Pride, the Criminal Mind, & Crime Prevention

By Dwight Neumann

The first half of Pride, the Criminal Mind, and Crime Prevention provides the reader with summaries of common crimes processed in the criminal courts of California. The crimes range from graffiti tagging to first degree murder. The second part of this work turns to youngsters, as well as to students of criminology and the criminal justice system, to offer a format for behaving ethically and avoiding criminality. As a didactic tool, it opens the doors to instructors for teaching through role playing sessions of personal life experiences which expose false pride and other human frailties.

The present study may be best suited as a textbook companion and reader for college majors of sociology, psychology, and the criminal justice system. It offers an analysis after each summary of the criminal cases presented which addresses the perpetrators mentality, motivation, and rationalization for committing crimes. As the title suggests, pride is considered crucial in the criminal mind and can often be found as a catalyst, justification, and even a right to criminal behavior.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Aug 17, 2011
• ISBN: 9781463447694

Book preview

Pride, the Criminal Mind, & Crime Prevention

Dwight Neumann, Ph.D.

Author of The Destroyer of Innocents

and Dogmestic Violence

(www.iuniverse.com)

SKU-000490496_TEXT.pdf

AuthorHouse™

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

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© 2011 by Dwight Neumann, Ph.D. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 08/04/2011

ISBN: 978-1-4634-4770-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4634-4769-4 (ebk)

Printed in the United States of America

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

PREFACE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

SUMMARY

PART TWO

SUMMARY

PREFACE

The present study covers over twenty-five years of listening to criminals, evaluating their conduct, and asking why they do what they do. It attempts to understand the motivational process of criminal behavior and to find some alternatives to its mentality. The author reports what he has learned from testimony at open hearings, trials, and other proceedings of the Los Angeles Superior Court. The cases found here are not only true but also a representative sample of what can be found in criminal courtrooms today. They are among the most interesting and recent cases encountered by the author without reaching out to sensationalism. The goal is to represent faithfully what typical courts in California face on a daily basis and to explain the reasons people turn to, or continue down, a path of criminality.

All names have been changed to protect the confidentiality of the real defendants and all parties involved. Attorney/client interviews only contain information that has been revealed in some way on the record and in open court, making it no longer confidential. Such interviews are sometimes modified by the author to allow the reader to see how such information is normally obtained during the entire judicial system from arraignment to sentencing. Any question or answer found in an attorney/client interview may even come from another case and must be viewed as simply representative of the kinds of questions and answers found in that situation. The analysis made after each case takes into account the opinions of the author’s colleagues, defense attorneys, prosecutors, members of law enforcement agencies, judges, and others that work in the court system. However, it mainly stems from the author’s personal experience as a criminal court Spanish interpreter and his understanding of criminal behavior.

Pride’s explanation of crime in Pride, the Criminal Mind, and Crime Prevention starts from traditional wisdom concerning this most egregious human frailty. The thesis is not meant to be religious in nature. Whether you are an atheist, agnostic, or a believer, you are simply asked to consider the stories of Adam and Eve and the devil as an illustration of the pride found in criminal behavior. You are also asked to value the psychology of Alfred Adler and the cumulative knowledge of philosophers as the basis of the author’s explanations and theory. Adler considers feelings of inferiority as the driving force of all behavior. Such feelings often turn to pride as a remedy for overcoming their pain. The stories of Adam and Eve and the devil see pride as man’s downfall while Adler’s psychology helps to explain criminal behavior at its finest.

Some consider the story of Adam and Eve as an explanation invented after the fact. For purposes of this study, the truth of this story is irrelevant. Nevertheless, its message of false pride, often related differently by many, is very clear and has been respected by philosophers, religious leaders, and behavior experts for centuries. This false pride empowers the criminal with a confidence that is only rivaled by gods.

