For me, footwear is my profession’s frayed badge of courage. To my wife’s chagrin, I often wear a scruffy pair of shoes as rounded at the heels as a half-licked ice cream cone.
So when I heard that a pair of Nike Cortez shoes might have figured in Saturday’s shocking Halloween shoot off San Jose’s Story Road, I had to go on the net to see them.
And my first reaction was, “What? That’s it? You’ve got to be kidding me.” You might as well take offense at Tiger Woods’ swoosh.
We don’t know exactly what happened that night. We do know that a 12-year-old boy was mournfully shot and his 13-year-old friend was stabbed in a gang-related confrontation.
It’s the kind of crime that leaves us gasping for air. School administrators say neither victim was in a gang.
When I stopped by the scene at Story Road and Hopkins Drive on Wednesday, the liquor store owner who let the crime described the young shooting victim to me.
“So young,” he said. “A baby face, a little chubby.” He stroked his own cheek as he described the young victim lying on his back with a cape and a knapsack of candy.
Students at Lee Mathson Middle School, which the two victims attended, said one of the boys was wearing a pair of Nike Cortez shoes, a style preferred by gang members.
The story goes that the assailants asked the boys what gang they belonged to, and the victims denied any gang belonging. Then the stabbing and shooting erupted.
What is it about the shoes? Nike itself has a whole Web site dedicated to the Cortez shoes. Designed as a running shoe, the Cortez years ago became cool — in effect, part of the urban outfit.
“We had a style,” says Estevan Oriol, a director and photographer, in a video on the site. “It was kind of like a uniform. It was handed down by our families.”
For a long time, school administrators have known about the danger of red and blue colors, which are associated with the Norteño and Sureño gangs.
I don’t know what color the victim was wearing. But Mathson Principal Orlando Ramos told our reporter Lisa Fernandez that the school lets Nike Cortezes in black, which is considered a neutral color.
Does Nike bear responsibility for how its shoes are used? Of course not, though you could argue that its advertising inspires an urban chic that gangs adopt as a membership card.
Yet the disaster of the shoes has me pondering this: How could this crime have been avoided? These kids should have been chewing Milk Duds, not taking bullets.
Cops earn praise
Certainly the San Jose cops deserve praise for the message they sent with the swift arrest of four suspects. And you have to encourage the mayor’s gang task force in its efforts to focus on young shooters.
And yes, parents need to keep a sharper watch on their kids. Several readers have pointed out that the time this occurred — 10 p.m. — was late for kids to be in an area where gang territories crossed.
Finally, Jose Salcido, Mayor Chuck Reed’s law enforcement aide, told me he’s urging the mayor to look into the late-night gym openings started in Los Angeles by Connie Rice, an attorney and second cousin to Condoleezza Rice.
That will cost money. And the city doesn’t have a lot. But how much is a kid’s life worth? Maybe the gym will give the shoes a better use at last.
Nike is not responsible for the terrible disaster. But the shoes of Nike used by gang can be quite dangerous. Is Nike wrong? Probably not. However, popularity if can make disaster happen, that is not a good thing. Please the victims’ relative calm down. We Nike company felt really sorry for that. Hope that disaster will never happen again. Wish you have a nice Christmas, and let the Halloween disaster gone with the wind. Cheer up.
