Richmond Rapist Update 2: They Shoot Rapists, Don't They?

I promised an update, and here it is. On Friday, Associated Press named three of the arraigned in the Richmond gang rape case. Presented for your reading pleasure are Cody Ray Smith (15), Ari Abdallah Morales (16), Marcelles James Peter (17). Peter's aunt, Monica Peter, commented before the hearing that her nephew told her he was only a bystander and did not participate in the attack. Of course, that begs the question: Why the fuck didn't he do something?

The aunt has an answer for that. She said he was afraid "he would get his ass kicked."

Peter should be concerned about his ass. Not about getting it kicked, however. You see, I doubt that 17-year-old has ever taken anything bigger than his finger up there while doing some masturbation experimentation while looking at Internet porn. If the tarot cards say prison is in his future, he'll soon be schooled in the art of prison sodomy. Getting his ass kicked will be a pleasure compared to what could be in store for him.

As I was formulating this blog posting, Celebrity Watchdog George Anthony Watson sent me a link a piece on SF Gate. The piece says that the rape was seen as "nearly inevitable." That's just the beginning of the questionable insights, however.

The victim is painted as a church-going girl (sympathy) who worried counselors (a bit of concern) because she tried "too hard" to please her school's "bad boys" (blame the victim). The place where the attack occurred is described as the "most infamous spot on campus," which also seems to lack security of any sort despite its notoriety. (The article says security was to be stepped up in the future. Ahh, hindsight.)

As you read what is supposed to be a sympathetic, revealing piece, you realize just how well the stereotypes are in place. Poverty (the politically correct code word for minorities) combined with a culture that glorifies thuggery (more code words) and "applauds" the degradation of women (suspicious at best). But wait, there's more!

These young men were "desensitized" by the usual suspects: violent video games, music and "language." Violent video games are the comic books of yesteryear. Back in the 1940s and '50s comic books were blamed for all kinds of juvenile delinquency problems because juvies read them. Today violent video games are blamed because "street culture thugs" play them. But like the "horrific" comic books of decades ago a large portion of today's youth, criminal and non-criminal, play violent video games. They don't all go out and gang rape.

(On a related note, Madoff, who is doing time in prison, committed a horrendous crime that saw people lose their retirements and utterly destroy them financially. Madoff isn't the only white collar criminal to have done this. When you read about these crimes, however, no newspaper or media outlet ever ties those crimes to the criminals' reading of the Wall Street Journal or The Financial Times, though I'm sure all of them read one or both of those publications. Blaming video games for crime is lazy at best. It also paints people who play them who aren't criminals in a bad light, but that is of no concern to a reporter looking to paint an easy-to-understand picture of something that may have no rational explanation. These same video games were blamed for Columbine, though the FBI's own report, which I read, paints a very different picture.)

In the article, Charles Johnson, a Richmond High security specialist, is quoted. (Let's not even ask how bad a school can be if it has to have a "security specialist.") He says, "We know that courtyard [where the rape occurred], and we've been waiting for something to happen there." If this guy is a security specialist who is aware of the problem and has been "waiting" for something to happen, why the fuck didn't he do anything before it could happen? What kind of "specialist" is that? He does say, "I'm sorry it had to be this terrible."

Wow, how touching, Mr. Security Specialist. Imagine if you went to your doctor, whom I presume is legitimate, and you tell him you're feeling bad. What if he said, "Well, I've known you had cancer for some time. I've been waiting for you to get sick. I could have told you about it, even helped treat it, but it's too far gone now. Sorry."

I can't be the only one who sees the problem here.

Johnson and other school officials blame the attack partially on the area's lack of lighting, security cameras and good fences. These are all things that are far beyond the control of mere men to actually control and fix; they obviously need the intervention of gods to help them with this. Perhaps Zeus will now come out of the sky to install lights, cameras and a better fence because he's also sorry a "terrible" crime happened.

I'm starting to think all of Richmond is filled with dumb, uncaring motherfuckers. Surely I must be wrong.

The article states that on Saturday district officials confirmed plans to install higher fences around the school before next summer and step up security, but also state that "the challenges will still be steep." Is that what kept them from doing anything when they realized they had a problem? Steep challenges? Perhaps they were just waiting for a gang rape to occur. I don't know. I don't think they do, either.

The article continues by telling readers how Cody Ray Smith's Myspace page has comments demanding he be set "freee." If that were to happen, however, Smith would have to hide from 24-year-old Chuckie Pelayo, the only one in the entire article who seems to have a fucking clue.

Pelayo is described as a "leader of a pack" (you can't help but hear the song in your head, too) that hangs out a block away from the crime scene. He claims that if he and his pack (maybe dressed in leather jackets and on their motorcycles) had been there before the crime was over, the "motherfuckers" (censored for sensitive 'net readers by the SF Gate) would have been shot. He goes on to give this dire warning, "Some of us know a few guys who were there, and we're out looking for them." As if that isn't scary enough. "They better hope the cops find them first, because when we find them the same thing that happened to that girl is gonna happen to them."

