LA HABRA 13

Lista..

(W'S) CAMPO 
(Campo Colorado, Campo Verde, Campo Corona)

VARRIO W'S LA HABRA 
(Campo Alta Vista, Florence Court)

ALL WEST COAST

(E'S) MONOS

VARRIO E'S LA HABRA

(E'S) WARD STREET

LA NARANJA

Lista..

ORANGE VARRIO Lista..

ORANGE VARRIO CYPRESS

ORANGE VARRIO LEMON 

BARRIO VIEJO ORANGE
OLD TOWN KLIKA / KRIMINALS

ORANGE KRAZY MALDITOS
(ONLY KRAZY MEXICANS)

THE CITY VANDALS

STAYIN' UP KLIKA

BROWNS TOWN

VARRIO MODENA

CALLE PEARL

WICKED HOODLUM LOKOTES

EVIL SIDE LOCOS

EAST SIDE RASCALS

ORANGE COUNTY CRIMINALS

Nota: BARRIO CYPRESS CROOKS is a whole 'nother VARRIO not affiliated with OVC

COSTA MESA VARRIOS

COSTA MESA, OxC
A.k.a. "COSTA MEXICO"

LTR LITTLE TOWN RIFA

CSL CALLE SHALIMAR

ECM EASTSIDE COSTA MESA

FLC FEARLESS CROWD

VFK FORMING KAOS

APG AZTEC PRIDE

EAST SIDE 19 STREET

FMR FAMILY MOB

GARDEN GROVE VARRIOS

BUENA CLINTON HARD TIMES

PALMA VISTA STREET

NUEVE TRES 93 LOCOS

CRIMINAL TOWN

COLONIA MANZANILLO SAN JUAN ST

EAST SIDE GANGSTER GROVE

WEST SIDE GHETTO GROVE

LOCO MEXICAN STYLE

EVIL WAYS 13

STREET FAMILY

BASTARD FAMILY

DOWN CROWD

ORGANIZED CRIME SUICIDALS

LAGUNA STREET RIFA

TOO FUCKIN' SICK

WICKED MINDS

GxG WS 18 STREET

GxG PLAYBOYS

SPORTS & VARRIO RIVALRY

During the 1930s and 1940s community-based baseball clubs sprung up in many Southern Califas Barrios and Colonias, introducing Chicano youngsters to America’s national pastime at a time when Mexican-American sports heroes were few and far apart. But unlike the baseball clubs sponsored by employers and Anglo social reformers who sought to use baseball clubs to Americanize and socially control the Mexican population, the Barrio baseball clubs turned things around, and in the face of racial discrimination and limited opportunities that afflicted the Mexican-American population in the agricultural-industrial cities and towns, baseball took on a symbolic and real social significance. Chicanos used baseball to proclaim their equality through athletic competition, without fear of reprisal, and to publicly demonstrate community solidarity and strength. Mexican-American peloteros took to the diamond fields every weekend afternoon to play independent sandlot. Barrio baseball teams would travel to other Barrios and play other Barrio teams. Just about every large Raza Barrio had a baseball team. These Barrios adopted names for themselves and they played on dirt fields. They played on fields adjacent to rail road tracks, on factory yards, on empty open tracts of land or wherever they could find room to play ball. In Orange County, the Barrios from San ‘Tana, Plasencia, Anaheim, La Habra, Westminster and Stanton would meet regularly. Sometimes even far away teams from Corona, Temecula or Carlos Malo (Carlsbad) would come down to play the local teams from La Naranja.

Mexican-Americans used baseball clubs to promote ethnic consciousness, build community solidarity, display masculine behavior, and sharpen their organizing and leadership skills. In this regard, Chicanos transformed baseball clubs into a political forum to launch wider forms of collective action. But the youngsters, the peewee generations of players from the different Barrios, turned the diamond field brawls and rumbles into long lasting rivalries that eventually turned deadly when they substituted gloves and balls with guns and bullets.

A Classic example would be the rivalry between La Colonia and Big Stanton..


A group of Homies in Barrio La Colonia Independencia sought refuge from the afternoon heat in the shade of a Garza Avenue porch in Anaheim. “You talk to those vatos in Stanton, they act all bad, but they’re all talk.” Said one of the vatos who had VLCR—an acronym for Varrio La Colonia Rifa—etched on his knuckles.

