In downtown Los Angeles, Ruben is enduring his freedom. At 23, Ruben wants job training, education, and a chance to elevate himself. But like 300,000 youth in California and hundreds of thousands of others across the nation, Ruben (whose name has been changed to protect his identity) is identified in state and local law enforcement databases as a gang member. The… return to article
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Reader Comments (11)Page 1 of 1 pagesLet me see if I have this right. These guys were hanging around with members of criminal gangs, subsequently committed their own criminal acts, were apprehended, then adjudicated guilty and now, as a condition of their non-custodial sentence, are prohibited from hanging around with other criminals and gang members.
They cannot pretend to be gang members by adopting the styles favored by gangs and must instead do their best to at least appear to be productive and law-abiding citizens.
Is that it?
Man, how unfair is that?
Posted by Nus on Jun 12, 2003 at 8:11 PM Poor Ruben… It’s tough to stay away from the cops for five years when you are a thug, wannabe gang member…
No sympathy for dumbass losers and paranoid writers that consider every legal means of monitoring citizenry a bad thing… What a poor fucking example.
Posted by Milli Vanilli on Jun 15, 2003 at 3:37 PM Yeah, it’s real hard, especially when Chief Bratton swoops in from New York ready to clease LA. The cops target blacks and latinos and this story just points out the fact.
Maybe the guy is a thug. Maybe he WAS a thug. It doesn’t matter, due process of law means you get tried for a specific crime, not for being Mexican and tattoed with a record. If you don’t agree, then don’t expect sympathy when they come for you.
Posted by runnin from cops on Jun 16, 2003 at 9:40 PM Runnin- you are missing the point. The whole point is to prevent police from coming for you. You do this by following the law and not associated with gang members. They want these people to leave their gang lives behind. That’s why Ed can’t wear his coveted “13” jersey. Gang members should be required to leave their lives behind. I have no sympathy for those who are/were in gangs and who don’t want to abandon that life.
Posted by Brad on Jun 17, 2003 at 2:06 AM “due process of law means you get tried for a specific crime”
Which is what happend to those whose stories were told above isn’t it?
You note that “The cops target blacks and latinos and this story just points out the fact”
Speaking of targetting blacks - what makes you think that either “Ruben” or “Ed” are Latino or black? The article doesn’t “point out” the race or ethnicity of either.
It appears that you have engaged in a little bit of racial profiling yourself.
Posted by Nus on Jun 17, 2003 at 10:01 PM Nus, possibly he was referring to this part: “The database was originally developed by the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department in the mid-’70s, when Latino gangs were widespread in Los Angeles and the Crips and Bloods were on the rise.”
Posted by jan on Jun 18, 2003 at 7:45 PM The story of “Ruben” I find especially disturbing! But it does not surprise me—- the system has targeted young males unfairly for some time now! In Florida it is especially bad what with their laws on trying babies as young as six (it can happen!) as “adults”! My roommate commented the other day that it seems the system and the media have decided “to wage war on little boys” by treating them as though they were “public enemy #1”! California’s current laws are almost as bad as Florida’s! Ruben, at 13, was a victim of this system for just being there and being a male child (would the system have done this to a female 13-year-old? Not likely—- even though there are definitely female gang members too!)! My heart goes out to “Ruben” and I hope all goes well for him and that he gets a chance at a decent education and a worthwhile career—- something all our children (regardless their race, nationality, or gender) deserve!!!
Posted by James Lee Mabe on Jun 19, 2003 at 5:55 PM Fuck Ruben. I don’t give a damn if he rots in jail. That’s what he gets if he’s going to follow a bunch of gang members around.
Posted by Jimmy on Jun 20, 2003 at 7:51 PM I love to watch Americans struggle through life…never short of horror stories from the USA..
Posted by USA watcher on Jun 26, 2003 at 9:56 PM This essentially constitutes another variable in the long-standing war against people of color in America. Young blacks and Latinos are invariably the target of such sweeps by law enforcement. The arbitrary nature of the criteria used to enter a person the gang database renders the the project unjust.
Posted by sartre on Jul 1, 2003 at 7:55 AM “I love to watch Americans struggle through life”
As opposed to…?
Posted by Nus on Jul 1, 2003 at 9:26 PM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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