Letters to the Editor

Teens get probation in Halloween beating

I'm reading the article in Saturday's paper where a judge in Long Beach gave probation to black youths after he had found them guilty of what was described as "savagely beating three white girls almost to death." The same judge had also charged the attack and beating was a "hate crime."

I noted that during the trial the parents of these black youths along with the NAACP had blasted the district attorney and the presiding judge for even charging these black youths with a crime.

Once again I had to shake my head in wonderment at the course of events that we Californians now see ourselves facing. One doesn't have to travel to a mosque or a school in Iran to see or hear cowardly attacks by a group of young terrorists, while their parents sit in the back ground and cheer them on. One only has to travel to a Long Beach court house to see such behavior.

There is one thing we can all be thankful for concerning this hate crimes attack. That the three girls that were attacked were white and not black and the attackers were black and not white.

I remember the Watts riots and the rioting that occurred after the Rodney King trails in Simi Valley. I shutter to think of the rioting and looting that would have occurred if this hate crime attack had been white against black and the white attackers had walked away out of the Long Beach court house with just probation.

So now, the law-abiding citizens of this once great state of California can return to their every day life of ducking the bullets during the drive-bys. They can again return to hiding in their homes after dark, making sure all the doors and windows are tightly locked.

Is it any wonder that people are leaving our state and moving to other states where state laws don't require them to flee their attackers and not fight back?

Is it any wonder corporations are moving out of California to a safer environment in other states?

Steven Beavers

Barstow

Sludge opposition is everybody's battle

For some time citizen Norman Diaz has been leading a fight to keep a biowaste facility from being placed eight miles west of Hinkley. This is not just Norm's fight. This is not just Hinkley's fight and its not just Barstow's fight. It is a fight for all of us who live in the High Desert.

This biowaste facility threatens the safety of the environment where our children are raised and attend school. Who gave us the mission to be the custodian for biowaste coming from Riverside County and other communities outside of the High Desert? Why would our County Board of Supervisors want to help these communities solve their problem by creating one for us?

A similar biowaste facility placed in Adelanto caused so many problems that it was closed as a result of pressure from the citizens of that community. What is there to think that the same problem would not occur here?

Help may be on the way. Enter Erin Brockovich.

Dennis M. Hirsch

Principal, Hinkley School