Thread: Crime may sway voters

It's flabergasting how some so-called Americans are willing to buckle under to a "can't fix it so ignore the law" attitude. OR, is it a fear attitude?
Whatever it is, it's completely UnAmerican.......we're better than that!
........................

NEWS ANALYSIS:
Crime may sway voters

By Alicia Robinson
With just four days until a pivotal City Council election, a series of violent crimes capped with a Wednesday-night shooting in Costa Mesa could influence voters' decisions.

The question is which way they'll be swayed.

On one side is Mayor Allan Mansoor and running mate Wendy Leece, who have pitched themselves as the law-and-order candidates who want to clean up the city, in part with a plan to screen criminal suspects for immigration violations.

"People have been concerned about this issue for a while, and people have also been expressing support for me and Wendy Leece for some time because of these things that have been happening in the community," Mansoor said.

Police said there have been five homicides in Costa Mesa this year, but most of those were not gang crimes. But there has been a rise in gang activity, including the Wednesday night shooting, which was not fatal.

While some believe Mansoor's agenda will help eliminate those problems, others say it has worsened them, so recent crimes could boost the mayor's leading opponents, Mike Scheafer and Bruce Garlich.

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Wednesday's shooting is a sign that in neighborhoods where the city has worked hard to build up trust, people are afraid to talk to police, so crime is creeping back in, said Councilwoman Katrina Foley, who is part of the Return to Reason political action committee supporting Garlich and Scheafer.

"Anyone who thinks that having our police act as immigration agents is going to decrease crime, I feel fairly confident we've already seen it increase crime, and it [the immigration plan] hasn't even been implemented," Foley said.

Letting the Orange County Sheriff's Department handle immigration screenings, as he has proposed, would allow Costa Mesa police to be out in neighborhoods, where they're needed, she said.

Election-watcher and blogger Byron DeArakal, who supports Garlich and Scheafer, said he thinks the jump in crime may solidify each side's base, but it probably won't have a big effect on Tuesday's results.

For voters who haven't paid much attention so far, it might encourage them to vote for Mansoor, DeArakal said.

But overall, he said, "the only thing it would do is affect the undecideds, and I don't think there's many undecideds…. It is not going to be a large margin of victory, whoever wins."
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Westside man injured in shooting

Costa Mesa police say shotgun attack was gang-related. Three suspects remain at large.

By Ana Facio Contreras and Alicia Robinson
Costa Mesa police said late Wednesday they are looking for three men, one of whom police suspect of shooting a Costa Mesa man Wednesday night in a gang-related incident on Shalimar Drive.

The 21-year-old shooting victim was in his driveway in the 700 block of Shalimar around 7 p.m. when three men came up to him and demanded to know what gang he was in, Costa Mesa Police Sgt. Marty Carver said. When the man denied belonging to a gang, one of the men raised a shotgun and fired it at him, hitting him in the left arm.

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"He was simply hanging out in front of his house when these people approached him," Carver said.

Carver said police believe that the victim associates with a Costa Mesa gang and that the suspects belong to a rival gang. But Carver also said police had no information, such as graffiti, to suggest a gang feud in the neighborhood.

After the victim was shot, the men fled into an alley on foot. Carver said police have no other information about the attackers. The victim was taken to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana, where he was expected to require surgery for tissue damage to his arm. Carver said his injuries were not life-threatening.

Neighbors had mixed reactions to Wednesday's shooting.

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A woman pushing her daughter in a stroller on Wallace Avenue on Thursday said she heard a siren the previous night, but she didn't know it was heading to a gunshot victim.

Speaking in Spanish, she said she lives on James Street near Shalimar Drive. In the 12 years she has lived in the neighborhood, she said, crimes like Wednesday's shooting have been uncommon.

"It's usually calm here," she said. "I have never heard of anything like that [the shooting] happening around here."

Another woman who was walking with her toddler son near the corner of Wallace Avenue and Shalimar Drive said Shalimar is known as an area where some "trouble makers" hang out.

"I don't like to walk down that street at night, only during the day," she said.

Fearing reprisal, both women wished to remain anonymous.

The recent violence is apparently a sign that the efforts to make the area safer have not been a complete success.

In the early 1990s, the city blocked off Shalimar Drive from Placentia Avenue and barred street parking to try to curb drug dealing and gang problems, and in 1994 community groups opened the Shalimar Learning Center to help neighborhood youth.


[quote:1tbffm1f]Reader Feedback
There are 3 comments on this story:

WestsideCM wrote on November 03, 2006 1:04 PM:"Mayor ProTem Eric Bever told me of a CMPD action on October 22nd that resulted in the arrest of 6 juvenile gang members in the Westside, Shalimar area. The good police work took two handguns (one reported stolen) off the street and possibly avoided a shooting. He said the city council was notified, but this important piece of police work never found its way into the local press. Now, we find we have another shooting over there. I hope Costa Voters are paying attention and will elect Mansoor and Leece to continue the current council direction."

Eric Bever wrote on November 03, 2006 11:59 AM:"These facts illustrate that our Gang Detail, Special-Investigations-Team, and detectives need access to the ICE database so they will know who the bad guys are, where they've been, what they have done, and of what they are capable. Anyone who does not believe we need to be prepared must have their head in the sand. Homeland Security confirmed the value of Mansoor’s plan, concluding that it is very important to improving our nation's security that we: "Improve partnerships and information sharing among federal, state, and local law enforcement". That is precisely what Mansoor’s proposal would do."

Andrew D wrote on November 03, 2006 8:54 AM:"Looks like the passive process of "blocking off Shalimar Drive and opening the Shalimar Learning Center" have really worked well. Lets return to this type of crime prevention so people can continue to fear walking down streets.

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