Public Safety | Daily Report

Oakland City Attorney John Russo caused a stir last month when he filed a request for an injunction against the Northside Oakland street gang.

Both the city attorney's office and the Oakland Police Department believe the measure, which would prevent alleged gang members from congregating in public, recruiting new members or being out past a curfew in a wide swath of North Oakland, is necessary to tamp down violence in the neighborhood.  

Photo by Thomas HawkOakland police don riot gear.

"They have terrorized our community, intimidated witnesses, and recruited young people and children to their criminal enterprise," Russo told the Oakland Tribune. "They are part of the malevolence that has crippled our city for decades and continues to hold Oakland back today."

Capt. Anthony Toribio, whose Area 1 command includes North Oakland, says his officers have linked Northside Oakland to at least nine shootings and dozens of street robberies and drug sales over the past decade. OPD Chief Anthony Batts, who oversaw five separate gang injunctions while serving as police chief in Long Beach, has identified the injunctions as a key tool to combat gang violence in Oakland.  

However, the proposed injunction has touched off fears of racial profiling and heavy-handed policing among some residents in a city where the police have a tense relationship with communities of color. Oakland's only prior attempt at getting a gang injunction failed in 1994, when a judge turned down the city's request.

Notably, the Oakland City Council is skeptical of the injunction because of the estimated $430,000 price tag and the questionable efficacy in reducing crime.

Saturday afternoon, several organizers from assorted social justice groups fanned out across North Oakland to spread the word about the proposed injunction.  

Manuel La Fontaine, an organizer with the prisoner's advocacy group All of Us or None of Us, believes gang injunctions are politically and racially motivated. “I call 'em contemporary black codes,” he said, referring to restrictive housing covenants prevalent in California in the early and mid-20th century.  

La Fontaine, who served six years in prison on an assault charge, now lives in San Francisco.** He says that city's gang injunctions – in the Mission, Western Addition and Hunter's Point neighborhoods – have caused gentrification in those areas, displaced longtime residents and pushed violence into other areas, including the Excelsior district where he now lives.  

John Allen, a dreadlocked North Oakland native, was playing basketball with his son in Bushrod Park when La Fontaine approached him. Allen was unaware of the gang injunction, and found it troubling. “That's messed up,” he said. “We need jobs, something for the youth, jobs; not this.”  

At the All for One barber shop on San Pablo Avenue, identified in the injunction as the turf of the “Gaskill Maniacs,” Frank Otis voiced his own doubts. “I saw them announce it on TV a month or so ago, and didn't agree with it,” he said. When asked whether he feared for his safety in North Oakland, Otis shook his head. “Nah man, this isn't a violent neighborhood.”  

Several pedestrians wondered why the proposed injunction targeted North Oakland, rather than neighborhoods in West or East Oakland where gangs are in open conflict and the body count is far higher.

Ricardo Noriega, a high schooler who was walking with a friend on Shattuck Avenue near the Berkeley border, said North Oakland was far calmer than his old neighborhood in the East. “You see people around, but it ain't violent. Not like in the East,” he said.

The injunction lists 19 people as identified members of Northside Oakland's various cliques, although there is room on the injunction for up to 70 names.

One of the people named on the civil complaint is Roy Johnson, Jr. a 30-year-old father of three who lives at his father's house on 52nd street. According to court documents, Johnson is an “active” and “respected” member of Northside Oakland and has felony convictions for weapons possession and marijuana sales.  

While speaking with La Fontaine and Lisa Nowlain, another organizer, Johnson said he hasn't left his block since officers served him with the injunction papers. “Just because I have tattoos, wear a Yankees hat and got into trouble before, I'm now a 'gangster,'” he said. Johnson has “5200,” his street, and “NSO" inked on the inside of his arms.

Incidentally, his father has similar markings.”I have 52nd street tatted on me,” said Roy Johnson Sr. “Am I a gang member too?”

The elder Johnson is also worried about the injunction's implications for his family as well. Another son, Patrick Johnson, and a nephew, Derrius Dillard, are also listed on the injunction. If the measure is approved by a judge, Dillard and the Johnson brothers could be accused of illegally associating during family get-togethers.

“It's going to get to a point where families can't communicate with one another,” said the elder Johnson.

The injunction will go before an Alameda County judge on April 22.

**This sentence originally reported La Fontaine had served three years on a drug charge.