Did the System Kill Ximena Meza?

ximena

 

OC Weekly’s Gustavo Arellano and Gabriel San Roman have weighed in on the murder of nine year old Ximena Meza of Anaheim in the October 30th edition of OC Weekly.  You can read the entire story here.  The pair have done a nice job documenting the case against Ricardo Cruz of Buena Park and Alfredo Miguel Aquino of Anaheim, both, the Weekly says, are documented members of the Ready at War (RAW) gang from Buena Park.  The Weekly quotes the Anaheim Police Department saying the investigation into the girl’s murder is continuing because others may be involved.

While the Weekly indeed does an excellent job documenting the case against the two gang members, it also points the finger at the system“California’s Byzantine sentencing laws and a lenient court let the cholos escape jail time despite violating the law and their probation again and again, a Weekly investigation has found.”

While Arellano and San Roman have a point, perhaps they should take it to the next logical step.

It’s easy to point the finger at the courts, the probation system and say “it’s their fault too.”  But if we’re going to say the system shares the blame for a girl’s tragic murder, shouldn’t we also look at how the character of these two men was shaped? But if you go there, shouldn’t we go further?  We can’t pretend to know how these two men grew up, what sort of family life they led, who their friends where, how well they did in school, and if there were any “services to keep kids from the cholo life” that the writers say residents are asking for was ever used by the two gang members.  But what’s a more powerful deterrent to a life of crime than their own families?

The answer is no, we shouldn’t go further.  The system didn’t contribute to Meza’s death.  It was only the men in that car that fired a gun.

Again, we have no idea of the sort of childhood either man had, the struggles of their parents to raise them, the influence of extended family members, neighbors, friends, teachers, and others who probably did everything possible to keep these young men from, as the Weekly put it, “the Cholo life.”  Did they ever face discipline for bad behavior?  Were they encouraged to join a gang?  Did their families ignore warning signs?  Did someone give up on the pair?  Or were the families unable to stop the two from joining a gang.  So many questions with no answers.

The court system and the probation system and law enforcement community are not to blame either.  Both men were arrested before.  They had legal representation in court.  They made promises to the judge and certain behavior was expected of them.  They failed to hold up their end of the bargain — repeatedly.  The probation officer, Michael Redwood, clearly did his job making the case that both men should go to jail for violating the terms of their probation.  The judge sentenced the pair according to guidelines for their crimes, and the system sprung both for time served in accordance with existing law and policy.

There’s no question that the prison system needs reform.  These two should have been in jail instead of on the streets.  How many other cases like this are still “in the system?”

If you’re going to point the finger of blame at the justice system, then you may as well blame society as a whole—which starts with their families and neighborhoods and goes through to where they acquired guns, in spite of their criminal records, all the way to the judge.

The cops and the probation department did their jobs here, but Arellano and San Roman lump them in for a heaping share of blame. We believe the only people who are legitimately to blame for Ximena’s murder are the thugs who killed her.

While our society sometimes imposes the death penalty for crimes like Ximena’s murder, would it be better, for society as a whole, if the gangs themselves imposed a death penalty for such stupidity on the part of their members. Maybe they should tell their members to be sure their bullets hit their mark. If they don’t, and kill innocent people—children or adults, the gang itself will deliver swift and immediate justice for the victims. We suspect that such a penalty, once enforced a couple times, would make these thugs think twice before they shoot randomly at their rivals.

The system should have worked better here, but the blame of Ximena’s murder falls squarely on whoever pulled the trigger, missed their target, and hit Ximena instead. Not the system.  Not the families.  Not the neighborhoods.  Not society.

Just about every Latino family we know is a lot like every other family.  There’s a tremendous amount of love, support, discipline, rules, praise and joy.  But we’ll also note there are Asian gangs, African-American gangs, Irish and Italian ones too.  It’s not about ethnicity. It’s about an individual’s choice to be in a gang or to not be in a gang.  It’s a choice to be a good person or a bad one.  It’s a choice to do right instead of wrong.

Arellano and San Roman should point the finger of blame in only one direction — in the direction of the alleged shooters.

 

39 Comments

  1. Who’s willing to bet me 1000 bucks that Gustavo and Gabriel both voted yes for Proposition 47.

    These same two guys have also advocated for drivers licenses for undocumented immigrants, in state tuition for undocumented immigrants, low income housing, against gang injunctions and their OC Weekly derives most of its revenue selling ads for marijuana stores and nudie clubs where 18 year olds spread their legs for anyone willing to throw a dollar.