Before the story of Adam and Eve can be told, the devil Lucifer’s similar tale must be considered. According to religious experts, shortly after the creation of the world, Lucifer has a falling out with God. His pride makes him believe that he is better than his creator and can do whatever he wants. Be it truth or fiction, the story of Lucifer represents the development of the first criminal mind. In order to gain the allegiance of the first two people on earth, and in a move to usurp God’s power, Lucifer tempts Eve into provoking Adam to eat the forbidden fruit. He convinces both Eve and Adam that, by eating the fruit, they will become as powerful as God. Feeding on their own pride, Adam and Eve eat the fruit with baited breath. After this ill-advised act mankind is allegedly cursed with original sin and the need to prove worthiness in a ruthless world that will offer a purgatory of suffering and an abundance of criminality.

The author’s background for his thesis starts with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and psychology that includes a special interest in criminal behavior. After graduation, he immediately works as a probation officer and group counselor assigned to Central Juvenile Hall in Los Angeles and soon develops a passion for Hispanic culture as well as for the Spanish language. This, in turn, leads to a master’s degree in Spanish at California State University, Long Beach, and a Ph.D. in Hispanic languages and literatures at the University of California, Los Angeles. His doctoral dissertation, entitled The Inferiority Complex in the Characters of Juan Ruiz De Alarcon, reflects a continuing interest in psychology and sociology.

Upon completing his studies, the author immediately responds to a need to understand criminal behavior within Hispanic culture as he decides to become a Spanish language interpreter for the Los Angeles Superior Court. His first regular assignment finds him at East Los Angeles Court where criminal cases of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans abound. Nearly three years later, a renewed interest in juvenile delinquency soon leads him back to Central Juvenile Hall, this time as an interpreter at the Eastlake Court, a facility located in front of the hall that had offered him his first job out of college as a group counselor. After nearly five years of interpreting for judges, attorneys, probation officers, witnesses, juvenile offenders and their parents, the author turns to adult matters at the San Fernando Superior Court where he presently has been working since 1990 while teaching and writing. He has published two court-related novels and has remained faithful to his profession as an instructor of Spanish interpreters by teaching and publishing nearly twenty manuals for interpreters.

Pride, the Criminal Mind, and Crime Prevention at times offers the same tongue and cheek approach that can be found in the author’s novels. His first effort, The Destroyer of Innocents (iuniverse.com), employs humor as a defense mechanism for the author’s waning emotional survival in his true story as a Spanish interpreter during a death penalty trial. In this trying and gruesome experience, the author is forced to interpret simultaneously and thereby repeat everything said in one of the most atrocious domestic violence, torture, and murder cases in California history: The State of California Versus Marco Barrera. As a result of this grave episode that only finds relieve through fiction at the end, the author’s second novel, Dogmestic Violence (iuniverse.com), turns totally to fiction and humor as his dog Jeckle is unjustly accused of several very serious human crimes. Jeckle’s defense is presented by the author in his own role as attorney and barking interpreter during all of the criminal procedures against his dog.

The thesis of Pride, the Criminal Mind, and Crime Prevention may be reduced to: The decisions criminals make are based on a false pride that justifies their behavior and negates a serious consideration of the consequences.—Dwight Neumann, Ph.D.

CHAPTER ONE

The First Signs of Pride

Graffiti Tagging

Pride can be suddenly awakened at twelve years of age when a very young man writes his first graffiti inscription at midnight on the wall of a warehouse near his home. The wall represents his rival, an enemy that needs adjustment. However, in this first stage of a budding criminal career, the most Ican Tag feels is that he might be doing something wrong. On the other hand, the perpetrator knows that he has just given a seal of personal approval to his own neighborhood.

When Ican Tag views his masterpiece XXX on that wall the next day on the way to school, he feels some kind of confusion as he proudly points it out to his neighborhood buddy:

—  Look at that, Sho Mee! What do you think?

—  Wow! That’s snap! I wonder who wrote that.

—  You’re looking at him. You know what I’m saying?

—  You got it. Looks like you know what you’re doing.

—  Yeah, don’t trip. Keep your eyes open tomorrow. You’ll be seeing some more.

