Thread: Residents blast mayor, council for gang violence

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Residents blast mayor, council

By Mark Baylis - Staff Writer
6/22/05 A half-dozen community members, family and friends of a fatal shooting victim berated city officials Tuesday night at the City Council meeting for doing too little to curb gang violence following two weekend shootings.

Police have not confirmed that the shootings were gang-related or that they were linked. Still, residents told the council that gang violence is rising and the city hasn't done enough to stop it.

"People are getting shot, stabbed, they're getting beaten by bats," said resident Angie Ines. "Gang violence is getting out of control."

Ten residents expressed concerns or supported those who spoke. Many spoke in favor of a police proposal currently under court consideration for an injunction that would ban gang members from congregating in certain city areas.

Some put the blame squarely on Mayor Dick DeWees and the other council members.

"You know, Mr. DeWees, there has been a gang problem in the town for some time, so I'm putting the blame on you," said Robin Ramsey, whose grandchildren witnessed a shooting on June 18 outside her home. "You have got to do something. You are the mayor."

The outcry came after separate weekend shootings that left one man dead and another injured.

Richard Osborne Moore, 41, was shot Saturday evening while riding his bicycle near West Maple Avenue and North L Street. Police say he had no known gang affiliations and family and friends say he was shot by Hispanic gang members only for being black.

On Sunday, Ruben Gasca, 25, survived being shot in an apartment in the 700 block of North F Street.

Moore's daughter, Kyesha Dubey, tearfully told the council how gang members had tried to rip down a makeshift memorial for her father at the shooting site and had shouted, "It's just another dead ******."

Dubey urged the council to voice support for the injunction, saying afterwards that if her father's death aided the passing of the injunction, at least he would not have died in vain.

Other residents came to recall their own encounters with gang violence.

Shaunta Branham, who said her father was once shot at in Lompoc for being black and her cousin and nephew attacked by gang members, said she is afraid to let her children outside to play.

"I see it as a race war - Mexicans versus blacks," Brown told the council. "I feel like, as a black woman, nothing is going to be done until you look at the seriousness of what's going on."

Race is central to the issue, according to attendees. Moore's family and friends said they believe the weekend incidents were related to gang rivalries between local Hispanic and black gangs, though police have not confirmed the shootings as either gang-related or linked.

Those present Tuesday expressed a lack of faith in an all-white council and city government with few minorities to do anything.

"What's the value of an African-American life in Lompoc?" Greg Riley asked the council. "It seems to everyone, especially the African-American community, that nothing is being done."

"It's not just gang-on-gang. This brother was innocent. He wasn't involved in gangs," Riley said.

One attendee said afterwards it would take a white person to get shot before city officials take the problem seriously.

City Council members did not respond directly to public comments, as is standard. Afterwards, DeWees expressed his support for the proposed injunction and the need for a concerted anti-gang effort, but defended the city against accusations of complacency.

"If we have been as lax as these people think we've been, it wouldn't be one murder in four years. It would be much worse," DeWees said. "The answer is not just arresting people and putting them in jail, the problem goes much deeper than that. It's societal."

Councilwoman Janice Keller said the city could do more, such as hiring more police officers, which were requested during budget hearings in January and earlier this month but not provided.

Attendees had a number of ideas for how to curb gang activity, including holding a town forum and building a large youth center like Santa Maria's Abel Maldonado Community Youth Center.

"Lompoc is the most diverse community in Santa Barbara County and it's time we had some grassroots organizations in town to address these issues," Riley said.

I wish someone would sue that mayor for defamation because she deserves it. How dare she say that innocent Americans kidnapped by these invaderous lowlife thugs are just nothing, but a bunch cronies for the drug dealers. We're talking about little children here. If that had been my kid she was saying that about, she would be preparing for a lawsuit right about now. She makes it out to sound like those kidnapped got what they deserved. What if that happened to one of her kids? Would she still feel the same? I guess it's easy to be so dismissive when it's not your family members that gets taken away from you. I hope those people remember this b--ch when she is up for reelection.

I guess she must have learned how to be so compassionate from that cretin in the White House who if he would get off his evil doing a-- and protect his country like he says he does then maybe just maybe, people wouldn't be getting kidnapped by those who have no legal right to be here in the first place.