Anthony Martinez: Murders anywhere in county hurt all of us

Re “City is winning battle against gangs, murder” (Page 8A, May 6): City councilman Mike Murphy writes that the Sun-Star’s editorial “Do whatever it takes to stop murders in Merced County” (April 3) does not make a “clear distinction between the city of Merced and other parts of Merced County have real economic impacts here in the city limits.” While that could be true, is it not prudent to ask, why don’t we make that distinction? I answer: When a man dies in Atwater, does a family not cry in Merced? When a kid joins a gang in Livingston, does a drive-by not occur in Delhi? When a teenager is arrested in Los Banos, is he not prosecuted in Merced?

The reason we cannot draw lines of distinction, councilman Murphy, is because we have no distinctions between our pain, our suffering and our sorrow. It’s not the editorials that “make it more challenging to grow economically.” It’s the failure of your council to remove methamphetamine from our streets, to actively invest in our youth and to consider the well-being of the masses before the well-being of constituents.

Every day we see law enforcement overmatched, gangs spreading in recruitment and territory, and the homeless and mentally perturbed scattered throughout our parks.

Should we pretend it’s not occurring in Merced just to grow economically? Or even because an official homicide has yet to be recorded over an invisible line? Well, instead of homicides, what about suicides? Overdoses? Thanks, Councilman Murphy, for showing us that your considerations and our considerations are cities apart.

This story was originally published May 12, 2016 at 12:30 PM with the headline "Anthony Martinez: Murders anywhere in county hurt all of us."