Thousands of Los Angeles residents who’ve been ensnared in gang life are about to receive millions of dollars in job training programs, and they can thank the late D.C. “mayor for life” Marion Barry for it. First, some background.
The Los Angeles Police Department knew in 2012 that it was illegal to enforce a 10 p.m. curfew on people whom cops presumed were gang members. Police brass told its officers then to stop arresting people for this particular violation after the department was sued over the unconstitutional curfew restriction. Police continued busting alleged gang members for violating the curfew anyway.
This defiance spurred a federal judge last year to instruct jurors to award a financial sum to each of the nearly 6,000 people named in a federal class-action lawsuit against the city—all people whose due process rights were violated under the gang curfew rules. Under the settlement, the plaintiffs will receive a total of as much as $30 million, a sum approved by the Los Angeles city council on Wednesday with the city attorney’s encouragement, the L A. Times reports.
[For more of this story, written by Brentin Mock, go to http://www.citylab.com/work/20...-los-angeles/474300/]
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