Gang injunctions just criminalise poor communities | George Lavender | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

Gang injunctions just criminalise poor communities | George Lavender | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk: "Gang injunctions are not solutions to social ills, nor do they make our streets safer' says Jerry Elster, a former gang member from South Central Los Angeles and an organiser with All of Us or None. 'What they are successful at is criminalising impoverished communities'.

This week, gang injunction powers similar to those in the US came into force in England and Wales. Introduced by the last Labour government, gang orders are civil orders that will be used by local authorities and police to restrict the freedoms of people they identify as members of 'gangs'. A lower standard of evidence for a civil order will make it easier to issue gang injunctions since identification of gang members can be based on no more than informal hearsay evidence from police officers.

Gang injunctions were first used in Los Angeles in the 1980s. Thirty years later, those original injunctions are still in force. They have become increasingly popular among local government and police, mainly in California but increasingly nationally as a way to get federal funding for extra policing and to push forward gentrification, under the guise of tackling street crime."

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