Photo: Margarita Vargas.
RICHMOND, Calif. (CBS/KPIX) On Oct. 24, police say dozens of teens gawked, laughed and took photographs while a 15-year-old girl was brutally gang-raped and beaten outside a Richmond High School homecoming dance.
But one brave girl, who was not even there, wouldn’t stand for it.
“I was watching a movie, and my brother-in-law came in and he told me ‘I don’t know what to do, because there is a girl back there and she has been raped. I’m scared,'” 18-year-old Margarita Vargas said.
“I’m like ‘We should call the cops because that’s the right thing to do.’ I didn’t think about it twice.”
Vargas said she called police because she would want someone to do the same if she ever was in that situation.
After making the call, Vargas went to the scene to check on the girl.
“I could tell that she had been beat up because her face was swollen,” Vargas said. “She was naked, didn’t have shoes. They just covered her up and stuff.”
“I would like to talk to her. I would just, not to be nosey or stuff, but I would like to ask how she’s feeling. I would want her to know that she can get through it. It will take awhile but she can get through it,” she said.
Vargas said she would pick up that phone again and call for help. But she also understands why others won’t.
“I think people are scared, especially in a community like this where ‘snitching’ is a big thing to people,” she said.
Vargas said she does not believe there is such a thing as “snitching,” especially in a case such as this. Calling for help, she said is just the right thing to do.
girldujour.com 
So, that’s one decents person in Richmond – any more?
I can see why the hoodlums, young and old alike, are not keen on the police, but how did it come about that such a large proportion of the basically decent and law abiding population regard the police as “them” who are at least anti, if not against “us”?
I just don’t get it, but I have in the end to
believe that the police must have done it partly to themselves – perhaps by being pro money (and even sometimes pro white?), rather than pro decency.
Then again, perhaps political correctness that seems to leave the police often powerless to act on behalf of the “good guys” has also made a bad situation far worse.
LikeLike
Margarita Vargas and her parents deserve a large financial reward. The parents, for raising their child to know right and wrong, and Margarita for having exceptional bravery.
Margarita deserves a citation from the mayor for her outstanding citizenship.
I am proud to know that there are hispanic-Americans who are better Americans and proud to know that there are brave and strong people like Margarita Vargas.
Richmond needs more people like her.
LikeLike
Adam, you got it right in the last paragraph. The police have a thankless, not-very-well-paying job and get beaten and shot at on a daily basis. Due to “political correctness” and the system in California set up by lawyers to sue everyone for anything, police are hindered from actually doing a good job.
LikeLike
See? the first reply to my comment and what do we get, ANOTHER person that wants to blame it on someone else, this time the po po.
Say what you want about the po po, I have plenty of stories about bad police myself, but the responsibility for the actions have NOTHING to do with them.
These people could have called anonymously and just let the cops know the attack was taking place.
THEY DIDN’T.
LikeLike
Jeffery Haas: I don’t think we’re exactly blaming anyone in particular (other than those who are guilty). The problem though for much of society is they have lost confidence in the police and the whole justice system. That being so, instead of immediately thinking, “Call 911” they simply don’t want to get involved knowing they will often be a “lone voice”. Additionally, in gangland, there is no such thing as anonymous…
However, I agree that it will only ever change if enough people are prepared to “stand up and be counted”.
LikeLike
AF, I HAVE lost confidence in the police and the whole justice system, but if someone is witnessing a crime of THIS NATURE, they have THREE choices:
1) Call the police anyway.
2) Take matters into their own hands
3) Do NOTHING
Of those three, two will get you prison time.
One is the mark of a true coward.
If these people claim to be so tough, and claim to have their own code of honor, and claim to be the one entity that runs the hood, then they have FAILED ON ALL counts.
1) They have no guts because they were afraid, which means they’re not so tough.
2) They have no honor, there is nothing worse than a man or woman with no sense of honor and justice.
3) If they can’t stop someone committing an act like this, they aren’t capable of running anything.
Therefore, because they have no guts, no honor and no ability to wipe their own ass, they DESERVE to be taken down by the most powerful gang on the planet, the po po.
So by your own logic these people deserved to be taken down by the police because they lacked the honor and integrity to recognize right and wrong. Even a goddam gangbanger knows that there is no right in this equation, no RIGHTEOUSNESS in such an act.
You cannot justify this in any way, and neither can anyone else. You can’t because there IS no justifying it, even when you use the excuse that they don’t have confidence in the police.
They might not, but do they have confidence in THESE PEOPLE?
Are THESE people to be trusted more than the cops? Then go ahead, let your own kids walk among them! After all, you just implied that they were better than the cops!
Say goodnight, Gracie. You’re done here.
Another coward trying to rationalize things.
That’s the problem here. Too few people with the guts to just say this was flat out wrong by ANY group’s standards.
LikeLike
Jeffery Haas: CAN’T YOU F*CKING WELL READ? You rude, arrogant b*stard!
Where did I say or imply that these people are better than ANYONE? To me they’re not even real PEOPLE! They’re the lowest of the low. In fact I said that ANIMALS are mostly far better than such ASSHOLES!
What you might want to think about when you fimally land on this planet is what I ACTUALLY said, if you weren’t so goddam full of bile…
Ordinary people on the street these days ARE often scared sh*tless of these sort of assholes and frequently with good reason. Such slime as committed this crime have NO conscience or respect even for themselves and yet self is somehow everything to them. The most scary and bad thing, though, is that the LAW often can’t touch them and THAT frequently leaves the Police POWERLESS (not worse!!! Powerless!)
That fact alone leaves EVERYONE of us including you and me vulnerable and that situation should be reversed RIGHT NOW!
But, if you want to correct the situation, then the very first thing you HAVE to do is to live in the REAL world, not some fantasy place where righteousness will triumph – IT WON’T! It’s up to us, the people, to make it happen and the first step to that is to restore EVERYONE’S confidence in the police and the justice system!
Get real, you w*nker!
Goodbye!
LikeLike