{"id":519282,"date":"2010-04-07T14:16:08","date_gmt":"2010-04-07T18:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c630a53ef0133ec86a23e970b"},"modified":"2010-04-07T14:25:18","modified_gmt":"2010-04-07T18:25:18","slug":"sweeping-injunction-targets-commuter-drug-dealers-in-downtown-l-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/519282","title":{"rendered":"Sweeping injunction targets &#8220;commuter drug dealers&#8221; in downtown L.A."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><noscript><\/noscript> <script>if (navigator.platform == &quot;iPhone&quot; || navigator.platform == &quot;iPod&quot;) {\n    document.write(&quot;&lt;div class=\\&quot;goto-iphone-version\\&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=\\&quot;http:\/\/mobile.latimes.com\\&quot;&gt;Click here to view latimes.com\/iPhone&lt;\/a&gt;&lt;\/div&gt;&quot;);\n  }\n<\/script><\/p>\n<div class=\"module blurb\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"center_photo\"><a href=\"http:\/\/latimesblogs.latimes.com\/lanow\/2010\/04\/skid-row-injunction-drugs-lapd-safer-city.html\" style=\"float: left;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" height=\"250\" src=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/media\/alternatethumbnails\/photo\/2010-04\/53153443-07111921.jpg\" style=\"margin: 3px;\" width=\"400\"><\/img><\/a><\/div>\n<p>In an aggressive new tack in the city&#8217;s crackdown on drug-dealing on skid row, L.A. prosecutors on Wednesday announced a\u00a0criminal injunction targeting &quot;commuter dealers\u201d who come into downtown from other parts of town to sell their goods.<\/p>\n<p>The L.A. City Attorney&#8217;s Office said this is the\u00a0first\u00a0time they have aimed an injunction at drug dealers rather than gangs. The injunction would ban 80 drug dealers from entering skid row, and would allow prosecutors to ban up to 300 additional dealers who police identify in the future. <\/p>\n<p>The 80 men and women already identified are affiliated with 31 gangs and have come to a \u201cmutual understanding\u201d to forgo rivalries, keep the peace and share business, according to Peter Shutan, the deputy city attorney.<\/p>\n<p>The ban still requires a judge\u2019s OK, but it has already reignited the debate over the role of police on skid row, where distinguishing between addicts and dealers can be difficult.<\/p>\n<p>Critics say that some of the people included in the injunction may be addicts themselves who sell drugs to support their own habits. Skid row is the last stop for many, they say, and the bans could end up separating addicts who sometimes carry or sell drugs from the rehabilitation services they need. <\/p>\n<p>Of particular concern to the activists is the part of the injunction that would allow police and the city attorney to ban up to 300 more people \u2014 now identified in the injunction simply as \u201cJohn Does\u201d \u2014 so long as they can prove to a judge that the people targeted are dealing drugs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you see a guy committing a crime, you arrest him, you don\u2019t put him on a list and say, \u2018I think this guy is going to commit a crime,\u2019 \u201d said gang expert Alex Alonso. \u201cNow if a \u2018John Doe&#8217; is hanging out with one of the 80 people on that list, he better watch out. He could get served, he probably will get served.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Alonso said the injunction would give the police too much discretion in skid row, an area that has been home to the city\u2019s most concentrated police presence since 2006, when Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and then-LAPD Chief William Bratton deployed 50 extra officers there as part of the controversial Safer City initiative. Dozens of undercover narcotics officers were deployed to the same area.<\/p>\n<p>In 2009, the LAPD made 3,638 drug arrests on skid row, according to the LAPD. Roughly 38% of those were for sales activity, and 45% were for possession. <\/p>\n<p>The city attorney\u2019s office says the injunction is designed to protect people like Iris Mingo, a skid row resident and former crack user who says she has been sober for 18 months. Mingo says she faces temptations every time she walks out of her door because dealing is so rampant in the neighborhood. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow I\u2019m free, but don\u2019t think it don\u2019t come up on me,\u201d said Mingo, 56. \u201cIt can be very trying.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Several social service providers welcomed news of the injunctions. Although banning the 80 alleged dealers will likely create \u201ca vacuum\u201d that new dealers will fill, getting current dealers off the street will give former drug addicts a better chance at recovery, said Andy Bales of the Union Rescue Mission.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is the best news we\u2019ve had in a while,\u201d Bales said.<\/p>\n<p>Although skid row arrest rates have soared and most crime rates have plunged \u2014 LAPD statistics show that property crime dropped 44% and violent crime dropped 40% between 2005 and 2009 \u2014 the drug problem persists.<\/p>\n<p>At the Union Rescue Mission early Tuesday morning, one man died of a suspected heroin overdose in the shelter\u2019s overflow dormitories. The same morning, another man died of a suspected overdose at the Midnight Mission across the street.<\/p>\n<p>Much violence on skid row is drug-related. <\/p>\n<p>Last year the area was rocked by a double homicide that police say was linked to the drug trade inside the Lamp Lodge, a respected facility that provides shelter and counseling to the homeless. <br \/><\/br>Commander Blake Chow of the LAPD\u2019s Central Division called drugs \u201cprobably the biggest threat to the community right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The injunction, Chow said, would help police \u201cprotect the homeless from the predators coming from other parts of the city.\u201d Of the dealers, he said, \u201cwe can arrest them and arrest them and arrest them, but what we need to do is keep them away.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gary Blasi, a UCLA professor who studies homelessness, said injunctions might allow police to stop anyone on the street without probable cause so long as they look like one of the 80 people on the the list.<\/p>\n<p>The ban if approved, would not take effect for months. The people listed in the junction will have a chance to challenge it at a preliminary hearing that will be held in the next few weeks or months, said Bruce Riordan, the city attorney&#8217;s director of anti-gang operations. <\/p>\n<p>Another two to three months after that there will be another hearing in which a judge can choose to make it permanent.<\/p>\n<p>Violating the injunction would be a misdemeanor offense.<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; Kate Linthicum<\/p>\n<p>Photo: Arrest on skid row. L.A. Times file.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In an aggressive new tack in the city&#8217;s crackdown on drug-dealing on skid row, L.A. prosecutors on Wednesday announced a\u00a0criminal injunction targeting &quot;commuter dealers\u201d who come into downtown from other parts of town to sell their goods. The L.A. City Attorney&#8217;s Office said this is the\u00a0first\u00a0time they have aimed an injunction at drug dealers rather [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5912,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-519282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5912"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519282\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}