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opinion:
our view
Everyone is not
a gangster
Let's not fool ourselves.
There is a gang problem throughout California, including here
in the beautiful city of Long Beach.
But, while it is
easy to blame gangs for society's ills, they are many times
nothing more than scapegoats for a city's police department
or local politician who prey on nameless, faceless villains
to blame our problems on.
A court ruling
this week by the California Supreme Court made it possible
to convict more than one gang member for the murder of a single
victim, without having to prove which of the accused did the
actually killing.
This of course
could be sugarcoated to look like a positive step toward ending
senseless gang violence where innocent bystanders are sometimes
caught in the crossfire.
However, if you
examine this ruling, you may find that it is much more complicated
than that.
This ruling goes
along with new laws that have been passed that make it easier
to prosecute alleged gang members for nothing more than being
in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The problem with
laws and rulings like is it takes the burden of proof off
the police and prosecutors and puts it on people who could
very well be innocent of any crime at all, let alone having
to prove their innocence that they are not gang members.
Ideas like these
do nothing more but set up people to serve time for crimes
they may not have committed. All because of society's demand
for closure and incarceration of the person, any person responsible
for a crime.
Even more perplexing
is the fact that these new laws make it easier for police
and prosecutors to stereotype gang members. Simply put, any
congregation of more than a few kids who look alike could
be deemed a gang.
This causes a problem
for groups of ethnic people, who like anybody else these days
look alike.
The problem is
when any police officer or politician sees a group of black
or Mexican kids hanging out on a street corner, they automatically
assume they are a gang.
Which brings us
back to the recent ruling which involved two gang members
who, while shooting at each other, killed an innocent bystander.
Not being able to prove who actually shot the bystander, the
prosecutor is charging both with first-degree murder.
Sure, the idea
may fit in this case, but what about when some innocent bystander
who looks like a gang member happens to be in the vicinity
and is subsequently charged with a crime he played no part
in?
Rulings like these
do no more than open the door for further racism by stereotyping
people for the way they look and more important it is taking
the policing out of cases and doing nothing more than finding
somebody to blame, with complete disregard for whether they
committed the crime.
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