The community of West Sacramento is protesting against the need of another gang injunction. Imposing a gang injunction on the area to capture gang members does not get to the crux of the issue — it is a defensive approach lacking long-term effectiveness.
    The district attorney’s office asserts that there is a gang problem in West Sacramento, which calls for a second injunction granted by the State Supreme Court. Past cases, such as an injunction to eliminate the Broderick Boys gang in 2005, have been overturned. The new injunction is based on community members voicing how “safe” they feel in their neighborhoods, which is relative to where a person lives and visibility issues. If there is a problem, it is not being addressed using the right means.
    A gang injunction involves sending law enforcement into the community to patrol for suspicious persons that fall under specific criteria of a gang member. Only two of the 11 criteria must be observed before placing the individual under injunction and restricting various civil liberties, such as forbidding interaction between the accused and supposed gang members and instilling a 10 p.m. to sunrise curfew. Given the broad spectrum of possibilities of individuals meeting these criteria, which includes only one crime-related criteria, there is great potential for inaccuracy and ambiguous claims.
    In the case that false positives are made, the alleged gang member has very little ability to contest the claim. Gang injunctions do not formally place individuals under arrest because they are not being charged with a crime. Rather, there is the potential for someone to be judged guilty by association.
    An underlying issue with a gang injunction is its social implications; racial profiling and labeling that lead to further hostility within the community. By mistaking a person as a gang member due to their race or ethnicity or that of one’s close acquaintances, many social justices are at stake. Instead of pointing fingers, the community should start at square one and promote neighborhood unity.
    Outreach is an important tactic in combating crime rates and the presence of gangs within a community.  This can take on forms such as community centers with work training and youth programs. In order to reduce the problems in West Sacramento, the causes of crime and gang living must be analyzed and addressed. The susceptibility of an area to crime and gangs is directly related to issues such as the income, quality of education and extracurricular programs in the area as well as highway access or vacant buildings.
    It is important to remember that a gang is built on solidarity among its members. Applying force to the situation and infringing on civil rights will instill a defensive atmosphere within the community causing people to feel paranoid or wary of being falsely accused.

The interminable presidential campaign is not a topic I generally find interesting. Obviously, it is the center of the political world right now, but I find the nitty-gritty of politics very repetitive and very tiring. As far as I can see, this column will be my last on the election of 2008. Good riddance.

Yet, word on the political street is that John McCain is not fundraising very well. Republicans I know on political campaigns tell of a party disheartened and demoralized, working without passion and without money. While the Democratic party has been in civil war for months, the GOP generally remains unenthused about its electoral prospects and its presidential candidate. Like an injured athlete, the party seemingly has neither the focus nor the happiness to get back into competition.

Some claim this turn of events is not necessarily bad, that a solid electoral defeat will energize and organize the base and subsequently show the American people just how bad the Democrats are when in charge. Ronald Reagan’s triumph over Jimmy Carter in 1980 is the model for this theory. Supporting McCain then becomes only vaguely important, with many on the hard right grudgingly planning to vote for him but refusing to open their checkbooks, walk precincts or put up yard signs.

But this mindset is a shortsighted and selfish one. We must look at the big picture.

In military terminology, a delaying action is often fought by a smaller unit to slow the enemy’s advance and to buy time for a stronger perimeter to be set up in the rear. Soldiers can then engage in combat very tenaciously but not expect a great victory in the short term. This is the model the Republican party should adopt for the 2008 election.

Since the Reagan Revolution of 1980, the conservative and libertarian movements have more or less held the upper hand. The one Democratic executive, Bill Clinton, failed when he unabashedly embraced liberalism and succeeded when he became moderate. A Democratic Congress was defined mostly for its opposition to Reagan and Bush 41, and then in 1994 was dramatically ousted in favor of the Republicans.

Then came the Congressional elections of 2006. Now, a once slight-right country seems to have become a slight-left country. In part through some idiotic behavior from Republicans, the balance has tipped in favor of the Democrats, and the Reagan era is in danger of coming to a close altogether. Rather than blindly trusting that a good Republican candidate will emerge for 2012, it is possible that we stand at the beginning of a new era of liberal dominance.

If the Democrats gain control of both the White House and Capitol Hill, defense spending will be slashed. Iraq will likely fall apart again, and this time for good. Our enemies abroad will use the time to regain their strength, and al-Qaeda will get a much-needed breather. Taxes will be raised on the rich and the middle class, hurting economic recovery when it is desperately needed. Universal health care or something close to it will get through, along with expansions of many other government programs.

One lesson of American history is that once the federal government grows, it almost never shrinks back to its previous size. Even the great Reagan largely failed in that category.

