In response to the Kristi Reyes and Gil Cortez in their letters
to the editor talking about how Albertsons and Jack In The Box
should not allow teens to hang around their stores, I have to say
that these two writers should look at both sides of what is going
on.
Editor,
In response to the Kristi Reyes and Gil Cortez in their letters to the editor talking about how Albertsons and Jack In The Box should not allow teens to hang around their stores, I have to say that these two writers should look at both sides of what is going on.
I’m a student at San Andreas, and I really like that school. The teachers care about you, the staff looks out for you and the principal is a really nice guy. We get off of school around 12:20pm, and most of us have to return to school around 1:10pm. This leaves us with a “lunch hour” of eating at Jack In The Box, or shopping at Albertsons. Those who don’t have money usually just hang around with their friends. It’s the exact same situation at San Benito High, except that smoking isn’t as prevalent there.
These kids aren’t doing drugs, they aren’t killing people. We are sitting in a parking lot on our lunch hour doing our own thing. Albertsons has called the police to come chase us away on grounds of “loitering,” but we come right back. No one that hangs out there is stealing merchandise from these stores, we are just kids being kids. If you don’t have a problem with them, they don’t have a problem with you.
I suppose the adult community of Hollister expects us to have our parents come pick us up and take us all the way home, only to drive us back an hour later? What do you want us to do? It’s absolutely absurd that you would treat a group of teenagers hanging out (after they just went to school like they are supposed to) like criminals. Apparently, you ma’am were never a teen yourself. You have to understand that students in the parking lot is not “escalating gang violence.”
I only wish that most of the residents here that write letters to the editor (and those who do not) even knew what they were talking about when they speak of gang violence. I’m around gangs all day, every day, and so is anyone who lives in Hollister. What you have to understand is this: the gang problem can not technically be stopped. Thousands of teenagers, and adults, and even children as young as 12 are in gangs, and because this is really the only thing that they have pride in in their lives, they will fight to the death to defend it. Putting a few more cops on the police force, or painting over some graffiti is not going to rid the city of gangs.
James Martin, Hollister
