Suffolk seeks 'safety zone' in Wyandanch

Rondue Keller leaned against the wall outside a Chinese restaurant on Straight Path in Wyandanch one recent afternoon, eating a snack and surrounded by a small orbit of friends from the neighborhood.

These few blocks of Straight Path, south of Long Island Avenue, serve as a sort of town plaza for a community that does not really have one. Nearby, there is a beauty salon, grocery, cellphone store, gas station and takeout restaurants.

Keller, 27, and other men say they come here to talk, eat, hang out and flirt with young women. But if Suffolk County gets its way, these activities could get Keller, or 36 other men it has named, arrested, depending on the company they keep. The county contends the men are members of the Bloods street gang, and their presence a public nuisance.

Hearing scheduled

Acting State Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey Spinner will hear testimony Wednesday on the bid by the county and its police department for an injunction that would bar the men from congregating within a designated area in Wyandanch, with violators facing misdemeanor charges for contempt of court.

The "safety zone" covers roughly a 2-square-mile swath of Straight Path between Nicolls Road and the Southern State Parkway.

According to police, and by his own admission, Keller has been arrested several times for drug possession. But he says he is not a gang member.

"They got me labeled and they're trying to make me stay off this street. I don't even know most of the dudes on that list. I know two," he said.

If the injunction is issued, Suffolk would become the only place in the state to enforce such a law, according to the New York Civil Liberties Union. Similar injunctions have been enforced for years in California, mostly in Los Angeles, to curb gang activity.

"We want people to be able to walk in the streets without fearing for their safety," said County Attorney Christine Malafi. "Each of these gang members are allowed to be on these streets; they just can't hang out together."

The area was chosen because it "is where we repeatedly get inquiries and requests of help from people who are afraid of getting hurt or killed by a stray bullet," she said.

Issue of rights

The NYCLU filed briefs opposing the county's request for an injunction. "This pertains to one of the most basic rights, an individual's freedom of movement," said NYCLU staff attorney Corey Stoughton.

"Even if you believe, which we don't, that this order is constitutional under the circumstances, the bar is set very high," she said. "You have to prove that regular police tactics aren't working."

The county supplied affidavits from officers who detailed their encounters with the defendants. There are affidavits from residents who said they have witnessed gang-related drug deals and shootings within the safety zone and feel threatened by the regular presence of gang members. The residents did not name specific men.

All the men are African-American, and some are younger than 18. Most are from Wyandanch, with some from the nearby communities of West Babylon, North Babylon and Wheatley Heights. Some have denied membership in a gang.

Gatherings banned

The proposed injunction defines congregating as "standing, sitting, walking, driving, gathering or appearing, anywhere in public view or any place accessible to the public" within the safety zone, specifically outlined on a map contained in court papers. Keller and the other men could be in the safety zone individually, just not with one another.

If it is granted, each man named would be served with the injunction papers, and police would have the power at their discretion to arrest him on sight for congregating with anyone else on the list.

"This looks like lazy policing," Stoughton said. "It's easier to arrest someone on sight rather than arrest them for probable cause . . . If a person on Straight Path is committing a crime, the police already have the ability to arrest them."

Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy said crime prevention is the idea. "The police will have this extra tool in hand to disperse the gangs before trouble ensues," Levy said when the county went to court in August.