Penalties Under ‘Street Terrorist Law’

Re: “Westminster Killing Will Test State’s ‘Street Terrorist’ Law” (Aug. 7): Let me get this straight. Six gang members are doing their gang thing (drinking, loitering and outlining territory by spraying graffiti). They decide to steal at gunpoint the next car that drives by. So far so good. I can understand it to here.

The hapless victim is just unsocial (smart) enough not to want to stop late at night and hand over her car (and who knows what else) to six unsavory looking males and so is shot dead through the head with a .44-caliber magnum. No surprises yet. Eleven o’clock news (near the end).

They are rapidly apprehended and charged with the crime. Good efficient police work. Hopefully they were handled gently. What I cannot understand is that, in this blatant case of first-degree murder, prosecutors are looking for a “stiffer sentence” of three extra years under the new “street terrorist law.” How much stiffer can the death penalty be?

What? No capital punishment for first-degree murder? It is inconceivable to me that the triggerman does not receive the death penalty and everyone else receive life in prison. Have we become sheep to the slaughter at the hands of gang members aided by toothless laws?

It is no wonder these men would so easily commit murder when the penalty is so cheap. Californians voted for the reinstatement of the death penalty, and it’s certainly time we begin removing these cancers from society permanently and returning the streets to the people.

RONALD O. DAVIES, Mission Viejo