I have been following the allegations against the De Anza baseball team closely, and in light of Santa Clara County District Attorney Dolores Carr dropping the charges, I think that there are a lot of bad people getting off easy because of some technicalities. I know it’s the law, but I find it unsettling that the members of the team that were involved will just walk away from this no worse for wear.
I understand that the reason the charges were dropped had a lot to do with the fact that so many of the main players in the case were too intoxicated to give their story, and too many facts were hazy or seemed to contradict each other so that there wouldn’t be a strong enough case against the accused.
However, I know a few things. I was at crazy parties in college. Anyone who had fun in college can remember (or not remember) times when they had too much to drink, their judgment was lowered, and maybe made some decisions under the influence that they wouldn’t normally make. You are young, you barely know what your own tolerance is, and you are testing it out while doing shots and keg stands and no one was sitting down having three square meals a day to make sure they didn’t drink too much on an empty stomach. Let’s just say that many of us put ourselves in situations where we could have easily been taken advantage of. Nonetheless, there is a real difference between college guys who drink too much and just want to have a good time, and those that would actually entertain the thought of taking advantage of a girl who was unconscious.
There is something very wrong with a group of guys where not a single one of them had an inner voice that said, “This is not right,” or at least be able to stop something that we all know is sick and wrong, like the three soccer players who helped the victim did. Though maybe they are all not guilty of rape, the fact that not one guy had the courage to stand up for someone who couldn’t stand up for herself makes them just as guilty. It’s appalling to me that not one of the boys was willing to risk what their peers thought of them to make the right decision.
They may not be guilty beyond a reasonable doubt according to law, and it may not be a shoe-in win for the D.A., but something is terribly wrong with the morals of the boys who were involved. Maybe that doesn’t mean they should be prosecuted on rape charges, but they shouldn’t be able to walk away from this without facing the music. When something inside of them didn’t allow them to help a girl that was incapacitated, who knows what they are really capable of. Perhaps the D.A. shouldn’t think about politics and public relations and make a larger statement here about how we won’t tolerate bystanders in these situations. We need to nip this mob mentality in the bud, and if these boys from De Anza are the example, it would be just fine with me.
Alcohol and sex make a murky mix.
In high school I became fast friends with a girl from Presentation. Shortly after our friendship dissolved, someone told me she “took on” a group of guys at a party. One of the boys involved was normally shy and sweet – I could not fathom his participation, and word went around that he said “she taught him all he knew.” Much later he announced he was gay.
It wasn’t called a rape. She was considered a nympho. But maybe she wasn’t the only person raped that night.
We don’t have all the facts in the DeAnza case. Where were the victim’s friends? Who escorted her to the party?
The girls who came to her rescue did not know her – was anybody there for her in case she got into trouble?
Don’t get me wrong. What happened in the DeAnza case was deplorable and churned my stomach. But rest assured, justice system or not, those involved will have to live with their actions, or inaction, for the rest of their lives.
Single Gal: “I think that there are a lot of bad people getting off easy because of some technicalities.”
—C’mon, SG, you know this is nothing unusual. More bad people get away with things than get caught; it’s the way things work here. Take comfort in this: if those baseball players did the horrible things of which they were suspected, the odds are overwhelming that the judicial system will eventually get another chance at them.
Single Gal: “… can remember (or not remember) times when they had too much to drink, their judgment was lowered, and maybe made some decisions under the influence that they wouldn’t normally make. You are young, you barely know what your own tolerance is, and you are testing it out while doing shots and keg stands and no one was sitting down having three square meals a day to make sure they didn’t drink too much on an empty stomach.”
—What you describe is something to which many, if not most people of your generation understand. To your generation such experiences are seen as rites of passage, activities constructed upon a great many carefree assumptions that are, upon closer examination, naive and immature. In truth, the lowered judgement and poor decision making you cite are the key components in alcohol poisoning deaths, drunk driving fatalities, homicides, and a host of other real life tragedies that affect young people. Fate, the real party animal in these drunken episodes, makes no distinctions about evil or innocence or youth or intentions.
