End Gang Violence

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In keeping with their religious beliefs, the family of little 7-year-old Maria Del Carmen Menchaca is in the midst of a 9-day period of mourning. KSL, along with the broader Utah community, joins in their grief.

What happened last Sunday is difficult to comprehend - an innocent little girl playing in her front yard, allegedly gunned down by gang members passing by in a car. Whatever warped sense of machismo motivated those gangsters to act can only be viewed as a vicious display of pure cowardice.

While hearts weep for Maria Menchaca, let the way her life was taken become a catalyst for greater community focus on dealing with an ongoing gang problem that ebbs and flows, yet seems to be escalating in some Utah neighborhoods.

Let her death prompt law enforcement to reassess their strategies for combating gang-related activities and crime. Let it become a focus for social action: for creating alternatives to whatever societal shortcomings breed gangsters.

If ever there was cause for a community to rally - to step up and combat the terrible crimes that beset them - now is the time. Indeed, let our collective mourning for Maria Menchaca reinvigorate efforts to combat the unacceptable plague of gang violence.