—  I want to do that with you. Can you show me how?

—  No, you’re too small. You can’t sneak out of your house at night. You would just get in trouble. You’re mother would catch you. She always does.

Ican Tag’s strong statement stands out on the wall all alone, with no other graffiti to distract from its message, and clearly indicates that someone has put a claim on the entire building. Besides defining the artist as a man to be reckoned with in the neighborhood, Ican Tag also sees it as some kind of powerful and mystical icon that hovers between pornography and evil. What else can a boy who has now reached puberty say to describe his newfound feelings of manliness?

Once at school, Ican Tag immediately searches on campus for an older man of thirteen who already has a reputation for tagging. He manages to find this future associate, Will Tagtu, and leads him into one of the stalls of the boys’ restroom between second and third period. There, he wastes no time in pulling out a nail from his pocket and confidently scratches his pride and joy, in the form of the same XXX, on the inside of the stall’s door. After quickly shaking his head in approval, Will Tagtu then grabs the nail and scratches ZEX on the back wall of the same stall. Finally, the bell is about to ring, and no more time can be allotted for instant success nor for giving out free autographs.

Night slowly falls and now we have two partners in little people’s crime who sneak out of their respective homes to go out further into the world in search of fame and fortune. It may be limited to just fame, but it is one that spreads like wildfire. The first night finds itself especially rewarding as the dynamic duo mutually inspire their own beginner’s luck. Several stucco walls, wood fences, sides of trucks, and even garage doors become the canvas that receives a baptism of spray welcoming the artists to a new notoriety shared with only adept sprayers. The process of tagging also offers several moments of thrills as the new invincible team at times must run and hide from passing vehicles and stragglers that nearly spot them. Yet, the quickness of youth finds a way to avoid confrontation and sanctions.

The many following months that ensue appear to lead Ican Tag and Will Tagtu down a path of unending nights of documented evidence of marking their territory. The trek includes thousands of individual pieces of sworn affidavits that XXX and ZEX represent city-renowned entrepreneurs reaching out to the community. The police try their best to catch these fast-running little squirrels that seem to know every niche and cranny of all the alleys and back yards of a five mile square area. Yet, the regular police patrolling of neighborhoods in this huge area can not figure out the changing pattern of the thousands of graffiti treasures that bless their most vulnerable entrails. Even though the perpetrators are often observed by their victims, a hit and run technique leaves no time for police to respond to complaining phone calls that always seem to arrive much too late.

Finally, when it appears that you cannot see XXX without ZEX on at least eighty percent of readable flat surfaces of each neighborhood within bicycle-riding distance, the integrity of their consistency ends. It must have something to do with the culmination of their effort found on a freeway cement overpass. It is here that Will Tagtu risks his life to place his tag on an area that requires him to hang by one hand from a metal support over the freeway as he sprays the coveted blank space of cement with the venom of his defying paint. He does survive the circus event, but after such a feat, Will feels the need to move on to more challenging work. The need also just happens to coincide with his family moving to Pico Rivera. Now, the dynamic duo is no more.

The rumors that get back to Ican Tag about his lost associate have to do with Will’s new found love for truly artistic graffiti. Will becomes obsessed by a renowned graffiti specialist that goes by the name of Yeloh. Before that moment, his only inspiration has been the mythical Killroy who gained fame as one of the first graffiti artists by carving the famous message of Kill Roy was here on trees. Others loved it so much that they would simply repeat the same inscription on more trees. Because of this practice, Kill Roy’s legend has continued for several centuries and into Ican Tag’s world of heroes that always let the world know who they are.

Will Tagtu aspires to outdo even Kill Roy as he follows suit with Yeloh’s famous work of UCK as a replacement for his own ZEX. The older tag, like a tie worn too many times, fails to inspire him. UCK somehow seems to have more zip as well as a mysterious and even gothic statement. However, Will’s pirated version of graffiti eventually attracts the attention of Graffiti Tracker Inc., a private business that provides a service for police departments to help find taggers. Within a few months Will is arrested and subsequently sent to a juvenile camp detention center. His career as a motivational tagger appears to have come to a cruel and unjust end.

