On May 18, 2008, life could not have gotten any better.  I celebrated my birthday with the people who meant the most to me in my life… my family.  This would be my last celebration with my best friend, my father.  Five days later, as he exited a bank in broad daylight, my father was executed.  A gunman put a gun to my father’s head and pulled the trigger.  I will never forget the exact second I received the phone call that changed my life:  “Your father is hurt, and you need to go to the hospital.”

“Hospital?” I asked.  “Was he in a car accident?  Did he have a heart attack?  I just spoke with him an hour ago.  He was fine.” Just get to the hospital, I was told.  When I was a block away from the hospital, I received the news that my father was robbed and shot in the head.  At that moment, I knew that I would never see my father again. After fighting for his life for 11 days, my father was amongst the angels in heaven at the young age of 47.

Once the fight for my father’s life was over, the fight for justice began.  I am eternally grateful for the San Jose Police Department, Chief Rob Davis, and specifically the Homicide Unit for their continued hard work and dedication to bring all involved in my father’s murder to justice and keep them off the streets.  There has been one arrest for murder and five arrests for accessory to murder.  Despite these arrests, for the past nine months, the focus of my father’s murder has shifted from justice to politics.

On October 31, 2009, a twelve-year-old boy was shot by teenagers right here in our city.  Our world as we know it has been turned into a war zone.  In San Jose, gang related homicides make up the majority of murders.  Yet instead of our neighborhoods and community organizations coming together with law enforcement to fight crime and violence, the District Attorney’s Office and the San Jose Police Department have been victims to constant criticism.  It is impossible to be perfect.  Everyone, no matter how smart or educated they are, makes mistakes.  I am proud to be a resident of San Jose, and I could not be prouder to have the men and women who make up the San Jose Police Department as our protectors.  Despite the fact that we have, in my opinion, one of the best police departments in the country, all we hear about are negatives.

There are murderers among us.  There are murderers who killed my father in his own community.  There are many other murderers who have killed innocent members of our community.  And yet the focus always seems to be on a political agenda.  The focus needs to remain on protecting the community, protecting our kids, and protecting our families by using our resources to help take dangerous criminals off the street.  Lets Stop instigating and start working together as a community to make San Jose a safer place to live.

Casandra Hosseini is the daughter of Vahid Hosseini, who was shot and killed in San Jose in May of 2008.  She wrote this article for Protect San Jose.