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The unruly ones inflict misery on the peaceful
Opinion

Peaceful citizens shouldn’t have to put up with the disruptions that occur – typically on the weekend – from the inconsiderate element of our society.

A whole social media chain on the Ceres Community/Incident Feed Facebook page involved an incident on Friday evening, April 15 that began with: “There must be a car/truck meet at the Richland/Hatch shopping center right now. All we hear is hell bass (shaking the windows) and burnouts. Be safe out there, y’all.”

Others said they saw more than 100 vehicles gathered. Complaints were lodged that Ceres Police weren’t doing anything in response other than waiting for backup from CHP and air support.

Citizens must understand that it’s dangerous for a single patrol officer to take on a crowd of 100 – some who were unruly. (Remember how an unruly crowd in Turlock’s Markley Park jumped onto a fire truck trying to move through their sideshow?) Some of these young people have zero regard for law and order.

There will always be a selfish segment of society that elevates its own pursuits of entertainment higher than peace and tranquility that others would like to enjoy. Sideshows are mostly conducted by immature people who haven’t grasped the concept of being a lawful and respectable member of society. Maybe our public school system can begin teaching civility since the parents appear derelict in their duties to impart such values.

Likewise, I’m dumbfounded at the stupidity of young males when they decide to race their sporty cars on public roads and get caught with their cars impounded.


* * * * *

Many of us were shocked at the news of 15-year-old Stagg High School student Alycia Reynaga  being stabbed to death on the Stockton campus by a homeless man. We weren’t so shocked to know that the suspect, 52-year-old Anthony Gray, has an extensive criminal record. This is your California now.

The fact that Gray was a dangerous ex-felon was downplayed in the media reports that I saw. The only place I read of his criminal past was on the 209 Times, which bills itself as a grassroots media source on Facebook.  Their report indicated that Gray had 14 charges in three other counties since 1989 and previously served two prison sentences for violent crimes, including assaulting a police officer. Anybody with the gumption to attack a police officer will have no problem stabbing an innocent school girl to death.

Why this man was walking the streets of Stockton is evidence of a failed California judicial system. And if he continues to enjoy breathing after his conviction will be further evidence that leaders like Gavin Newsom have no concern for the safety and wellbeing of people who kept his sorry administration in power.

Before you Democrats roll your eyes and defend him, let me remind you that as a candidate for governor he told The Modesto Bee editorial staff that he supported the death penalty. The next year, after he became governor, Newsom did a 180 pivot and declared a moratorium on Death Row convicts facing the consequences for their murderous ways. That makes Newsom quite a conniving liar.

Some Democrats like Assemblyman Adam Gray get it. The Merced Democrat – who is now running for Congress – recently called for the penal system to end the early release of dangerous offenders. It might just be posturing because he knows nothing will change unless the opposing party takes control of California and since Democrats outnumber Republicans two to one, there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell of that happening.

Adam Gray and others should abandon their party affiliation. The party has abandoned common sense so people should abandon the party. It’s has been hijacked by radical leftists who continue to make the American people suffer under their policies.


* * * * *

Someone I know in Ceres – he shall remain nameless because I don’t want the Woke mob coming after him – posted some verbiage someone else wrote. It was good so I wanted to share it:

“You know folks, I never cared that you were gay until you started shoving it down my throat. And I never cared what color you were until you started blaming me for your problems. And I never cared about your political affiliation until you started condemning me for mine. I really never even cared where you were born until you wanted to erase my history and blame my ancestors for your problems. You know, I never even cared if your beliefs were different than mine until you said my beliefs were wrong. But now I care. My patience and tolerance are gone and I am not alone in feeling like this. There are millions of us who feel like this.”

Indeed, that’s what you will see this coming November.


* * * * *

This is getting ridiculous. On Monday the Ceres City Council continued indefinitely, and like for like the 10th time in two years, the public hearing in protest of a proposed commercial center next to the River Oaks driving range. When I found out last week I though, ‘Let me guess the reason … because the council is shy a member AGAIN?’

Lo and behold, that was the reason given by Ken Thornberry.

These delays needs to be over. A property owner is being held hostage because the neighbors doesn’t like that the city changed the General Plan which allows the neighbor to build a shopping center.

Are we really to believe that if Mr. Singh builds his commercila center that River Oaks dies an instant death?


* * * * *

The city has been having lots of trouble recently with Zoom meetings, including the Monday and April 11 City Council meetings and the April 18 Planning Commission meeting. Members were not all sitting together at the Planning Commission meeting.

Pam Thornberry, one of the owners of River Oaks Golf Course, wrote a testy email to City Manager Alex Terrazas which I was CC’d on.

She does not want the protest hearing occurring by Zoom exclusively. She shared her opinion: “Isn’t it funny that the equipment doesn’t work at a very important meeting…pretty convenient.”

