The maps which portray a roughly two-mile “safety zone” that the Hamilton County district attorney general wants to enforce in the East Lake area tell an amazing story.
When 2014-2016 crime data in the specific area is isolated on a “hot spot” map (think color radar of rain on a weather map), it shows several areas where the crime “storm” has been strongest.
When the same crime data in the same area is shown as incident bubbles on various maps, the maps – depending on the type of crime – are covered with bubbles. Maps for vandalism, thefts, simple assault and burglaries appear to have the most incidents and the widest coverage. But separate maps also show five homicides over the period and plenty of drug and weapon offenses, robberies and aggravated assaults.
When the totality of the incidents is examined, it’s understandable District Attorney General Neal Pinkston requested an East Lake safety zone earlier this week – in a court filing with the aforementioned maps – and the application was made to have two active gangs in the area officially labeled public nuisances.
The area within the zone is roughly bordered by South Hickory Street, Interstate 24, Westside Drive and East 37th Street.
Criminal Court Judge Barry Steelman will consider the district attorney’s requests on Monday.
Pinkston believes there is precedent for his request with the Tennessee legislature’s adoption of definitions of “public nuisance” specifically related to gang activity and with the use of nuisance abatement lawsuits in various states as well as gang injunctions in Nashville and Memphis.
The court filing states “traditional law enforcement means” have not stopped activity of the two gangs named in the petition – the Gangster Disciples and the Grape Street Crips – primarily in the safety zone. Further, “members of the general public who live and work within the Safety Zone do not have the freedom to enjoy their homes or public facilities, are “afraid to leave their homes at night” and are afraid to “walk alone to their cars after work at night,” the filing states.
Pinkston told this page the petition, even if approved, will not be a “be-all, end-all” solution to gang activity in the East Lake area.
“Frankly,” he said, “such doesn’t exist. Hopefully, this tool allows [members of] the community to enjoy their community even more.”
While law enforcement has increasingly sophisticated equipment to monitor gang activity – more sophisticated than gang members might imagine – officers can only speculate which individuals might be the next ones involved in a crime.
However, Pinkston’s petition names 31 members of the specific gangs, who, if the court approves, can be arrested if they participate in 11 listed activities, most of which are already illegal, within the safety zone.
For instance, they cannot have guns or dangerous weapons “anywhere in public view or any place accessible to the public,” must stay away from the personal use of illegal drugs and cannot be around them, and must “obey all laws.” But they also cannot possess an open container of alcohol, be in the presence of anyone possessing such or be in the presence of the open container itself, and cannot act “as a lookout, whistling, yelling, making hand signals, using cell phones, or otherwise signaling another person to warn of the approach of the presence of a law enforcement officer.”
If the petition is approved, “if they are a validated gang member with another validated gang member and doing one of the prohibited activities within the safety zone,” Pinkston told this page, ” that’s the main reason they would be arrested.”
The 31 members have options, though. They can defend themselves against their mention in the petition, have counsel defend them or exercise the opt-out provision, which, among other things, requires them to give notice of the desire to be dismissed, state in writing they are no longer a gang member, and declare they have not been arrested, been in the company of one of the two mentioned gangs (other than family) or gotten a gang tattoo – all within two years.
Pinkston said in the past that his office and law enforcement partners were working on various approaches through the state’s gang enforcement statute to make the community safer.
We believe this petition, if approved, can help to decrease the multiple hot spots on the East Lake crime maps to recapture some of that safety.