Report gang crimes, councilman says
I would like to comment on the growing gang problem we are
experiencing.
I was on a ride along almost two years ago when gang members
killed a man at the Community Center. While in Sacramento this last
week I was informed of the gang fight that took place on East and
First streets. There was also a drive-by shooting that may have
been gang related last week. A 7-11 clerk was stabbed recently by a
gang member stealing beer. A young man newly arrived from Mexico
was beaten to death a few weeks ago by a gang member with a pipe,
who thought him to be a member of a different gang. He was not. I
have seen a home, and the car in front of it, shot full of holes by
gang members. Every time the windows were replaced in this home,
gang members would come and bust them out with bats, bullets,
rocks, and full cans of beer.
Report gang crimes, councilman says
I would like to comment on the growing gang problem we are experiencing.
I was on a ride along almost two years ago when gang members killed a man at the Community Center. While in Sacramento this last week I was informed of the gang fight that took place on East and First streets. There was also a drive-by shooting that may have been gang related last week. A 7-11 clerk was stabbed recently by a gang member stealing beer. A young man newly arrived from Mexico was beaten to death a few weeks ago by a gang member with a pipe, who thought him to be a member of a different gang. He was not. I have seen a home, and the car in front of it, shot full of holes by gang members. Every time the windows were replaced in this home, gang members would come and bust them out with bats, bullets, rocks, and full cans of beer.
In regards to the recent increase in graffiti, or “tagging,” I do think that the tagging has impacted businesses negatively when the business has to daily paint over this stuff. And that has been the case with one prominent business that wishes to remain anonymous in Hollister, and I am sure there are others. Having to paint over this garbage eats up “man hours,” or labor, not to mention material costs, and it should not be a part of doing business here in Hollister.
The sound wall behind my house is continually tagged; I have always just gone out and covered the stuff up. I purchase paint to match the wall. I go up and down the street painting over graffiti. I talked to the Police Chief and he has asked me to report graffiti on the wall. They take pictures of the graffiti. The same “tags” can be attributed to the same person. It is considered property damage, and in my ride along with Gilroy PD, I found that they have been able to charge some of the cases as felonies, as the property damage is in excess of what would be charged as a misdemeanor. Our Police Chief Bill Pierpoint says that is the case here as well, that they can and will charge if the damage is enough. Please report graffiti to the Police Department.
The Hollister Police Department holds a class on Saturday at the High
School, an anti gang program called the Juvenile Impact Program. I talked with one officer involved and the youth are at these classes as either a condition of probation, or because the parents have sought help in dealing with a child who may be involved in gangs. The program includes classes for parents on how to recognize and deal with the gang issues and their children. Please contact Richard Vasquez at the Hollister Police Department if you are interested and would like more information. And while these programs are a part of the solution, I think those that cause damage, or injure others through gang activities need to be held accountable for their actions. Enforcement must be a part of any anti-gang strategy.
I think education early in our schools is the most effective way to steer our valued youth away from gangs. And we should value each and every one of our youth, as they are our future. Our youth must be shown that there are other paths, that there are success stories, and one does not need to travel the gang path. It takes parents, neighbors, community groups, and schools working together. There are many success stories to point to, people who have achieved through effort, through hard work, who have overcome obstacles to make a life for themselves, and become productive members of our society. We need to invest in our youth, invest in their education. The education of our youth should always be viewed as an investment in all of our futures, especially theirs.
If you were to ask this Council Member what ranks the highest on our list of priorities (and I speak only for myself), for me it is jobs for this community. And that includes jobs for our youth, the other path that can be taken by them. To get there we have many issues to deal with, first and foremost a wastewater treatment plant, as we can’t build any new businesses without it. Many speak of the fines the city may face if we don’t reach our milestones in getting a wastewater treatment facility in place, but even the maximum fine pales in comparison to the lost opportunities in luring businesses, and the jobs they would bring, to this community.
I will work in a positive and productive manner to see that we reach our goals in the coming two years, and beyond.
Brian Conroy
Hollister District 1
Barrier to the truth?
It would be a cold day in hell when The Pinnacle lets Rebecca McGovern ghost write their editorial section. Steve Mitchell’s Jan. 9 letter to The Pinnacle in favor of the Caltrans barrier really bothered me. This committee was made up of six volunteers. Yes, only six out of a population of 1,652 people – and I was one of the six. Four of us went to every Caltrans presentation. Where were you, Mr. Mitchell? If my memory serves me correctly, you showed up for only the last meeting, when Caltrans was not present. At this meeting you told us that you never even drove this beautiful and historical highway and that you entered and exited San Juan via the back roads.
How can you say that Caltrans showed us several options when you were never present from day one? There was only one person who opposed this barrier from day one, and that is Rebecca McGovern. Ms. McGovern, like the rest of us, finally compromised and supported the idea of a very attractive and sage wooden barrier. We now know that Caltrans had decided upon the concrete barrier before our committee ever met.
