Los Banos, CA Violence

[Ripon83]

Really?

You really think this town suffered 17 shootings 4 months 20 years ago? 2 more on Thursday, 14 homicides since January 1
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Two men were shot in front of their home Saturday night in what police believe was a gang-related incident.
The Los Banos Police Department responded to the 100 block of Second Street for a report of gunshots at 10:16 p.m.
Officers found a 20-year-old male suffering from a gunshot wound to the thigh and a 24-year old shot in the upper torso.
Officers were told two Hispanic males shot the victims in front of their residence before fleeing the area in a light-colored sedan.
The 24-year-old was airlifted to Doctors Medical Center and is showing improvement after being listed in critical condition earlier in the week, Cmdr. Ray Reyna Jr. said. The second victim was taken by ambulance to Memorial Medical Center and is in stable condition. Both hospitals are in Modesto.
Police are investigating the shooting as gang-related. There have been 17 shootings in Los Banos since April, 14 of them gang-related.
On Aug. 7 brothers Ruben Sanchez, 34, and Angel Rodriguez, 30, died after being shot in the 500 block of I Street near Club Azul. Reyna said police don't know if the killings are connected with Saturday's shootings.
The Police Department asks anyone with information to contact Detective Justin Melden at (209) 827-7070, ext. 114, or leave an anonymous tip on the city website at

https://www.losbanos.org

That place has always had, ummm.. "Issues" caused by the usual suspects. I remember hearing the same complaints 20 years ago.

[adriantimatter]

It is not the illegal aliens who are the gang bangers. It is their children and their children's children. Live in the county for one year and you won't be asking for statistics. Any area around here that has a large Hispanic population, has a disproportionate level of gang violence. And before you pull out the race card, I am of Mexican decent. I also work in the monument business. I have designed plenty of tombstones for Hispanic gangsters. Whites, blacks and Asians, not so much.

[adriantimatter]

LOL. It should be renamed Los Banos Mojados.

Although I am against illegal immigration, I don't think we should be using derogatory terms like that. It is the same as using the N-word.

[Chaparral]

Well not always lol... My mother moved from Arkansas to Dos Palos/Los Banos area back in 1938 and lived there for 14 years before moving up to the Susanville area. Back then she tells stories of having to open a gate to use the highway and how it was a large farming community where everyone knew well, everyone!

Times have changed a lot for that little area and not for the best. Such a little community for so many problems!

My dad had similar stories for Inglewood and South Central LA back during WWII when the family came out here for the work in the defense industry...bean fields and rows of corn where ghettos are today, folks not locking their doors. He said it all started to turn in the 1960s.

You really think this town suffered 17 shootings 4 months 20 years ago? 2 more on Thursday, 14 homicides since January 1
-------------------------------------------------
Two men were shot in front of their home Saturday night in what police believe was a gang-related incident.
The Los Banos Police Department responded to the 100 block of Second Street for a report of gunshots at 10:16 p.m.
Officers found a 20-year-old male suffering from a gunshot wound to the thigh and a 24-year old shot in the upper torso.
Officers were told two Hispanic males shot the victims in front of their residence before fleeing the area in a light-colored sedan.
The 24-year-old was airlifted to Doctors Medical Center and is showing improvement after being listed in critical condition earlier in the week, Cmdr. Ray Reyna Jr. said. The second victim was taken by ambulance to Memorial Medical Center and is in stable condition. Both hospitals are in Modesto.
Police are investigating the shooting as gang-related. There have been 17 shootings in Los Banos since April, 14 of them gang-related.
On Aug. 7 brothers Ruben Sanchez, 34, and Angel Rodriguez, 30, died after being shot in the 500 block of I Street near Club Azul. Reyna said police don't know if the killings are connected with Saturday's shootings.
The Police Department asks anyone with information to contact Detective Justin Melden at (209) 827-7070, ext. 114, or leave an anonymous tip on the city website at
www.losbanos.org

Now that IS pretty ridiculous.. pound for pound, thats approaching a place like Compton for nastiness. As the economy continues to go tits up I'd expect more places to get like this.

Does this nonsense tend to spill out into nearby rural areas or does it stay localized in "da hood"?

[Ripon83]

While I'm sure towns in Iraq and Afghanistan are scary; this place is starting to rival many of them.

I liked the idea someone had of a police operation that just hunts them down, and chaces them all over the state when they move, our version of the Texas Rangers....make it so

[xrMike]

No, nobody pronounces it that way. It's "Los Banos". It's been Americanized. No more tilde. Not even the exit sign on Highway 152 sports the tilde.

Let the mexicans have the town; we still control the name.

[FXR]

[...]CGF could probably just foreclose on City Hall after they failed to pay the legal fees for the resulting lawsuit. We'd change the name of the town to Calguns, name Gene as the Chief of Police, open up the world's biggest trailer park (with the world's cheapest trailers) within city limits, and then the Police Chief could issue statewide LTC's to all of the new residents of the city of Calguns.[...]

Best idea ever!

[POLICESTATE]

Las Banos... The Bathrooms???

[joelukehart]

Although I am against illegal immigration, I don't think we should be using derogatory terms like that. It is the same as using the N-word.

I'll call 'em "mojados" all day long. It translates as "wet". I'm sick and tired of third world invaders pulling the race card and trying to be portrayed as victims.

[BigDogatPlay]

^^^ This ^^^

Hell's Angels has been fighting a nasty, on again off again war with the Mongols for quite a few years now. The incident at Harrah's in Laughlin circa 2002 was one of the flashpoints, as was the murder of the HAMC San Francisco chapter president in 2008. The Angels have been, according to leaked intelligence that's found it's way into the press, working hard to solidify control of the meth trade in California so it's possible that some of what is going on in Los Banos may be rooted in that.

To Ajax22's point, heightened violence is very often a sign of leadership vacuum. The underlying players try to assert themselves when there is no one above to call the shots.