§ 125.065.Court Order

The order, and its two subsections follow the two kinds of public nuisance.

Where the court finds that a combination, criminal street gang, or foreign terrorist organization constitutes a public nuisance, it may enjoin a defendant from engaging in the gang activities of the organization and impose other reasonable requirements to prevent the organization from engaging in future gang activities.

The injunction runs against a defendant, not against the gang in the abstract. A person must have been made a defendant and be before the court — which is why the suit provision defines who may be named.

What is enjoined is the gang activities of the organization, drawing on the nine categories the definition section lists. So the order can reach trespass, disorderly conduct and graffiti as well as violent offenses.

The second power is the broader one. "Other reasonable requirements to prevent future gang activities" is the language under which the familiar terms of gang injunctions are imposed — restrictions on associating in a defined area, on being present in it at certain hours, and similar conditions.

"Reasonable" is the only stated limit, and it is doing considerable work, since the requirements restrain conduct that is lawful in itself.

Subsection (b) addresses the place. Where the court finds a place habitually used in a manner that constitutes a public nuisance, it may include reasonable requirements to prevent the use of the place for gang activity.

That is narrower by design. An order about premises directs how property is managed — securing it, controlling access, ending a use — rather than restraining people.

Violating either order carries the subchapter’s contempt sentences, and can support a separate damages action.