SF Chronic: Oakland Pizzeria Owner “Tragically” Shoots Armed Robber
posted at 4:38 pm on April 21, 2007 by see-dubya
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Blogging is really pretty easy when you’re a conservative on the West Coast. Just pick up the San Francisco Chronicle and go to town. It’ll be either amazing blue-state snobbery, wacky “Palomino” Bay Area lifestyle alerts, or egregious bias. I see at least two posts leering at me from the Chronic’s homepage, so let’s start with this one:
Catarino Piedra, 41, kept a gun underneath the counter at the Coliseum Pizza and Taqueria that he owned in East Oakland because his drivers had been robbed many times while making deliveries.
Allen Joseph Hicks III, 22, was an accused batterer on probation for a drug conviction and an aspiring rap artist whom everybody in his neighborhood knew as “Boonie.”
The lives of the two men intersected tragically at about 9:30 p.m. Thursday when Hicks, armed with a pistol and joined by two other men, tried to rob Piedra inside the popular pizzeria at 89th Avenue and International Boulevard. Fearful that the assailants might hurt him, his wife and three children — all of whom were inside the restaurant — Piedra pulled out his 9mm semiautomatic pistol and opened fire, killing Hicks, police said.
I suppose it was a tragedy in the dramatic sense–”Boonie’s” flaws of hubris, a violent temper, and too much ganja led him to conclude Mr. Piedra would be an easy mark–like the girlfriend he used to hit so hard he knocked her head through the wall.
But Oakland police urge caution:
“There is definitely a balance,” said Officer Roland Holmgren, department spokesman. “This thing had potential — who knows where the suspects were going to take the situation? But by no stretch of the imagination are we agreeing with or justifying what the owner did.”
Holmgren said, “We’re not saying that we want citizens to go out there and arm themselves and take the law into their own hands. We want citizens to be good witnesses, to be good report-takers and to identify suspects.”
The shooting has left two families traumatized, Holmgren said. “There are no winners in this whole case,” he said.
It’s a zero-sum game, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t a winner.
UPDATE: IF you think justice is always lax in California, check out this headline:
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Don’t be surprised if they don’t look to press charges against Mr. Piedra for illegal discharge of a firearm. The DA sounds like she comes from Cambridge, MA (home of Harvard U) and could look at pressing charges for violating the perp’s civil rights.
I salute Mr. Piedra’s actions, he was protecting himself and his family from scum who was fully capable of harming both.
Mooseman
Mooseman on April 22, 2007 at 10:41 AM
The only report they’re gonna get from me is the report of my S&W 1911 .45 cal pistol.
**BLAMO!!!!**
Hows that for a report?
csdeven on April 22, 2007 at 10:44 AM
Isn’t this kind of redundant?
drjohn on April 22, 2007 at 11:00 AM
“…We’re not saying that we want citizens to go out there and arm themselves and take the law into their own hands. We want citizens to be good witnesses, to be good report-takers and to identify suspects.”
The shooting has left two families traumatized, Holmgren said. “There are no winners in this whole case,” he said.
No winners? Mr. Piedra and his family are alive, unharmed and unrobbed. As a practical working definition of “winner”, that works for me.
What other mentality can you expect from the “law enforcement” “authorities” in the thoroughly leftist district that sent Barbara Boxer to Congress, term after term. Their intellectual and moral degeneration is wide and deep.
DavePa on April 22, 2007 at 11:22 AM
Wait a sec here… just hit me…
How is an “an accused batterer on probation for a drug conviction” out on the street in the first place???
Should not he be in jail as being accused of battery should have revoked his probation??? or at least have denied him bail???
Now I am confused…
Romeo13 on April 22, 2007 at 11:36 AM
Instead of building a fence on the Mexican border perhaps it would be better to build one around SF.
Viper1 on April 22, 2007 at 11:40 AM
There ain’t?
Seems to me there is.
drjohn on April 22, 2007 at 11:52 AM
Who cares ?
At what point in US history did its citizens subjugate their well being to the whims of those who would indulge their baser predatory instincts ?
Abrogation of self-defense has been the cornerstone of all totalitarian forms of government and the antithesis of the principles and laws upon which this nation was founded. Perhaps officer Holmgren, who has taken a sworn oath to uphold those very same laws, misspoke himself ?
Or perhaps not…
elgeneralisimo’s Platitude Interpretor© translates that as: victims, some of which may be deceased and therefor not so chatty.
elgeneralisimo on April 22, 2007 at 12:09 PM
This thread is not one to defend the paradise California is, no matter how one expresses that; also, I don’t intend to be defensive, or to hijack the thread, and apologize to all, ahead of time.
Gregor, yes, Oakland is an ‘infested nest’. Driven through it. However, I’ve lived in North San Diego for a long time and still benefit from Prop 13 (a true miracle in ‘insane liberalism’), the sanity of the naval town SD and surroundings is/are, the wonderous climate, location, technology, research, people. Having been all over the world and around the U.S. numerous times, nothing beats landing in SD and seeing the Coronado bridge.