Single Gal: “… there is a real difference between college guys who drink too much and just want to have a good time, and those that would actually entertain the thought of taking advantage of a girl who was unconscious.”
—Here you are as on the mark as much as you are off it. True, there is a real difference between such guys: it’s a matter of class, character, upbringing. But here’s the bad news: there’s no surefire way to assess the difference absent the stimulus. Until a young man is actually exposed to such a situation there is no way for anyone, save maybe himself, to accurately predict how he would respond. In a culture where otherwise normal men sexually molest the most vulnerable of children, only a resolute fool could possibly assume it safe for a young woman to drink herself into unconsciousness (accepting an assumption that has not been proven) in an environment crowded with intoxicated young men.
Single Gal: “There is something very wrong with a group of guys where not a single one of them had an inner voice that said, “This is not right,” or at least be able to stop something that we all know is sick and wrong…”
—Right you are, but consider this: a skilled defense attorney might put that commonly-held assumption to work for his defendant as proof that the assumption made by the female soccer players—that the young women was an unconscious victim—was wrong. That there was no protest because the young girl was a willing participant who, coincidentally, passed-out from exhaustion just as her rescuers entered the room. Imagine the effect of this argument after viewing a parade of character witnesses for the accused, each and every one describing the boys as decent, respectful, and kind to little animals.
Single Gal: “Maybe that doesn’t mean they should be prosecuted on rape charges, but they shouldn’t be able to walk away from this without facing the music.”
—In truth, even those who did nothing wrong (an assumption) have been facing the music for some time now. Imagine having your future hinge upon the conflicting recollections, observations, and assumptions of a bunch of drunk kids? Remember the Duke case. Take notice of the lynch mob mentality even here in Tolerance Valley, where we are as fixated on the sex of the victim as the old Klansmen used to be about the race of the suspect. Imagine yourself wondering whether a Civil Rights prosecution is in the works, or a civil suit, or just the lingering stink of being connected with this case.
Single Gal: “Perhaps the D.A. shouldn’t think about politics and public relations and make a larger statement here about how we won’t tolerate bystanders in these situations.”
—The DA did make a statement, that being an absolute commitment to justice. You cannot accuse bystanders until you can prove that a crime did occur, something that Delores Carr has already made clear is impossible. If you really want to make sure cases like this are prosecuted in the future, then I suggest you elect a man as the DA, because no male DA would ever have had the political courage to issue a turndown on this case.
Single Gal: “We need to nip this mob mentality in the bud, and if these boys from De Anza are the example, it would be just fine with me.”
—Take a deep breath and remember your history. When a state punishes the guilty, the message is law and order; when it punishes absent guilt, the message is tyranny.
I wasn’t there so I’m not speaking with any amount of certainty on the matter, but what makes you so sure of what happened if even a bloodthirsty DA won’t pursue the case? Was the Duke lacrosse incident a thousand years ago?
Unless someone was actually present at the party, all they know about this case is what they have read in the Mercury News. Since the Mercury News goes out of their way to make the “news” fit their opinion, I would be surprised if the actual event was as described in the paper.
Now that both Scott Herold and Sue Hutchinson are running their mouth about this case, we need to be very suspicious of the “facts” as reported by the Mercury.
Apparently, the D.A feels the same way.
Single Gal,
Great column. The young girl who survived this horrific experience has much to be grateful for because she’s alive. Most in this type of situation aren’t that lucky. My heart goes out to her and her family, but I know that justice doesn’t just come in the form of a conviction in a court of law. In the end at the end of the day, these guys will pay for what they did. Karma mandates balance so what goes around comes around.
What will truly be sad is if young men and women don’t learn from this. If they continue to drink themselves blind deaf and dumb; and continue with the attitude that jocks are allowed to conduct themselves like they’re above the law, this will continue to happen over and over again. In fact, I’m sure it does already it just isn’t publicized.
