Goleta Council, Santa Barbara School Board Join Forces to Combat Youth Violence

» here we go again wrote on 11.22.09 @ 05:28 AM

Blaming ourselves instead of holding the troublemakers accountable.You would think Goleta would have learned a lesson from Santa Barbara wouldn’t you? Just because you offer busy busy activities doesn’t mean the troublemakers are going to participate and automatically stay out of trouble! The answer is and always has been - law enforcement and parenting enforcement!!! They need FEAR not coddling and hugs and understanding!! You are battling a culture of being bad ass is cooln you aren’t battling bored youth without enough opportunities don’t you get it yet?? They CHOOSE the gangsta lifestyle cuz it gets the adulation. They aren’t going to suddenly drop the culture and lifestyle just because there is a new rec center with basketball hoops and guitar hero… When will we ever learn? When you were in highschool there were the druggie bad asses and there were the goody goody sports types. Nothing has changed, you can’t put a football in the hands of a druggie bad ass and expect him to change!!!!!!!! Its all about Culture culture culture and subculture. This is a culture that began in jails. The only thing that will fix it is to put em all back in its their choice, let em have it and stop wasting our money on liberal utopian but unrealistic ideals and put blame back where blame belongs.

» To deem or not to deem wrote on 11.22.09 @ 05:35 AM

“At Dos Pueblos High, three out of eight total felony arrests were gang-related in 2008, Willis said. In 2009, none of the four felony arrests was deemed gang-related.”

Probably because they stopped “deeming them” as gang related even if they are. Makes it look like they are making progress.

» Hasnt anyone noticed yet wrote on 11.22.09 @ 05:46 AM

That the single solution, the only oner anyone can seem to come up with, of throwing more money down the drain on youth activities and youth coddling ISN’T WORKING? Obviously not or we wouldn’t still have Schneider and House. The answer isn’t preventing “at risk youth” from becoming criminals, the answer is to PUT THE CRIMINALS AWAY! The answert isn’t to HIDE THE GRAFFITI before anyone wakes up to see it, the answer is to PUT THE CRIMINALS AWAY!

» omg wrote on 11.22.09 @ 06:01 AM

It’s always the “at-risk youth” causing trouble isn’t it? Let’s go after THEM.

» Rosalinda Figueroa wrote on 11.23.09 @ 07:55 AM

Here we go again, Yes, why don’t we sweep the problems under that carpet rather than trying to find alternatives. Lets keep pumping tax payers money into more police enforcement.Lets just send them to jail or to a prison system that we already know doesn’t work. Lets give a few more billion dollars in tax payers money to the prison/jail system and keep having the individuals that have been in the system come out more mentally ill and disfunctional and commiting biger crimes. Where do you think they go when they are released? Right back to the same neigborhoods they were originally came from. I do agree with you that parents need to be better role models but maybe they don’t know how, amybe they themselves were raised amongst gangs, violence,etc..How can we each participate and give just a little to make this a better place for us and our loved ones to live in?

» here we go again (again) wrote on 11.23.09 @ 01:47 PM

The prison system doesn’t “work” Rosalinda? The purpose of prison used to be to keep people off of the street who are likely to commit crimes. So for as long as they are in prison, it “works”!

The purpose of prison is not to “reform” the criminal, the purpose is punishment and a deterrent to crime. The purpose is to keep hopeless criminals in a place where they cannot prey on society.

Ever since the invention of the liberal (the result of Dr. Spock) in the 60s there was this new idea that all they need is love and hugs and understanding and they can be changed. We now have early release, parole, a more cushy jail environment, counseling coddling negotiating, pleading, begging etc to “give them another chance”. I say they HAD their chance and they made the wrong choice. So keep em locked up. Then it will “work”. It makes them stop committing crimes. It works.

Here’s what will work - send out the message that if you commit a crime you have thrown your life away and then enforce it. That’s why prisons were created.