Often, during business visits I’ve heard rants against California, around the country, from folks who’ve never been here. I mostly just let it be. Calif. comes up with many weird ‘first’ ideas but I don’t find it as liberal and crazy, in general, as it is portrayed, due to Berkeley, SF and Hollywood.
Entelechy on April 22, 2007 at 2:02 PM
I guess the kid’s at Virginia Tech were supposed to be good at taking notes also. Too bad that most of them are dead.
In most of the country the guy gets a metal. In the bay area they may actually bring him up on charges.
duff65 on April 22, 2007 at 2:53 PM
Should Piedra have allowed “Allen Joseph Hicks III, 22, was an accused batterer on probation for a drug conviction” to make the decision as to whether Piedra, his wife and three children should live?
“There are no winners in this whole case,”?!?
When “Allen Joseph Hicks III, 22, was an accused batterer on probation for a drug conviction” committed suicide-by-crime we all won.
How many more victims were in his future?
“Gun Control” = “Criminal Free Zones”
DANEgerus on April 22, 2007 at 3:36 PM
Where do you see the word “Tragically” in this story?
CanaryinaCoalMine on April 22, 2007 at 4:58 PM
Defending yourself and your family from armed thugs is not “taking the law into your own hands”.
daveintexas on April 22, 2007 at 7:46 PM
>Where do you see the word “Tragically” in this story?
Right in the middle of the quote at the top here.
“The lives of the two men intersected tragically at about 9:30 p.m.”
Doghouse on April 22, 2007 at 8:08 PM
Isn’t this like Bernie Goetz?
We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it
ar_basin on April 23, 2007 at 1:31 PM
Holmgren said, “We’re not saying that we want citizens to go out there and arm themselves and take the law into their own hands. We want citizens to be good witnesses, to be good report-takers and to identify suspects.”
That doesn’t sound like a cop. It sounds like a union steward for the criminal profession trying to enforce safety rules for his members.
Tantor on April 23, 2007 at 4:42 PM
A “rapper” shot dead in an attempted holdup in E. Oaktown? Hell, that’s not news, it’s par for the course.
I’m just surprised the SF Cankle bothered reporting it.
mojo on April 24, 2007 at 12:18 PM
Just wait, the loving “family” of Boonie will sue Piedra. Bet money on it. And the sad fact is they’ll get it.
I
loveliberals.SPIFF1669 on April 24, 2007 at 4:23 PM
nuke San Francisco!
Ropera on April 24, 2007 at 4:36 PM
I call it “The land of fruits and nuts” or the “People’s Republic of California” myself.
I’m 44 and grew up in the Bay Area (East Bay) before moving to Arizona in 1993. In addition, I currently work for a chemical company whose corporate office is located just down the street from where this occured (a stones throw from the Oakland Coliseum).
Whenever we have visitors to our corporate office that are from out of town we always tell them if possible to stay at a hotel in a nearby city outside of Oakland, and when they leave our facility to never under any circumstances turn right into the heart of Oakland.
I can’t count how many times when I lived in Oakland and commutted to work seeing young (Junior High and High School age) Oakland residents leaving their homes carrying shotguns and rifles, with lord knows what else concealed!
The police in Oakland will not say publicly what they would like as someone pointed out they need to “tow-the-line.” But I can tell you from experience and having known several Oakland police officers they will flat out tell you privately the only reason they are in some of these Oakland areas if because they have a gun!
I also quite vividly remember going to a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet in Oakland one day and ordering my meal through a full wall of bullet proof glass with the clerks safely behind it…they slid my meal to me in a special drawer that closed behind to further protect the clerks! I have never seen such a thing at a KFC before or since, but then again unlike the People’s Republic of California Arizona allows its citizens to carry concealed with the proper licensing, and we can also carry out in the open with very few restrictions…it’s a very good deterent!
The City of Oakland has fallen in line with Berkley and SF, they are a bastion of ultra-liberalism and PC gone amok to say the least and it’s a wonder there are any companies willing to run their business within that state considering all the rights it bestows on what I call the “entitlement employee.” These entitlement employees as I call them seriously belive they are entitled to be paid just to show up for work (when they feel like doing so) and to ask them to actually perform their job duties is tantamount to discrimination as far as the bleeding heart liberals in California are concerned!
It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if the State and/or City of Oakland will try to get Boonie’s surviving family memebers State death benefits or if he had survived workers compensation, after all, the poor disadvantaged Boonie was merely trying to earn a living when he was brutally and tragically killed on the job and his family is therefore entitled to some sort of compensation!
If not compensation from the State of City, you can bet Boonie’s family will sue the law-abiding restaurant owner Piedra who’s merely trying to make an HONEST living!
I for one do not miss living in The People’s Republic of California and am glad I only have to go there on business…and yes…I do not stay in Oakland and I don’t turn right when leaving our facility!
Liberty or Death on April 29, 2007 at 2:30 PM
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