In my opinion, our society is increasingly becoming too permissive, driven by the media, and morally bankrupt. Our youth doesn’t have great role models to pattern themselves after. Unless of course you count Coby Bryant of the Lakers, boxer Mike Tyson, and the ever famous Barry Bonds. I can see the Kennedy’s, Martin Luther King, and Gandhi turning over in their graves now.
Gandhi was cremated… but, point well taken…
oh, and, there are no two ways about it. The Santa Clara County DA’s office is a very aggressive prosecutor’s office. I don’t know all of the details, but if they felt they could get a conviction, they would have pursued the case…. regardless, the manner in which we all teach our youth (how much time do you take out to reach out or mentor the youth in our community…. think amongst yourselves) is relevant as to why these incidents occur, as much as the entertainment role models who are ubiquitous in our society.
Dear Single Gal:
You’re right. These guys (don’t call them “boys”) should have to “face the music.” There’s always the chance that one of them will grow a spine or a heart, step up, and tell the truth.
In the meantime, kick them all out of school and drop the baseball program for at least one year. (Not fair to the other guys on the team, but the lesson learned would be that with privilege, comes responsibility, and the fact is, those losers did harm to the reputation of the school and their fellow teammates).
Finally, how amazing were/are the two or three girls who stepped up and rescued her! Champions.
Pete Campbell
As the father of 5 wonderful daughters, I can only contest how this Rape occurred and was discharged. There are far to many questions in my mind that will not cease to be asked, until some one owns up to what occurred to that poor girl at DeAnza.
Whose home was it? Who allowed this hieneous act. Where is that one guy that saw and is not telling. And why.
When only a boy in first grade, at Almaden School, I passed a circle of guys all yelling and seeming to enjoy what was occurring. They were yelling DELANO, DELANO. I feel now as I did then, POWERLESS, to help that rape victim. All of you that are feeling powerless to act can choose to live that way. I choose to avenge that girl by speaking out against those that would rape any part of our Village.
So who ever you were so many years ago, your pain of abuse has been welded against those cowards that did nothing and could have! Not much has changed it seems!
Living a life feeling powerless is worst then death. I am no longer in the first grade.
To the victim of the DE Anza Team Rape, know that we are there helping you heal, and make some sence of why and how this could occur in our Village. My mind cannot rest untill we can give back to you what was taken from you that night. Some one will carry that burden. NOT YOU!
The DA does not have the last word on our morality, the Victims do and we are all Victims, when these terrible acts go without understanding and resolve.
Thank You Single Gal. Thank You Larrie Smith.
Gil Hernandez
There is something very wrong here. Nothing seems to fit.
The DA came out right off defending her stand prior to her election. Showing now that her stand then was her bond.
Who really cares! This is not about the DA’s office. Is It ?
I thought that was very bad, using this raped girl to prove her point about her campaign position.
DNA DA DNA!
D.O.A.
What if the victim were not a person of pallor?
What if the victim were black or hispanic?
White perpetrators and a black/hispanic victim? Now *that* fits the ‘template’.
You think we’d still have such a reserved DA?
We all know the answer to that and can you imagine how this place would be jumping?
Al Sharpton would be parachuting in. SWAT teams of ACLU lawyers would be rappelling down the rotunda. The national media would be storming the beaches.
‘Hate crime’ would be the order of the day and the DA would be going for the jugglar.
I feel that the De Anza College Boys should have been indicted just by the testimoney of the two young girls who came forward.
However, I don’t meen to sound cruel and unsensative, and I even might get some slack for this.. but when are girls going to stop putting themselves in precarious situations where men are able to take advantage of them.
Well, lets just say I think the DA blinked. I think she was scared of losing case, period. I think she made a judgement decision. I know something illegal happend, dah… but I don’t know if I can get a conviction. So, I won’t try.
What a sorry excuse. What a sorry D.A. Hell, try.. If you lose, you lose. You could even have tried for lessor counts. Give me a break.
When it came time to play hard ball, she decide to take a break… She simply didn’t want to take a chance and loose a very visible case. Would look BAD on her record.
That’s the bottom line.
