Yakima Mall Backs Off Policy Aimed At Gangs Clothing Styles, Colors, No Longer A Guide, But Other Rules Remain In Effect

After just three days, the Yakima Mall has dropped its new policy of using clothing styles and colors to decide which teens to allow into the mall.

On Friday, mall Manager Guy Shinn said the policy banning some youths without their parents would stay in effect until school let out. The American Civil Liberties Union complained the policy violated basic civil rights.

On Monday, Shinn said the policy was only supposed to be a “one-day, gettough policy” and would no longer be enforced, although hired guards will continue tracking teenagers at the mall.

Shinn said the possibility of legal action never worried him.

“I’m sure we stepped on some toes Friday,” he said. “But we were concerned more with the safety of people in the mall.”

Mall security officials said they turned away more than 200 youths on Friday, the day after a nearby shooting involving suspected gang members. Nobody was injured in the shooting.

Security guards and off-duty police at entrances said they were looking for youths ages 12 to 18 coming in groups of three or more, making noise or wearing what they considered to be gang-related colors and clothing.

Shinn said security staff will use the mall’s 5-year-old rules of conduct to determine whether teens should be asked to leave or even banned from the concourse.

The rules prohibit 18 activities, including loitering, using obscene language, taking pictures, running, carrying a weapon and traveling in a group of three or more that would be considered “threatening.”

“If tighter security doesn’t work, we’ll just have to look at something else,” Shinn said.

For now, the effort appears to focus on non-shoppers who display gang-related clothing and behavior that intimidates others.

“If anybody’s not shopping, they have to move out,” said a Yakima police officer who asked that his name not be used.

But some teens said they felt unfairly singled out.

“We were just kicking back, sitting down, minding our own business,” said Juan “Johnny” Saldana, a 17-year-old with a tear painted near one eye.

“There’s other people (doing the same thing). They don’t chase them out.”

The officer escorted Saldana and four others through the mall’s south plaza where one youth disobeyed the officer’s order to not come back. That youth was arrested for trespassing. A short time later, after other police officers arrived to assist, a second teen was arrested.