Tacoma, WA - Nationally, trends in anti-gang laws follow two paths. They come from Chicago and California, the nation's gang strongholds.

In the 1990s, Chicago's legislation targeted “purposeless loitering,” aiming at gangsters who stake out a piece of ground and hang out. The city's early efforts ran aground in federal courts, where judges ruled the laws violated the constitutional right to assemble.

California legislators took a different tack, using public nuisance statutes to hammer gang activity. Nuisance laws can be used to evict gangsters from homes used for criminal activity, or from public areas where gang activity causes a clear disruption.

Tacoma leaders lean toward the California model. During a January meeting of East Side residents, City Councilman Rick Talbert pointed to nuisance ordinances as a key weapon in the city's anti-gang arsenal.

In Washington, state statutes targeting gang-related activity are scarce. One criminal statute creates a penalty for gang intimidation: threatening someone who refuses to join a gang or tries to withdraw from it. Another defines drive-by shooting as a crime.

A budget-based state law provides grants for anti-gang programs in schools. Another school-centered statute allows suspension or expulsion for gang activity. Two laws in the landlord-tenant codes allow tenants to petition for eviction of suspected gangsters, and give landlords the right to evict on that basis.