I work as an attorney in the criminal justice system and you are WAY off!!! A person of color is much more likely to be prosecuted against a white victim than the other way around, anecdotal media attention not withstanding….. spend a week or two in the Courthouse and watch and see how bail amounts, sentencing recommendations and charges filed vary amongst races depending upon suspects and victims, and it is plain to see.
#13 Attorney. I was talking about a specific case. Please revisit and re-read #12.
But since you’re so quick to go off on a tangent…
Your salacious charges fit the ‘template’ perfectly! Your accusations are the wet dreams that our sizable constituency of self-loathing people of pallor and Mercury News staff live for.
But I find it hard to believe that:
– in a city like San Jose that has in essence declared itself a sanctuary city with councilmembers like Dave Cortese proclaiming to mobs of illegal immigrants that “you are safe”.
– in a city where the police chief is politically correct to such an extent so absurd that he fasts for Ramadan.
– in an area where they take down DUI checkpoints because they’re ensnaring too many illegal immigrants
– in a city where the police can’t check the immigration status of those that are arrested
Yet somehow, amongst the above sea of politically correct lunacy, exists San Jose’s local legal system which has it’s jackboot on the throat of minorities.
#13 Attorney, please forward the links to mainstream references that support your claim.
Exit question. Are you also a member of the ACLU?
Novice (#14)
Our visiting attorney (#13) offers up some interesting observations in challenging your post, none, of course, aimed at revealing a single underlying truth. For instance, this claim:
“A person of color is much more likely to be prosecuted against a white victim than the other way around… “
While it may be statistically true, it is likewise true to state that a Mexican is much more likely to be apprehended sneaking across our southern border than is a Swede. Now, for those of you who might conclude from this that the Border Patrol takes it easy on Swedes, stop reading this right now and get back to your work at the Merc. But for those of you outside of journalism who see the fallacy inherent in arguments of this sort, please reread the attorney’s claim and remind yourself of the very real racial disparity in who it is who’s committing street crime in America.
Of course people of color are more likely to be prosecuted for street crimes against whites than are whites for crimes against people of color, the incidence of such crimes is, AS REPORTED BY VICTIMS OF STREET CRIME, miniscule when compared to that of people of color victimizing whites. Take a look at the statistics for rape, robbery, and murder and you will see nothing that lends credibility to the Berkeley spin provided by our visiting attorney. Take a walk through Bay Area newspaper archives and try to find the last time a local police officer was murdered by someone who was not black or Hispanic (I honestly cannot remember a single one in the last twenty years).
As far as bail amounts, sentencing recommendations, and charges filed, the disparity there, of which I do not doubt, is the product not of racist hearts and minds, but of the reality of the sociopathic dysfunction and career criminal mentality disproportionately present in defendants from those two groups—something that prosecutors and judges simply cannot ignore.
D.O.A.,
Thank you for sharing the little story about you having observed and contemplated something without ever having learned anything. I understand that there are many such people in this world; people who experience and feel, but do not learn.
Thankfully, I am not one of them.
Novice and FF:
Thank you so much for putting me in my bleeding heart liberal place! Your impression of the criminal justice system, based upon exceptions to the rule that the media focuses on, lays a much more solid foundation than over a decade in the Santa Clara County Hall of Justice provides. What was I thinking? And, to even suggest race is a factor in our society when it comes to how law enforcement, government agencies or the justice system treats people was foolish of me! We ridded our society of such abominal behavior when we abolished slavery 150 years ago, right?
And, you’re right, I should look at the archives to see how many of our law enforcement officers were shot by a white person. While I’m at it, I should try to explain why SJPD stop, detain and search more blacks and latinos than their population and increased rates of criminal activity require. And, I can ask them how many times they draw their guns on people of color or use their tasers on people of color versus whites. I’m sure that will put me in my place.
But, I definitely should not ignore the “reality of the sociopathic dysfunction and career criminal mentality disproportionately present in defendants from those two groups (i.e. blacks and hispanics)”, right Finfan? I mean, Judges, police and DA’s can’t help that blacks and Hispanics are bred with a criminal mentality. They should take that into account when they patrol the streets.
