The Los Angeles Police Department has violated the due process rights of thousands of people by serving them with gang injunctions without first allowing them to challenge those orders in court, charges a federal lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, reports the Los Angeles Times. The suit, filed yesterday, aims at stopping the department from enforcing injunctions against people who have not been given a chance to show they aren’t gang members.
The city is enforcing 46 separate injunctions against approximately 10,000 people in Los Angeles. The enforcement areas combined make up 75 square miles, or 15 percent of the city, the suit says. “They’re basically subject to parole-like restrictions without any hearing on whether or not they are actually a gang member,” said the ACLU’s Peter Bibring. “That violates any notion of due process.”