by Jack Lee
(Shown at left is .45 cal shell casing from a homicide at a popular dowtown Stockton park.)
We were hopeful when the statistics showed crime was trending down on a national scale for last 5 years, but more recent stats say, it may not last.
Just down the road in the City of Stockton crime is running wild. They took the lead as the most violent big city in California in 2009. 2010 can’t be much better, in the last 10 days there have been 20 shooting incidents inside their city limits. “This place is like Dodge City” said on veteran officer who declined to be named. He had just finished a felony car stop for another shooting incident in a nearby parking when this interview was taking place.
The nations 10 most dangerous cities, like Stockton, were identified recently by the Department of Justice as major transit points for Mexican drug cartels.
Run by crime lords like Joaquin Guzman Lorea, these gangs–and their violent turf wars–are spreading into the Southwest and beyond to places like Stockton, Calif., which is nearly 500 miles from another drug rat-hole, Tijuana.
Police say Stockton is a major transit point along the I-5 corridor on the way to Seattle and Vancouver, and this makes it geographically desirable to drug dealers. Also Stockton has a major gang problem, mostly from Hispanics which is similar to the kind of gang/crime happening in the Southwest. There is no shortage of gang bangers willing to deal drugs in Stockton. This is just one bad combination that leads to a lot of Arizona style violent crime.
The Stockton police are quick to joke, they never have a dull moment and the crime makes for a lot of job security, but for the average citizen, well, lets just say it’s anything but secure. For the most part, its drug gang on drug gang violence, but racist gang turf wars would probably still exists with or without the drugs.
Even quaint little places like Chico, California are seeing the ripple effects from drug and crime infested cities like Stockton, which by the way is also a sanctuary city.
When the good folks of Chico are having a hard time understanding why thier town has seen so much violence recently, they need only look at some of their neighbors like Stockton, Oakland and Richmond. Then it’s not hard to figure out. It’s all about drugs, gangs and Mexican cartels running their poison to eager Gringos.