And, you’re right Novice, SJPD should round up all illegals. The Chief is wrong to want everyone in our community, regardless of their legal status, to feel comfortable around SJPD in case they are witnesses or victims of crime. We would rather have them hide in fear of SJPD and have our PD become immigration enforcement, rather than the federal government that does not punish employers or offer resources for local enforcement. How silly of me?
And, Novice, I should provide the countless studies which have controlled for factors other than race that show that the criminal justice system around the country, including in California, is biased against people of color and against poor people. I should refer you to the numerous books that have been written on this very subject without any one needed to counter because of our fear of crime mentality. The fear mongering lobby doesn’t need data, just images.
I apologize to you both since you are clearly more experienced, knowledgable and educated in criminal justice than I.
p.s. I am not a member of the ACLU, although your labeling is quite typical of a raving, right wing pundit straight out of Fox News.
Our visiting attorney came back strong, and wrong, but what else was one to expect.
1. You would have us accept that your having “over a decade in the Santa Clara County Hall of Justice” provides your with a level of credibility beyond question. Really? How is it possible that you can denigrate the integrity and professionalism of the police, prosecutors, and judges, despite their possessing a level of experience in that same hall equal, or superior, to your own? Are you implying that they have learned nothing, or worse, that they understand that what they are doing is evil but do so anyway? Their perspective is no less credible than yours, and theirs is reflected in their decision-making, which you obviously consider outrageous. The bottom line, counselor, is this: your current knowledge of the system is the product of your experiences as filtered through your political, sociological, and religious belief system.
2. When your belief system collides with a statistical fact that it cannot absorb it goes right into emergency deflection mode. I invited you (and everyone else) to examine the fact that when it comes to killing local cops, blacks and Hispanics have cornered the market. Instead, you skirted that telling statistic and inserted into the discussion a host of enforcement statistics having to do with how the police deal with “people of color.” First of all, as an attorney you should know to be more careful with your words. “People of color” includes Asians, a group that has very low rates of interaction with the police. The term you should’ve used (but were no doubt afraid to) is blacks and Hispanics, because those are the groups getting the attention of law enforcement. And they get it for good reason: they are the groups most involved in street crime; they are the groups whose gangs have introduced a new level of terror into our cities; they are the race categories most commonly identified by victims of street crime.
You see the actions of law enforcement as motivated by race rather than behavior, yet if you are right, our local law enforcement demonstrates a level of deference to Asian-Americans that runs counter to what one would expect based on standard race discrimination theory. But, of course, you’re not right, and I have no doubt that were it Asian-Americans instead of blacks selling crack around the Transit Mall downtown, your beloved Hall would be full of Wongs instead of Washingtons. It’s crack dealers the cops don’t like, and it’s crack dealers we pay them to apprehend.
3. When I wrote : “… the sociopathic dysfunction and career criminal mentality disproportionately present in defendants from those two groups” I made it a point to word it so that an objective reader would understand that I was referring to the “defendants” from those two groups. Unfortunately, you are not an objective reader, as is made clear by your turning my statement from one about the system taking notice of the documented behavior of an individual (the defendant’s rap sheet) into one about the system’s racist assumptions about black and Hispanic families.
4. In the face of the undeniable: the carnage on the streets of Oakland, Hunter’s Point, and other lesser known killing fields, not to mention the gang wars going on in Hispanic neighborhoods, you would have us read the numerous books that tell us it is our prejudices, not the conduct of criminals, that fill our prisons with people of color and the poor. Well, if the truth can be discerned from the height of stacked books, then brace yourself for visitors, because I just checked on online catalogue and found listings for over 400 books on UFOs.
You may not be a member of the ACLU but your thinking is certainly fuzzy enough to qualify.
#19, I agree with you.
#18, You should move to Berkeley or Santa Cruz.
In post #12, I commented specifically about the case discussed in the blog.