Ican Tag, still on the other side of town, adjusts poorly to the loss of his older better half. It was Will’s will that had led him on to higher and more challenging goals like second store buildings that require scaling huge trucks, trees, and other upper levels before tagging. Without his leader, Ican falls into a depression that causes some of his friends to rename him Ican’t. He just cannot seem to reach the fame of his idol by himself, no matter how much he tries to make it on his own. Pretty soon he becomes easy prey for wandering smalltime drug dealers and begins taking methamphetamines in an attempt to pump up his deflated ego. It then becomes just a matter of time before he is found by school police while attempting to tag a building near his own campus in plain daylight after leaving the grounds during school hours. Ican Tag’s own illustrious career in the world of graffiti appears to have met its demise.

Besides the paint cans in his backpack, the police find Ican’s school notebooks which have the famous XXX tagged on them on at least twenty different pages. Later, at juvenile court, the notebooks are presented along with expert witness testimony that convinces the judge that Ican’s tag, found all over the community, exhibits the very same script running rampant in his notebooks. This testimony, coupled with Ican’s own confession, sends the young Mr. Tag to a no probation sentence in juvenile camp.

Analysis of Written Pride

After juvenile camp, Ican Tag realizes that tagging can leave just a little too much evidence and resentment in any neighborhood. He has also seemingly grown out of this first instinct of an adolescent need for self-realization. Somewhere along the line he has learned that there are better ways to mark your territory in an attempt to prove ownership and that you are somebody. His low self-esteem and inferiority complex now find a way to overcome in a society that only feels disgust, instead of Ican’s own pride in his work, for a young man that destroys property and turns neighborhoods into blighted areas.

As Ican Tag enters into the world of adults, he at least unconsciously knows that his attitude was very childish and unworthy of any of the praise he was working so hard to obtain. Fortunately, his juvenile record is sealed and his behavior will probably be considered something that some young men have to pay for by learning the hard way. Ican Tag is presently giving himself a chance to become a real man. Only time will tell if he truly decides to do so. The odds are not too bad, especially considering his young age. He still has plenty of time to learn that life seems to be a daily struggle with challenges, change, and growing up for one and all. Hopefully he will permanently realize that making a strong statement to the detriment of others has its consequences.

Ican Tag’s pride in his work will no doubt be reborn when he finds some kind of inspiration and significant goal in life. Without positive goals and direction many young men are destined to failure. Ican just needs to do something with his life. If he finds a nice young lady, or another acceptable icon of inspiration, he can do as well or better than anyone. Society has given him a break. The rest is up to him for putting his legitimate tag on the world.

Shop Lifting

While a tagger defaces the property of others, someone who subjects himself to a tattoo tags only himself, infringes on his own rights, and does not affect those of his neighbor. Tattoos were originally often thought to be simply the result of a young man who gets drunk, especially while in the military service, and decides to show that he can take pain and be more manly-looking and cool in the process. Outside of the military world, most people considered the idea quite stupid and the result of a latent stage of adolescent immaturity among young adults. These days, however, many adolescents and young adults see tattoos, and even piercings, as quite trendy and something that has nothing to do with immaturity, much less criminality.

While the case of Dicky Do and Tommy Tu involves tattoos, the presence of these taggings could only be considered symbolic of their immaturity and criminal tendencies. Likewise, if they were not the brightest lights of the graduating classes of their respective lower educational institutions, stupidity is not necessarily the basis of their criminal act. In fact, while their crime may rate somewhat low on the index of sophisticated crimes, it could be considered as a rather clever plan.

