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San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan’s decision to lift all 20 injunctions against street gangs in six cities around the county is long overdue. Allowing city or district attorneys to obtain lifetime lifetime! restrictions on the movement and activities of individuals who allegedly belong to gangs even if they’ve never been convicted of a crime is a staggering intrusion into people’s lives. It is amazing that such laws have persisted to this day despite sharp criticism of their vagueness by U.S. Supreme Court majorities in 1983 (involving a San Diego case) and in 1999 (a Chicago case).
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In a move some view as a win for criminal justice reform, San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan announced Tuesday that her office filed petitions in court to lift all 20 injunctions against street gangs in cities up and down the county.
Seven of the 20 gang injunctions court-approved orders that restrict the movements of alleged gang members were dissolved as of Tuesday, with approval from judges in San Diego Superior Court.
For decades, police and prosecutors used the injunctions to curb gang violence. But in some cases, the restrictions under the court-approved orders made it difficult for those who left that life behind to move on. Critics for years said injunctions, which stay in effect for a lifetime, impede the ability of people who put their gang days behind them to get jobs and housing. Some said the orders target communities of color.
The Small Business Relief Fund distributed grants and microloans ranging from $1,000 to $20,000.
To be eligible for the Small Business Relief Fund, businesses must be located within San Diego, have a valid San Diego business tax certificate, fewer than 100 employees, been operational for at least six months and must prove economic hardship due to the coronavirus outbreak.
An NBC 7 Investigates analysis showed that nearly $17 million was given out to local businesses through the program, but compared to other areas in San Diego, businesses in District 4 which includes Encanto, Skyline and Lincoln Park received much less money, only $309,000. That’s compared to District 3, which includes downtown, Hillcrest and South Park, where businesses received nearly $5 million, and District 2, which includes Clairemont, Pacific Beach, and Point Loma, and received a little more than $3 million.
SAN DIEGO
Implementation of a voter-approved police oversight commission in San Diego moved forward Monday with a structure now in place to hire leadership and staff.
During a special meeting, the City Council also approved a set of procedures to allow interim commissioners to continue to review police cases while the Commission on Police Practices is set up.
“It allows for civilian oversight of law enforcement to continue uninterrupted in the interim,” said interim commissioner Doug Case, who has led an ad hoc committee to help create the new commission.
The council also appointed an interim executive director: Sharmaine Moseley, who served as executive director of the Community Review Board on Police Practices.
San Diego mayor’s spending plan cuts library hours 23 percent, but boosts firefighter hiring and climate action plan
The $40 million $10 million in cash and $30 million in borrowed money would be reserved for historically underserved neighborhoods.
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City Council members are praising the plan to make neighborhood equity and climate resiliency the main factors determining which streets get repaired first.
“It would be great if we could be more equitable,” Councilwoman Monica Montgomery Steppe said.
Montgomery Steppe noted that her council district, Southeastern San Diego’s Council District 4, has had the smallest number of miles of street repairs since 2015.
There have been 148 miles of repairs in District 4, compared to 242 in north coastal District 1 and 257 in north-central District 6. The city’s two other lower-income council districts were also on the low end, with 161 miles repaired in the South Bay’s District 8 and 164 miles repaired in mid-city