A mile west on Katella Avenue on a Rose Street porch, a similar group of youths who call themselves Big Stanton echoed their rivals from VLCR. “La Colonia think they're bad, but they only know how to flash guns,” a vato from Big Stanton said.

Since the 1930s, the Varrio Homeboys of La Colonia and Big Stanton have been trying to outdo one another. The rivalry was forged on baseball fields, moved to fashionable cars and clothes, and for the past decades has focused on drugs, guns and killings. And despite all the grieving, and all the efforts of Barrio residents, police and community programs, no one has been able to answer the question. When will it all end?

Those growing up in La Colonia and Big Stanton today have more in common —their Mexican heritage, previous generations who labored together in the fields of Orange County and a common lifestyle— than most other young people growing up in Orange County neighborhoods.

But instead of sparking kinship and camaraderie, those similarities have fueled bitter fighting and bloodshed.

How do you take a youngster and tell him to not do what his older peers, their uncles and cousins have committed?

How do you tell them to stop the gang violence?

“It’s almost impossible!”

“Two households, both alike in dignity, from an ancient grudge break to a new mutiny, where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.”

BARRIOS, COLONIAS & CAMPOS

IN SEARCH OF ORANGE COUNTY'S
HISTORIC MEXICAN NEIGHBORHOODS

Mexican urban Barrios and Colonias in the early 1900s often formed around a particular place of work where property values were low, or where lots had been subdivided again and again for the profit of a land speculator, whereas outside the city limits, employers and packing houses often supplied company housing in an effort to promote a stable workforce. In the greater area of La Naranja (Orange County), many early century Colonias and Barrios were established as citrus camps, where workers were tied to a single employer or packing plant. Residential patterns ranged from company built housing areas, to communities in which workers laid out the street, built their own homes, developed small businesses, and as was also done in Santa Ana’s Barrios, engaged in the domestic production of clothing and vegetables. By the 1950s, there were some 40 Mexican neighborhoods spread across all of Orange County. Some of these old neighborhoods you can still find, but it’s too late for finding others because they have been done away with by gentrification.

Gentrification projects intended to drive out Mexicans from Orange County are nothing new. In the 1930s, immigration officials deported entire camps in La Habra and Fullerton. During the 1950s, Anaheim officials bulldozed the La Conga Barrio near Glover Stadium to clear space for parking lots. Barrio after Barrio have fallen victim for one gentrification project or another over the last century. And the sinister planning continues to take place even to this day. From San Juan Capistrano to Fullerton, among swap meets and factories and all along the railroad tracks, luxury condos, apartments, homes and other pricey developments are metastasizing in or near neighborhoods and commerce centers that Mexicans have populated since the days when orange groves outnumbered people.

The coming loss of community in these Barrios might not be as dramatic as what happened during the massive Mexican deportations executed by county and federal agents during the Great Depression and the 1950s. But gentrification ultimately proves more insidious and more successful in getting us Brown Raza out. So take a cruise through those remaining Barrios, check out their people and their streets and enjoy their history before yuppie filth ruin them as they did Echo Park.

You and I both know, that there is something very special about those scatterd places were our familas, our kinfolks, and our old neighbors grew up, were we grew up. Something so special that it makes us say with fondness and pride, that we are from Santa Nita, from La Colonia Independencia, from La Jolla, from Los Coyotes or from this or that Olden Barrio or Colonia. Because in spite of the poverty of the places, the richness is in the heritage, in the close-knit nature of the people who live there sharing joys and the tragedies which life has to offer.

What remains of many of those that have disappeared under a never-ending OC developing project are the stories and photographs, intact in the hearts and minds of those viejos who lived the tiempos.

Here's a list of some of those old Mexican neighborhoods.