I’m not buying her conspiracy theory as technology does break down and when it does it’s frustrating to say the least.

The council meetings on Monday and on April 11 were held in person. The April 18 Planning Commission meeting also accommodated the public with Chairwoman Laurie Smith present running the meeting and other members located elsewhere on Zoom. That would mean there was no violation of the Brown Act as Thornberry charged.


* * * * *

Oh no, more legislation to save us! Democrat Assemblyman Joaquin Arambula (D-Fresno) – he’s also an emergency room physician so you’d better pay attention – formally introduced Assembly Bill 2550 at a Natural Resources Committee hearing on Monday. It is yet another attempt to clean the Valley’s air. I guess all these years of having a San Joaquin Valley Air District and its no-burning rules and its myriad burdensome regulations for businesses haven’t done the trick because Arambula calls our air “the most dangerous in the country.” Don the gas masks, folks, we’re talking life and death here.

Arambula’s bill is another attempt to form bureaucracy to spend millions to clean the air. Specifically, AB2550 would require the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to provide technical support and guidance to the San Joaquin Valley Air District and also ensure that CARB and the Valley Air District coordinate with under-resourced communities directly to fill gaps in air district clean-up plans. 

Follow that? I didn’t either. But it sounds like we’re going to tie bad air into poor folks once again. See the theme? So-called “environmental justice experts” from Little Manila Rising (South Stockton) and the Central Valley Air Quality Coalition spoke at the hearing.

There are a lot of reasons why Valley air can be bad sometimes, not always. Government cannot solve the problem.

1). We often get the dirty air from the San Francisco Bay Area blowing right into our convenient little inland dust pan. Unless you plan to deal with Bay Area’s exhaust, we’ll keep choking on their pollutants.

2). We live in a gigantic bowl. The mountains are the walls of that bowl and coupled with pressure systems to form the pot, pollutants stay here in the pot like a bowl of pollution soup.

3). Unavoidable agricultural harvesting adds to air pollution. We know, we deal with it whether we’re talking about truck pollution from hauling out the produce to the seasonal dust from almond sweeping.

Arambula’s bill contains a statement that I call as complete BS: “The distribution of premature deaths is not equal. Low-socioeconomic status communities are at higher risk than higher-income communities. Additionally, Hispanic, Asian, and Black individuals experience higher risk of premature death than White individuals.”

I see, so if you’re Latino, an Asian or black person breathing the same air that your white neighbors are breathing, it’ll kill you faster. Sounds like more race baiting to me unless you can show me the science on that.

It’s always say follow the money. I tried to find the analysis of the bill and its costs but that page was blank on the California Legislative Information website. 

Remember what Harry Hopkins said: “Tax, tax, tax. Spend, spend, spend. The people are too damned dumb to know the difference.”


* * * * *

Hundreds turned out at the state Capitol recently to protest a bill moving in the state Legislature, AB 2223, which seemed to legalize infanticide. The bill was authored by Oakland liberal Democratic Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks. It would abolish California’s requirement that coroners investigate stillbirths.

Wicks says the bill, which passed the Assembly Health Committee on a 11-3 vote, would prevent women from being held civilly or criminally liable for their pregnancy outcomes — such as in the case of two Kings County women who were charged with murder and imprisoned after delivering stillbirths and testing positive for methamphetamine.

But opponents say the bill — which also prevents liability if an infant dies during the perinatal period “due to a pregnancy-related cause” — would essentially legalize the killing of newborn babies. Some anti-abortion groups define the perinatal period as a month or more after delivery but the National Center on Health Statistics defines it as between 28 weeks of gestation and seven days after birth.

Susan Arnall, who is the vice president of legal affairs for the Right to Life League said that anyone could shake a three-week-old baby to death and police and other authorities wouldn’t be able to investigate because under (the bill) it is a ‘perinatal death.’”

However, the bill was amended to clarify that infanticide is not going to be legal. Wicks filed amendments to the bill to further clarify the language and clear up misinterpretations that “perinatal deaths” meant anything other than mothers losing their babies due to pregnancy-related causes.

The amendment changes the wording of section 7a to read: “Notwithstanding any other law, a person shall not be subject to civil or criminal liability or penalty, or otherwise deprived of their rights under this article, based on their actions or omissions with respect to their pregnancy or actual, potential, or alleged pregnancy outcome, including miscarriage, stillbirth, or abortion, or perinatal death due to a pregnancy-related cause.”

It still appears to be a muddled mess to me. I can see some circumstances whereby a woman could deliberately cause the death of her unborn child and there would be zero consequences for it.


This column is the opinion of Jeff Benziger, and does not necessarily represent the opinion of The Ceres Courier or 209 Multimedia Corporation. How do you feel about this? Let Jeff know at jeffb@cerescourier.com