In four or eight years, the movement can hopefully find a better standard bearer and go back on the offensive. With the oldest president in U.S. history, the vice president also may assume power in that period, and some hopes can be pinned on him as well. But for now, it is imperative that McCain get all the support we would give that hypothetical Second Coming of Reagan that never came.

This is not a naked appeal at maintaining power for the party at all costs, regardless of principle. Precisely the opposite, this is the best way to keep what we’ve gained so far in the movement, and to mitigate the damage that would come with the Democrats. We don’t have to be enthused about John McCain to enthusiastically support him.

Analyze the success of delaying actions in history with ROB OLSON at rwolson@ucdavis.edu.

Roger Cohen, the esteemed The New York Times columnist, recently proclaimed that Asia’s ferocious emergence signals the end of the era of the white man. The declaration was extreme in conception, but he was perhaps audibly echoing the feelings that have been fermenting. It was reasonable in thought.

The reason for this outlook is Asia’s ascent. Come to Asia and fear drains away. It’s replaced by confidence and a burning desire to succeed, so suggests Mr. Cohen. Accordingly, with changes at multiple levels occurring at breakneck speed, it is only a matter of time before the aforementioned situation realizes itself. And he attributes this phenomenon to Asia’s culture of education and achievement.

In a way, Mr. Cohen is both right and wrong. Because, simply said, the Asian culture of education is, to an extent, both constraining and rewarding.

Constraining because this culture upholds the importance of results above all else. Progress is measured as a function of cutthroat competition. Grades emerge as an indicator of excellence and academic achievement becomes a predictor of further successes. Moreover, it prizes conformance to a societal construct of excellence, a familiarity which further breeds continuity. In this culture, optimal academic performance is the goal.

But it is simultaneously rewarding because of its simplicity. This form of education is systematic and methodical. There is a gradual, progressive means toward the attainment and application of knowledge. One, in an orderly fashion, learns the fundamentals of a discipline and then proceeds to practice theoretical assumptions. The establishment of an intuitive, if authoritative, attempt toward mastery takes precedence. By this extension, one learns through frequent, deliberate practice.

Yet this system is beset with its own flaws. Here, the distinction between excellence and failure is clear. Clinically however, this distinction suggests a frame in absolutes. But the process of learning is not merely a protocol-oriented approach. Learning is not a rigidly mechanical or structural process. Instead, learning is also a product of confusion. Ideas are not confined or divided into clear-cut polarities. They are intertwined in nuance, contradictions and ambiguity. Identities are juxtaposed. Entities both coalesce and conflict. Consequently, their relationship is defined by non-definition.

This nuance is essential. It repeats itself in cyclical processes. One only needs to look at America – a nation of renewal and reinvention. Random strands of ideas create movements. A society experiences these cultures, absorbs them and exhausts them. Then, dissatisfied with the monotony, someone suggests a newer idea, which in turn engenders countercultures. Ideas are manufactured, used and then replaced by more innovative ones. These countercultures rebuke their predecessors. The form evolves, but the fundamental cycle continues.

Some have further suggested that the irony of education is its ability to teach individuals not to just perpetrate a preexisting system, but to ultimately facilitate a system’s destruction and replacement. For instance, in his work A Talk to Teachers, James Baldwin asserts that [t]he paradox of education is precisely this – that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated.… But no society is really anxious to have that kind of person around. What societies really, ideally, want is a citizenry which will simply obey the rules of society. If a society succeeds in [achieving that goal], that society is about to perish. In this sense, the sole stride of a systematic learning process that seeks perpetuity – so often the pride of the Asian educational model – is symptomatic of a society in decline.

Mr. Cohen was perhaps correct in anticipating Asia’s fierce intellectual growth as a prelude to a new era. But he could’ve viewed the situation not from a zero-sum perspective. It isn’t. Instead, it can be an era full of possibility and opportunity. That world marks the beginning of an era without distinctions.

Spring is the season of renewal, and ZACH HAN welcomes your comments again to zklhan@ucdavis.edu.

With a nod to Rob Olson, for giving me a reason to live…

I once saw our chancellor Larry Vanderhoef at the ARC wearing a shirt that had a full beer stein on the front baring the words, Are you drinking enough? I’m happy to report that, yes, Larry, I am drinking quite enough.

To everyone who supported the Iraq war back in 2002 and 2003: I told you so.

I don’t normally praise conservatives for their ideas, but last year’s illegal immigrant capture the flag game was hilarious. If you disagree, you’ve died inside.

Leaf blowers, escalators, motion-sensing toilets and Hummers are fucking stupid.

Juno is a terrible movie; it’s only possible for an upper middle class white chick living in gentrified suburbia. A black girl living anywhere whose parents make anything isn’t getting anybody to adopt that kid.

