County Attorney sues gangs, forms “Safety Zone” – Section of East Aldine designated gang free

Starting at the northwest corner of the East Aldine Safety Zone at the intersection of the Vickery Road and Aeropark Drive

EAST ALDINE – Harris County Attorney Vince Ryan is seeking a court order to ban members of the Crips and the Bloods gangs from entering or committing crimes in a north Harris County community.

Ryan is asking a judge for an injunction forbidding 37 members of the Bloods and 17 members of the Crips from being present in the East Aldine Safety Zone.

The East Aldine Safety Zone is 217 acres or about a third of a square mile to the east of Highway 59 and south of Bush Intercontinental Airport. The Safety Zone contains two schools (Francis Elementary and A&W Academic Academy), apartments, restaurants, a residential community, and retail stores.

The map can be viewed at http://www.harriscountytx.gov/cmpdocuments/caoimages/EastAldineSafetyZone.pdf.

“The members of these street gangs regularly engage in criminal activity in this community, putting residents in danger and harming their quality of life,” said Ryan. “This type of injunction is a proven way to remove dangerous criminals from a community.”

Ryan worked with the East Aldine Management District in the preparation of the court petition. He won a similar injunction last year against other members of the Crips and Bloods that banned them from the Brays Oaks Safety Zone in southwest Houston.

The County Attorney’s petition states that the defendants have been regularly engaging in gang activities in this community including weapons offenses, criminal trespass, possession of illegal substances, making terroristic threats and graffiti. The petition asks that the gang members be banned from being physically present in the Safety Zone, as well as forbidding their possession of materials for graffiti and communications devices including cell phones and prohibiting wearing clothing that identifies them as gang members while in the Zone.

The East Aldine Safety Zone includes the Haverstock Apartments. Haverstock had been rife with gang activity before the district attorney obtained a similar court order in 2010 banning gang members from what was called “the most dangerous apartment complex in Harris County.” Living conditions improved dramatically after several gang members were arrested and sent to jail for being at the complex.