Senseless Murders

Young men are getting shot down in the streets of Santa Maria. This is a tragedy. We hadn't made it two weeks into the month of January when we already had seen two murders. These two most recent victims didn't make it past their early twenties. Another couple of “drive-bys” occurred a few days later.
The murdered young men were walking north on Oakley shortly after 6:30 p.m. when they were shot. Shell casings were strewn across about 20 yards, leading police to suspect the victims were chased prior to the shootings. Detectives are still trying to determine how many shooters were involved.
Last year there were 13 homicides, the last two, just after the Christmas weekend. This is both shameful and tragic. Memorials like the one pictured above are appearing too frequently.
Something needs to be done about these senseless murders. The city needs to get involved. Determining why and then getting into some type of intervention would be a productive way for the city to spend their money, instead of idiotic filing of charges against businesses regarding their landscape.
About half of last year's victims were involved with gangs. Apparently the two most recent murders were gang related.
The answer is not more meetings to discuss the problem, the answer is for these involved people who say they know the “whys” of gang life to get out there into these communities and identify the families, mothers, fathers, grandparents and whoever else is aware of the road the gang member or would-be gang member is taking.

It would be wonderful to see the mayor involved beyond the usually empty platitudes that she seems to enjoy uttering.  Cutting ribbons and hammering her little gavel at meetings isn't enough in the face of so much violence. The leadership of Santa Maria, beginning with her, looks clueless. 

This is a form of domestic terrorism and it must be met head-on, nothing else will make a difference. It's clear that having meetings to “discuss the gang problem” is not working.
The time for talk is over.

A Mispent Youth Leads To Poor Choices

As a Latina, I become more and more disheartened every time I read about crimes within the Latino community, the most recent crime being the murder of 28 year old Anthony Ibarra.
According to the Santa Maria Police Department, a total of ten people have been arrested in connection with his murder.
It took ten people to murder and cover up this vicious crime. 

Prosecutors are saying that this was a gang-related, torture killing and that there's a good possibility that drugs, as in selling, buying and taking, are involved.
Eight people, whose chosen lifestyle leads either to death or imprisonment, are all alleged gang members and have been charged with first-degree murder, numerous special allegations, including kidnapping, lying in wait, torture and gang enhancements. Several of them also face allegations that they have numerous prior felony convictions.
They are:

Robert Stan Sosa, 19
Verenisa Castillo Aviles, 19
Anthony Jesus Solis, 28
Jason Michael Castillo, 29
Manuel Santos Santos, 33
*Ramon David Maldonado, 37
*Reyes Gonzales Jr., 42
David Murillo Maldonado Jr., 55

They could face the death penalty or life in prison without possibility of parole if convicted. Five of them are under the age of 30, with two being under age 20. How pitifully young to be in a "going nowhere good" situation.
I find it tragic that the gang life was their choice of career. Who knows what they could have accomplished had they set their sights on educating themselves for their future and their future children.
The remaining two suspects are charged with being accessories after the fact for allegedly hiding at least one of the murder suspects, and with committing crimes for the benefit of a street gang.
They are:

*Carmen Danielle Cardenas, 28
*Pedro Torres Jr., 54

 Do any of these people have children that will now grow up without mothers or fathers? If so, it's even more tragic.

The investigation began on Sunday March 17th, when police say Ibarra was tortured and killed at 1142 West Donovan.  According to the search warrant, a witness walked into the home on Monday March 18th and saw a body of a Hispanic male lying naked on the carpet and the victim's face appeared beaten and neck appeared cut open. The next day, Tuesday March 19th, Ibarra's body was found in the back of a U-Haul truck in Orcutt.
It must be noted that some of the suspects arrested and charged in this murder were released from prison under AB 109.
AB 109 is California's controversial state prison re-alignment program that eases prison overcrowding by removing non-violent, so-called low level offenders and moving them to county jails or placing them on parole or probation.
Santa Maria Chief of Police Ralph Martin says he has seen a spike in certain crimes since AB 109 became law.
Apparently the County Probation Departments have developed programs to reduce the recidivism or re-offending rate of AB 109'ers.
Too bad it's not working since statistics are showing that those being released early on parole or probation are re-offending.

When should the education towards leading a productive life begin? In grade school? Let's go a step further, should sex education in high school not only include pregnancy prevention but parenting classes for the students, to get them to understand that babies are not accessories?

Stupid is a condition. Ignorance is a choice.

