ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a case study of 17-year-old identical twin brothers, Marcos and Mario Mercado, who, along with their first cousin, Junior Diaz, were jointly charged with attempted murder under California Penal, §186.22, better known as the Street Terrorism Enforcement and Prevention Act (STEP). The STEP Act, heralded as the beginning of a new war on juvenile delinquency and youth gangs by police and law enforcement, can be seen more as the continuation of a domestic war on barrio youth that was initiated in the 1940s with the infamous Sleepy Lagoon case and the Los Angeles Zoot-Suit Riots. By analogy, while the Patriot Act threatens to erode constitutional rights because of fear of terrorism, the STEP Act erodes constitutional protections because of a fear of juvenile crime, gangs, and so-called domestic terrorism. Attorney Killain Jones graphically illustrates the dangers of the STEP Act.