Instead of refuting the points in #12 you dodge the issue altogether and make some ‘plain to see’ unsubstantiated claims based on your experience.
In post #14, I questioned you specifically about the local criminal justice system and *specifically *asked for links to a couple of references supporting your claims of institutionalized bias in SJ’s criminal justice system.
Instead you dodge and weave and embark on a diatribe from slavery to rounding up all illegals to criminal justice issues at the state and nation level.
Anyone spot a trend here?
#18, you’re the attorney with years of experience down at the SC Hall of Justice so this should be easy for you – *once again*, please enlighten us with references from the modern era that support your claims of institutionalized racial bias wrt our <u>local</u> criminal justice system.
FF:
It is difficult to keep up with your responses as I do work and don’t have the time to continue to respond to your exceedingly long, rambling responses. I will try to give comments that you do not deem irrelevant:
1) I am not saying that prosecutors, law enforcement or the Courts lack integrity or are downright evil. However, we are all products in the criminal justice system that continues to increase the discretion of enforcement and punishment doles out without looking at the end result.
After decades of militarizing our police forces, we have officers that are subject to reflexive action when enforcing the law. They will approach “high crime” neighborhoods with greater suspicion and greater aggressiveness than other neighborhoods. Although most in the community are law abiding, they are treated with one broad brush to protect officer safety.
A child raised in this environment learns to resent the police. The police are doing their job, but the manner in which it is done forms the opinion of the community, particularly the youth. Now, that does not take blame away from the community, but it does explain how seeds of mistrust are planted amongst youth, particularly latinos and African-Americans.
By focusing on aggressive enforcement against these populations combined with a mistrust of the police, you create an environment which begins to foment lawlessness. Once a juvenile is arrested, there are many options available to the Court. Homes that are from poorer neighborhoods, where parents can’t tak off work to come to Court or where the home environment may not be as stable leads to a juvenile who is not released. The increased incarceration leads to a greater recividism rate.
Simply put, this leads to a slow ball that rolls until the young adult has a rap sheet, is on probation and has zero faith in the system to help them. Now, why should we offer help? Because we care about the community. So, before you condemn the youth for peeing in your downtown, ask yourself what you have done to uplift a young person, yes even a young Latino or African-American in your community. What have you done to teach them or guide them when the world around them may not be so kind.
In any case, the DA’s and Courts don not do anything in one specific case intentionally. It is a system-wide issue that, as a society, we refuse to address. Instead, our State just approved Billions more for more prison beds and we should be proud to know that our spending on prisons will soon pass our spending on the UC system because we choose to demonize and alienat the youth that go down the wrong path rather than bring back to the right path.
2) You can bring up the shock value of cop killers or black selling crack on Fountain Alley, but that does not escape the underlying systemic issues. And, I beg to differ that I pay officers to apprehend crack dealers. I pay the police to provide a safe environment in my neighborhoods and throughout the city. The reality is that there is a grant that allows the police and DA to focus on the crack dealers. A similar grant is not specifically in place to target the dealers of meth, even though it is a much more widespread problem. The bottom line is that we can keep throwing money at the problem for this war on drugs or we can figure out how to curtail the demand as well as the supply. And, I don’t know the numbers on how many police officers have been killed by whites. But, that is such an anecdotal issue to raise, and it is rare. There has only been one SJPD officer killed this decade while there have been at least a dozen citizens, most of them people of color (and, yes, that includes Asian-Americans) who have been killed by SJPD. Your recollection of events is not statistically significant.
3) The use of the word defendants when referring to the two groups, black and hispanics, is not much more than semantics. Why would it be narrowed to those two groups, in your opinion, in terms of the degree of dysfunction or career criminal mentality. Your implication was that those two groups defendants had a different make up than others. That speaks somewhat to what I raised in the beginning of this post. If there is a sense of isolation from law enforcement, then more than one party can share in that blame.
