Marylb wrote:
I was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area so when I moved to Utah and learned there were so-called gang members in Springville it was hard to take them seriously. What do they do, stick up other kids for ice cream cones? Threaten to jaywalk? I would think the hardest thing for them to do is get respect for being bad. lol

I mean, come on now. These little town "gang" members are not that hard to spot are they, and in having spotted them by their cute little bad-guy-look, can't you just grab them by the ear, drag them home and have mommy spank them?

Inquiring minds want to know...

Yes you can. How "bad" can gang members be when they are in rural areas of a very gun-friendly state? It is not often you read about gang activity outside the cities. I don't think gang members really want to confront a large well-armed citizenry.

unaffiliated_person wrote:
Marylb wrote:
I was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area so when I moved to Utah and learned there were so-called gang members in Springville it was hard to take them seriously. What do they do, stick up other kids for ice cream cones? Threaten to jaywalk? I would think the hardest thing for them to do is get respect for being bad. lol

I mean, come on now. These little town "gang" members are not that hard to spot are they, and in having spotted them by their cute little bad-guy-look, can't you just grab them by the ear, drag them home and have mommy spank them?

Inquiring minds want to know...

Yes you can. How "bad" can gang members be when they are in rural areas of a very gun-friendly state? It is not often you read about gang activity outside the cities. I don't think gang members really want to confront a large well-armed citizenry.

You don't mess with mother nature...the instinct to protect. I'd say it may be more dangerous for them to try and bully people in small towns. I have noticed by the news that the gang enforcement teams seem to do a good job though this mentality has to be nipped in the bud while it is small town antics. Otherwise the gang members escalate for attention. For the smaller communities I'd say the gang members should probably not anger the population. Particularly in Utah because of exactly what you said.

Might be a future for ganb bangers in Obamas' "change" New World Order! Just the sort of "change" a closet communist would implement.

Barack Obama has called for a "civilian national security force" as powerful as the U.S. military, comments that were ignored by the vast majority of the corporate media but compared by one journalist to the Nazi Hitler Youth.

"We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded," Obama told a Colorado Springs audience earlier this month.
ChicagoTribune
WorldNetDaily
BlueCollarMuse

Obama's proposal smacks of an expanded version of an existing program in which hundreds of police, firefighters, paramedics and utility workers have been trained and recently dispatched as "Terrorism Liaison Officers" in Colorado, Arizona and California to watch for "suspicious activity" which is later fed into a secret government database.

It is also reminiscent of the supposedly canned 2002 Operation TIPS program, which would have turned 4 per cent of Americans into informants under the jurisdiction of the Justice Department.

TIPS lived on in other guises, such as the Highway Watch program, a $19 billion dollar Homeland Security-run project which trains truckers to watch for suspicious activity on America's highways.

More recently, ABC Newsreported that "The FBI is taking cues from the CIA to recruit thousands of covert informants in the United States as part of a sprawling effort...to aid with criminal investigations."

Since authorities now define mundane activities like buying baby formula, beer, wearing Levi jeans, carrying identifying documents like a drivers license and traveling with women or children or mentioning the U.S. constitution as the behavior of potential terrorists, the bounty for the American Stasi to turn in political dissidents is sure to be too tempting to resist under Obama's new program.

Success? What success?

Take a look at this story from the Deseret News.


Mom relives pain of son's violent death
By Cathy Free
Deseret News
Published: Thursday, July 17, 2008 12:04 a.m. MDT

Cathy Free
Dee Chapman sank into her sofa in tears when she turned on the television news 12 days ago. Another drive-by shooting. Another young victim. Two more families changed for life. When would it end?

"I felt numb, shocked — it brought it all home again," says Dee, 69, of the gang shooting that took the life of 7-year-old Maria Del Carmen Menchaca. "The pain that girl's family is feeling will be with them for the rest of their lives. It will be a very long time before they are able to smile again."

Every time another life is lost to gang violence, Dee is taken back to Sept. 1, 1993, Labor Day weekend. She was cooking in advance of a family party when the phone rang at 9:15 p.m. "Mrs. Chapman? We need you to come to LDS Hospital right away. Your son has been shot."

