A thirteen year old boy, who was walking with his sister nearby Santa Ana High School this afternoon, was shot today, according to the O.C. Register. My sources tell me that the shooter was a gang banger. And even worse, the young man has passed away.
I am at a loss for words. What kind of city has Santa Ana become that children cannot walk home without being shot and killed? My prayers go out to the family and friends of this young man who was brutally taken away from them.
My daughter just graduated this year from Santa Ana High School. She was on the water polo team and I had a chance to get to know a lot of her fellow students. There are a lot of great kids over at Santa Ana High School – and now they all have to wonder if they are even remotely safe?
The irony is that the shooting took place mere blocks from the Santa Ana Police Department headquarters.
Clearly we have a gang element in our city that is out of control. An occassional police sweep just isn’t going to suffice. We need a long term commitment to changing the underlying factors that have led us down this path.
I have said this before and it bears repeating – we have only one library in a city of almost 400,000 people. We are woefully short on parks and sports fields. We don’t have enough youth programs during the summer. And our Mayor and City Council spend most of their time scheming to gentrify the city rather than coming to terms with our situation.
And to top it all off, the City Council gave a massive raise to Santa Ana City Manager Dave Ream this year – even though we are now in a $28 million budget deficit. What has Ream done to deserve this raise? Our city’s streets are literally running with blood – and in 20 years all he has mustered is a one-time police sweep? Isn’t it time to fire Ream and bring new leadership and new ideas to City Hall?
Our crime situation is long past being an issue – it is a full-blown crisis! Eleven people have been murdered this year in Santa Ana, compared to 18 all of last year.
I wonder if our Mayor will finally hold a press conference and announce a plan to take back our city from the criminals? I truly doubt that Pulido will step up to the plate. No, most likely he is keeping busy plotting to destroy his political opponents, while children pay the price for his ineptitude and disregard.
UPDATE:
“The victim, whose name was not released, was crossing the street in a group at Walnut and Flower streets about 3:10 p.m. when someone in another group of teenagers approached him and demanded to know his gang affiliation, said Cpl. Jose Gonzalez,” according to the L.A. Times.
UPDATE:
The SAPD announced today that they caught the shooter. He is thought to be a juvenile between 15 and 16 years old. Apparently Pulido finally held a press conference! Que milagro…
Our kids need to be safe, SA City Council, Mayor, Police Department need to step up. This is just shameful!
Sending Prayers to this young mans family and friends!
This is what happens when you have city managers and and police administrators who are out of touch with the population.
It is time the citizens did something such as showing up to council meetings nd calling for not just Paul Walters to resign already but for his entire command staff to go as well as Dave Reams.
I bet if you had 10 or 15 speakers a night doing this change would come.
Here’s the LA Times story. Funny thing is, it has tomorrow’s date on it: September 11, 2008. This situation, this depression in which people are taking a kill-or-be-killed attitude, has been seven years in the making.
… this is just one more reason why we need somebody like Art Pedroza on the City Council.
SMS
Santa Ana seems to get scarier everyday.
It is such a shame.
Santa Ana needs help, but comparing the situation here to Oakland is ludicrous.
2006 Violent Crimes per 100,000 Nationally = 553
2006 Violent Crimes per 100,000 Santa Ana = 581
2006 Violent Crimes per 100,000 Oakland = 1,905
Bring us all great sadness to hear such tragic news. God Bless this family.
Yes Art, tell us how with your vast gang and social work experience how you plan to handle this issue any different than the way it is currently being handled by our city leaders.
Ron,
How exactly our the “city leaders” handling it? They have ignored this problem for 20 years! Do you EVER recall ANY of them having a press conference to address this issue – so they could outline their ideas? I don’t.
Ream and his cronies run this town. The City Council lays down for him, as does Pulido. I guarantee you that if ANY of the 11 people killed this year were white City Hall would be in an uproar.
Ream doesn’t care about the dead as long as they are brown – at least that is what it looks like.
