You’ve got to be friggin’ kidding me. I mean, I know that scaring people is part of the whole tough-on-crime business, but really?
Rick Horowitz and I have been exchanging messages about some website design issues, and that got me to poking around Rick’s new law practice website, which lead me to another of Rick’s websites: GangDefense.com, which eventually led me to his practice areas page. That’s where Rick mentions in passing that California has an anti-gang law called the STEP Act, in which the “STEP” stands for…wait for it…Street Terrorism Enforcement and Prevention.
That’s right, they’re not just gangs, they’re Street Terrorists!
It is refreshing to learn of your astonishment with the name of California’s Street Terrorism Enforcement Act. Criminal defense lawyers in California have become so accustomed to the all out war that the system has declared on young people who hang out with their friends from the neighborhood (also called street terrorists) that we have become numb to the calloused heartless approach taken toward these young people. After you have explained to a bunch of parents that their 18 year old who has never been in trouble before is facing life in prison a few times you just accept the realities of the current system and keep fighting for justice.
It seems absurd at first that the kid who didn’t hurt anyone faces life in prison when another person who decapitated his victim gets six years in prison, however a few gang cases later and you know what your dealing with and just do your best to fight for them.