Aaron Chapman, a Granite High baseball player who had recently graduated and was contemplating whether to join the military or become a forest ranger, had agreed to take his cousin and one of her friends to an anti-gang concert at Salt Lake City's Triad Center. Unimpressed by the music, the trio left early in Aaron's gray Monte Carlo, but they didn't get far.

While stopped outside the parking garage, Aaron was approached by a group of teen boys, all wearing blue. One of them was Asi Mohi, a 17-year-old football star from West High School. "What's up, Cuz?" Mohi asked Aaron. "You want some?"

Story continues below
As Aaron looked straight ahead in silence, Mohi sauntered up to his rolled-down window and punched him in the face. While the girls scrambled to escape, Mohi and his friends set upon Aaron, repeatedly hitting him in the head and kicking him as he got out of the car.

Aaron fought back, but he didn't have a chance. Seconds later, Mohi pulled out a gun and shot the Murray teen in the chest, piercing his heart.

After the funeral, Dee sank into a deep depression that lasted three years. Although the ache never goes away, she says, there is still beauty in life. That's why she and her daughter, Mary Theresa, 45, wanted to get together for a Free Lunch of chicken and fries at the Cracker Barrel in West Valley City.

"I want to tell the family of the girl who was shot, 'Don't retaliate — there is no future in it,"' says Dee. "They will be angry for a long time, and they won't know where to put that anger. But I remember the day that I finally laughed again. Such a simple thing, but how wonderful. Even in the darkest moment, there was hope."

Now that Mohi is scheduled to get out of prison Sept. 8 after completing a 15-year sentence, she and Mary Theresa pray that gang violence doesn't escalate.

"We need to quit plea bargaining — these kids need to know there are consequences," says Mary Theresa, who was sickened to learn of Mohi's long list of felonies and misdemeanors after he killed her brother. "Now they're killing 7-year-olds. If now isn't the time to take back our streets, then when?"

Dee's clear blue eyes brim with tears as she thinks of the moments Maria's family will miss. "They won't see her graduate, they won't see her get married or have children," she says. "That's the toughest part. You're always wondering, 'What could have been?"'

15 years. That's all the life of an innocent teenager is worth.

That's all a punk-assed gang banger served for the unprovoked violent assault and cold blooded murder of a 17 year old.

Success...my hairy arse.

Texas knows how to deal with them! If Mexico cares so much about its criminals it should keep them on its side of the border!

Texas to World Court: Execution still on!
Father of victim says U.N. body's order 'don't mean diddly'
July 17, 2008 WorldNetDaily

Texas is refusing to bow to yesterday's World Court order to stay the Aug. 5 lethal injection of convicted rapist-killer and illegal alien Jose Medellin.

The highest U.N. court insisted that five scheduled executions of Mexicans be immediately halted until the cases undergo further review. Mexico's government filed a petition with the court last month because it said the men had been deprived of assistance from their consulates following their arrests.
. . .
Citing "the paramount interest in human life," Mexico said it would "for forever be deprived of the opportunity to vindicate its rights and those of the nationals concerned" if Medellin's execution continues as scheduled.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry's office rejected Mexico's complaint.

"The world court has no standing in Texas, and Texas is not bound by a ruling or edict from a foreign court," Perry spokesman Robert Black said. "It is easy to get caught up in discussions of international law and justice and treaties. It's very important to remember that these individuals are on death row for killing our citizens."
. . .
Randy Ertman, father of Jennifer, a 14-year-old girl Medellin raped and murdered, criticized the World Court for attempting to intervene.

"The world court don't mean diddly," he said. "This business belongs in the state of Texas. The people of the state of Texas support the execution. We thank them. The rest of them can go to h-ll."

Adolfo Peña, father of Elizabeth, a 16-year-old girl Medellin also raped and murdered, concurred with Ertman.

"I believe we've been through all the red tape we can go through," he told the Houston Chronicle. "It's time to rock and roll."