I already have written extensively about what I would do. Why don’t you go ask the “city leaders” what their plans are? Or do you already know that the answer will be awkward silence?
Anon 8:03,
Is it? Oakland started out just like us. That is where we are headed. Do you really think Ream and company are going to stem this red tide? Really?
Does Ream even live in Santa Ana? Just a thought if he doesn’t maybe thats why he doesn’t care.
I believe Art will give this issue a voice and hopeful people will listen.
Art,
What red tide? The statistics do not support that characterization.
Thank you Art for addressing the underlying issues.
Unfortunately, neither SAUSD board nor City Council have the majority vote needed to implement policy providing the support that our Santa Ana youth need (like adequate supervised park grounds and libraries).
(My kids tried to study in the afterschool homework room at the city library, but found the supervisors rather hostile and resources inadequate).
Some improvements would be:
1. More joint agreements between school district & city to provide afterschool programs/sports in the school field/play areas.
2. Onsight satellite police stations to support supervised afterschool recreation & classes at parks and school fields. The city police headquarters are amazingly beautiful, but it seems like a country club that works against encourage police to spend time in the community connecting to the youth in a supportive way.
…yes, our city manager is overpaid….
At this point the city and school district are not accountable. This sad event was an example of the fallout due to lack of care.
“Does Ream even live in Santa Ana?”
No he lives behind the gates in Coto De Caza.
We should demand that our department heads and especially our city manager live in Santa Ana.
We should also offer incentives to our city employees, especially our police officers and fire personnel, to live in the city. I think that would give them a vested interest in the community they serve and not just see it as a paycheck.
Finally,
I agree on most of your statement. I have found the fire department services are doled out equitably and professionally throughout the city. In this case, we can exclude them from the “live-in” requirement.
Ream and Walters must go! Pudrido & the rest of the Cabal will soon follow. Not until SA gets rid of those two “Ol’ Boy” relics will the city ever begin to see progress into this 21st century we are living in now. I totally agree that the department heads should also be required to live in the city too.
Thanks CLAUDIA ALVAREZ for keeping our streets safe!
Why would Claudia care what happens in her ward? She keeps getting reelected and rumor has it that she lives in Irvine. What a disappointing lack of leadership that shows.
SMS
Kim, your heart is in the right place, but feel good nonsense won’t help. Someone who guns down a 13 year-old kid on a busy street next to a high school WILL NOT BE DETERRED BY SOCIAL PROGRAMS. “afterschool programs/sports” WILL NOT DETER THSES GANG BANGERS! Please, lets be realistic and attack the culture of impunity that reigns supreme in Santa Ana.
Anon 9:33,
My but you are deluded! Just go to the Register’s Santa Ana page and look at how many of the Santa Ana stories have to do with crime and carnage on our streets.
How many other OC Cities had carjackings this year?
How many have had 11 deaths so far this year?
And now a 13 year old has been gunned down in broad daylight mere blocks from the Santa Ana Police headquarters.
If you don’t think this is a crisis than you must think Ream is a great City Manager…
Art I can appreciate your concern on this incident, but this is nothing new. After school shootings, stabbings (such as last weeks incident) have been on going for years. The occurance next to a school no longer matters. Hell no one bothered to mention the dead body found under the 5th street riverbed bridge was next to Spurgeon Intermediate.
The only difference now is if you watch the 11 o’clock news today you can witness the Sgt of the school police (big tall guy you can’t miss) talking and laughing with city police around the crime scene. Years ago the cops tried to at least act like they cared.
Has Santa Ana ever tried to use the Community Policing concept? It requires a lot more officers on the streets and a host of community relations professionals to organize the city neighborhood by neighborhood. Perhaps the ICE officers, who are under-utilized due to the lack of illegal immigrants among the criminals, could be retrained for community organizing.
Or in an out-of-the-box solution we could register the gangs as candidates for mayor and city council. I hear Pulido is brutal in eliminating those guys.
