CHANGES URGED FOR INJUNCTIONS ON GANGS.

Byline: RICK ORLOV Staff Writer

Balancing the effectiveness of gang injunctions with the need to offer hope to young people to break from a life of crime, a city panel Wednesday called for a review of how to change the injunctions.

``The way it is now, a gang injunction is a life sentence for these people,'' anti-gang activist Blinky Rodriguez told members of the City Council Ad Hoc Committee on Gang Violence. ``We need to put a gun in the fence to give them a chance to get out.''

Others at the second hearing on the issue, however, testified on the effectiveness of injunctions -- 27 of which are now in effect across the city -- and how they have reduced crime and violence.

They were started by former City Attorney James Hahn in 1997 against the Blythe Street gang in Van Nuys, allowing police to arrest gang members when they were meeting, limit their ability to loiter and regulate their behavior.

Matthew Hale of the county Public Defender's Office urged changes allowing a gang member to get out from under an injunction. ``It is far too easy to get on a gang injunction and too hard to get out of it,'' he said.

Several others agreed, with some saying the Los Angeles Police Department had used injunctions to create a ``siege mentality.''

Councilwoman Janice Hahn said she does not believe injunctions will disappear, but changes could let youths who have renounced gangs be released from an injunction's requirements.

rick.orlov(at)dailynews.com

[phone]