4) You act like the carnage in Hunter’s Point and gang warfare happened in a vacuum. None of that happens in a vacuum. Those kids aren’t born to kill and be killed at 15, but that is what they are left to become because of a number of factors, including the lack of family responsibility and their poor choices. Most of the people arreested and imprisoned are not as a result of shootings from the “killing fields.” They are mostly the result of lesser crimes, drug or theft related, that we can do something about as a community to stem before one escalates to something worse. The prejudices in the system exist by treating individuals as if they exist in a vacuum. That is not a realistic way of solving any problem, let alone the issues involving our justice system. And, the reference to books was because you and Novice asked for specifics for the claims I initially made. And, the reason why you don’t find opposition to the claims in those books is because very few are concerned with what those books say. Those in political power are more interested in keeping their tough on crime label then rolling up their sleaves and saving our communities for the generations of wreckage we are allowing to be created in our midst. I am not blaming you or law enforcement or the Courts. But, I do think we need to change something and we are much better served working together rather than throwing names at each other. In the meantime, find an 8 or 9 year old boy struggling to read at an after school program and teach him.
Finfan,
You remind me of a spider I once observed. It spun it’s web so masterfully, yet it caught nothing. When that did not work, it spun yet another pattern. That did not work in catching what would give it substinence.
I felt a sence of compassion for this poor creature.
It had spun it’s web in the safety of a glass enclosurer.
I opened the enclosuer and left to never wonder if the spider ever wanted out of the safety of it’s protection.
Perhaps it’s your time to come out!
D.O.A
Counselor (#22),
By the numbers:
1. Even assuming, for the sake of argument, that we live in a time of strict enforcement and harsh punishment, there is no reason to attribute to it the cause and effect relationship you describe. Go back forty years to the era of indeterminate sentencing, lenient parole policies, and feel good parole programs and you will discover that recidivism was a major factor in the huge spike in serious crime. Go back and examine the era when rapists did three years and murderers seven and you will discover the revolving door that made crime a viable career choice and extended the reach of Mexican prison gangs from the exercise yard to the street, introducing for the first time in cities like ours the now ubiquitous copycat gangs. Go back and learn about the parolee who attended SJS on a feel good scholarship but chose to major in serial rape until he graduated with a degree in homicide (by impaling an elderly woman with a broken broom handle).
Having grown up in a neighborhood anointed by sociologists with victim status I have always been very suspect about attributing the transgressions of the individual to the shortcomings of the neighborhood. The heavy police presence and frequent shakedowns I endured as a teenager didn’t turn me into a criminal, and I saw nothing to lead me to believe it did anyone else. Instead what I saw were absent, lax, or clueless parents extending endless tolerance to sons who lacked values and drive and self-discipline. These are the boys who went to juvie, bragged about it, then grew to become the men who went to the joint. Oh, and I should note that a few of their childhood playmates went on to spend their lives in law enforcement.
As for comparing the spending for our prison system with anything else, no thanks, I’m not playing. The money we spend on the prison system accomplishes one thing: it keeps tens of thousands of thugs—men and women who have already turned down society’s best efforts at providing a free education and bountiful job opportunities—from doing again what they’ve already done: bringing ruin and harm to our cities and innocent citizens. California’s prisoner count is a report card on how we are doing raising our kids and controlling our borders. We can bitch all we want about the “F” grade, but the bill is ours to pay.
2. “Underlying systemic issues.” What are those? Is there a place in the Bay Area where children have been deprived access to schools and exposure to societal values? I don’t think so. Instead there are a lot of homes and neighborhoods where irresponsible fathers and mothers, other family members and neighbors sabotage the law-abiding lifestyle that is stressed everywhere else. You would like to pin the blame on our institutions despite the fact that the battle is typically lost long before these young people ever appear before any component of the criminal justice system. If you are really looking for someone mainstream to blame, take a look in the mirror, as it has been those sobbing over “underlying systemic issues” who created the smoke screen that allowed a helping hand to turn into an eternal handout, crippling the concepts of personal and parental accountability.
Your take on who’s killing the cops is telling: you dismiss it as irrelevant despite it containing the same kind of race disparity you threw around when complaining about enforcement data. You also duplicitously narrowed my reference from Bay Area police officers to San Jose police officers.