At first glance, Dicky Do appears to be the gifted one as both he and Tommy Tu, both in their early twenties, enter Home Depot from the parking lot to do a little manly shopping. Both men are dressed as hard-working contractors and, at first glance, differ very little from the great majority of customers that can be found in any building materials outlet. Their plaid shirts are rather neatly tucked in tight jeans that reveal a lower torso typical of American football players. Dicky Do even fits the stereotype of an American football player with his derrière that would probably rival that of any NFL center who has the privilege of projecting that part of his anatomy into the face of a quarterback as he hands him the ball. Because of his leadership skills, it might even be appropriate to designate Dicky Do as the quarterback of this small team of two players ready to play a tricky game against Home Depot.

The shoes of both of the shopping contractors are real shoes, high-top work shoes with the long shoe strings that go up and around an unending number of little shoe string hooks once they have passed the obligatory eyeholes found at the lower part of almost all such steel-toe monsters. Together, these formidable items, which look like two Leaning Towers of Pizza when left unattended, are shoes made for real men and always appear to be a minimum of two sizes too big for the feet that fill them.

The macho look of the shoes of these future offenders goes very well with the rest of their attire. This includes an obligatory tape-measure attached to their belts on one hip and a huge key ring on the other. The key rings have more keys than anyone could possibly use in six months as a caretaker of the White House and the Hilton. Both of these ornaments are especially highlighted if a man hasn’t shaved for at least a week, which indeed is the case of Dicky Do and Tommy Tu. As they both enter one of the aisles of Home Depot they do so with the determined look of two warriors on a work-related preparatory mission of serious consequences. Their gaits offer a confident symmetrical sway with an overall look of self-made men ready to build works of art found only in construction sites that mirror God’s creation of rest areas in the Garden of Eden.

The reason Dicky Do truly appears to be the top dog in this operation is mainly due to the size of the measuring tape on his belt and the number of keys on his key chain. Both of these items are definitely convincing indications of extreme manliness. Another indication is that Tommy Tu pales by comparison to his partner as he exhibits a slight inferiority complex highlighted in an obvious tentative gait. Also, as they both approach the tool department, a haven for masculine development, Tommy appears to be arriving in a land where he always finds defeat. Dicky Do, on the other hand, immediately displays his superiority by pulling out his metal measuring tape from its container, just for the hell of it, to obtain the width and length of a huge toolbox. He does so faster than his father used to flip off the top of his Zippo lighter in the fifties to light a cigarette for a promising young lady waiting to get picked up in a one star bar.

By this time, each man has his own shopping cart and is choosing the same items, starting with the tool boxes. Dicky Do chooses first and Tommy Tu copies his hero by placing an identical item into his own cart. After the toolbox, Dicky Do grabs an expensive electric cordless screwdriver, which looks like a huge pistol, and displays it on the side of his almost equally large belt buckle. The pistol seems to validate the word Champ written on the buckle of this belt that is a dead ringer for a belt handed out to the winner of a champion of a world title boxing match.

The haste of the selection process of the two construction workers soon reveals an anxiety concerning getting the job done in this Disneyland for big boys before a cigarette break is needed. The motivational process must also most necessarily include an always present desire on the part of these boys to get on with their calling of making history by constructing significant handmade monuments for a world in creation. Nevertheless, they do have time for a little small-talk, starting with Dicky Do’s words as he calls Tommy Tu’s attention to his modeling of the cordless screwdriver. This I’m too sexy for myself session occurs while security guards are listening in and recording the conversation of this suspicious odd couple:

—  Look at this, Tommy! We both need one of these to carry around even when we are not doing a job. Grab that little one for yourself.

—  You got it, dude. But why can’t I have a big one?

—  Who’s in charge here, fool, me or you?

—  I guess you got a point, dude. At least I like the red handle. It goes with the color of my cigarette pack here in my shirt pocket. It will also go well with the red Corvette convertible I’ll be buying after we finish this job.

