Ogden enforcing ban on street gang

OGDEN — Ogden police are enforcing a curfew and other restrictions on a street gang accused of everything from graffiti to murder.

Second District Court Judge Ernie Jones declared the 485-member Ogden Trece a public nuisance Monday and granted Weber County prosecutors' request for an injunction, the first of its kind in Utah.

The members are prohibited from associating with one another in public, being around guns, drugs and alcohol or staying out past 11 p.m.

Police Chief Jon Greiner said he won't launch a dragnet but that his officers will be on the lookout for violations of the court order.

"We can't really just go looking for them to be sure they're not associating," Greiner told the Standard-Examiner of Ogden on Tuesday. "We'll respond to calls and take action appropriately."

Two Ogden lawyers who fought the injunction with help from the ACLU said they were filing an immediate appeal to the Utah Supreme Court. The Utah Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers is expected to join.

The critics call the injunction and a database of members a heavy-handed constitutional violation of free assembly that even bans felt-tip pens and spray paint as graffiti tools.

Trece was founded in 1974, according to a 331-page injunction that includes more than 100 pages of photographs of gang tattoos, graffiti, hand signs and clothing. It accuses Trece of everything from graffiti to murder.

"Most of us are family, you know," Roman Hernandez, who was served with a restraining order, told Salt Lake City FOX affiliate KSTU. "Kids have birthday parties, we can't go to our nieces and nephews because we're supposedly all gang members. I just think that's wrong."

Hernandez declined to say whether he was a member of Trece. Many of those served with temporary restraining orders claim they are no longer affiliated with the gang.

Similar injunctions have been used against gangs in California, where authorities claim it has been successful.

In Utah, "We did it after a lot of study, after a lot of careful consideration," Weber County Attorney Dee Smith said. "We're convinced that it will be a benefit to the law-abiding citizens of this community."