MEMPHIS, Tenn. — While the Shelby County District Attorney has turned to gang injunctions as a way to reduce crime in neighborhoods, a lawyer is challenging a gang injunction order’s constitutionality.
There are currently five gang injunctions across the community. Those allow law enforcement to cite two or more known gang members associating in public.
The motion that challenges an injunction order stems from an incident on a porch on the 800 block of Faxon Avenue.
Police said Earnest Williams was standing there with other reported gang members last May, in violation of the neighborhood’s gang injunction.
The motion, filed by attorney Barbara Sidelnik, called the order “unconstitutionally overbroad and void for vagueness.”
Assistant public defender Barbara Sidelnik did not want to comment, but Just City executive director Josh Spickler believes her argument is strong.
“Regardless of any of those things, we still have rights to gather, rights to walk across the street, rights to walk up and down the sidewalk, rights to sit on a porch,” he said.
The motion said gang injunctions keep people from “standing, sitting, walking, driving, gathering, or appearing anywhere in public view.”
The motion challenges that in this case, the phrase “public view” goes too far. It also argues that this order violates people’s rights to gather with family members, who are gang members, in public places. It mentions Williams’ brother is also subject to this order.
DA Amy Weirich said she cannot go into detail on pending cases, but she told WREG, “These challenges have been mounted in other states that have gang injunction legislation like we do. They’ve not been successful in those jurisdictions, so we’ll have our day in court on that issue.”
Weirich said many neighbors tell her office they support gang injunctions.
Still, others see both sides.
“It’s hard to do that, because they got rights too, you know,” one Binghampton resident said.
The motion said that in November, the state decided not to prosecute Williams on the criminal charge against him. The state reportedly served him with a summons and copy of the order, asking the court to, again, hold him to the order.
Here is a list of current gang injunctions in Shelby County:
1) Riverside Rollin’ 90s (October 2013)
2) Dixie Homes Murda Gang/47 Neighborhood Crips (October 2014)
3) FAM Mob (Greenbriar Apartments and Ridgecrest Apartments) (December 2014)
4) Binghamton 1- Vice Lords (January 2016)
5) Binghamton 2- Grape Street Crips (January 2016)