UC Irvine

While civil gang injunctions are not a new legal tool, they have been operating quietly in city landscapes for over 3 decades. While they have existed and been used across the country not much is known about the wide-reaching effects and impacts civil gang injunctions have on communities of color. Using Echo Park, Los Angeles as a case study, this paper takes a closer look at the details of this most recent injunctions against the backdrop of the dark history of civil gang injunctions. By highlighting the specific ways in which civil and legal codes are used simultaneously, we see the ways in which penal and civil codes create another physical liminal space for men of color in the City of Los Angeles. Examining the interplay between these codes, provides insight into how the injunction’s prohibitions create a place of hypervisibility, but also, an erasure of the lived experiences of its subjects.