardless of the reasoning, we are pleased that Spitzer—who has done an admirable job overall in striking the balance between protecting public safety and civil liberties—is adjusting the department’s injunction policy.

Orange County Register

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Spitzer right to dismiss endless gang injunctions

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