Lorena Arenas. Reading about someone like this poor excuse for a mother makes me better understand the expression, "It takes a village to raise a child."
She was in court recently to receive her sentence from Superior Court Judge Edward Bullard. After denying her request a new trial, he sentenced her to life in prison with the possibility of parole in seven years.
Why has she been given the possibility of parole? So she can get out of prison, have another baby and harm that one? Jiminy Christmas! A cat is a better mother than she is.
This woman tortured her 2 year old daughter by putting her hands in scalding hot water for playing with her cosmetics.
Because that in itself wasn't bad enough, she didn’t take her daughter to the hospital until early the next morning after she determined her burn injuries were serious and not improving.
This little girl suffered such severe second and third degree burns she had to be sent to Grossman Burn Center to received specialized treatment.
Apparently Arenas doesn't know right from wrong since she testified that she scalded her daughter, because she was pushed to do so by the girl’s abusive father, Jose Gonzalez.

Unbelievably, Arenas will be eligible for parole in four years because she has already served three years.
Gonzalez, by the way, pleaded guilty to child abuse and accepted a plea deal and has finished serving his time.
I'm not going to assume that these two got all the way through high school, but if they did, were they, as well as other students offered classes to at least try to teach would-be parents, how to parent? Are there any? Or, are classes like this as frowned upon as sex education, birth control education and preventing STDs? Surely I cannot be the only one who knows that some high school kids have active sexual lives. Babies are innocent lives that require care, love and attention. They're NOT accessories, nor are they tickets to cash payments from AFDC.
In their effort to win a new trial for Arenas, the defense unsuccessfully argued that the number of, and gruesome nature of photographs shown during the first trial distracted the jury and did not show intent to torture. A member of Arenas' defense team asked that the case be treated as a child abuse case instead of a torture trial.
The judge however, ruled in favor of the deputy district attorney, who argued that the court had already limited the number of photographs and decided that the intent was to torture.

Hoopleheads on the loose

I came home from work the other day and found this dubious artwork on my fence. I cannot even begin to describe my anger at the audacity of people destroying or defacing other people's property. I was so angry, I would have machine gunned them had I seen them. I paid a lot of money to have that fence built. It completely encircles the property and looks fabulous, so to see it marked in this manner raised my blood pressure to levels that it rarely gets to.

Luckily, I cooled down, and the top of my head didn't blow off.

I had to remind myself that just because it would never occur to me to destroy or deface other people's possessions or property, others might not feel the same way. The world is full of people who are not cursed with self-awareness or the concept of Karma.

Those that fall into this category are often gangbangers who get thrills from this type of ignorant behavior. They somehow think it's cool to tag buildings, fences, signs, etc to "mark their territory." Dogs do this, so what does that make these people?

I often wonder where the parents are whenever I read about tagging with gang signs or other unsavory activities. What I also need to consider is that sometimes the parents are ranking members in this all too idiotic career choice.

Apparently when they're moved past the tagging or graffiti phase, they're shooting at cops as they lead them on a wild goose chase through the city.

Just this week, one of those chases with a pendeja at the wheel, ended with three knuckleheads under arrest. The pendeja was Barbara Trevino. 49 years old and still behaving stupidly.

Officers attempted to stop her vehicle at about 4 pm, but instead of pulling over and shutting up, she led them on a wild chase through residential areas for close to five miles.

Her passengers were Joseph Deleon, a 33-year-old wanted parolee and Albert Valdez, age 30. At one point during the chase, Deleon leaned out of the passenger window and shot at the cops at least three times. At one point Valdez tossed the gun out of the car. Police recovered the gun, a 9-mm semi-automatic pistol.

Trevino stopped the SUV briefly allowing Deleon to run away, but he was captured and arrested after a brief foot chase. He was emptying his pockets as he ran but the cops recovered his meth at the scene.

The vehicle pursuit continued for a few more blocks, when Trevino stopped she was promptly arrested. She also had some meth in her purse. Valdez also tried to run away, but was captured almost immediately.

According to the cops, all three hoopleheads are local gang members. All were booked for a variety of charges, including six counts of attempted murder on peace officers, transporting meth, resisting arrest, violating parole and being felons in possession of a gun along with six gang-enhancement charges. Additionally, Trevino was arrested on suspicion of felony evasion.

They're in deep doodoo and might end up in prison for a long time considering the six counts of attempted murder charges.

Back to my fence. I called the police who came over to take my report. The officer gave me a phone number to call about removing the paint. I called the following morning, and by noon that day my fence was back to normal. Apparently the city employs a team of graffiti removers that are kept busy full time by these vandals.