Juveniles Arrested in Antelope Valley

Posted on: November 10, 2008 at 11:49 a.m.

Authorities serving a search warrant Thursday in Lancaster arrested two juvenile teenage boys and seized 25 guns, a sheriff's sergeant said. The two juvenile boys, ages 16 and 17, were booked on suspicion of possession of illegal weapons, possession of stolen property, being a minor in possession of a firearm and possession of an unregistered assault weapon.

During the search, deputies recovered 25 firearms, including 12-gauge shotguns and a 50-caliber pistol. Thousands of rounds of ammunition, two computers and gang paraphernalia were also recovered. The warrant was based on information gathered from the Internet describing gang activity in the Antelope Valley.

Handling juvenile offenses can be difficult, as any Los Angeles criminal defense attorney will tell you, especially when violence or gang activity is involved. Weapons charges can be serious as well.

A juvenile crime is any criminal act that is committed by a minor (person below the legal age of 18). All too often, juveniles and their parents assume that because the crime was committed by a minor, the minor will not be subject to harsh legal penalties if convicted. This belief is far from the truth. In California, all juvenile crimes are taken very seriously by law enforcement and are vigorously prosecuted. Additionally, if the juvenile is close to the legal age of 18, or has committed a felony offense, he/she may be charged as an adult.

Gangs often prey upon juveniles, as people under 18 feel they are less at risk of major jail time if arrested and convicted. The gangs can also influence these young people however they choose since they may not have the life experience to get away from dangerous situations.

If a juvenile is convicted of a criminal offense, the court will usually focus upon rehabilitating the minor instead of punishing them. It is believed that juveniles can change their actions and delinquent behavior if they receive proper counseling and treatment. Due to the life-altering legal consequences that are involved, it is always in a person

Tagged as: gang allegations, juvenile law

Comments:

Phils sabordo comm 174 on December 13, 2008 at 1:17 a.m. wrote:

seriously kids with that many guns is a serious issue. Not to mention with the amount of deaths that are related to drive by/gang shootings. I do believe that it is important to try them as adults in very serious crimes but more importantly when trying minors rehabilitating juveniles is most important regardless of the cost. Setting their lives straight through rehabilitation is a lot better in my opinion than sending them to jail where these problems still persist and are in many cases worse than on the streets.

Tatiana Vardanyan on November 30, 2008 at 11:43 p.m. wrote:

The goal for a juvenile detention center is to rehabilitate the juvenile into society but prop 36 served to cost our state too much money and we did not see the expected and hoped for results. Many juveniles following their detention at juvenile detention centers get transfered into adult prison till they reach the age of 25, criminals can 'get out' by 25 years of age and live a free and normal life. I think that in spite of age, criminals should serve the amount of sentence termed appropriate for the crime.

Shirin S on November 26, 2008 at 5:44 a.m. wrote:

This is scary. Why would 16 and 17 year old boys have 25 guns!!! They clearly are getting involved with the wrong group and are heading down the wrong path. It is tricky when dealing with gangs because they are so dangerous in so many different aspects. If the boys give names to let themselves off, they will be in danger. If they are incarcerated, they will be in danger while locked up because of the high gang volume in jails. If they are 'rehabilitated' and encouraged to take a different path in life, they may be punished by the gang and in danger for not being loyal. It is very tricky because these boys clearly broke the law and had bad intent with these weapons and should be charged for it, but who was influencing them in the first place? This is the case where plea bargaining could be helpful, but it could also be dangerous. If they were willing to take a Plea for names, then they would 'get off the hook' legally, however, in the real life, they may be in worse trouble. The government focuses on 'rehabilitating', however, how effective are their means? Making teens attend 'informative' classes is not effective, teens attend, and laugh about them after. A more effective means of rehabilitation is necessary and could prove to make a lot of long term changes.

Phillip Huynh on November 15, 2008 at 9:58 p.m. wrote:

I think these juveniles should be prosecuted as adults because they obviously knew what they were doing and could have done serious crimes with all the weapons and illegal drugs that they had in there homes. These juveniles had 25 firearms which is a lot to have in one household even for an adult, so I believe that they should be put being bars because obvious these juveniles were planning to do something dangerous or they would not have had that many firearms in there homes. I do not think that the court should allow these juveniles to get off the hook by allowing them just to have counseling and treatment because of the amount of deadly firearms that are involved in this case. Juveniles that are affiliated with gangs should be prosecuted more severely than juveniles that are not in gangs because there acts are usually more violent and serious. I think that there is hope to turning around some juveniles with proper counseling and treatment, but the success rate is pretty low.

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