I'll Be Gone In The Dark and Rancho Cambodia

I do remember the area on the other side of the railroad tracks known as the White Rock area was a place many of the so-called boat people lived. There were also pretty heavy racial tensions especially between teens in the early 1980's which actually included large scale group fights amongst Cambodian and Vietnamese and whites and blacks.

I was in the fifth grade in 1978/79 and a few kids arrived in my school from Laos. I enjoyed meeting them very much and enjoyed learning about their culture. The “boat people” situation definitely took place initially during’78-‘79. The “Rancho Cambodia” moniker definitely did not come about until well into the eighties. I noticed the mistake when I read IBGITD but hadn’t taken too much issue with it — the author was from Illinois.

Definitely an 80’s issue with the gangs living in the low rent apartment complexes in the west end of Rancho. The writer should have spent more time in the area researching time and date issues. To be fair though, Rancho started declining when Aerojet cut its staff by two thirds in the early 70’s. What made the refugees so dangerous was they did not look dangerous. Like Fidel Castro dumping his insane psychotic criminals on American shores, the Pol Pot regime did the same. Really! No more than a couple of dozen heavily armed teen aged boys caught everybody by surprise. They are still around but passing themselves as “Vietnamese “ instead. Another embarrassing unintended consequence of the Carter Administration refugee policy.

However, the first arrivals did in fact start to arrive in the late seventies. Their hatchlings did not start to weaponize until the mid to late 80’s.

Anyway, Cordova was not called “Rancho Cambodia” during the time of the EAR crimes.

Steelbike, I remember the Good Guys incident. I can still picture those people all tied together. That was really a tough one.

Like I said. The moniker of “Rancho Cambodia” was confined to a very small group of criminal refugees who were allowed to leave their country for the specific purpose of causing havoc wherever they settled. I could not make my point any clearer!

THE GOOD GUYS HOSTAGE INCIDENT

If your father was Sheriffs Sargent Bob Lyons, then he was a hero. Stripping down to his underwear on the demands of the terrorist in order to release a toddler, was very heroic and bravery at its best.

The rest of the incident is left to 20/20 hindsight where good intentions had unintended results. I only post this to exemplify the distinction. Sargent Lyons by far was the bravest man there. He was not allowed to participate in the rescue plan. He ran for Sheriff and lost. Sacramento would have been better if he had won.

On the other hand, Sargent John McGinnis, then the Public Information Officer and a “Rising Star” was specifically involved in the ill fated rescue plan and he was ultimately promoted all the way to UnderSheriff and was elected Sheriff for one term. See my point?

I am hoping this site will not turn into a “Hatefest” from those connected with law enforcement or the Sacramento County Sheriffs Department. There is a very serious public perception of distrust with your community and your culture exemplified by your visceral reactionary diatribe with those you disagree with. This only confirms the unearned or earned negative stereotypes so prevalent.