Talk is cheap and it is soon time to get on with the business of purchasing hero tools. After both carts are stuffed with exactly the same merchandise, Dicky Do leaves Tommy Tu behind and heads toward the cash register. He then pays for all his merchandise, which amounts to grand total of $1,798.35 and leaves the store. After waiting about five minutes inside the store, Tommy Tu leaves his own cart in the aisle and walks out into the parking lot. He soon returns to the store, takes his shopping cart, and makes his way past the cash register and over to the door. There he shows the receipt that he has just gotten from Dicky Do in the parking lot listing all the same items that he also has in his shopping cart. Tommy Tu is therefore allowed to go out of the store and into the parking lot by the man who checks items and receipts at the door.

Unfortunately for Tommy Tu, he is detained in the parking lot by three security guards and soon transported to the police department. By now, Dicky Do is long gone.

Yet, his copy cat is just a day away from answering to a felony charge of grand theft. After spending a rather unpleasant night in jail, he pleads not guilty at his arraignment and is given a date for his preliminary hearing in two weeks. Meanwhile, he has to stay in jail because he has no money and no willing family members to post the bail required for getting out of jail until that hearing.

The evidence presented against him at the preliminary hearing consists of the testimony of several security guards. The first guard states that he had been watching Dicky Do and Tommy Tu on Home Depot’s security cameras even before the moment they realized that these two suspicious customers were placing the exact same items in each of their shopping carts. A second guard reveals he had observed Dicky Do hand over his receipt to Tommy Tu in the parking lot. This guard had also been observing the two thieves while he was arranging items on the shelves just down the aisle of the tool department. He responds to the questions of the district attorney while giving testimony during the preliminary hearing concerning Dicky Do’s most memorable moment of his journey with Tommy Tu inside of Home Depot:

—  What was the first thing that you observed him doing?

—  Since it was a little warm in Home Depot, suspect number one, Dicky Do, snatched off his plaid shirt and showed his muscular torso beneath his sleeveless undershirt.

—  What else did you observe?

—  That was when I saw his two tattoos, one on each arm.

—  What did these tattoos look like?

—  The one on his left arm had the head of a fierce red dragon covering his entire shoulder and a flaming fire breath that extended down to his elbow. The other tattoo on the right arm contained an equally large tattoo of an old lady with one hand on her head while holding down a smaller red dragon. Her head and face were even uglier and more intimidating than either of the two dragons.

—  Did that second tattoo have any other distinguishing characteristics?

—  Yes it did. Beneath the old lady’s neck were written the words Your Mama.

—  Did he do anything after displaying his tattoos?

—  Yes, he flexed the bicep of his right arm for the benefit of his partner, causing the hand and dragon to separate from the old lady’s head as if she were tipping her hat.

—  Did the other suspect respond to his gesture?

—  He did. He seemed to be giving his approval with a faint smile.

—  Did you see those tattoos again outside of Home Depot?

—  Yes, that was what made me spot him so quickly out in the parking lot.

—  Thank you, I have no more questions.

Dicky Do’s tattoo with Your Mama, combined with the flexing of his bicep could be considered the ultimate image of machismo. With this statement he is able to defy African American brothers, the Hispanic community, and anyone else that has an equal respect for mothers within a minority culture. If challenged, he may very well be able to physically defend that statement of his manhood. For most, however, Dicky Do’s intimidating muscles are probably enough to dissuade negative comments from others.

While the crime committed in this case shows some original thinking on the part of the planners, the unanticipated consequences were obviously not taken into account. Criminals often think they have all their bases covered only to find out that a few are not even close to being in their calculations. In this case, Tommy Tu thinks he has it made when he receives the receipt in the parking lot, especially since the guard at the door has not placed the usual highlighted mark on it to indicate that it has been checked out at the door. However, he takes that unmarked receipt from Dicky Do in plain view of one of the guards who has been watching him from inside the store. Besides his testimony presented above, the same guard testifies that often a mark on the receipt is forgotten or missed by the checker at the door.

The guard is especially helped in spotting Dicky Do in the parking lot because of the latter’s tattoos and muscular torso. The fierce red dragon with the flaming breath stands out like a sore thumb. The same may be said about the way the two shoppers go about their business inside the store. They are perfect examples of boys who have not grown up or even grown out of a juvenile attitude that idealizes macho appearance and behavior. Like adolescents who dress like gangsters, they stand out in a crowd.

