Wednesday, May 24, 2006

He's really a good boy

The other day in the Natomas neighborhood of Sacramento, there was an officer-involved shooting in a shopping center during lunch time. A Sacto PD officer followed a car full of armed robbers and their accomplices to this shopping center right after one of the perps had held up a teenager at a bus stop a mile or two away. As soon as the driver of the suspect vehicle saw the cop approach, he gunned the car and hit the cop's cruiser, then hit the cop. The cop jumped onto the hood of the perp's vehicle and had no choice but to open fire. He pumped 8 shots through the windshield, killing the driver and injuring the front seat passenger. This all happened in front of a huge audience of diners at an In-N-Out Burger and people in the parking lot.

I read a follow-up article about the incident in today's front section of the Sacramento Bee. Family members of the dead suspect and the injured suspect were interviewed. They said the grating words I often hear from family members of criminals. Here is a sample from the article. See if you can find what grates me:
At the North Sacramento home [Eugene] Gallegos (the dead suspect) shared with his siblings and grandmother, a steady stream of friends and relatives Tuesday filed through the front door.

Rosie Aldana, who had helped rear her grandson, said she didn't believe he was solely responsible for veering the car into the officer on Monday.

She said he was likely prodded by those in the car to "go, go, go" and succumbed to the pressure.

"That was out of character for him," Aldana said, surrounded by family, "That's why it's so hard to take this."

Late Monday, relatives told Aldana they had seen newscasts of the maroon Chrysler that Gallegos bought three weeks ago now riddled with bullets.

Gina Gallegos, who nicknamed her brother "Chitho" when he was a toddler, said Gallegos had a good heart and took care of the family, but at times kept bad company.

"He hung around with some of the wrong people," she said.

Tuesday afternoon, as the family grieved, Gallegos' father, Eugene T. Gallegos, 40, was arrested on unrelated charges.

Monday night, members of the police gang unit searched Gallegos' home. Family members on Tuesday said he was not a gang member but acknowledged some of his acquaintances were.
That was the interview with the family of the dead suspect. Let's see what the family of the injured suspect, Saul Rabago, had to say?
On Tuesday night, Marisol Rabago said she planned to see her brother in jail to prepare for his court appearance.

Her brother just turned 19, she said, and recently made a commitment to his family that he would try to change for the better.

"Two weeks ago, he said, 'Give me 25 days,' " Marisol Rabago recalled. "He got a job and was starting to come back to family events, dinners; we started to believe."

But when he got paid Friday, the family said he slipped out of sight. They last saw him Saturday night, before spotting him on the news Monday evening.

"He's not a bad kid," Marisol Rabago said. "He was just at the wrong place, with the wrong people.

"If he was in his right state of mind," she said, "he would not have done the things he was doing."
Family members of both perps essentially said the same thing: OK, so my relative held up a teenage boy with a gun and robbed him, then tried to kill a police officer, but he really is a good boy.

Sorry to rain on your delusional parade folks, but NO! They are NOT good boys! They were nasty little thugs who, of their own free will, did bad things to good people. Don't give me this crap about how they also helped proverbial little old ladies cross the street so they were really not bad. I can think of lots of people who help little old ladies cross the street, and yet, they don't also rob and attempt to murder people. This is an extreme example, but did you know that Hitler was an animal-loving vegetarian? Does that make him a "good boy" after all? I am so sick of this fear that people have of acknowledging evil. I see this all the time at my work. We teachers are constantly told, "Remember, they aren't bad kids, they just exhibit bad behavior." That one always makes me cluck my tongue. So does that mean there is no such thing as a good kid, only good behavior? I'm sorry, but your actions define you. If you do bad things, then you are bad. If that truth hurts, then it is just something that you are going to have to live with.

By the way, Officer Kevin Howland - the Sacramento PD officer who shot Mssrs. Gallegos and Rabago - has some serious knee damage after being hit by the car driven by Gallegos, and is recovering. He is expected to eventually return to full duty.

Good Day to You, Sir

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's exactly what I thought after reading the interviews in the paper. So if we take to heart the fact that these two boys were just out with the wrong people, were really good boys who were trying to change (meaning they weren't good at one point?) and succumbing to the pressure of others, then who in that car was the bad influence. Must have been the young lady since we haven't heard from her family. We'll blame her.

And where was the interview with the officer's family and co-workers? Does the fact that he was almost killed not matter to the Bee? Most not be anything juicy to write about him, so let's just have a little side note on how he's expected to recover or something, blah blah blah. Who cares, right?

And one more thing, good kids or not, these were stupid kids. It's one thing to become a victim of peer pressure, but when your peers are supposedly telling you to "go go go" and ram a police officer, do you not have the brains, or balls enough to say "to hell with you guys"??

T

Anonymous said...

Doesn't the fact that the father was arrested for something else say a great deal about the standards and expected behavior for this family. The grandmother reared the father, and he turned out "bad." Apparently, she doesn't have much of an idea of what a "good" kid is.

Dan Edwards said...

( snide mode ON )

Undoubtedly, these are "left behind" students who were failed by their schools and all those teachers who probably ignored them, socially promoted them, taunted them because of their ethnic heritage, marked up the work they did turn in with red pen.......

Two fewer future inmates for San Quintin or Solodad or Pelican Bay or our other crowded state pens and a burden to the taxpayers of California....

Criminals. Thats what they were. And for two of them, that is how they died, attempting second degree homicide against an officer of the law. They chose their legacy.

Anonymous said...

To you people that talk about Chitho and my aunt my family is nothing like the media sed it to be. I don't like some of these things you people have said my grandma loved us all she knows the difference between good and bad. I dislike the fact that everybody seen my cousin as a bad person he had a good heart i loved him dearly.

Chanman said...

I'm sure you loved your cousin dearly. However, that does not change the fact that he held up people at gunpoint and tried to kill a police officer.

You seem to have a lot of nice things to say about "Chitho" - do you have anything to say about the robbery victim and the injured police officer?

Actions speak louder than words, and your cousins actions are drowning your words out.

Anonymous said...

I grew up with the two that got arrested and they weren't bad people, chitho was also a good person, its just a shame that the officer had to commit murder, intentionally jumping on the vehicle of the suspects car and then try to say they tried to run him over, people make mistakes in Life and no one is perfect. I don't like the fact that the people commenting on here are quick to judge and for the teacher you better look for another job because its teachers like you that don't give students hope.

Chanman said...

No Anonymous,
These were not "good people." They committed armed robbery and then tried to kill a police officer. And why do you think that police officer jumped on the car you twit? Perhaps it was to keep from being run over? Murdered indeed.

Maybe your world view is just a little distorted, but as a resident of the non-fucked up part of society, allow me to inform you that most people in the world go through life without pulling guns on people with the intention of robbing them and then trying to run over a police officer. Seriously.

What Chitho and his friends did is not some normal little mistake that proves they are not perfect, as you stated. What they did shows that they are (*were* in Chitho's case) criminally inclined thugs who deserve to be removed from society... the non-fucked up part of society.

Anonymous said...

No because if u actually had facts u wouldnt be sitting there saying this ridiculious non sence. He got arrested because a person from the outside of the house heard a man yelling n screaming. About hurting him or kid. Being intoxicated a little wasnt smart, but y dont u lose a child then u tell me how u feel. ! they heard him felt threatend then took him in jail.he is and has always been a hard worker. N knows when ur wrong ur wrong.

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