3. The idea that the criminality of any group can be attributed to its relationship with law enforcement is tired and lame. My god, I could understand it if you fell for it forty years ago when politicized minorities insisted that things would be different if there were people who looked like them in those police uniforms, but now, after all the changes in the make-up of police agencies, after midnight basketball and all the other waste-of-time programs, to still believe such nonsense brands you as a hopeless dreamer.
However, if you insist that they are isolated from the police here’s the reason why: its for the same reason they’re isolated from their better neighbors: they’re lawless trash.
4. I’m glad to see you acknowledge the failures of the family. Now, here’s something else to chew on. A huge component of the problem is one that no one wants to engage, that being the chasm between the innate limitations of the lowest functioning young people and our collective delusions about what they can accomplish. Raising a young man with an 80 or 90 IQ to believe that he is college material or deserving of a professional position is a recipe for resentment, his misreading of reality, and social dysfunction. While no one would encourage a dwarf to aspire to be an NBA player, we nonetheless insist on channeling the cognitively impaired to look beyond the limited jobs and lifestyles that are realistically achievable. Couple the inevitable disappointment with a deficiency in values, and you’ve taken a potential law-abiding janitor or laborer and turned him into a young man with an antisocial attitude and an appetite for luxuries. Until we return to the school system the discipline and commitment to serve the student according to his ability (rather than some politically correct dogma), our cities will continue to see high drop-out rates and suffer the crime and social problems that accompany the unemployable.
# 22 and 23,
You both have valid arguments, and present compelling views of the problem. As a mediator and someone who has worked in Victim Offender Mediation, and volunteered on the Neighborhood Accountability Board, until it lost funding, I must agree with # 23, when it comes to the real source of the problem. He is correct in stating that children are products of their environment. (Namely their parents.) The old saying that,” The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” is 100% true! The majority of the youthful offenders I’ve dealt with over four years come from some very bad circumstances and parents of questionable character. Many of these parents are drug or alcohol addicted, have done time, are uneducated, tend to hate authority, and feel entitled to resources that many times are abused.
Having said that, I have also had really good parents whose child is doing things that they were never taught by the parents to do. Why you may ask? Several reasons like the kid is bored or trying to fit in, or is trying to get attention because their parents work too much.
The biggest reason I see for youth offenders besides the above is the lack of a father figure. Of the hundreds of young males both of color and Caucasian descent I’ve worked with, 90% have no interaction with their fathers or even know where their father is. That is heart breaking if you think about it.
In reading both of your posts, #22 and 23, it occurred to me how lucky your children are to have fathers like you who care so much. If you aren’t Dads now, you will be great fathers one day. I agree with number #22 in that we must give of ourselves to reach out to these youths, so that may be one day they will look back and know somebody really cared about them as a human being. I also think that the media and how cool gang bangers look, how awesome it is to be a rapper shot down in the street, influence children too much. They see these rappers as being a bad ass with filthy mouths earning lots of money, and female singers in videos walking around half dressed means sex is love.
Children follow our example. They want love but they also want discipline. Discipline shows children you care. I’ve never met a child yet who doesn’t want to laugh or play with an adult, but they don’t want a Mom or Dad as a friend, they want and need a parent who sets guidelines for them. They need to feel safe, taken care of and valued. Don’t we all?
And finally, #23, I really want to thank you for pointing out that pressuring a child to go to college, if he/she really wants to be a mechanic, is wrong. Our society makes certain blue-collar work look like something low class and undesirable, and something you should be ashamed of. I personally find the mentality of this type of attitude to be highly offensive. I scrubbed many a bathroom, served many members of the public burgers, and other honest jobs to pay my way through college. Every time I got my paycheck I had no doubt in my mind that I earned that bad boy all by myself. I felt pride and a sense of accomplishment that money can’t buy.
Nope I didn’t have rich parents to pay my way. My Mom went to college, my Dad never even got to high school; he joined the military to serve in three wars. And I’m dam proud of them both.