ONLY ON NEWSCHANNEL 8

WASHINGTON - The American Civil Liberties Union and other youth justice groups held a rally outside the Wilson building, calling on the D.C. council to remove language from a proposed crime bill about so-called "gang injunctions."

The gang injunction is a court-issued restraining order, prohibiting gang member from certain activities, such as owning or even being around firearms, standing on private property and congregating in public. Civil liberties groups call gang injunctions unfair and ineffective, but supporter of the bill are holding firm.

"The cons over-weigh the pros of it. It's gonna hurt more than it will help," said Amir Jones, who is worried police will unfairly target his younger cousins and nephews who live in a Southeast neighborhood riddled with gangs.

He joined others calling on the D.C. council to remove "gang injunctions" from proposed crime legislation. "It will do absolutely nothing to stop the crime right, to stop homicides, absolutely nothing. But what it will do is threaten the rights of all District citizens," said Ian Cooper, ACLU legal assistant.

The ACLU says injunctions hurt innocent people, loosely connected to gangs. "They might have a family member whose in a gang or connected to a gang and they might be placed on the list because of it."

Councilman Jack Evans sponsored the legislation. "We need to strengthen these laws and break up the gangs. That's what I'm hearing. I'm not hearing that the police are being to heavy handed. It's not happening!"

On Friday, Evans appeared on NewsChannel 8's NewsTalk. He defended the gang injunctions saying police need the ability to break up gangs quickly.

"And this would be stopping a car, if there's a gun in that car, everyone is going to jail. Unless they can prove they had no knowledge the gun was there." When asked if the burden of proof is on them, Evans said, "Yes."

But advocates argue that would create stigma. "This crime bill is like a quick fix. Lets just do something right away," said Rico Rush, Alliance of Concerned Men.

Jones says gang injunctions will lead to racial profiling against African American and Latino men.

"They're gonna say they're hanging on the corner with baggy pants on, and they're gonna say he's a gang member, but what's not to say that he's a straight A student and he likes to dress like this?"

Instead of gang injunctions, the groups want more emphasis on prevention and community policing. The D.C. council votes on the bill tomorrow.

Evans says he already has support from seven of his colleagues and he's still communicating with others including Phil Mendelson. Mendelson opposes Evans' bill and introduced his own.

In a statement, Mendelson says, "The Evans bill consists of broad and loosely-defined gang civil injunction language as well as decreasing the standard of proof for pre-trial detention. This is too low of a burden and unfairly calls for imprisonment of those who should be treated as 'innocent until proven guilty'."

 Email To Friend