§ 125.061.Definitions

Three definitions opening the gang injunction subchapter, and the numerical one is the most useful.

"Continuously or regularly" means at least five times in a period of not more than 12 months.

A statutory definition with a number in it is rare and welcome. The public nuisance provision turns on a group that continuously or regularly associates in gang activities, and without this the phrase would be argued case by case.

"Combination," "criminal street gang," and "foreign terrorist organization" have the meanings assigned by Section 71.01 of the Penal Code, so the subchapter borrows the organized crime chapter’s vocabulary rather than inventing its own.

"Gang activity" covers nine kinds of conduct.

Organized criminal activity; terroristic threat; coercing, inducing, or soliciting membership in a criminal street gang or foreign terrorist organization; criminal trespass; disorderly conduct; criminal mischief causing a pecuniary loss of $500 or more; a graffiti offense; a weapons offense under Chapter 46 of the Penal Code; and unlawful possession of a substance or item under the controlled substances chapter.

The list mixes serious offenses with minor ones on purpose. Trespass, disorderly conduct and graffiti are how a gang holds territory, and a definition confined to violent crime would miss the conduct an injunction is best suited to stop.

Recruitment appears as its own category, which is what distinguishes this from a general public order statute.

Note how the five-times threshold interacts with the list. Five graffiti offenses in a year satisfy it as readily as five assaults.