Garcetti to Seek Injunction in Crackdown on Gang

The district attorney’s office is trying to clean up one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Inglewood by seeking court action against the Crenshaw Mafia Gangster Bloods, which is accused of dealing drugs in a six-block residential area known as Darby-Dixon, or “the Bottoms.”

Standing in Darby Park several blocks from the affected neighborhood, Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti said Monday that his office would go to Torrance Superior Court today seeking a preliminary injunction prohibiting 41 gang members from gambling, loitering, drinking in public, and from the public use of pagers, cellular phones and walkie-talkies.

The injunction would also mandate a curfew in which juvenile gang members would have to be off the streets by 10 p.m. In the last three years, 19 murders have taken place in the neighborhood.

“Enough is enough,” Garcetti said, referring to shootings and the sale of crack cocaine. “It is time to stop the violence. It is time to stop the fear.”

The Darby-Dixon neighborhood is just south of Hollywood Park racetrack and casino. It is bounded by 99th Street on the north, 104th Street on the south, Crenshaw Boulevard on the east and Yukon Avenue on the west. Three schools--Morningside High School, Monroe Junior High School and Woodworth Elementary School--are located in the neighborhood.

The district attorney’s office has used similar injunctions to curtail gang activity in Pasadena, Lennox, Long Beach, Norwalk and Redondo Beach.