BARRIO PILAR ARTESIA (WEST SIDE SAN'TANA)
BARRIO LOGAN (EAST SIDE SAN'TANA)
BARRIO DELHI (SOUTH SIDE SAN'TANA)
BARRIO SANTA NITA (WEST SAN'TANA)
COLONIA JUAREZ (FOUNTAIN VALLEY)
COLONIA INDEPENDENCIA - LA COLONIA (ANAHEIM)
COLONIA MANZANILLO (GARDEN GROVE)
COLONIA LA PAZ (GARDEN GROVE)
EL CARGADERO (EAST SIDE SAN'TANA)
LITTLE HOLLYWOOD - LOS RIOS (SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO)
LA CONGA (ANAHEIM)
LA FABRICA (ANAHEIM)
LA JOLLA (PLACENTIA)
LA PALOMA (PLACENTIA)
LA PALMA (ANAHEIM)
COLONIA ALTA VISTA (LA HABRA)
CAMPO VERDE (LA HABRA)
CAMPO CORONA (LA HABRA)
CAMPO COLORADO (LA HABRA)
TRAVELERS CITY (ANAHEIM)
PENGUIN CITY - LITTLE PEOPLE'S PARK (ANAHEIM)
BARRIO TIJUANITA - LITTLE TIJUANA (ANAHEIM)
PLACITA SANTA FE (DOWNTOWN PLACENTIA)
LA PHILADELPHIA (DOWNTOWN ANAHEIM)
BARRIO CYPRESS (ORANGE)
LOS COYOTES (BUENA PARK)
CROW VILLAGE - STANTON VILLAGE(STANTON)
ATWOOD (PLACENTIA)
EL MODENA (PLACENTIA)
LA ESPERANZA (PLACENTIA)
LA BOLSA (HUNTINGTON BEACH)
LA MANZANITA (ANAHEIM)

Maybe some of you know exactly where they are located. maybe some of you still live there. Maybe you have something to say or add with respects for your sacred grounds.

COLONIA JUAREZ

"COLONIA JUAREZ"
A.k.a. The Swamp

Since the 1930s, after the Mexican Revolution
Hence the name for the Barrio 7 original calles

INDEPENDENCIA
JUAREZ
CINCO DE MAYO
ZAPATA
MADERO
VILLA
ZARAGOSA

The place is on the map termed this day and age as The Colony, a mis-translation into the English dictionary.. COLONIA being translated as COLONY which has way different meanings in the two languages.

In current maps, you can find the place just south of the Mile Square Golf Course, with the cross streets being Warner Avenue and Ward Street.

The modern day Colonia Juarez varrio as we tend to associate gangs with, started in the 1960s with the CHEVELLES Car Club., then later they became the CJ DEMONS, and once they got started having trouble in the gang sense, it was with the close-by Huntington Beach Clovers and MoTowns.

Colonia Juarez ever since has remained small and tight, and their representation became mostly defunct by the 1980s, but even so, they're still around.

COLONIA JUAREZ DEMONS

"EL PANTANO BARRIO"

SANTA ANA VARRIOS

SANTA ANA VARRIOS List

LMST LIL’ MINNIE STREET MTS MENACE TO SOCIETY
21ST TWENTY-FIRST STREET LS ASSASSINS
THIRD STREET LS THUGS
SECOND STREET SHARK SIDE
C7R CALLE 7 RIFA LS DEMONS
C6R CALLE 6 RIFA
D’SN SANTA NITA LS DRAMATICS
FSR FIFTH STREET DIABLOS
SAR SILVER ACRES LS DUKES
17 ST ROAD KINGS
MS13 MIDDLE SIDE LS CHICOS
LCSA LOS CROOKS SANTA ANA BOMB SQUAD
MCST McCLAY STREET LS MAGICS
LCR LOS COMPADRES UNITED BROWNS
SLV SULLIVAN LS VAGOS
LBR LIL BROOK RIFA
CF CALLE FLORES
CHR CALLE HIGHLAND LS SOLDIERS
BSP BISHOP STREET LS EVIL ONES
LSM LOS MENACES FAMILIA AUK + BNP
DSR DARK SIDE LS TINY ASSASSINS
LGN LOGAN LS DOMINOES
DT DOG TOWN PERROS
UBC UNITED BROWN CHICANOS LS CARTELS
D13 DELHI LS ACES
CGR CALLE GRANT RIFA
WCM WEST CALLE MYRTLE DEAD ENDS
CMLS CENTRO MYRTLE LOCOS
ESSA EAST SIDE SANTA ANA LS REBELS
BSR BROWN SIDE LS HUSTLERS
GWR GOLDEN WEST LS STONERS
CWR CALLE WALNUT/WEST SIDE WALNUT LS MALDITOS
CTR CALLE TOWNSEND LS SICK MINDED
BSSR BARRIO SOUTH SIDE RIFA LS 187 grim REAPERS
KPC KRAZY PROUD CRIMINALS LS MALOS
ABR13 ALLEY BOYS RIFA BROWN CROWD / CRIMINALS SIDE
WSSA WEST SIDE SANTA ANA LS TRAVIESOS
LST LYONS STRTEET LS LAST SIDERS
BSTA SMALL TOWN SANTA ANA LS BANDITS
SCM SYCAMORE STREET
SHR SICKLY HEADED LS SICKEST
NSK NON STOP KILLING LS NECIOS
OTH ON THE BLAST LS HOODLUMS
LPR LOS PRIMOS LS KABRONES
CLS CRAZY LITTLE STONERS
EVERGREEN LOKOTES
POPULAR BOYS
TPV THE PUBLIC VANDALS
LTB LATINO BOYS
EDNA PARK BOYS
LH LIL HOOD
W1S WICKED ONES LS VILLAINS
LOPERS ~ SEVERAL STREET CLIQUES ALL SPREAD OUT ON THE E’S
FxTROOP BARRIO ARTESIA MALDITOS originals ~
FTR SEVERAL CLIQUES AND MANY OFFSHOTS