First, I applaud that. Second, are these "pack members" (my term) cut from a different street culture than the one that apparently plays bad video games and says bad words while applauding the degradation of women? The wording of the article would make it seem that way. What is odd, however, is that the kids who committed the crime are thugs while these guys are ex-cons who hang out on the corner ... one block away from the attack. Part of the problem, according to the mentally deficient security specialist and his peers, is that a "rough neighborhood" (again, read "there ain't a lot of white faces there") is right next to the campus.

Pelayo and his "pack" hang out at the back end of campus, too. How are they immune to the "street culture"? How are these men who are set to enact street justice not of the same cloth? Are they white? No real code words are used, so it is hard to tell. What is known is that the "pack" is ex-cons and that they have all be to prison and know "the code," which they admit the younger guys have no clue about. Ageism can't be in play here, as there is only a nine year age difference between the youngest one arraigned so far and Pelayo. So what is it? Pelayo gave the answer: morals.

With the exception of the Mafia, white culture thinks that criminals have no morals or values. That is far from correct ... mostly. Many criminals have a value system that is often deeper than your average church-goer (who try so hard to please the bad boys). They have to have a deep, powerful value system because they operate outside the law. There are mores you have to follow lest you upset the delicate balance of the criminal culture, and if you do that there is hell to pay. These gang rapists are not career criminals ... yet. They are wannabe criminals, apathetic teens and wayward youth that are part of a system that, as the article points out in a roundabout way, knows there is problems but does little to change them. Instead, it sits back and waits for something truly horrible to happen so that it can offer the usual scapegoats (video games and music these days), half-hearted apologies, and pleas for the violence to stop. What those who make up the system don't do is take any responsibility for it. That much is obvious from the article.

Here is a school with a known problem area. Here is a school that employs "security specialists." Here is a school that realizes it is in a "bad" neighborhood. Here is a school that knew something was going to happen. Here is a school that did nothing to change any of that. Not a damn thing, and now these rapists are in a justice system that will play all kinds of games with all the usual responses (victims of their culture, children of poverty, super predators), and will go back and forth on what should be done. Specialists and experts will want to do everything from execute them to offer group therapy. What is to be sure, however, is that no good is going to come to them no matter what happens to them in the system, which right now is the only place they are even semi-safe.

The irony here is that these young criminals are eventually going to be taken care of by a better, more moralistic criminal class that does not like the types of transgressions these young boys have engaged in. While the demands to "freee" them will most likely fall on deaf ears, these rapists are going to live to regret that if they are freed. Pelayo and his kind will make sure of it. (Hell, I'll call him a hero if he takes one of them out.) This "pack" of ex-cons, who are presumably part of the same street culture that is being blamed for the gang rape, are the only ones who will really deal with it the way it needs to be done.

The more bleeding hearts among you may shout for compassion, but let's face it, these rapists are beyond that. Anything other than swift retribution will teach them that they got away with something, and show those cowardly witnesses that maybe this wasn't as bad as the rest of the world says. Yes, the death penalty is flawed and doesn't deter crime, but street justice does. When civilians start to take the law into their own hands, criminals -- the ones without values or morals -- start to get scared. In fact, they thrive when they know people will only deal with the problem by calling police because they know the police don't get there in time and rarely do anything of note anyway. But people, on the other hand, aren't bound by the same laws. They are vicious and often act without thinking things through. No, they aren't much different than lynch mobs (and anyone who knows anything about American history [recent, at that] knows how bad that can get), but sometimes a lynch mob is necessary to deal with the likes of Smith, Peter and company.

Led into the courthouse in bullet proof vests, these assholes must understand how the "street culture" feels about them. Not even "ex-cons" who hang out in "packs" on street corners want to be associated with them. In fact, the only people who are even being slightly sympathetic in this whole mess seem to be officials from Richmond High, who are perhaps trying to deflect questions about its own role in the attack due to inaction. Either way, these rapists will hopefully get the street justice they deserve whether it be on the streets or in a cell somewhere. Pelayo is the only one who got it right in that article. He was the only one who was backing up his values and morals with action. He was the only one who didn't try to blame outside influences or even ignore his role in things (he had no real role in the rape, but seemed upset that he couldn't have been there sooner to end it -- unlike Richmond High officials who knowingly let the problem get out of control through lack of securing an area known to be dangerous).

Kudos to you, Pelayo. Time to show the fuckers what real street culture is like.

For those interested in donating money: Richmond High Jane Doe, account No. 041-30-1188, Mechanics Bank, 3170 Hilltop Mall Road, Richmond, CA 94806.