Declare war against gangs
Re “Grieving father speaks of fears,” March 5
Jamiel Shaw’s parents did everything right to raise a beautiful son whose strong young hand was just about to grasp the knob on the door to his future. Thanks to some thug, neither Jamiel nor his parents will have the chance to celebrate what was on the other side of that door. With so much campaign talk burning the airwaves, I have yet to hear a candidate take a firm stand for gun control. I find that odd, especially in light of the many campus killings in the last year. I guess being president of the United States isn’t as powerful as being president of the National Rifle Assn.
Carol Foster
Burbank
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Re “Boy, 6, critically hurt as gunfire hits family vehicle,” March 5
It’s time to classify all gang activity as terrorism and prosecute these individuals and their organizations accordingly. You basically have a “warlord” in control of a geographic area of Los Angeles, not to mention that people are being targeted on the basis of race. If this were happening in Beverly Hills, you can guarantee that the governor would call out the National Guard. Is this situation much different from Fallouja? It’s mind-boggling that this is happening in the U.S. These are American citizens who are being attacked. Let’s start shipping gang members to Guantanamo Bay indefinitely.
Jeffrey Dean
Simi Valley
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Our streets seem to be a war zone. What is the use of all these surveillance laws and anti-terrorist measures when they only seem to be applied to environmentalists and Islamic charities? Why not put all these draconian measures -- such as extraordinary rendition, warrantless wiretaps and indefinite detention -- toward the real threats to our community? Label gangs as the terrorists they are, and deal with them head on.
The good, productive, taxpaying citizens of our community -- such as the Shaw family, whose innocent son, Jamiel, was gunned down by a gang member -- are being terrorized by these soulless beings who make up the true evil in our society. We need to stop wasting our efforts controlling distant, contrived threats by housing enemy combatants and bring our resources here.
If my civil rights are to be eroded, why not for some useful purpose? Let’s stop the real threat to our culture with these new laws on our own streets to protect and prevent the continuous terror that streams out of the hundreds of gangs ruling our Southland communities.
Stephanie Georgieff
Santa Ana
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Re “A youth ‘on track’ until fatal gunfire,” March 4
Is there another country where guns are so easy to get? Is there another country, not involved in internal war, where gun carnage is so great? Who can change it?
Emma Willsey
Huntington Beach