First read THIS:
Study: Veterans more likely to be homeless
WA****NGTON (CNN) -- More than 25 percent of the homeless population in the
United States are military veterans, although they represent 11 percent of
the
civilian adult population, according to a new re****t.
On any given night last year, nearly 196,000 veterans slept on the street,
in
a shelter or in transitional housing, the study by the Homelessness
Research
Institute found ...
from
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/11/08/homeless.veterans
then read THIS:
Settlement gives former gang member a new lease on life
'I've got some im****tant responsibility now,' says the O.C. man about his
commitment to leaving criminal life behind and his $2.5-million payout.
By H.G. Reza, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
January 14, 2008
Jose Luis Muņoz pocketed the $200 "gate money" and jumped inside a prison
staff car that drove him to the bus station in Delano, just up California
99
from Bakersfield. Flames fanned by October's Santa Ana winds had Southern
California ablaze, but after a year behind bars, he was willing to walk
through fire to get home.
The bus ticket set him back $20, but the man known by the gang moniker
Dopey
was returning to Anaheim richer than he ever imagined.
Waiting at home was his mother, a girlfriend he met as a pen pal while he
was
locked up, and a $2.5-million settlement reached two weeks earlier from a
federal lawsuit against an Anaheim police officer who had rammed Muņoz
with a
police car.
After a year in prison earning 8 cents an hour scrubbing toilets, Muņoz
faces
perhaps his biggest challenge: Can $2.5 million turn his life around and
help
him atone for his bad choices and years in jail?
Muņoz says he's eager "to do the right thing," but California prison
studies
suggest the numbers are not on his side. The state has one of the highest
recidivism rates in the nation with more than two-thirds of inmates
returning
to prison, most within their first six months out.
And Muņoz said that doing the right thing had not always been easy for
him. He
prowled with an East Anaheim street gang and reveled in *** and drug
parties.
At 23, he is a high school dropout and a parolee who has spent four years
in
prison, jail or juvenile hall.
His ears stick out like cup handles and he has closely cropped hair,
earning
him the nickname Dopey, after the cartoon dwarf. His smile, which creases
his
face, can come across as bumptious or friendly.
It was a 2006 parole violation that landed Muņoz in the Delano Community
Correctional Facility. But it was an earlier incident that made him a
millionaire.
Muņoz was stopped for questioning in June 2005 by Officer Eddie Ruiz and
his
partner, who were in a patrol car. Unarmed and on parole, Muņoz said he
bolted
because he was afraid the officers were going to send him back to prison.
The
afternoon chase ended almost as soon as it started, and he stopped on the
sidewalk to surrender.
According to court records, Muņoz was raising his hands when Ruiz drove at
32
mph onto the sidewalk and hit him from behind. Muņoz was wedged in the
vehicle's undercarriage and dragged a short distance. He was eviscerated
and
spent seven months in the hospital.
A police investigation blamed Ruiz, who is still on the force, for failing
to
yield to a pedestrian on the sidewalk. The 13-year veteran is a defendant
in
another lawsuit alleging excessive force. In that case, Ruiz shot and
wounded
a passenger and killed a man who police said was trying to hit him with a
pickup truck.
Muņoz's injuries were so severe his mother said doctors at UCI Medical
Center
in Orange told her he was not expected to live. Muņoz survived, though,
and
has no lingering effects from the incident.
While doctors were telling Maria Bravo, 62, to brace for her son's death,
other hospital staff members were advising her to hire a lawyer. Muņoz
sued
and two years later the city agreed to pay him $2.5 million and pick up
$557,000 for his medical bills, his attorney, Arnoldo Casillas, said.
Casillas said he set up Muņoz's settlement so that his client will receive
monthly payments rather than a lump sum. He said this will encourage Muņoz
to
stay employed if he wishes to live at a comfortable level.
The idea that he and his mother, who raised him as a single parent, may
never
again want for anything is slowly sinking in.