^ ^ that's over fifty right there
the Santa Ana P.D. claims over 60 gangs in Santa Ana

HARD TIMES AND SAN JUAN DON'T COUNT.,
'CAUSE THEY'RE GANGSTER GROVE, NOT SANTA ANA

ANAKRIME KROOKS

V'SSK'R 13'LSB

OxC KROOKS BASED IN ANAHEIM
VARRIO SOUTH SIDE KROOKS WERE ORIGINALLY PART OF THE "SICK OF SOCIETY KINGS" TAGGING CREW FROM OxC WHICH WAS PART OF THE LARGER SSK CREW WHICH OPERATED IN BOTH L.A. & ORANGE COUNTIES.

SEVERAL BRANCHES OF SSK EXISTED IN DIFFERENT AREAS. WHEN THEY GOT TO MOBBIN AND TAG'BANGING SEVERAL DIFFERENT VERSIONS WERE DERIVED OUT OF THEIR SSK INITIALS..

SOME SICK KINGS
SUI'SIDAL KINGS
SOUTH SIDE KINGS
SOUTH SIDE KRIMINALS
SEVENTEEN STREET KROOKS
AND SOUTH SIDE KROOKS

THE ORIGINAL BIRTHGROUNDS WERE IN THE L.A. PICO UNION BONNIE BREA CALLE

SSK USED TO GO EVERYWHERE ON MISSIONS, AND MEMBERS OF THE KINGS KICKED IT IN ALL SOxCAL COUNTIES. EVENTUALLY, THE GREATER SSK KREW BROKE DOWN INTO SMALLER MORE LOCALIZED KREWS. AND THEN SOME TURNED INTO THEIR OWN CLIQUES-TURNED-VARRIO. THE ONES IN BONNIE BREA BECAME THE BONNIE BREA WINOS AND MALDITOS CLIQUES. THE SSK IN OxC TURNED SOUTH SIDE KROOKS LOS BAGOS CLIQUE AFTER THEY MERGED WITH THE CAMBRIDGE AVE (CAVE BROWN GANG) FROM ANAKRIME, AND CAMBRIDGE AVENUE BECAME SSK NEIGHBORHOOD!

SEVERAL OTHER CLIQUES HAVE SPRUNG OUT AND HAVE THEIR ROOTS WITH THE ORIGINAL SSK AND THEY EITHER HAVE SETTLED DOWN IN A PLACE TO BECOME THEIR OWN, OR HAVE INCORPORATED INTO OTHER VARRIOS FROM THE SOUTHERN UNITED RAZA CAMP.. SOME OF THEIR BEEFS FROM THEIR TAG'BANGER DAYS HAVE CARRIED OVER, AND SOME PRIOR ENEMIGAS KREWS HAVE ALSO TURNED VARRIO, LIKE THE EK., EVIL KINGS/EVIL KIDS WHO NOW GO BY EVIL KLAN. SO HAVING STARTED OUT AS A TAG KREW RIVALRY, THEY CONTINUED ON TO BE RIVALS ON SUR KALLES!

..

THE STORY OF THE ANAHEIM REAL DEAL "KROOKS"

ANAHEIM VARRIO KROOKS 13 CAVE LSB

SOUTH SIDE KROOKS CAMBRIDGE AVENUE LOS BAGOS

SSK WAS ORGINALLY THE SICK OF SOCIETY TAGGER CREW FROM L.A. COUNTY. BUT THEN SSK STARTED GETTING UP EVERYWHERE AND THEN SSK STARTED GETTING INTO THE SAME KIND OF TAGBANGERS PROBLEMS OF THE TIMES, AND THEN THEY REALLY TURNED IT UP AND STARTED MOBBING HARD. THEY HAD MAD PLEITO WITH ANOTHER TAGBANGER KREW OF THE TIMES KNOWN AS THE EVIL KINGS WHICH LATER BECAME THE EVIL KIDS IN OXC AND EVIL KLAN IN L.A.

