Recently, Fort Worth and San Francisco joined the growing list of cities that have filed lawsuits against gang members. Specifically, officials have requested court injunctions that prevent suspected gang members from hanging out together, carrying spray paint, or even speaking to people in passing cars within particular public spaces. In addition, these injunctions provide police with the legal right to stop, question, and search suspected gang members.

Once again, we have allowed our fear of youth to undermine our duty to protect civil liberties, expand social justice, and engage in legitimate social transformation.

Even if we could agree that it’s fair to target gangs, there are no fair mechanisms for accurately determining gang membership. Law enforcement authorities are not required to obtain approval from a judge or magistrate before placing someone in the gang database. In fact, a person can be officially labeled a gang member without being convicted or even arrested. Furthermore, given the secret nature of gang surveillance, there is no way correct the deliberate or unintentional misplacement of innocent people on the gang lists. An excellent example of this came in 2001, when David Englebrecht, a 26-year-old father of three was labeled an Oceanside gang member and included in the city’s anti-gang injunction. As a result, Englebrecht was prohibited from “making loud noises, whistling, wearing certain clothing, using certain words or hand gestures or being seen in public with other alleged gang members within an approximately one-square- mile area of Oceanside.” Although Englebrecht was able to successfully contest his inclusion on the list, there is no public means by which to determine who else is being repressed by such draconian policies.

By using civil procedures to expand the range of law enforcement resources, local governments are able to sidestep basic constitutional protections and criminalize otherwise legal behavior. Rather than forcing the police and prosecutors to meet rigorous burdens of proof, gang injunctions give police carte blanche to intensify its war against Black and Latino youth with no regard for rule of law.

Like most of the United States’ “wars,” such as the ones against drugs and terror, local and federal governments have used the war on gangs to manipulate legitimate fears about crime and violence and translate them into repressive public policy against our most vulnerable citizens. Rather than attacking structural issues, such as the lack of intervention programs, acceptable employment, or responsible policing, the current trend toward suing gangs places the full burden of social reform on our youth.