[See a newer post, here].

Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley stated he'll announce an injunction against a Skid Row gang Wednesday morning.

The site of his announcement is Gladys Park, at East Sixth and Gladys streets, a postage-stamp sized recreation area that has been plagued with drug dealing despite a 2006 “Safer Cities Initiative” that brought a swarm of police to Center City East (and a successful lawsuit by the ACLU that prevents cops from arresting homeless for sleeping on sidewalks).

The crackdown was effective in disbanding the San Julian Street open-air drug bazaar that flaunted the law just around the corner from the Los Angeles Police Department's Central Division. But it seems that much of that activity has moved east, toward Gladys Park.

In 2008 the City Attorney's office initiated another gang injunction downtown, this one against the 5th & Hill gang that allegedly peddled heroin the area.

Such injunctions prohibit known gang members from hanging out together and occupying certain geographic zones. Some critics have argued that the injunctions often target areas that are gentrifying.

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