THE ORIGINAL SOUTH SIDE KINGS HOOD WAS SET UP ON L.A’s. WEST SIDE ON BONNIE BREA WITH THE WINOES AND MALDITOS CLIKAS. ANOTHER SSK KLIK THAT SET UP AND ATTAINED NOTORIETY WAS THE SEVENTEEN STREET KRIMINALS.

IN ORANGE COUNTY THE SSK KICKED IT AT CAMBRIDGE AVENUE IN ANAKRIME TOGETHER WITH THOSE THAT WERE KNOWN BACK THEN AS THE CAVE BROWNS GANG, WHICH WAS MADE UP OF JOCKS AND KIDS THAN WENT TO ANAKRIME & KATELLA HIGH SCHOOLS. THAT WAS BACK IN 1987 WHEN CAVE STARTED OUT AT THE SAME TIME THAT OTHERS LIKE KROGGER, PAULINE, WATER STREET AND THE OPTIONAL BOYZ WERE HAPPENING. DURING THOSE TIMES THE AVLS, WSA & PENGUINS WOULD HANG OUT WITH THE CAVE GANG. SOME OFF-AND-ON BEEFS WOULD OCCUR, BUT THAT WAS JUST THE NATURAL ORDER OF THINGS ON THE KALLE. BUT THEN SERIOUS PEDOS STARTED HAPPENING, AND THEN PLEITO WITH UNDERHILL CAME NEXT. SOME SSK WERE FORCED TO MOVE OUT, AND THEN LATER ONE OF THEIR ORANGE KOUNTY FOUNDERS WAS KILLED IN A CAR ACCIDENT. THIS WEIGHED HEAVY ON THE YOUNG KROOKS, BUT THEN NEW KROOK HEADS ROSE UP AND THEY BEGAN TO GET HARDER AND GREW DEEPER. SSK AND CAVE DECIDED TO CLIQUE UP AND THIS IS WHEN SOUTH SIDE KROOKS CAMBRIDGE AVENUE LOS BAGOS WAS KREATED. KAMBRIDGE AVENUE REMAINED THE NEIGHBORHOOD AND SSK GREW INTO A WEB OF HOMIES AND THE LOS BAGOS KLIKA CAME TO DOMINATE THE SCENE IN THE CITY OF KRIME.

LOPERS

LOCOS PARA SIEMPRE

~" L P S "~
ELE PE ESE
LATIN PRIDE SOLDIERS 
SINCE THE 1970s
1978 TO BE EXACT
BORN AT MADISON PARK, A.k.a. MAD PARK
IN THE BIG BAD CITY OF SANTA ANA

FROM THE MADISON PARK, AND
EASTSIDE NEIGHBORHOOD OF SANTA ANA

W ~> MAIN STREET
E ~> MINNIE STREET
N ~> FIRST STREET
S ~> EDINGER AVENUE

"CV" CALLE CINCO LOS BAD BOYS (CHICOS MALOS)
BIG MINNIE STREET LOS CRIMINALES
CHESTNUT STREET PLAYERS (LOS JUGADORES)
PINE STREET LOS PINEROS
MADISON PARK MAD PARK ORIGINALS
"CII" CALLE SEGUNDA LOS CASINOS
WEST SIDE TOWNER STREET (1980s)

ALSO HOLDING DOWN IN THE CALLES
THIRD, FOURTH, CEDAR, WALNUT & CYPRESS

L O P E R S
THE ANTELOPE CLAN

THE NAME COMES FROM A PERSONALIZED LICENSE PLATE FOUND BY THE OG HOMIES ONE DAY PARTYING AT THE BEACH, THEY WERE COOL WITH IT & RAN WITH IT, SO THAT’S HOW THE NAME WAS STARTED. LOPERS BLEW UP AND TOOK OVER MANY OF SANTA ANA’s SPOTS.