Mr. Mitchell, we are not “anti-everything new.” We are just longtime citizens who enjoy the jewel of San Benito County, our very own San Juan Bautista. Mr. Mitchell, if you like concrete barriers so much, permit me to make a suggestion: move to Hollister and eat pizza with Quaid and LoBue.
For the people of San Juan Bautista (pop. 1,652) may I suggest that we change the name of our main street to “The McGovern Alameda.”
James “The Colonel” Dulin
San Juan Bautista
Initiative costs landowners
I would like to take issue with the citizen’s growth control initiative written about in The Pinnacle last week.
The greatest threat to American agriculture is not development, but cheap, unregulated agricultural imports under NAFTA and GATT, and costly, burdensome regulations by local, state and federal agencies that are driving farmers and ranchers out of business.
Basically, the ordinance would reduce the value of rural, San Benito County lands, which will drastically limit farmers’ and ranchers’ ability to finance operations and/or expansion by reducing their real estate collateral, not to mention what it will do to the assessed valuation of lands and the commensurate reduction of tax revenue to county coffers.
In closing, this coercive, utopian concept is a $400 million plus takings of the value of rural San Benito County’s productive sector.
John W. Eade
Hollister
Remember Dr. King
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a tenacious individual who firmly embraced the ideals of equality and justice until his unfortunate and brutal death on April 4, 1968. A little more than 30 years ago he struggled to eliminate the racist barriers that prevented African Americans, and other people of color, and poor people from becoming equal citizens of the United States. Dr. King utilized the tactics of nonviolent civil disobedience against the mightiest superpower on earth, while facing political, physical, verbal and psychological abuse.
Through eloquent speeches, marches and persistent organizing Dr. King challenged centuries of oppression, violence, brutality and discrimination by
inspiring a national movement for peace, equality and justice. He not only struggled for racial equality, but also advocated a global perspective that was
critical of imperialism, causing him to publicly oppose the Vietnam War. He was more than a dreamer; he lived, struggled and died for his ideals.
Due to efforts of human rights and civil rights activists, Congress finally declared a holiday to celebrate the life and accomplishments of Dr. King, which we will celebrate on Monday. Dr. King made the most significant contributions to expanding democratic, civil and human rights in the U.S. Those
who honor his ideals will continue his struggle. The ideas of Dr. King can be found in, A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin
Luther King, Jr. (1991 Harper Collins).
Joe Navarro
Hollister
Willow Springs has two access roads
Willow Springs has two roads that access the subdivision along with five driveways off of Panoche Road. As for access to “basic” utilities, there are a number of residences that are powered “off the grid”; that is solar or wind power that get along quite nicely when the PGE power is out for the rest of our neighbors. And I don’t hear the “churning drone of gas-powered generators.”
I do believe that Willow Springs has its planning “mistakes.” It was subdivided over 30 years ago when growth like we see daily was not an issue. Growth is a matter of concern for everyone in the county and the public’s input
and vote is necessary.
Nicholas Peters
Painines
Beyond SBC
Thank you very much for your unique newspaper. I enjoy it every Thursday over your web site, which has a generous amount of content; it’s newsworthy (not fluff); your editorials take brave stands for these days; is unusual in the creative writing (Kate Woods’ abilities to clearly report a news story or to play with words, irony and sarcasm in her columns and Mark Paxton’s unashamed appreciations); the awesome photographs. Of course, I miss Bob Valenzuela’s ‘mixing it up’, but have found your work carries on strongly, even so. You’re much appreciated.
Barbara Schablik
Former SBC resident
To the green Ford Excursion
Thank you for nearly killing me and my sleeping 4-year-old son this morning on Highway 25 in your effort to not to let me merge in front of you. Thank you for ignoring my beeps to let you know I was there in case you hadn’t seen me. Thank you for running me off the road and onto the shoulder. Thank you for being so selfish, thoughtless, rude, pushy and idiotic. I’m sure you feel like a big man since you drive such a big car and thrive on all the power you have to drive over tiny cars and their insignificant passengers in your effort to do what you want when you want and not let anyone in front of you.
It got you really far, too. You got one whole car length in front of me. You got to wait for the train to pass in front of me too. And you gave me plenty of time to write down all your information, including your license plate number to report to the police. Again, thank you! I hope it was worth it.
Thank you sincerely to whoever decided to pave that section of the shoulder when they did or my son and I would probably be another Highway 25 casualty.
Kelley Taylor
Hollister
Sanitized language
“Weapons of Mass Destruction” (now known as WMD’s), “collateral damage,” “body count,” – phrases we use to sanitize what we’re really talking about, war. The “weapons” are nuclear bombs that vaporize and irradiate human beings and germs and gases that kill horribly. “Collateral damage,” those are the innocents caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, but no less dead. “Body count,” that’s all the dead people, hundreds of thousands of them. We don’t even have to look the enemy in the eye anymore, we just push a button. Our children (and regrettably a good many adults as well) think that warfare is just another video game. It’s not. It’s just death and devastation. It doesn’t solve problems nor does it make any of us any safer in the long run.
Susan Swanson
Paicines
