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With Chicago s antiloitering law struck down, California is a model for how to fight street gangs

The image was riveting, as justice John Paul Stevens, a Chicago native, presented it. A gang member and his father are hanging out near Wrigley Field. Are they there to rob an unsuspecting fan or just to get a glimpse of Sammy Sosa leaving the ball park? A police officer has no idea, but under Chicago s anti-gang law, the cop must order them to disperse. With Stevens writing for a 6-to-3 majority, the Supreme Court last week struck down Chicago s sweeping statute, which had sparked 42,000 arrests in its three years of enforcement.

The decision was a blow to advocates of get-tough crime policies. But in a widely noted concurring opinion, Justice Sandra Day O Connor suggested that a less draconian approach--distinguishing gang members from innocent bystanders--might pass constitutional muster. New language could target loiterers with no apparent purpose other than to establish control over identifiable areas, to intimidate others from entering those areas or to conceal illegal activities, she wrote. Chicago officials vowed to draft a new measure. We will go back and correct it and then move forward, said Mayor Richard Daley.

Chicago officials, along with the League of Cities and 31 states that sided with them in court, might do well to look at one state where anti-gang loitering prosecutions have withstood constitutional challenges: California. The state has two antiloitering statutes on the books, aimed at people intending to commit specific crimes--prostitution and drug dealing. In addition, a number of local prosecutors are waging war against gangs by an innovative use of the public-nuisance laws.