During the booking process at the police station Tommy Tu is found to have his own tattoos. They are old gang tattoos which he has not been able to remove and stem from his adolescent days with the Shaken Cats Midgets. After admitting his Shaken past to police, he also reveals that he was an associate member of that gang, a wannabe that never makes the grade. He is never big enough or tough enough to gang bang. This unfortunate reality, along with having been severely beaten up by the San Fern gang on one occasion, shakes his confidence. Now, as an adult, he is left with being a follower and wannabe once again. At this point his model and idol before incarceration is Dicky Do, a hero who leaves him still feeling inferior because of his superior sculptured body and expert macho attitude. Dicky Do also appears to be an expert in allowing Tommy Tu to hold the bag after the caper goes down.

Tommy Tu’s tattoos, like those of Dicky Do, are his pride and joy. The only other way that Tommy Tu can show his superiority as an adolescent is by proudly driving a motorcycle in his neighborhood at high speeds while emitting an extremely loud noise coming from a muffler with a huge hole. By the time he enters into Home Depot with his hero, his goal as an adult is to make another statement of superiority by obtaining and driving a red Corvette, a fact revealed in court interviews with his attorney. The Corvette appears to simply represent a bigger boy’s attempt to call attention to a hopeless wannabe state. It also cries out for a response of recognition with an even more powerful engine statement than that of a motorcycle.

What Tommy Tu fails to realize is that the only thing needed for his conviction is testimony revealing the mistake made with the receipt not marked by the door attendant and the observations of the security guards. Tommy Tu, like many criminals, thinks that direct evidence, such as finger prints, must be present to have a conviction. Actually, Dicky Do’s tattoos are just as good as finger prints and much easier to read. They make him a marked man for the rest of his life, just like those of Tommy Tu. Little does Tommy know that evidence by way of the testimony of one or two good and reliable witnesses, which includes the tattoo observations in his case, is all that is necessary for a criminal conviction. His ignorance has contributed to a superficial false pride that makes him think he can get away with his crime.

After the evidence is presented in his preliminary hearing, Tommy Tu accepts a probationary three-year suspended sentence in his plea bargain, a deal which also includes 180 days in county jail. He receives the deal because he is a first time offender in adult court. Unfortunately, after doing his county jail time, he picks up a second theft case during his probationary period, this time for merchandise worth less than ten dollars. This excellent decision rewards Tommy Tu with a three-year sentence in state prison. The tough punishment for such an insignificant petty theft simply has to do with the law and society that take a very dim view of repeat offenders who insist on taking things from others.

After this episode Tommy just doesn’t get it and feels victimized by the system. Not only does he not properly plan for his second theft, but he also fails to realize that each prior theft conviction adds more time to a new case. The sentence becomes even more aggravated because of his being on probation and the fact that the second crime is theft related. Yet, he still has his pride. After getting out of prison his now shaved head is tattooed on one side with the date he enters prison. The other side proudly exhibits the date that he manages to get out. This tattoo helps to soon get him arrested later in a bar for brutally beating up a handicapped low-lifer who dares to laugh at his tattoo. It looks like he will be going back to prison and may have to put on two more tattoos, one on his forehead and another on the back of his head, to show the new dates of his second trip to prison. That will depend, of course, on his getting out of the pen before he dies.

Analysis of Vanity and an Inferiority Complex

Dicky Do is obviously the ring leader in this operation and, on the surface, appears more gifted than his counterpart, Tommy Tu. Not only does he dominate and control Tommy in everything involved in this tour through Home Depot with his subordinate, but he also is the one who avoids incarceration. However, his superiority in not being arrested may very well be due to his quickness in being able to leave the crime scene. After paying for his own merchandise, he has gained no advantage from Home Depot. Yet, despite this fact, his avoidance of the legal system could very well be considered