Tragedy in City Council

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/02/BAEK12MJSP.DTL&tsp=1

This is a local, legal matter here. This one touched me deeply.

Here we had Matt Garcia, 22, councilman for the city of Fairfield. Fairfield is a bigger city, 100,000 people, with Travis Air Force Base. It has cheaper housing and became a commuter city to San Francisco. Just over the hills from Napa. The area is arid, dry, and pleasant. Just outside of the real desert.

How did a 22-year old become a councilman for a city of 100,000? He saw what was going on in the town, didn't like it, organized a campaign to beat a status-quo representative, and with hard work and elbow grease he won. As far as politics go, it's a standard yet inspiring story.

What was going on in town that he didn't like? Gangs and a lack of development. The city was not developing in a positive manner. He saw the gangs taking areas. He didn't see his government standing up to the gangs. He wanted to change it.

The problem wasn't that he wanted that change, but that the gangs didn't. There are many un-PC, taboo things to say here, but one of these is well known- the gangs here aren't always run by citizens of our country. Identifying the gangs and their members is immediately libeled (yes, libeled) as being racist. Even in the glaring face of common sense, it is racist to consider illegal aliens (not a perjorative, a LEGAL TERM) that break the law AS CRIMINALS.

These gangs are more violent, they have cause an upswelling in crime, and our current system tries instead to understand these people as opposed to treating them for who they are- invading guerillas, foreign nationals taking unsanctioned criminal action in a foreign land.

And for Matt's desire of change, he was slain. Shot in the back of the head. The media won't say who shot him, they may not even know. But for someone who desires the reduction and removal of gangs in their town, does it really take a genius to offer a guess?

I am sad for the loss of this young man. Even if I disagreed with his politics, which admittedly I don't know, I nonetheless mourn a man who tried to do the right thing in an inspiring way. I can only hope another like him takes his place.

UPDATE (9/4): The FBI and California state investigative services have thrown their weight into the search and manhunt, and witnesses have reported the identity of the assassin, a latino or light skinned black male, late teens early 20s, 5' 9" or about. The news repeats like a drum that the police are not ruling out assassination as motive, but in typical California style they won't use offensive language (a targeted assault, honest to God, is what I heard).