Sean-
I knew it! Why would people who don’t live in this city give a rats a** about its residents.
“We should demand that our department heads and especially our city manager live in Santa Ana.”
I agree with you yet again Sean…hell must be so cold now hehe.
Sean –
While it would be ideal to require police officers to live in Santa Ana, it should not become policy or else recruitment efforts could be seriously hindered.
Rob –
‘Someone who guns down a 13 year-old kid on a busy street next to a high school WILL NOT BE DETERRED BY SOCIAL PROGRAMS. “afterschool programs/sports” WILL NOT DETER THSES GANG BANGERS!‘
True, but the point of the programs isn’t to rehabilitate, it’s to keep kids off the streets in the first place while they’re still young.
SMS
Art,
We all know that crime is worse in Santa Ana that in SOME Orange County cities. But to call it a “red tide” is simply hyperbole in the extreme.
Anon 10:42,
Really? Here are the OC Register’s “recent headlines” for our City of Santa Ana:
Man fatally shot in drive-by left 1-year-old daughter
* Suspect in custody in shooting of 13-year-old boy
* Coroner investigating Santa Ana baby’s death
* Jury says brain-damaged killer still dangerous
* Police say information in killing may mean $50,000 reward.
* Body found near Santa Ana riverbed ID’d
* Santa Ana facing $10 million suit over police shooting
* Police look for armed man who held up bank in Ralphs
* Police arrest man suspected in ‘mummy bandit’ robbery
No other city in Orange County has headlines like that…or at least that many of them.
Ch.2 now reports 2 arrests in yesterdays shooting. Not surprising that it hasn’t been reported here.
Richard-
Please go back and read the UPDATES posted above early this AM which state:
UPDATE:
The SAPD announced today that they caught the shooter. He is thought to be a juvenile between 15 and 16 years old. Apparently Pulido finally held a press conference! Que milagro…
Does apprehending the killers make it better? Some think this somehow takes away the responsibility from government leadership.
I heard that when asked about the shooting of the 13 year old boy. The immediate response from the City Manager was, he had a long rap sheet and was a long time gang member. HUh??????
Is this supposed to lessen the senseless tragedy?
Can a 13 year old have a long rap sheet and be a long time gang member?
This is our leadership?
Does it matter how many deaths in Santa Ana by the hands of gang members? One is way too many. Deterrent programs DO NOT WORK. People..the facts are that the majority of gang members have already have had some type of interaction with law enforcement whether its been with SAPD, OC Juvenile, Sheriff, or Probation Departments…or ultimately California Youth Authority. How do I know? Because I am the mother of a ex-gang member. Our son didn’t see ANY light until he spent three years, eight months locked in a California Youth Authority. As I have said before in a previous blog, the gang issue is multi-complex. The deterrent programs have good intentions; unfortunately these programs are provided to the offender after they have been through a system that makes these gang members numb to society and turn them into more violent beings while they try to stay alive in these facilities.
Our council members are as useless as a un-opened condom. SA residents need to start attending council meetings along with the OC Board of Supervisors meetings (to direct at the OC Sheriff Department) to voice our disgust and WHAT IS NOT WORKING with deterring gang activity. I plan on attending the next SA Council and EPIC meeting as I want to hear how this committee tries to respond to the pleas of the frustrated residents and heartbroken families on what will be the next recourse…
Keoniana,
EPIC has basically become unproductive. It was dependent on it’s assessment committee being funded and supported by the city. The City Manager structured the funding recommendation to the City Council away from EPIC and gave that responsibility to the Public Safety Committee( Alvarez, Tinajero and Benavidez).
The Public Safety Committee decided not to fund EPIC and so the question never reached the City Council for their evaluation and vote.
This decision not to fund EPIC at the Public Safety Committee was made even though the city Council adopted a budget that specifically has a budget line item to fund EPIC.
A high ranking PD official said the problem is the City Manager not being supportive of EPIC.