    Gustavo, Gabriel and the OC Weekly need look no further than the nearest mirror to see part of the system that failed Ximena Meza and many more just like her.

  2. Vile Dan at his best again! Meandering, whining, with no real point—and a week late to the story. Now, please, stop pretending to care about what happens in Anaheim and go console Larry the only way you know.

    • Now the world may stop spinning, but on this one I agree with Dan.

      You can’t blame the System if you were one of the niave ones who fell for the B/S of Jerry Brown, the Correction Officer & Police Unions and the mercenaries running worthless drug programs who support fewer prisoners in the System and money in their pockets. The rest of Law Enforcement opposed 47 and warned about dumping prisoners back on the streets. Sometimes the sheep have to learn the hard way and in future years when those nice prisoners who were released need money for their dope habits, guess whose door they will be breaking down.

      Don’t get me wrong, I support legitimate drug rehab programs, but statistics show with hard core addicts, the recovery rate is only 3%. My answer to the overcrowding issue is; if we need more jails contract them out to private vendors and start phasing the State Correctional Officers out of the existing prisons. Since that is a political issue for which Jerry Brown and his gang have no stomach, it will never happen.

  3. This bringing up Prop 47 is total bullshit. These two guys were charged with violent crimes, not ones whose sentences would have been reduced under 47. If anything, the effect of Prop 47 would be to allow more room in the jails for dangerous guys like Ricardo and Alfredo.

    So this anonymous commenter can go take a long walk on a short pier, and so can Dan if he wants to pile on, and G&G should be proud of voting yes on 47 if that’s what they did.

    • Vern: You know Vile Dan and his core readers are Jordan Brandman liberals—gabachos who want to act like Great White Fathers to Latinos—so no need to pile on their scat haha

      • Says Gustavo without a shred of evidence or proof. Must be fun to just make up your mind about what someone else thinks

      • why is it you are incapable of debate without using an ethnic perjorative? Can we stop with the racist insults?

    • Vern. Are you back on the Jack Daniels or are your reading comprehension skills that poor? These two criminal bozos had both been busted for assault with a deadly weapon previously as well as having been busted for possession of knifes, billy clubs and other dangerous weapons. Maybe if these two ass clowns had been locked up for longer poor Ximena might be alive today.

      • Hey IDIOT. You can talk about reading comprehension? This latest comment of yours shows that you not only don’t know what Prop 47 does, but you also didn’t understand a sentence of my comment that you were responding to. It wasn’t that complicated – I think even Dan C and Lieutenant Pat understood it.

        I’m not paid to repeat myself in simpler and simpler terms until you finally clap your palm to your forehead and say with mortification, “Oh, I get it! I see what Vern was saying. NOW I think I know what Prop 47 does.” I suggest re-reading my comment again, out loud to yourself, three times, with pauses between each sentence for digestion. Yes, I probably would need a lot of JD to descend to your level of comprehension, pal.

        • Vern, don’t hijack the thread. GSR and Gustavo are trying too hard to call me a racist here. why don’t you comment on something you know a lot about? Like Andy Quach’s DUI arrest. What was your second one like?

          • I’m sorry I made the mistake of thinking you were a LITTLE bit smarter than this “Proposition 47” troll – you run a blog and you don’t even know what “hijacking a thread” means. Whether or not Prop 47 would have made a difference to saving Zimena’s life IS an appropriate topic of this thread – as is the discourse on your arrogant racial condescension. Since it’s now obvious that there are at least TWO people here too dumb to understand my first Prop 47 comment, I’ll try a little harder:

            – ALL of us wish Ximena were still alive, and wish these two douchebags had been kept behind bars longer, hadn’t gotten the “early kick.”

            – Prop 47 wouldn’t have made that happen, for two reasons:

            – It is only for non-violent, mostly drug, offenses,

            – It does NOT REDUCE ANY PENALTIES FOR VIOLENT OFFENSES such as these two jackasses were wont to commit.

            – On top of that, it would reduce overcrowding.

            – Since these two killing dipshits were let loose due to overcrowding, it would likely have allowed for them to be behind bars, and quite possibly have SAVED Ximena’s life rather than endangering it.

