It wasn’t exactly the sort of headline that Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido and his cabal were looking for going into the November City Council elections. “Santa Ana rattled by four shootings, including three in 24 hours,” but Tony Barboza’s latest article in the L.A. Times was quite accurate, as was the sub-title: “The gunfire stirs memories of a time when gang violence colored life in the city’s hard-pressed core.”
“Police called the shootings a temporary spike amid an overall downward trend in violent crime in the city.” That would be a big, fat lie! As we have been reporting here over the past couple of years, violent crime is NOT going down in Santa Ana. How anyone can say that when we have led the county in carjackings, wait – no other O.C. city that I know of has had carjackings – is beyond me.
Clowncilman David Benavides told Barboza that the cops need to focus their attention where the crime is. Uh-oh. Pulido won’t like losing his private security force in his rityz Floral Park neighborhood!
One apartment manager noticed an increase in vandalism and thefts over the last few months, “”Now it’s shootings, killings and pursuits,” he said. And he was right.
And, as Barboza put it, at this point last year Santa Ana had suffered 11 shootings. This year they are already at 15 shootings. That is NOT a decrease in violent crime!
While the City’s EPIC/Gang Commission has done little to solve the gang problem in Santa Ana, its Chairman nailed the issue quite well, “Can the city be doing more? Yes.”
For starters when is our absentee Mayor, Pulido, going to address the problem? No other big city Mayor is as adept as Pulido at avoiding the press, except when it suits him, and at avoiding the issues in general. But this year he is up against Councilwoman Michele Martinez. Does that mean he will actually hold a press conference, with our lame Chief of Police Paul Walters, and actually talk to the media and his constituents about what is going on in our city? Doubt it.
And will Martinez hold her own press conference? Doubt it. Instead the crime and shootings will continue unabated. Even the Border Patrol has gotten into the act. The O.C. Register is reporting that four men were arrested “in Santa Ana by border patrol agents following a chase that started at the immigration checkpoint near San Clemente.”
A Santa Ana resident said that “said the border patrol vehicle crashed into the back of the Navigator, pushing it onto the sidewalk, and causing it to hit a vent pipe that went flying about 40 to 50 feet in the air before landing near children.”
The resident then said that the chase and its conclusion were “five times more dangerous than the earthquake.” But the Border Patrol and the SAPD nabbed four guys – two thought to be immigrant smugglers and the other two thought to be immigrants. Boy I feel safer already! Not.
If only the SAPD would expend such efforts going after the gang members in Santa Ana – most of whom are not immigrants.
And if only our idiotic Mayor, Pulido, had actually done his job over the last twenty years. How many new libraries has L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa opened since he took office? I counted 72 branches on the L.A. Library website.
Let’s call it like it is. Pulido has spent twenty years trying to get rid of his fellow Mexicans. Villaraigosa, who is hardly my favorite politician, has opened I am guessing over a dozen libraries and Adult Literacy Centers, at least, during his brief tenure as Mayor of Los Angeles.
Why the difference? Because Villaraigosa does not hate his constituents. Pulido does. Pulido could have spent the last twenty years trying to help folks get educated and move up the socio-economic ladder. Instead he spent all that time hating and trying to gentrify the city.
So is it a surprise that Santa Ana is drowning in crime? No. Will local voters do something about this in November? Hard to say. My co-blogger Thomas Gordon spent two years kissing up to the “Usual Suspects” hoping in vain that they would turn on Pulido. The lot of them have been serving on Pulido’s campaign commitee. Every last one of them. Gordon was so disgusted he dropped out of the Mayor’s race.
But George Collins is in. If anyone really thinks that Martinez will do much more than Pulido, please feel free to vote for her. I will be voting for Collins. I KNOW he wants change we can believe in. After watching Martinez for the past couple of years I have serious doubts she can deliver. And after watching Pulido for over 15 years I KNOW he can’t.
“And, as Barboza put it, at this point last year Santa Ana had suffered 11 shootings. This year they are already at 15 shootings. That is NOT a decrease in violent crime!”
No Art, that’s an increase in shootings. But there are other forms of violent crime. And so you have to take ALL of those forms of violent crime into account before anyone starts claiming where the overall trend in Part 1 crime is heading.
Additionally, you and Thomas keep pointing to very specific incidents and brief periods in order to refute a much broader claim that the city is making. In other words, you’re not comparing your oranges to their apples. Anyone can do that to make a point, but it ain’t exactly fair.
That said, it is truly a shame that Pulido is AWOL on this issue…like so many other things. He should have made a statement to the Times. A real leader would at least have tried to calm any fears that citizens may have.
Art…you would actually have some credibility if you presented this stuff fairly…but alas…you don’t!!!
Santa Ana is horrible…blah, blah, blah…Pulido is an idiot…blah, blah, blah…Clowncilman this…blah, blah, blah. It’s always the same old regurgitated post. Have I not read this same post (more or less) dozens of times.
it’s so boring..and so sad…so pathetic.
Please get better at your job!!
Art,
If you really cared about reducing crime you would be pushing for Santa Ana to crack down on illegal immigration. If Santa Ana deported all the illegal gang members in Santa Ana, it would reduce crime dramatically. Of course, you are going to accuse the city of racism it even considered doing anything about illegal immigration. You are the biggest hypocrite in Orange County. On one hand you want the Santa Ana to cut down in crime, but you viciously attack anyone that wants to do something about the crime of illegal immigration. You even attack those that only want to see illegal alien criminals deported.
If Santa Ana deported all the illegal gang members in Santa Ana…
Not only do statistics debunk you, Lover Boy, so does my experience. I was in Theo Lacy once (DUI) and the five ethnic groups in which inmates self-segregate (with the engouragement of the sherrifs)are ‘Woods (peckerwoods or whites), Brothers (not many in OC), Chinos (Asians), Southsiders and Paisas.
The Southsiders are all gang members (or else pretend to be while they’re in jail) and about 90% Chicano – that’s, born in the US, English-speaking, American citizens of Mexican descent.
The Paisas (short for paisano) are immigrants from Mexico and Central America, mostly undocumented, no tattoos, they don’t KNOW from gangs, they’re mostly there for marijuana or getting drunk and hitting their wives, and they tend to disappear into deportation vans in the middle of the night.
That’s what I saw in 2005, and that’s what the official statistics and records all say. There is no “crime wave” of illegal immigrants, and the huge bulk of OC gang members are hispanic US citizens. (unless things have changed dramatically in the last three years.)
#2,
Pulido has been in office for over 20 years. If anyone needs to do a better job it is him! In the interim we will continue to point out his absolute failure as our Mayor…
#3,
Vern is right. Most gangbangers are US citizens.
#3
You’re an idiot. Look no further than our crumbly financial institutions and you will learn they are all U.S. born citizens. It’s time for you to remove your hate glasses and take a long hard look at the American and how he has brought more ruination to this country than any illegal/undocumented person.
#2
Get some gumption and start up your own political blog. Overall, Art’s blog has been a service to the community. For you, the glass will always be half empty.
Keep up the good work Mr. Pedroza.