July 12, 2007

ValleyViewpoints

Pyle’s fashion comments on target

Editor,
Reading the flak that Councilmember Nancy Pyle re-ceived as a result of her insensitive and thoughtless remarks about people who wear gang clothing and frequent certain areas should expect to be stopped and questioned by the police. I am not a Nancy Pyle fan, however, her comments were on target. She is expressing remarks that come from the famous Duck Pond Theory, which is: If you walk like a duck, talk like a duck, dress like a duck, act like a duck and hang around the duck pond, you must be a duck!

The clothing these folks wear is not a random thing. The gangsters, whether they are wannabees or actual full-blown idiots, identify with colors, types and styles of clothing, numbers, alphabet letters, bandannas, things hanging out of their pockets, tattoos, monikers you name it. They find some common ground either with a regional or statewide designator that sets them apart from those they perceive as enemies.

The more serious offenders who appear to have much idle time on their hands, then branch out to perform violent acts upon their supposed enemies. If you read the papers or watch the news, you may recall innocent bystanders being the victims of random drive-bys and such. The gangsters do have guns, but often times are not very precise on aiming the weapon.

Is being a gangster something the police need to be concerned with? Of course if you again go to what is printed or reported in the media, you will see that the high homicide rates in every major city in the United States can be traced back to gang violence. The vast majority of these individuals were either establishing their "turf" or doing a payback for some actual or perceived wrong done to them by another gang.

Don't think for a moment that the gangsters come from some "other side of town." I would like to see the evidence of some ethnic or cultural group that has not, and does not, have people from their group who are involved in gang activity. Our little corner of the world is no exception. Whether someone is painting an alphabet letter on a sound wall, a series of numbers, an undecipherable bunch of swirls and the like, or swastikas, if it is in our neighborhood, there is a problem.

Let the police and school do their jobs to identify these cretins and give them a choice to either give up or move on. If the police don't do their job, because a bunch of bleeding hearts feel they are over-doing their jobs, then we have a problem.

With all the activities and outlets that our city has offered to these people to get involved in that will steer them away from gangs, no one can say they aren't given a chance. This makes it easy for the authorities to identify the ones who don't go to school, have no direction in life, have no purpose in life and are waiting to be hassled because they are standing in a group, wearing the same type of clothing, plotting their next illegal move and all wearing flags that say “stop and harass me.”

Nancy Pyle was right, Chief Davis is right, and the men and women of the San Jose Police Department are right. The naysayers of certain community groups have done zilch to turn these people around. These gang members are victimizing their own communities, and are looking for other victims as well. We need to support what the authorities are doing, to make our little corner of the world, and the people in it safe.

David Byers
Almaden Valley

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