A settlement for a class-action lawsuit orders the Los Angeles government to pay up to $30 million. The money will be used to provide job skills training and tattoo removal to identified gang members in the city.
The suit came in 2011 regarding the city's enforcement of curfews. The widespread gang population have opted the city to impose such rule but the California appeals found it to be illegal last 2007. The city has over 50 gang injunction which prohibited suspected gang members from carrying deadly weapons, wearing suspected clothes or even socializing with other groups. 21 of those cases require certain gang members to be inside their home by 10 pm as per Newser.
According to the Daily News, gang injunctions have been widely used on the West Coast. A certain case that involves the gang Colonial Chiques which is considered as one of Ventura County's biggest street gangs was barred from being outside from 10 pm up to sunrise.
Critics, on the other hand, said the law was too broad. It brought unfairness to labeled young people without even having to go to trial.
If the settlement will be approved by the court, the city will have to give $4.5 million up to $30 million of funds straight into a nonprofit organization. This organization will help those who were hit by the curfew law. The amount will be dependent on the number of kids that will come forward to claim it.
According to Olu K. Orange, the attorney for the plaintiffs, the settlement will provide a real opportunity for people who have been marginalized in order to make their lives better as reported by The Wall Street Journal. The gang members will gain job skills that will probably turn their lives around.
Orange added that these gang injunctions are a form of psychological abuse on a whole generation of young people.
