We find four items of interest in the northern Utah news media this morning, so we'll reel them off from the top of the stack. The first two are articles from the Standard-Examiner, each of which involves court proceedings for the accused perpetrators of recent shooting incidents in Ogden, as these individuals are brought before the bar of justice.
The first story reports on Wednesday's preliminary hearing for 15-year old Diego Mora, who appears to be on track for prosecution as an adult offender. Testimony offered in court, it would appear, eliminates any doubt about whether the crimes with which Mora has been charged were "gang related":
"OGDEN — Diego Mora told police that, on a scale of one to 10, he was a three when it came to his standing in an Ogden street gang.The second article reports on the Wednesday preliminary hearing for Jeremy Isaac Gallegos, the accused shooter in a July 11 shooting Ogden police call "gang-related." At this point in the proceedings the court has denied the defendant bail, and has issued an additional order prohibiting contact between the accused and the state's three eye-witnesses. Although the story doesn't report the court's reasoning for this, we're going to speculate that these measures are intended by the court to prevent any retributive acts by the defendant, which might be directed toward the prosecution's key witnesses. This, gentle readers, is what courts have to do in cities which are plagued with violent gang activity.
The 15-year-old accused of killing 22-year-old Jesus Aparicio Sept. 21 at the Phillips Kicks 66 convenience store was in court Wednesday afternoon for a preliminary hearing before Judge J. Mark Andrus in 2nd District Juvenile Court.
Detective Tim Scott testified that he took several signed statements from Mora in the hours and days after the shooting, in which Mora stated he shot Aparicio and committed a separate robbery because he was tired of being teased and of being seen as weak among his gang associates. ...
Scott testified that Mora told him he did not want to kill Aparicio, but his friends egged him on after Aparicio insulted Mora’s gang, telling him to “just blast that fool.” ...
"I didn’t really care,” Scott read from Mora’s statement. “It was (my friend) that was tripping.”
Emerald City citizens need to face the obvious reality of this situation. Gang culture is thriving in Ogden, and is quite well entrenched, in which connection we again wonder whether it might have been more prudent, over the past 7-1/2 years, for our "can do" mayor to have invested more police resources into anti-gang law enforcement and pre-emption, and less police manpower into writing traffic tickets.
The next item, a very good Standard-Examiner editorial, comments favorably about the current state of Governor Huntsman's Geologic Hazards Working Group project:
It's a good editorial, as we said; and the accompanying Grondahl cartoon ain't half bad either.People have complained for the past decade about residential developments on hillsides that give way — slide, sink, etc. — after the homes are built but there hasn’t been much of an organized effort to find a solution. Most cities and counties have simply proceeded to do things pretty much as they have always done them, using methods that have proven inadequate.
Finally, and thankfully, that’s changing. Gov. bled the Geologic Hazards Working Group to study the issue and make recommendations to help local plan ning commissions judge whether or not a given piece of sloping real estate was suitable for building. The group — so far made up of representatives from various state, county and local governments, but set to include developers as its work goes forward — has just issued a list of recommendations that Huntsman has accepted. As noted recently by Standard-Examiner reporter Bryon Saxton, the group says local governments need more education on liability, updated maps and expertise regarding potential geological hazards. They also need to strictly enforce codes pertaining to land grades.This is just a start, though. Huntsman has decided to keep the Geologic Hazards Working Group together to discuss further reform concerning issues like disclosure. To wit: When a property owner sells a parcel of land that has been judged to be at-risk, what’s the responsibility to inform the buyer? Currently, it’s a buyer-beware world out there. That’s even true when it comes to selling a house on land that may be at-risk.
Finally, we'll highlight this morning's Salt Lake Tribune story, just the kind of thing that Salt Lake City readers love to read, concerning their "odd-ball" neighbors up north in Emerald City. Many Salt Lakers believe we're a mite "peculiar." And with stories like the one linked above -- who can blame them?
Take it away, gentle readers.
The floor is all yours this morning.
