Cotati- the new ghetto?!

[Lynette]

WTF?? Maybe I am just being naive but are a few dumbass kids who think they are "hard" and whear their hats crooked and their pants too big really "gang" members?!

http://pressdemo.com/EarlyEdition/article_view.cfm?recordID=5735&publishdate=01/05/2007

[KaisaG]

That sucks I moved over there to get away from all that crap!

[daisydoc]

I think also that the cops are always ready to call incidents involving unintelligent men (boys) of a certain age "gang related". And all I have to wonder is where are these "kids'" parents? I know from experience (with my brother as a kid) that kids will be kids no matter how they are raised and no matter how much you as a parent intervene and try to get them on the straight and narrow... but seriously!!! My brother got into trouble b/c he was a jack a$$ and didn't like authority but he had sense enough to know that gangs were not the "way to go".

It's getting bad here in Sonoma County. Those of us who ahve lived here our whole lives can attest to that. It's only getting worse as the cities grow. There's no "safe spots" anymore.

[KaisaG]

I know (but don't associate with) people in gangs and I'll be honest and tell you that there are A LOT more of them than you think.

[My3sonsplus1]

well wether it be "gangs" or gangs it is a gang (group, small or large) of boys being violent. This is so sad and infuriating that there is so much violence around! Nothing "new" but on another message board I am on their was a 16 yo who wanted to buy some alcohol at a gas station and the clerk said no so he waited for him outside and slit his throat when he went out to take out the trash!!! For beer! Get a grip kid! I heard this as a "my bil witnessed a murder" thread (and the man who witnessed was a "macho strong" man and was so scared he ran and locked himself in the bathroom), not as a detached news story. I mean this people come from actual families and people actually suffer from people being like this! I just don't get what would posses someone to stab someone, ever! But then again I am a lover not a fighter :) so I will never "get it".

[My3sonsplus1]

I know (but don't associate with) people in gangs and I'll be honest and tell you that there are A LOT more of them than you think.

Amen to that! I was a "wanna be" in 7th grade. Good thing I was a)shy and (although that is part of the lure, you are lonely and a gang can give you a sense of "family" b)not mexican since it was a mexican gang I thought was cool. My spring 7th grade school picture I am wearing a red bandana sleeveless collared shirt that knotted at the waist. I wanted to be all "red prideish", too bad (or really a really good thing) I looked like a country girl hick instead :lol

[becky]

i grew up around gangs...i know what it is like to be freinds with gang members (and the real hard core ones) because they were in my classes. Its not easy to stay away from them especially when you know that the gun shots just about every night are coming from people you know or you later find out that someone you know is dead. i knew kids who were really running the nieghborhood at the ripe age of 12 and 13. Once they hit high school either they got themselves killed or locked up but they were still around.

And i believe living in that kind of neighborhood it was important to know your enemies and i think that is why in the end every house on my block was hit by a drive by shooting but mine. Some might say i'm wrong but i took what i thought would be best to protect myself considering all the guys taging the neighborhoods, shooting each other and selling the drugs were all in at least one of my classes. I never hung out with the gang members though or never tried to look like them but they all knew me, knew my family and on weekends, we would all play baseball in the school yard together. it was just a way of life.

The toughest was after i graduated high school...a friend of mine who was a really good kid and did good in school was shot in the head becuase some gang member thought he was pulling out a weapon when all he had on him was his pager and a few bucks. This happened just 5 months after we graduated. I knew his mom and cousins so you can imagine how close to home that was. he wasnt in gangs and was smart enough to stay away but shit happens. When we had our high school reunion everyone was in tears remembering him and know that all of us were there at his funeral.

Compared to LA county and many other bay areas, sonoma county is really tame. Granted i hate the neighborhood i live in becuase we are so close to south park. the "bad guys" have forced my duaghter's school to lock all the class room doors while they try and catch him and i have driven by and seen cops with all their guns drawn while the nieghbors sit and watch. oh and dont forget all the hookers and drug dealers too. But its still tame here and sure its gonna get worse over time but unless we move out to the sticks there is really no excaping it.

As a parent i can jsut try and teach my kids right and wrong, hope to move to a better part of town where schools are better and the gangs are not in my face. then i'll keep my fingers crossed that my girls turn out okay...i cant shelter them from the world but i can teach them what the world is like and what to look out for.

[Lynette]

I guess I think of REAL gang members who are raised on government cheese, don't know their dad, their mom is strung out on crack and they ban together to sell drugs just for survival because it is like a "culture" in their neighborhood and they either don't know any better or have no way of breaking the cycle.

When some *stupid* kids fight in Cotati in front of the town's hippy organic grocery store and Starbucks in a parking lot full of minivans and Volvos, then run home to their 4bd, 3bth house with a manicured lawn to hide in their backyard that it isn't really traditional "gang" activity to me.... We had moron kids when I was a kid and we just called them punks, not gang members which I think is a hot button phrase the media uses to scare people.

[becky]

i agree with you Lynette...they are jsut that punks with too much time on thier hands. What i think is stupid is when these gang members do have two parents but they jsut dont care. One of my clostest freinds in JR High was a hard core gang member who had both a mom and dad at home but he still go into trouble. they did try to help him by sending him off to texas or oregon when things got really bad.

[KaisaG]

And then of course there are some parents that are former members themselves and do nothing but advocate the violence. That is the worst!

[becky]

you are right about that kaisa...i knew moms like that too.

[jellybeanmichelle]

Gosh! I would of heard the sirens if I was home that day.
But I was in Corona.
And now they want to put a medical pot-smoking in Cotati.