LOPERS IS REPRESENTED BY THE ANTELOPE, THE GRACEFUL AND SWIFT, FREELY-ROAMING “ANTLER”
THE SWIFT-REBEL WITH HORNS. THE LOPERS FAMILY ARE AMONG THE MOST PROLIFIC GANGS OF SANTA ANA, AND EVEN THO’ THEIR HISTORY IS BUT A MERE 4 DECADES OLD; MUCH YOUNGER THAN SOME OF THEIR RIVALS LIKE FxTROOP, LOGAN, DELHI & SANTA NITA FROM THE 1940s; LOPERS HAVE PUT UP A HARD FIGHT AND BATTLED TO BUILD A SOLID VARRIO, AND CLAIM A LARGE CHUNK OF SANTA ANA.

THE LOPERS RULE THEIR STREET ZONES. LOPERS HOMEBOYS ARE BATTLE TESTED AND HARDENED SOLDIERS OF THE STREETS. CONSTANT PLEITOS AND BROKEN LIVES DUE TO DRUGS AND SHIT HAVE ALWAYS CUT INTO THEIR NUMBERS, TAKING A TOLL ON THEIR RANKS, BUT EVEN STILL, THE LOPERS CLAN "THE QUOHADI KLAN" THE ANTELOPE CLAN, SURVIVES!

LIKE SHADOWS UNDER THE MOONLIGHT, LOPERS ARE ALWAYS AROUND

THE “ANTLER” IS THE SYMBOL OF THEIR REBEL LIFE!

JEFFREY STREET

Also Known as..
VARRIO TIJUANITA

A'JST
C x J
CALLE JEFFREY LOCOTES
= LOS RASCALS =

N ~ Cerritos Avenue
W ~ 9TH Street
E ~ Walnut Street
S ~ Calle de las Estrellas
The neighborhood is all apartment buildings in a quiet neighborhood. It is just east of Loara High School in Anaheim, and sits on the back side of Disneyland.

Published: Oct. 9, 2010

Anaheim residents have a party to celebrate an injunction against the Jeffrey Street gang.

ANAHEIM – The gang is called Jeffrey Street, but there no longer is a street by that name.

The neighborhood the gang claims, once known as Jeffrey-Lynne, is now called Hermosa Village.

On Saturday, neighborhood residents were treated to hot dogs and hamburgers to celebrate a recent court injunction against the gang. The party at Energy Field was hosted by the Anaheim Police Department and the Orange County District Attorney's Office.

Once one of Anaheim's most blighted, high-crime neighborhoods, Jeffrey-Lynne was transformed into Hermosa Village starting about 10 years ago as the city bought and renovated many of its two-story apartment buildings.

"It's way better than before," said Ariana Gutierrez, 15, a Loara High student who has lived in the neighborhood since she was 2. "It doesn't look so ugly."

Crime began to drop when the city did the renovations, Police Sgt. Juan Reveles said. Many of the gang members have moved out, he said. However, they still gravitate toward the neighborhood because it's where they feel safe, he said. Elsewhere, they're either in "no-man's land" or in an enemy gang's territory, he said.

After the renovations, Jeffrey Street was renamed Calle del Sol. When it was removed, the Jeffrey Street sign had a couple of bullet holes in it, Reveles said.

The injunction, served on 60 of the gang's most active members in July, gives the police an additional tool to use against the gang. It forbids two or more gang members to congregate inside a 1.59-square-mile "safety zone" bounded by Katella Avenue to the south, Nutwood Street to the west, Ball Road to the north and Disneyland Drive to the east.

Also forbidden are wearing gang clothing and throwing hand signs. Gang members subject to the injunction can be arrested and prosecuted for these activities, which would otherwise be legal. In the first two months of the injunction, there were nine such violations, but none in the third month, Reveles said.

It's the second gang injunction in Anaheim and the eighth in Orange County. Others are in Santa Ana, Orange, Garden Grove, San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano.

The ban on congregating keeps members from "posting up," or hanging out in public to attract members of rival gangs who might be looking for a fight, Reveles said. "Posting up" creates danger for gang members and non-members alike.

"What the lay person doesn't understand is that these people are willing to die for the neighborhood," he said.

Rogelio Franco, 35, used to live in Jeffrey-Lynne in the mid-1990s. He moved back a year ago to what is now Hermosa Village.

"There were a lot of gangs back in those years," he said. "Now it's different. It's like a new place."

Violent crime in the neighborhood is down 33 percent since the injunction was served, said Susan Eckermann, a deputy district attorney who prepared the injunction.