This action or inaction resulting in derailing the process of identifying the causes and solutions to the gang problem (EPIC), I believe is directly responsible for deaths which could of been avoided recently and in the future.
Why are Santa Ana residents not angry and holding people responsible.
In this case politics is responsible for deaths. WAKE UP!
And who in the Public Safety Committee voted for funding and who didn’t? Are you saying the vote not to fund was unanimous?
#30,
The committee is made up of three Council members – Alvarez, Tinajero and Benavidez. All three voted not to fund.
Instead of funding EPIC and dealing with the gang issue by identifying factors associated with gang membership, finding solutions and implementing them, the Public Safety Committee decided they would attack the issue by implementing neighborhood probation sweeps ( their neighborhood restore plan).
There was no money available to fund EPIC they said, but there is money to fund neighborhood probation sweeps?
The only benefit here is for the Police Union contract – overtime for the officers. This union, Art Pedroza has said, is threatening IE attacks on Pulido’s challenger – Councilwoman Michele Martinez.
Did I say politics are involved in this?
Always the politics while 13 year old children die. I guess young Hispanic misguided children have no value.
“Why are Santa Ana residents not angry and holding people responsible.”
I applaud our residents for holding these killers accountible for their actions. This is not a committees job.
Give credit where credit is do.
Dr. Lomelli,
If you are referring to the City-Wide Gang Assessment (a 1-year project conducted by CSUF), that vote to fund was actually Alvarez and Tinajero NAY, and Benavides YAY.
ART SAYS: “…What kind of city has Santa Ana become that children cannot walk home without being shot and killed? …”
You are joking…right Art? You think Santa Ana is Mission Viejo and such a thing is a surprise?
SANTA ANA IS A TOILET and EVERYONE, I MEAN EVERYONE KNOWS IT.
I mean, a city built of illegal immigrants, a city full of people who flat out REFUSE to assimilate, a city full of people who don’t bother to learn the language and cannot find decent employment as a result, a city who bows to the pressure of the leftists who call anyone who speaks the truth a hater or a racist.
When people do not assimilate and therefore BY CHOICE refuse to take advantage of the THOUSANDS of opportunities available to learn, or improve themselves, you end up with irresponsible people who excpect society to take care of their children. The result of ? Gang Banging pieces of shit that are, by MAJORITY, Mexican.
But No, YOU blame a lack of “libraries”. Are you a moron?
Yes, I said it….Mexican or South American Gang Bangers (No, not Candaians, Irish, Arabs, or ANY OTHER ETHNIC GROUP) and their idiot parents who have no idea how to properly assimilate, let alone be responsible parents ARE TO BLAME……NOT the Mayor, The city Council, or “society”.
Now, I LOVE hardworking Mexican and South American people who literally DO THEIR BEST….and ANYONE who DOES THEIR BEST. Good Mexicans, Honest Mexicans, Mexicans who bother to THINK and take RESPONSIBILITY for their actions are EVERY BIT AS GOOD, if not BETTER PEOPLE than spoiled Europeans or Caucasian Americans. However I have YET to meet a gangbanger or family of one like the VICTIM (who WAS a Gangbanger) who really try their BEST. No, if you watch these people (white trash scumbags included) who infest our streets with crime, you will see some common denominators which PROVE they had little parental control, and often chose paths starting with their “rebelling against authority” at a young age.
What you can see is Tattoos, Cigarettes, Piercings, Baggy pants, and THATS ON THEIR PARENTS!! Bad choices create failures…period.
So, STOP BLAMING GOVERNMENT, and START BLAMING THE PILES OF DUNG who are RESPONSIBLE: ILLEGAL ALIENS, BAD PARENTS, and GANG BANGERS.
Have a nice day.
Nohypocrites –
At least you’re an equal opportunity hater. ‘White trash.’ Love it!
SMS
My Dearest Sarah Michelle ‘Spinosa…(I love the Ricky Ricardo homage in your name)
Me, a “hater”?
