Oswaldo Sotello, 14, Tried as Adult on Attempted Murder and Street Terrorism Counts

alwayer

Ya know - what is street terrorism? That sort of cheapens the meaning of terrorism. This was a case of two very young boys having a fight and one sadly armed with a gun who pulled the gun and shot at the other boy. This sort of thing has been happening since the dawn of mankind. Street terrorism seems like another way of going after kids of poor economic means, especially minority kids, and locking them up for EXTRA lengthy periods of time - in this case, the expected lifetime of the boy.

Somehow, because kids are with gangs, they are seen as unredeemable. Why is that exactly? There have been numerous cases of young kids who were gangbangers who get older and join the human race. It is especially possible if they are handled as juveniles and placed in a facility where they might be rehabilitated. In California, you can lock up this boy as a juvenile until his 25th birthday. Why exactly isn't that enough time to punish a 14 year old? Why isn't that enough time to work with him and teach him to be a citizen? All that you are doing here is ensuring that he will be inducted into the prison gang system and that he will always be a problem for society.

Studies clearly show that trying very young juveniles - especially kids of 13, 14 and 15 as adults does not help them or society. All that it does is create fodder for the prison-industrial system. It's too bad that your prosecutor gives so little thought to the life of this minority child and no consideration whatsoever to going after the person that supplied him with a deadly weapon - that's the person I'd like to see locked up forever.

At the end of World War II, we took the worst teenage thugs and turned them into law abiding citizens. They were called Hitler Youths. And one grew up to become Pope. So anyone who says that it can't be done with minority youth growing up on American Streets is either a liar or a racist or both - especially since the facts prove otherwise.

Matthew T. Coker

President Mitt will solve it.

Steven

mexicans they always the first in line

Bill T.

Trolls, always last in the English skills line.

ageofknowledge

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

909Jeff

How awesome would one last Boingo Halloween show be?

mitch young

No kidding. Elfman's movie work is all starting to sound the same.

If the Beach Boys can do it at an average age of 120, Boingo should be able to.

Matthew T. Coker

Nope, Boingo all the way, on Halloween or New Year's Eve with "Vatos" in a diaper with 1983 on his butt.

mitch young

Nothing wrong with a little blog comment bromance.

BetaRayBill

Thanks Matt....!

909Jeff

C'mon Coker.... I know you would love a Boingo reunion... Or were you more of a Bauhaus , Love and rockets... Echo and the bunnymen kinda guy?

Matthew T. Coker

Get a room you two.

mitch young

That's a pretty funny image -- but shouldn't the illustration, to paraphrase Bill Clinton, 'look like Santa Ana'?

909Jeff

I actually had one of those! It was pretty cool. But I had it when I lived in Goleta for a little while as a kid. No chance of mistaking a lily white 7 year old in the suburbs of Santa Barbara in the early 80s as a "street terrorist"

Now a days the cops would call in the swat team if they saw a kid with one of those.

Bill T.

Yah, the problem is, does a cop wait to see if what appears to be a weapon that's being pointed at them or do they assume that someone that's pointing what looks like a gun at them is about to shoot. Sometimes they're put in the position of having to make snap decisions, situations just begging for error.

Where I feel for the victims of honest mis-identification I hope I wouldn't be stupid enough to give a cop the impression that I'm putting their life in imminent danger.

Disclaimer: I know there are dirty filthy crooked cops out there. There are also a lot that their honest aim is to do the right thing. They're no more all one or the other than any other group, we have to take them as they are.

mitch young

Wow, Jeff, lived in Goleta. I'd have loved to grow up there.

I'm a Gaucho alum so am very familiar with it. In fact lived there (as opposed to IV) briefly after graduation. Not as expensive -- at least back then -- as I'd imagine it is now.

You're right about toy guns tough, cops will shoot a kid down. Then again, I don't recall lily white teens of my, or my older brother's generation, whacking each other regularly. Drug overdoses, moped crashes, the occasional fisticuffs, yeah. Murder, not so much.

gustavoarellano

Nice to see you return, pathetic fanboy!

Johnrose7588

Wow new flash! Anothersanta ana mexican shoots another mexican. Hey gustabo, why are all of the shootings in oc in santa ana? Oh ya, because its full of mexicans!

909Jeff

Her parents are divorced to which is why we didn't get married til after ten years.

mitch young

Uh, two out of three of the FPD 'officers' initially involved in the Thomas killing were 'people of color'.

mitch young

Two generations of divorce, bummer.

I'm sure your lovely Latina wife will stick with you, and you with her, if only to piss Arellano off!

mitch young

Only in your fantasies of persecution, Gustavo.

Todd Sputnik

Was that before or after they became Fullerton Police officers?

gustavoarellano

Yeah, because all those lily white teens were killing and beating up coloreds.

909Jeff

Kind of... When my grandparents divorced Grandma moved the family from OC to SB... When my Mom and Dad got divorced she moved us back to OC... so when I was a kid I "Summered" in Goleta with my dad and Grandma...

Divorce! Its Awesome!