REPORT FROM THE 5/13/08 CITY COUNCIL STUDY SESSION ON GANGS
The CM PRESS was at the City Council Study Session yesterday when Captain Gogerty of the CMPD and Deputy District Attorney Tracy Rinauro presented the "Gang Enforcement, Intervention and Prevention Strategies," report. Bever, Leece, Foley and Dixon were present. Mansoor was absent.
The initial presentation was short and simply told what Anaheim and San Juan Capistrano are doing about gangs.
We felt sorry for Captain Gogerty because he appears to have been blindsided about this meeting and seemed unaware that his presentation had not been requested by the full Council (as would be proper) but that Snow Bunny Katrina Foley had unilaterally asked for the presentation without consulting with other Councilmembers.
And, as Mayor Bever and Councilmember Leece correctly pointed out, Costa Mesa is already doing things that are similar or identical to those being done in Anaheim and San Juan Capistrano.
What was unsaid by Bever and Leece but which seems to have been just beneath the surface of many other comments they made, was the question: "Why is this presentation being made at all?"
At one point, the session got pretty silly as Councilbumponalog Linda Dixon said she was taking a college class and that her professor told the class that melatonin works differently in kids, and that we may have a problem in enforcing our 10 pm curfew because schools start too early in the morning and kids are not fully awake until, say, 11 pm. So, ah, the school day should start at 11 pm?
Oh, and by the way, Ms. Dixon, it's Captain Gogerty, not Sergeant Gogerty. (He got a couple of promotions)
Mayor Bever also mentioned, more than once, that the CMPD had made a presentation about a gang prevention plan last year that promised to "eradicate gangs" in Costa Mesa in five years and that he wanted to see the results of that plan. The CM PRESS agrees.
One good thing that came out of this meeting was that Bever and Leece asked Captain Gogerty a number of times to come back to the Council with hard statistics about gangs in the city.
Deputy DA Rinauro, who is helping Anaheim and San Juan Capistrano fashion their programs to combat gangs, was asked if there was a model being used to design such programs, and she indicated that they were looking at what Los Angeles is doing wrong to stop gangs, to avoid the same mistakes in OC.
We agree with this approach. But we'd go even further. The CM PRESS has long held that the gang situation in LA is so markedly different from our situation in Costa Mesa that it's absurd to try to use LA as a model for Costa Mesa.
Specifically, in large areas of LA, the gangs are scattered throughout very large neighborhoods, and there are two types of gangs: Black gangs and Latino gangs. They have different characteristics and require different approaches.
Costa Mesa doesn't have any Black gangs. We just have Latino gangs.
Also, in Costa Mesa, the Latino gangs have not yet spread into every neighborhood, but are mostly just confined to specific areas with barracks type apartment buildings and in areas where there is an over concentration of charities that are acting as magnets for criminals.
In other words, the cancer of gangs has not yet metastized in Costa Mesa and can be removed with a surgical approach--if we act now.
Speaking of charities; some of them aren't part of the solution but are part of the problem. Some appear to be little more than gang hangouts and recruitment offices for gangs, while others seem to only attract nerdy goody-two shoe kids who wouldn't join gangs anyway. In both cases, they are wasting taxpayer funds.
The CM PRESS also learned something at this meeting that we weren't aware of and which troubles us. Apparently, the City Council has been holding closed sessions (meaning secret meetings out of view of the public) on gangs.
As we've reported before, many activists are saying that the City Council is holding too many secret meetings on matters that the public has a right to attend and participate in.
The CM PRESS will now attempt two things:
1. Request a copy of the gang statistics supplied to the City Council by the CMPD.
2. Request that the public be informed of what was discussed in the closed meetings and that the Council stop holding these secret meetings on matters that the public has a right to hear and participate in.
We understand that on matters relating to law suits and personnel matters, that closed sessions are appropriate. On most other matters, however, the public should be included. This is OUR city and the City Council works for us.
We have a right to know what's going on and to participate. We do not need a City Council that acts like a star chamber.
WE SHOW SOME GANG GRAFFITI
Also at the Study Session, the CM PRESS held up a picture of graffiti that some gang terrorists on the Westside had painted on the side of a home. The graffiti was put up some time during the night of 5/12 or early 5/13 and an alert neighbor took a picture of it and emailed it to us.
The Westside is being terrorized by illegal aliens, brown racists, and Latino gangs. When will the City of Costa Mesa take strong action to stop the terror and the attempts to drive U. S. citizens out of the Westside?
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.
