This story made my blood boil. Here’s a church-going kid living like he’s supposed to, has a full ride waiting on him, and he gets shot to death by a gang. From the story:
[QUOTE]
Authorities say it appears the gang members asked Shaw if he belonged to a gang, and shot him even though he answered no.
“This is brutal. It’s a brutal, senseless act of violence,” said LAPD Detective Frank Carillo. “The victim was not a gang member, and unfortunately it’s not uncommon in L.A. that we have some gang members approaching victims at random just to see if they are or are not [gang members] – but to shoot him anyway? That’s just disgusting.”
[/QUOTE]
This domestic terrorism has got to end. Police gang units need to be rounding these people up and getting them off the streets and in a permanent cell, or the cycle will continue.
[URL=http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local&id=5996740][B][U][COLOR=Blue]KABC.com: Star football player slain in gang shooting[/COLOR][/U][/B][/URL]
Breaks my heart to see this story. My thoughts and prayers are with the mother and father. This story makes zero sense… This was a super kid on his way to doing good things.
This story made my blood boil. Here's a church-going kid living like he's supposed to, has a full ride waiting on him, and he gets shot to death by a gang. From the story:
This domestic terrorism has got to end. Police gang units need to be rounding these people up and getting them off the streets and in a permanent cell, or the cycle will continue.
[QUOTE=49or bust;301493]Decriminalizing and strongly regulating hard drugs would put a huge dent in the gang world and this kind of violence.[/QUOTE]
I don’t necessarily agree with that. People do crazy $hit when they are on hard drugs. Making them legal might cut down on some of the criminal activity that comes from selling, but it would likely increase the number of people on the hard stuff and lead to more after-effect crime. There would still be gangs. They would find something else to shoot people over.
Martial law on gangs probably isn’t the answer either, but I would opt for it before legalizing drugs.
I don't necessarily agree with that. People do crazy $hit when they are on hard drugs. Making them legal might cut down on some of the criminal activity that comes from selling, but it would likely increase the number of people on the hard stuff and lead to more after-effect crime. There would still be gangs. They would find something else to shoot people over.
Martial law on gangs probably isn’t the answer either, but I would opt for it before legalizing drugs.
The big thing in this is the type of regulation. If it is done well it should limit the amount of crime committed by users. I’d wager that the majority of crime committed by users is just them trying to get funds for their habit. Eliminate these costs and they have no reason to commit those crimes. Psychedelic drugs like LSD and PCP and maybe even Crystal Meth would also need special handling as they can lead to truly heinous acts, but cocaine and heroin don’t do that as much.
In any event, any increase in crime by users would be greatly outweighed by a decrease in gang violence. Drugs are the life line of the gang world. They get most of their money from illegal drug sales and this is what keeps them going. We will never win the war on drugs and they will always get money from it. If they didn’t have this money they would attract less new members, they would not be able to sustain as many members, and their general activities would decline. Sure they can make money through other means but it is not nearly as easy or profitable. This then becomes a snowball effect as less people get involved in gangs and instead do something less detrimental to society. Property values go up, kids get jobs, and these communities become more successful.
[QUOTE=X-49er;301326]This story made my blood boil. Here’s a church-going kid living like he’s supposed to, has a full ride waiting on him, and he gets shot to death by a gang. From the story:
This domestic terrorism has got to end. Police gang units need to be rounding these people up and getting them off the streets and in a permanent cell, or the cycle will continue.
[URL=http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local&id=5996740][B][U][COLOR=Blue]KABC.com: Star football player slain in gang shooting[/COLOR][/U][/B][/URL][/QUOTE]
Has anyone heard the news stories about “people” ringing doorbells and if no one opens the door they kick the door down and steal toasters, blenders, vacumes, pots-pans etc. Strange stuff to steal. Also I lent my trailor to a buddy who lives in a nice area of south Charlotte. It was stolen out of his driveway this weekend. Who steals a trailor???
[QUOTE=lake49er;301573]Has anyone heard the news stories about “people” ringing doorbells and if no one opens the door they kick the door down and steal toasters, blenders, vacumes, pots-pans etc. Strange stuff to steal. Also I lent my trailor to a buddy who lives in a nice area of south Charlotte. It was stolen out of his driveway this weekend. Who steals a trailor???[/QUOTE]
Metal prices, especially steel and copper, can be resold at a premium now. The cost of those two materials over the last four years is 2.5 times what it was. A thief can make a nice nickel taking this stuff to a metal recycling place with few questions asked.
A trailer is an easy disassembly for anyone who knows how to operate a blow torch. Then they take the pieces to the local metal center and it will never be found out.
Some of the contractors I work with have told me stories of thieves torch cutting catalytic converters off of newer pieces of equipment for the certain type of metal inside of it. Those things aren’t cheap to replace, either.
[QUOTE=X-49er;301634]Metal prices, especially steel and copper, can be resold at a premium now. The cost of those two materials over the last four years is 2.5 times what it was. A thief can make a nice nickel taking this stuff to a metal recycling place with few questions asked.
A trailer is an easy disassembly for anyone who knows how to operate a blow torch. Then they take the pieces to the local metal center and it will never be found out.
Some of the contractors I work with have told me stories of thieves torch cutting catalytic converters off of newer pieces of equipment for the certain type of metal inside of it. Those things aren’t cheap to replace, either.[/QUOTE]
I work for an engineering firm that does consulting for many of NC’s power companies and there are stupid people breaking into substations trying to steal grounding wire. Additionally, costs for construction of substations have sky rocketed.