Dana Parsons’ Points Deserve Reply

* Columnist Dana Parsons appears to be completely unaware of the facts and legal circumstances that led to a jury’s conviction of five gang defendants.

As the assistant district attorney in charge of the Orange County district attorney’s office’s Target/Gang Unit, I would like to comment on Parsons’ misstatements and inaccuracies in the Slick ‘50s case.

Evidence showed that the gang members went to a party intending to assault an innocent person. They were dressed in 1950s-style clothing and armed with bottles and at least one knife.

As the victim was being spit on, punched, kicked, hit over the head with bottles and stabbed in the back, members of the gang yelled out, “Don’t mess with the Slick ‘50s.”

This is no different from a traditional street gang yelling out their gang name in a fight or drive-by shooting. There was ample evidence that each defendant was actively involved in the beating of the victim.

This evidence is directly contrary to Parsons’ representations that three of these defendants were convicted for “just being there.” Fortunately the victim in this case lived.

If five individuals are involved in an armed robbery and one of them shoots the teller, don’t you think all five should be held responsible for the shooting, even though the other four may not have intended the same result? The law does.

The legal theory is one of aiding and abetting and vicarious liability. A jury is asked to determine if the resulting crime was a “reasonably foreseeable” consequence of the initially intended crime.

A person is legally responsible for the criminal conduct of the crime partner he chooses.

Parsons was mistaken when he based his opinions on the belief that the defendants were convicted solely because they were found to be a “criminal street gang.”

The issue of whether or not the defendants were gang members was separate from one of vicarious liability or aiding and abetting.

Parsons claims that the word “gang” “smacks of drive-by shooting and Latino and African American neighborhoods. . . .” I question whether Parsons would have written such a column if the five defendants were Latinos and the crime was committed in downtown Santa Ana.

We at the district attorney’s office do not consider race, color or creed when deciding whether a group is a gang or whether they should be prosecuted for committing crimes.

CLAUDIA SILBAR

Assistant district attorney

Santa Ana

* Re “Slick ‘50s Penalty Did Not Fit the Crime,” Dana Parsons’ column, Aug. 6:

Punishing any group for the crimes that one member commits is wrong, whether the group is white Slick ‘50s, Latino or black.

Guilt by association is a bad precedent to apply in the courts of law. Where will it stop?

If one police officer wrongfully shoots an unarmed suspect, should the other officers who responded to the scene also be tried for murder?

Parsons and the State of California assume that all Latino and black gangs conspire together to commit crimes, a very false and dangerous opinion.

LIONEL DeLEON

Garden Grove

* Re “Deal Was to Quit Drugs, Not Marriage,” Aug. 1 column by Dana Parsons:

The Parsons column really riled me. Incarcerating someone for drug use is poor social policy. Using the threat of such incarceration to coerce someone into an abduction is outrageous.

We simply cannot fight a “war on drugs” without exposing American civilians to friendly fire.

DANNY TERWEY

Santa Cruz

* I cannot express myself strongly enough in support of Dana Parsons’ Aug. 4 column about the fatal accident of July 16, when a 15-foot-high load was knocked off the truck by the overpass, which didn’t have enough clearance for this load.

The accident resulted in the death of the driver of the following vehicle, in spite of Caltrans having been notified of the dimensions of the load and having issued a permit for the journey.

Apparently the Caltrans permit stipulated that the trucking company is accountable for the accuracy of any information provided by them. What nonsense!

If Caltrans acts carelessly, what is the point of their permit? And where is their responsibility?

LIONEL OKUN

Seal Beach