Posted on 12/14/2004 5:30:49 PM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
In what was described as the first case of its kind, the city obtained a court order closing a South Los Angeles apartment complex used for decades by a Crips set, the City Attorney's Office said Tuesday.
"This is not something that the City Attorney's Office normally does," City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo said in the 6900 block of South Main Street. "But these are not normal circumstances."
City Councilwoman Jan Perry was also there to offer her support for the action taken.
"We will no longer tolerate criminals taking over our buildings and endangering our families," she said. "And, today, we say enough is enough, and we cannot allow this domestic terrorism to continue."
But that did little to assuage the feelings of some residents who said they are not criminals and are being given an eviction notice at a particularly bad time of the year.
"This is right before Christmas!" one woman yelled.
Another asked: "What are we going to do with all these kids?"
The order closes a 24-unit complex across from Bethune Middle School that authorities say was used as a base for more than 20 years by the 69 East Coast Crips. At times, Delgadillo said, children at Bethune have been taken out of classrooms and herded into the cafeteria until police can secure the campus perimeter.
Since June 2002, police have documented 18 drug arrests and 13 drive-by shootings in the area, that left nine people -- including two children -- wounded.
Seventeen loaded firearms have been recovered from the apartments, and gang members have been regularly arrested for such crimes as assault with a deadly weapon, murder and robberies, officials said.
Students were robbed so frequently as they walked by the apartments that they were told not to do so, according to deputy city attorneys Jonathan Cristall and Anne Tremblay.
The order by Superior Court Judge Susan Bryant-Deason requires that the apartments be closed for at least 90 days, after which the property's owners will only be able to use the structure for commercial purposes, and with court approval, according to the City Attorney's Office.
The judge's order comes in a public nuisance lawsuit the city filed Sept. 8. The suit is the first time the city has sought to close a property based on criminal gang activity through the use of a judge's preliminary injunction, officials said.
Delgadillo said "we are taking back the rights of students and teachers to go safely to and from school and ridding this neighborhood of a magnet for gang activity."
So the city doesn't own the building, but they are kicking everyone out because of the thugs who live in some of the units. Why don't they just enforce the laws they already have, and get rid of the thugs?
Perhaps because the building's owner is in league with the thugs, and just keeps renting out to more thugs whenever an apartment is vacated due to a thug being relocated to prison or dying in a gang bang.
Perhaps.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.