Rage at the machine: California’s gang suppression policies

Aaron Harvey was living outside Las Vegas in 2014 when California authorities swept in and arrested him for conspiracy in a series of gang murders that had occurred in his absence.

They knew Harvey wasn’t in California when the bullets flew. They knew his finger wasn’t on the trigger. But he was from a neighborhood with gangs, and was friendly with suspected gang members, and had social media posts of same. Thus, unbeknownst to him, Harvey was listed and tracked in the state’s CalGang database.