"I really don't have any idea how much money that is. But I know it's a
lot,"
he said. "I pray for God to help me make the right choices. Little by
little,
I've begun to realize that I have a lot of responsibility now."
Muņoz said he had severed his gang ties. But gang experts said dropping
out is
not always easy, and that it takes more than money to start afresh.
"Suddenly, you're out there by yourself. It takes a long time to wean
yourself
from the gang lifestyle," said retired Santa Ana gang detective Kevin
Ruiz,
who investigated gangs for 20 years and is not related to the officer
blamed
in Muņoz's injury.
"You have to have a sup****t system, like a mother or girlfriend, and you
need
something to keep you busy, like a job," he said. "It can be done, but
it's a
work in progress."
Sitting at the dining table in his mother's home, Muņoz talked about his
troubled life and newfound dreams with the candor of a man who had nothing
to
hide. His life has been a contradiction. Bravo proudly tells a visitor
that
Muņoz was an obedient son, an altar boy for eight years and a good student
until he turned 15. Muņoz picks up the story from there. "I dropped out in
the
10th grade. I started failing, ditching a lot of school," he said. "I
started
drinking, and I started on coke. I was smoking weed and meth."
Muņoz said he was "jumped" into a gang when he was 18, a path he chose
because
he thought it would impress the girls. "We did stupid things. Get high.
Have
fun with girls. Tag on walls. But mostly we'd just kick it," Muņoz said.
"But
like I said, I've got some im****tant responsibility now. I've got to take
care
of the money and not waste it on stupid things. I never want to go to
prison
again."
He began his most recent stint in prison months after he was discharged
from
the hospital in 2006. Muņoz said he was walking with four other gang
members
when they were stopped by police. Officers recovered a pistol from one and
all
were jailed, he said. For Muņoz, though, it was a parole violation, and he
was
sentenced to prison.
Muņoz said he was remorseful for the heartaches he brought his mother and
wanted to repay her for the sacrifices she made. After years of working
two
jobs, Bravo saved $13,000 for a down payment on the three-bedroom,
two-bath
home she bought in 1992. To pay the mortgage, she rents out the bedrooms
and
sleeps in what used to be the family room.
"When he was little, he was all I had. He was my son and my friend," said
Bravo, who is retired. "We were poor and went through some bad times
together.
There were times when he made it more difficult."
However, Muņoz insists that his gangbanging days are behind him. He says
he is
now following his parole officer's advice and looking to buy a house for
his
mother and himself "in a nicer area in another county."
"I'll try to change. I'm staying away from gangs and spending more time at
home," he said. "If I continue like I'm doing right now, I won't go back"
to
prison.
In addition to not associating with gang members, Muņoz is required to
hold a
job as a condition of parole. He has registered with a jobs agency,
preparing
for interviews. In the meantime, he works weekends as a church security
guard
and volunteers in a Santa Ana real estate office. He admits, his job
skills
are lacking.
Muņoz says he has a new appreciation for how "normal," or law-abiding,
people
live and credits his girlfriend for this new outlook. He also looks back
with
regret for missing out on typical high school experiences because of his
gang
lifestyle.
"I never went to a prom or a school dance. Not even a football game,
because I
was messing around at the time with meth, weed and drinking."
But thanks to his girlfriend, whom he met as a pen pal while in prison,
Muņoz
is seeing how normal people live. And he says he likes it.
He recounted a party his girlfriend recently took him to with others from
her
office. He did not have to stand with his back to the wall or constantly
swivel his head to look out for danger.
"She takes me places with her. We went to Disneyland, and I was sober the
whole time. It was pretty cool," he said. "She took me to a party and
there
were a lot of white people there, and Asians. It seemed like I was the
only
Mexican. It felt kind of weird, but I can get used to it."
Though he is rich beyond his dreams, and could coast through life on the
money
he's getting, he said he wants to use some of it to open a business. That
means going to work every day.
But, he reminds himself, that is what normal people do.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-munoz14jan14,1,285122.story
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
WHAT WOULD THE FOUNDING FATHERS DO? ...