What I “hate” is scum.
White, Mexican, Black, Asian, Cuacasian, Arab, Irish, Italian, Nordic…I DONT CARE.
The problem in SANTA ANA so happens to be grounded in the MEXICAN population. Similarly, in the 1900s in New York, it was the IRISH and ITALIANS. In Washington, we call the real problem “Democrats” 😉
Facts are facts.
As for being a “hater”, who said hate was bad? Really…hate is human.
I think ANYONE who does not hate evil is, for a lack of a better phrase, ‘brain dead’.
Have a nice day, and I am glad I gave you a laugh!
🙂
“…who said hate was bad?”
Well Al Qaeda certainly doesn’t think it is.
dear anon….
once again, twisting the point and not addressing it.
If you bothered to READ my post, I said hating “evil” is good.
By definition, AlQuaeda IS evil.
All you accomplished with (what you think) was a “quick-witted” response is show your leftist “your a hater”- “anyone conservative is a racist” weenie leftie leaning.
Have a nice day..Frenchie
NHP
NHP,
So you hate Al Qaeda, and they hate you. You all can go through life hating each other. That’s awesome dude! You rock!
NHP,
You state “Hating Evil is good”. Ok, hating you is good.
You are a misguided, organic inbalanced dangerous individual.
“I hate scum” I beleive it is a line from the movie Taxi Driver with Robert De Niro. This character was similary inbalanced like you are.
The most disgusting part of all this is that certain people who are entrusted with the city’s future seem to like Santa Ana just the way it is………yes, exactly as NHP has described it to be……
That allows them to keep control of the budget (right into their pockets) while chaos reigns supreme. I was also thinking that illegals would not want to attend Council Meetings to make a stand for the good of the community. They might be deported.
Art the reason the city has those headlines is due to the fact the register readership is low. They love this. SA had a bigger gang problem in the 80’s & early 90’s than they do now. Many young kids have lost their lives. Why now does the register seem to be on the SA bashing bandwagon? If you really have lived in SA for any length of time I really have to question this post. Check the gang related murder stats for the early 90’s when they hit 40+ and compare it from then to now.
cmtruth,
The SAPD is spinning the numbers. When there are multiple fatalities in one crime they count them as one. And that is not all. Welcome to the new reality in number where crime goes up but the numbers go down. That is crime-fighting Pulido style…
Thank you NHP yours is the first OR few intelligent post on this blog and you call it as you see it. The rest that cant deal with the truth–well I agree and if that makes me an ” unbalanced… dangerous individual” then call me one too.
LOL REALLY? Other than opinion like NHP I am just your average citizen, who is glad I did not have to grow up in this area, not a politician so what special power do I have other to reply to a blog and annoy people who cant deal with an opinion other than their own???
No the real problem is we have let the PC types rule the media and the world we live in at large and cow towed (sp?) to them for too long.
And Art I know I’m late to this blog but MAYBE you might want to re-read the original post and take your meds. I think you have some type of ADD or are just very OH whats the word Im looking for…
Mr. Pedroza, SAPD does indeed count certain crimes as one when multiples occur, such as with vehicle burgs for example. However, the (gang related) homicide rate has not been inflated and was in fact higher in the 90’s. SA in the late 80’s until about 95′ had more gang related crimes than it does now. A fact many do not want to admit but it’s the truth. Those days were out of control. Don’t get me wrong there is still a problem but it pales in comparison to back in the day.
ps great blog and thanks for allowing us to participate.
Just a few weeks ago i graduated from Santa Ana high school, and i loved that school and i love our city. Many people are very judgemental about this beautiful city, but what many dont realize these things happen everyday. Not just in Santa Ana but in other cities people believe are the safest. The reason behind this is that other “safe” cites cover things up very quickly and the media try too hide it. I know this for a fact because my grandparents live in Mission Veigo and its NOOO diffrence out there then here.