Another Stabbing on the Westside

So what else is new ? For a town of this size there seems to be more gangs related fights and stabbings of alot of other towns, ( 100, 000+ since some people , the guess workers, social and economic terrorist is more like it, that dont want to be legally counted ) . SO HOW DOES S.B. NOW RANK IN THE COUNTRY ? SAD TO SAY IN REALITY UP THERE WITH THE BIG BOYS. N.YC. , PHILLY , BOSTON , DALLAS , HOUSTON, and L.A. . The Christmas parade with the gangs on State st at the end of the parade was just one of the many knife fights and gang fights in public ! THESE PUNKS KNOW THEIR PARENTS DONT CARE , THE POLICE DONT SEEM TO CARE. The people of this town seem to be worried about poles and the height of some old buildings , that the owner would get a better return for his money in some other town of 100,000 or some city ! Last week, when the Navy was in port , i would bet the number of gang related problems went down throughout the area. I wonder why ? I walked down State St myself and felt safe , I heard families saying the same thing ! When that knife fight was going on at the Christmas Parade i tried to call the police myself , my cell phone was not working correctly so i went into a store to try to get some one to call the police ! All i heard was , " let them stab each other , at least it will get some of them out of here" . I finally got 911 and was told
" well that was an hour ago, we heard something like that ".
I watched from inside of Macy's front door as this was going on and i even tried to stop a police car , that car just kept on . SEEMS S.B. IS AFRAID OF THESE PUNKS ,THE POLICE , THEIR PARENTS, ETC . Also notice how no one seems to know the description of the attacker or the car but a few days later in another gang area of the city another stabbing takes place ! So as shops close and State St is becoming a battle ground for gangs , the tourist money is going to other cities , some much larger , because people feel safer. I heard a friend from out of town say to another out of towner , "THE ROPE MUST STOP HERE , THE GANGS TOOK OVER THIS TOWN, THIS USE TO BE A REALLY NICE TOWN " . Sad image for a town of this size and by the way the Navy was waiting for it , i was told by one M.P.

By my count this is the fourth knifing this year--in just two weeks. The gangs are truly out of control. It's only a matter of time before the next kid is killed, or the violence spreads to every neighborhood in SB. Meanwhile our Mayor, City Council and Police Chief fiddle while the city burns.

Disclaimer: According to this report, the police are not connecting this incident to gang activity. (At least at the time I write this) Nonetheless, at the risk of knowing I'll be criticized along with Zorro and Mpluke11 for speaking off topic, I'll address the gang issue since the frustration they express is shared by myself and most people. I DO have one question: While this incident may not have been a gang "turf" issue because the victim apparently was not in a gang, does that mean that we can say for certain that the perpetrators were not gang members?...anyway...

While I share the feelings of Zorro and Mpluke11, the problem with some/most/maybe all of our local politicians is that they are tied to the two major political parties (Blum and Williams are Democrats, I don't know about the others) and both these parties have no interest is stopping the endless flow of people across the Southern border because this would offend their vested interests.

The idea that the gang problem can be solved locally is like giving someone who is dying of an infection aspirin and saying "look, they seem to be doing better" while the person continues to die.

The genesis of the problem is national policy, and until people actually VOTE FOR a president/congress/state legislature that understands that the U.S. cannot serve as Mexico's safety valve and also understands that pandering to the vested interests and activists in both political parties is destroying BOTH countries (I say "both" to remind the idealistic left-wingers that the open border is hurting the very people who risk their lives to come in to the U.S.) all the local banter about how we need to build more youth centers for our "At-risk youth" or how we need to ship 'em back to Mexico will be meaningless as the gang population explodes at a far greater rate than our government can possibly solve.

Bill Clausen's right about gangs; they come with every wave of immigration, as history has shown. A perception of limited prospects leads to low personal horizons, which leads to wanting to be a big fish in a small pond, which leads to gangs. It's an underclass thing. Comes with the cheap labor. Gang mitigation measures are fine, but a surplus of labor will have its side effects. The mitigation measure I'd suggest are a boxing center on State St (between territories) immediately, and marksmanship classes after they start shooting regularly and hitting bystanders as gang bangers usually do. Well, OK, just boxing, but I trust some people will forgive my marksmanship idea.

Wonderful remarks adonis _Tate , boxing , markmanship idea .. SAD . So it seems i was correct after all , please review the column by C. Meagher on Monday 1/21/08 .