"If the representatives of the people betray their constituents,
there is then no resource left but in the exertion of that
original right of self-defense which is paramount to all
positive forms of government ... The citizens must rush
tumultuously to arms, without concert, without system,
without resource; except in their courage and
despair ...
"The natural strength of the people in a large community, in
pro****tion to the artificial strength of the government, is greater
than in a small, and of course more competent to a struggle
with the attempts of the government to establish a tyranny ...
the people, without exaggeration, may be said to be entirely
the masters of their own fate."
-- Alexander Hamilton
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of
arms."
-- Thomas Jefferson
"The strongest reason for the people to retain the
right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to
protect themselves against tyranny in government."
-- Thomas Jefferson
"As our enemies have found we can reason like men,
so now let us show them we can fight like men also."
-- Thomas Jefferson
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on
certain occasions, that I wish it always to be kept alive."
-- Thomas Jefferson
"The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of
any government, and to protect its free expression should
be our first object."
-- Thomas Jefferson
"We in America do not have government by the majority.
We have government by the majority who participate."
-- Thomas Jefferson
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of
good conscience to remain silent."
-- Thomas Jefferson
"Every government degenerates when trusted to the
rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are
its only safe depositories."
-- Thomas Jefferson
"In matters of style, swim with the current; in
matters of principle, stand like a rock."
-- Thomas Jefferson
"Don't talk about what you have done or what you are
going to do."
-- Thomas Jefferson
"Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case
with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every
free state."
-- Thomas Jefferson
"Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act!
Action will delineate and define you."
-- Thomas Jefferson
"Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand
on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that
from which they draw their gains."
-- Thomas Jefferson
"I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our
monied cor****ations which dare already to challenge
our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance
to the laws of our country."
-- Thomas Jefferson
"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous
to our liberties than standing armies."
-- Thomas Jefferson
"Experience demands that man is the only animal which
devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to
the general prey of the rich on the poor."
-- Thomas Jefferson
"Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms
of government those entrusted with power have, in time,
and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny."
-- Thomas Jefferson
"If the American people ever allow private banks to
control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then
by deflation, the banks...will deprive the people of all
property until their children wake-up homeless on the
continent their fathers conquered... The issuing power
should be taken from the banks and restored to the
people, to whom it properly belongs."
-- Thomas Jefferson
"If ye love wealth better than freedom, the tranquility of
servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from
us in peace.
We ask not your counsels or arms.
Crouch down and lick the hands that feed you.
May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity
forget that ye were our countrymen."
-- Samuel Adams
PLEASE EMAIL THESE LINKS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW:
www.predatoryaliens.com
www.immigrationshumancost.org
www.daylaborers.org
www.alipac.us
"The Illegal-Alien Crime Wave" by Heather MacDonald
www.city-journal.org/html/14_1_the_illegal_alien.html
See the COLOSSAL costs of illegal aliens to the American taxpayer:
www.immigrationcounters.com
www.AmericanPatrol.com
www.SaveOurState.org
www.escapingjustice.com
Just two of MANY American cops murdered by illegals:
www.deputydavidmarch.com
www.kriseggle.org
"It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an
irate, tireless minority keen on setting brushfires of
freedom in the minds of men."
-- Samuel Adams
.
"Unfortunately, the majority of illegal aliens who are here
are engaged in criminal activity. Identity theft, use of
fraudulent social security numbers and green cards, tax
evasion, driving without licenses represent some of the
crimes that are engaged in by the majority of illegal aliens
on a daily basis merely to maintain and hide their illegal
status. In addition, violent crime and drug distribution and
possession is also prevalent among illegal aliens. Over 25%
of today's federal prison population are illegal aliens. In some
areas of the country, 12% of felonies, 25% of burglaries and
34% of thefts are committed by illegal aliens."
-- Testimony of District Attorney John M. Morganelli before
the House Subcommittee on immigration, Border, Security
and Claims
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