A car pulled up and the passenger rose up and leveled a sawed off pump shotgun and started shooting slugs, which are projectiles about the size of your thumb. He fired at one of the three kids, hitting him in the back of the neck, blowing out the lower half of the kids face; shot the second kid, hitting him in the left side of his face, instantly killing him. The third kid ran, but was trying to climb a fence when the slug hit his left hand, blowing it off at the wrist. The shooters drove off, and when the police and ambulance’s arrived, an all too familiar scenario played out.
Though there were literally dozens of witnesses, no one seemed to know anything at all. They would not admit to seeing these three shootings and only wanted to be released from being questioned by the Police. The kid who lost his left hand, refused to say anything at all. Why ? They believed that a death threat from those same shooters was their fate if they cooperated with the police. They are now trapped in a neighborhood that is lawless and extremely dangerous. This same neighborhood was a place of open fields and fruit orchards when I was a kid in the 70’s. The homes were built, and purchased by normal, average families in the 80’s and the shopping center was built in the 90’s. Only in the last 10 years did this neighborhood turn into a crazed gang infested wasteland.
It all happened very quickly, once the citizens stopped supporting the Police.Could this scenario play out in our beloved Calaveras County ? Ask our Police and Sheriff’s departments if this is a possibility. They will tell you that gang related activity is already here, albeit in a less virulent form, but could easily accelerate if we do nothing about it. This is not the type of crime problem we can solve easily. Self defense is almost impossible when these armed gangs move in and take over. Without tough street cops who are adequately trained and equipped to take on these thugs, we are at risk of seeing our hometowns taken over by criminal gangs.I cannot stress the importance of listening closely to the suggestions of the Law Enforcement community. It is rare that they come to us for help, but when they do, we must be ready to respond.
Keeping our communities’ safe and gang free is a partnership between the Police and the citizenry. We need to provide serious support; not only in the form of money, but more importantly we need to be alert to crime as it is in the making. Local law enforcement agencies can educate us on what to look for, and how to respond. When we see mysterious comings and goings at that house down the street, we need to notify the Sheriff’s office. When our kids tell us about drug dealers at their schools, we need to let the police know. When we see gang graffiti and signs of gang activity we need to report it to law enforcement. Without our stepping up to be the eyes and ears for law enforcement we cannot help them be effective in protecting our communities. In short, we can become the silent accomplices of these criminal gangs, by simply doing nothing.That neighborhood in San Jose saw three of its teens gunned down, in broad daylight. If one brave citizen would have simply stepped forward with the facts, giving a brief description of the shooters car, or the assailants themselves, the Police might have been able to find and arrest these murderers.
Instead, they stood silently by, paralyzed by the fear that they could be next. Their ability to fight back against the gangs is destroyed, taken away by years of careless inactivity. How many times did they choose to not get involved when the crimes were small ? Now these people live in a gangland nightmare, full of fear and plodding along in quiet desperation. If we don’t want this same fate to befall us, we need to support our local Law Enforcement fully and completely. They are that thin blue line that stands between the safety and peace we enjoy today, and the murder and mayhem of that unfortunate San Jose neighborhood
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