            I can only now cross my fingers that I wrote all that clearly enough for both Dan and the troll to understand. As far as YOUR hijacking, I’ve already written plenty about Quach’s arrest, in the comments section over on the OC’s better blog. When are we going to hear your poignant, soul-searching thoughts on Chris Christie’s gastric bypass surgery?

            • Meh, I had no idea my post was “arrogant racial condescension.” How exactly?

              I don’t care much about Chris Christie and he’s hardly relevant to the discussion here.

              Could you clarify for our readers how many DUIs you’ve had. I thought there were four. Someone else I spoke with today said it was like 6 or 7 and we all wondered how you were able to get a license again. So what’s the real number?

              I’m sure the Anaheim police are aware of the car you drive.

              • I sometimes forget that both you and Matt Cunningham are cursed with a sort of amnesiac condition in which you can never remember your own previous comment, and so suffer severe disorientation trying to remember what everyone else is responding to. It is a tragic condition. I’ll try to help:

                1. You WERE evincing concern over this thread getting “hijacked.”

                2. The proximate cause of that concern was that I was addressing the connection between Ximena’s death and the recently passed Proposition 47; you averred that the proper theme of this thread was YOUR racism, which I then did you the favor of softening slightly to “arrogant racial condescension.”

                3. Chris Christie and weight-loss surgery came up because, directly after accusing me of “hijacking the thread,” you invited me to opine on Andy Quach and DUI’s, and I thought that YOU waxing meditative on your own stomach-stapling experiences in light of the equally nasty and obese Republican Jersey Governor might be just as enlightening and relevant. Was I out of line?

                4. Your friends are WAY off on my DUI’s, I have had six this year alone! And of course the Anaheim police know what kind of car I drive, they send me out for beer runs pretty regularly.

                Toad.

                • The post has been up a week so it’s not like the chat is happening in real time. I fail to see how not blaming the system and the families and placing the blame on two young men who chose wrong over right is “arrogant racial condescension.” We’ve never written about Chris Christie’s weight or surgery. But I’m very glad I did mine as I am a lot more active today than I was six years ago.

                  If Andy winds up resigning his seat and since he says he’s “unemployed” that makes him a perfect blogger for the OJ blog, dontcha think? I mean one or two of your cabal has actually fulltime jobs right>?

  4. 3.71 violent crime for Anaheim.9.97 violent crime for Houston Texas. I used Houston Texas because conservative republicans in OC love Texas. Both are cities over 300,000, Anahiem a lot lower than Houston Texas. Stats taken from 2012. Would be more tough on crime make it lower maybe, but Houston Texas in Texas where you put them to death more has a higher violent crime rating.

  5. Enterprise-grade data for every neighborhood and city in the U.S./Enterprise Scout. I compared the two citieis since they both have lots of minorities. Houston is about 44 percent latino and 23 percent black and about 8 percent Asian. Anaheim is about 54 percent latino and 15 percent Asian and 2 percent black. Both have violent gangs and both are over 300,000 in population.

  6. Dan’s still trying to figure out a way to claim Mexis don’t really care about fratricidal violence in the community. #FAIL. And BTW, I sure as hell voted for Prop 47!

  7. I’m guessing that we are not going to see any sort of intelligent debate from Gustavo Arellano with regards to this issue. He appears to be unable to answer even the simplest of questions.

    Warmly yours,
    Pete Fundy

  8. Vern. Sorry you were too drunk to notice but Proposition 47 is turning out to be a nightmare.
    The habitual criminal in the news report attached was busted and released with a warning per Proposition 47 less than 24 hours before he tried to kidnap and rape and child on her way to school. Thanks to you and your pals Gustavo and Gabriel this child will suffer for the rest of her life because you all wanted criminals to wander freely with no consequences for their actions.

    http://abc7news.com/news/kidnap-suspect-booked-for-burglary-set-free-due-to-prop-47/397150/

  9. Gustavo Arellano,

    Congratulations on your appointment as the spokesperson for all Latino people.

    Warmly yours,
    Pete Fundy

      • Gustavo Arellano,

        Why do you bitch, whine and moan about gentrification yet drink 14 year old scotch in the Downtown Santa Ana bars you claim to despise and then go home to your Anglo wife? You couldn’t even bring yourself to marry a Latina.

        Warmly,
        Pete Fundy

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