What’s Alarming Is Gang Crime
What’s Alarming Is Gang Crime
Editor,
Joe Navarro’s recent letter to the editor about gang prevention (“Prevention is Key to Solving Hollister’s Gang Problem,” April 7) was interesting, to say the least.
According to Mr. Navarro, the most alarming aspect of the increasing gang violence in Hollister is that it’s “brown-on-brown” violence.
Hmmm … does this mean he would find “brown-on-white” gang violence, or “white-on-black” gang violence a little more acceptable, and a little less alarming?
That’s the impression I get.
Rather than put the blame squarely where it belongs, Mr. Navarro proclaims that society is somehow at fault. These poor kids are “culturally alienated.” They have “poor self-esteem.” They are the victims of “social inequality.”
This kind of finger-pointing, along with the belief that certain groups of people are not fully responsible for their actions because of their ethnicity, is both un-American and repugnant.
What I find most alarming, however, is that the recent spate of violence is the by-product of a drug war in Hollister.
According to local police, these thugs are fighting for control over the distribution of illegal drugs in our community – where our friends and families live, and where our children go to school.
The drugs these gang-bangers are peddling undermine everything good that we want for our children.
That’s what’s alarming to me – not the drug-dealer’s race, the killer’s skin color, or the gang-banger’s ethnicity. When criminals kill and conspire to flood our streets with illicit drugs, put the blame where it belongs – on them (and to a lesser extent, their parents). Not the rest of us.
Rather than spending a lot of energy and tax dollars increasing these violent criminals’ self-esteem, or their “cultural and ethnic pride,” I suggest we throw them in jail for much longer periods of time.
Michael Stotler
Hollister
Watch Those Water, Sewer Fees
Editor,
I would like to heartily applaud your editorial encouraging San Benito County and its cities to collaborate on waste disposal (“Collaboration Could Pay Off,” April 12), in order to cut costs.
Let me suggest that this collaboration should go much farther.
Hollister residents are all too well aware of recent rate increases to cover the cost of new sewer capacity. But your paper has taken little notice of recent actions by the Sunnyslope County Water District. It has recently raised its connection fees for sewer to $15,650 and for water to $10,692.
The Sunnyslope board is studying whether to make use of Hollister sewer capacity or to increase the size of its own sewer plant.
Given these huge increases in various fees, perhaps it is time for the Hollister and Sunnyslope water agencies to be combined in order to reduce costs.
Of course this will be fiercely resisted by those who have a vested interest in these two little empires, but the greater public good would seem to demand that this be done before costs go even higher.
Robert Gilchrist Huenemann
Hollister