I wash my hands before I pee, because I know where I’ve been.

When I use etc. I do so in the sense that it’s meant to be used – not to indicate the potential continuation of a list, but because I’ve run out of examples and wish to trick the reader into thinking otherwise.

Your means possession, you’re means you are, and ur doesn’t mean shit.

Needless to say, …

If you’re under 18 and wearing a bike helmet, you’re following the law. If you’re over 18 and wearing a bike helmet, you’re a loser.

I find that I’m more interested in being good at things than the things themselves. The single exception to this rule is sex.

When a $60,000-a-year job is off-shored to China (job count: minus one), the American who just got laid off now needs income. With little or no time to retrain, and since he can’t make $60,000 a year off the bat at a single job, he takes two entry level positions at reduced wages (job count, plus two). And that’s how jobs are created in the Bush economy.

The computers in the Tech Lounge at the ARC blow more balls than Mr. Bucket. Will someone seriously get on that shit?

My biology professor said, You wouldn’t say that group A was more fit than group B just because group B happened to be by a body of water when it flooded. Which is true, unless you’re a Republican and group B is poor people. Poor, black people.

A leaked memo summarizing a meeting between Austan Goolsbee (Remember him? That economic adviser to Obama I made such a fuss about?) and a Canadian official has Goolsbee saying that Obama’s critical rhetoric about NAFTA and the negative impact of free trade is more reflective of political maneuvering than policy. I told you so.

If you’re 17 and your mom’s 33, you’re a mistake. If you’re 17, your mom’s 33 and your daughter’s one, you’re an even bigger mistake; you should probably be sterilized, and you’re my next-door neighbor from high school.

If you’re my next-door neighbor from high school, my bad.

Saudi Arabia has commissioned Bechtel to build a 5,250-foot tall tower in Jeddah. It would be wonderfully ironic if we blew it up by remotely piloting a bunch of mothballed B-52s into it. Also, it looks like a penis.

Vegetarian is just another word for annoying impotent protest.

I’m going to open a sex shop called Megahurtz, which will specialize in electronic S&M gear.

Energy-strapped cities sometimes cycle streetlights off and on so that only portions of the city are lit past dark. But the Coors Light billboards are lit all night long.

Maf54 (7:58:37 PM): well I have aa totally stiff wood now.

A final ARC comment. All you guys who lift up the bottom of your shirts to wipe the sweat off your face, stop. You’re not fooling anybody. We all know you’re just trying to show off your totally ripped abs and look at yourself in the mirror. It’s lame. You’re lame. ‘Cause really, bro, they’re not that impressive. In fact, the only six pack I see on you is the one you drank last night. So please, get over yourself, and stop. Thanks.

John McCain will win the presidency. He’ll do it by attacking Obama’s/Clinton’s patriotism, exploiting racism/sexism and xenophobia and convincing people that Bush’s tax cuts have been good for everyday Americans. Don’t say I didn’t tell you.

K.C. CODY told you what’s on his mind. Tell him what’s on urz at kccody@ucdavis.edu. XXX

The Starbucks corporation is being hit with a $105 million lawsuit for breaking a U.S. law barring management from sharing a percentage of the tip jar. The reasoning behind the law is to keep managers who have fewer serving duties from hijacking tips from lower-level employees. Rightly, those managers should not be taking tips that are ultimately not intended for them. The lawsuit objected to Starbucks shift supervisors from taking a share of tips, because it considers shift supervisors to be managers.

However, in a business such as a coffee shop, the line between shift supervisor and barista is blurred. If a customer goes to Starbucks, it will be nearly impossible for this patron to tell the difference between the shift supervisor and barista, because both perform many of the same tasks. Both take orders and serve coffee, and as such, both should receive appropriate helpings from the tip jar. Shift supervisors do the work that tips are intended to reward, so there is no reason why they should not receive this extra compensation.

From the employee’s point of view, the line between manager, shift supervisor and barista is also blurred. The shift supervisor has many managerial responsibilities and is oftentimes the most senior employee during some shifts. Starbucks shift supervisors do have increased pay when they get to the position, but the resulting increases are by no means large enough to necessitate a revoked share in the tips. The shift supervisor’s salary is capped at $13 per hour, while the barista’s starting pay is at $9.50 per hour. The company is saving money by not promoting shift supervisors to managers although there is overlap in the responsibilities of both positions. In light of the confusion over compensation and duties, Starbucks should better clarify its expectations of different positions.

The Starbucks locations in Davis have resisted this lawsuit, and the employees continue to share the tips with shift supervisors involved in the sale and brewing of coffee. Nevertheless, as the corporation has probably already seen, it must clarify the expectations of its managers in writing, labeling their main job description as barista while ensuring their fair share of tips.