Scary stuff.

Most 15 year olds I know wear hoodies, particularly in the evening after 6.00 pm.

Perhaps that area would be more secure on weekday evenings if Stanford allowed its construction workers to park their RVs under the trees.

That is terrible! I can see myself or a family members walking around the same area. This comes after someone attacked my son in Bart station and sent him to hospital with really painful leg injuries a couple of weeks ago. Maybe our politician's focus and public safety attempts should be directed more toward protecting our own residents than worrying about some remote location outside the borders.

Are the perps Paly students?

> The outstanding suspect is described as about 15 years old and wearing a black hoodie; he was last seen near Palo Alto High.

Great description ... did he have one head, two arms with hands and two legs with feet on the end of them too? ;-)

6 pm in July is still daylight!
What happened after the arrests? Did the parents get to come & take them home? Please tell me that their bikes were confiscated.

No description of the 4th boy other than wearing a hoodie. Really ? Come on what are you hiding Palo Alto Online

Suspect 1 (in custody) – Juvenile Black male, 5'4", 110 lbs, 15 years old, wearing a jean shirt with a grey hood and grey sleeves, white pants, and black shoes.

Suspect 2 (in custody) – Juvenile Hispanic male, 5'5", 105 lbs, 15 years old, wearing a black hoodie, grey sweat pants, and black shoes.

Suspect 3 (in custody) – Juvenile Black male, 6', 130lbs, 15 years old, wearing a black zip up hoodie, white undershirt, red sweat pants, black shoes.

Suspect 4 (outstanding) - Juvenile male, approximately 15 years old, wearing a black hoodie; last seen in the City of Palo Alto near Palo Alto High School.

Posted by YP, a resident of Crescent Park

>> No description of the 4th boy other than wearing a hoodie. Really ? Come on what are you hiding Palo Alto Online

Juvenile male wearing a hoodie? What more do you need to confirm your prejudices?

Web Link

I'm really getting tired of this. It was bad enough not being able to walk around Palo Alto in the evening but the Stanford Campus? In daylight? It seems someone is going to have to get killed before the situation is taken seriously. It is only a matter of time.

Why do the suspect descriptions fail to mention their race?

Thank you for the report. PAPD can only share what they know. The description came from the victim. Most kids (of all ethnicities) wear hoodies these days.

Thanks for the heads up. Sounds like PAPD got three of four. Good. Let's exercise caution as recommended and provide tips to PAPD if we see or hear anything that might be helpful to their search. Good citizens are the eyes and ears of police. This has always been so.

Politically incorrect to cross to other side of the street when you see them coming.

@ From the Stanford timely alert email, thanks for sharing the description of the perps. [Portion removed.]

Thanks to the person above who provided more detail on perps. You should work for PAO !! LOL

How safe would I be today...to go alone to downtown PA in the evening and stroll along University Ave and side streets? My wife and I did it many years ago on hot summer evenings and we never felt threatened. And we would see friends and neighbors there doing the same thing. We'd chat with them and get caught up on local news. Oh, there were the street peddlers/vendors/performers, playing instruments, mostly guitars, with cases open for our contribution of thanks for the enjoyment we received from their performances and cause. And yes, there were a few weird looking and behaving people, but we didn't feel threatened by them. I think we just accepted the fact that they were part of our larger population (society) that is hidden from most of us most of the time.

Years later, when my wife would be out of town visiting her family members or for some other reason, I'd go alone and enjoy the vibrant evening life of downtown PA. I'd stop by Maddelena's first and have Maurice make a Tanqueray martini (up, no ice) with flair, right in front of me. He told me a lot of war stories and about some of the famous entertainers he served drinks to in high class Paris hotels after WWII ended. Frank Sinatra was one of them. He was also an artist, a good oils painter. Then I'd have dinner there or at one of the many good restaurants in the area at that time. Most of them are gone. The Empire Room got a lot of my business. I loved the al fresco dining experience behind the iron gate door. Strollers could see us and we could see them. We'd wave at each other.

Back then I'd take a stroll down memory lane, i.e., University Avenue, and remember those good strolls my wife and I took before. Again, I never felt threatened. But, over the last few years I've read reports about the downtown area that bother me and I feel if I walked alone there again, as an 82 year man, I'd be a target for bad people just waiting for innocents like me to pass by, unless I had a bodyguard. My wife died 5 years ago. There have been murders committed in that area plus many assaults and other street crimes. Unless I can convince anyone to join me for dinner out in downtown PA (my treat), I'll just hunker down in my village here in SPA, hoping the bad guys never hear about us and stay away.

My town has changed!! Too much in the wrong way!

No area in Palo Alto/Stanford is safe anymore. Palo Alto/Stanford now have a big target sign painted on their back. Many years ago, when Liz Kniss was bragging about the vibrancy urbanization and growth would create I warned exactly about how incidents like this would become the norm, since this is actually what urban blight looks and feels like. This is why other communities resisted growth so much. Downtown used to be vibrant, safe and exciting, especially on weekend nights, now it's unsafe, sometime plain dangerous and ridiculously expensive. So are many other areas that used to be safe and wonderful to hangout in. This town has been ruined forever.

@Anon: "Juvenile male wearing a hoodie? What more do you need to confirm your prejudices?"

A description is not racism, it's merely a description to help the general public. If all that is stated is the clothing, it is more dangerous for the community. PAPD gets reamed by liberals if they state ethnicity so they default to being PC with limited descriptions, which is actually more dangerous for our community. I'm so tired of people calling everyone racist. It used to be offensive but it's overused incorrectly so much that it's no longer an insult. And the truth is, no one wears a halo although they think they do. With the option of two allies to walk down (imagine the descriptions), most would walk down the ally that appears safer to them. You get my drift, I know you do.

Posted by mauricio, a resident of Embarcadero Oaks/Leland

>> Many years ago, when Liz Kniss was bragging about the vibrancy urbanization and growth would create I warned exactly about how incidents like this would become the norm, since this is actually what urban blight looks and feels like.

People associated with "development" always seem to talk as if they are finding free money. The fact is that when you have growth, you need more services, including police: Web Link . Some high-density urban areas are interesting, but, all the interesting and safe, large, dense urban areas that I know of have a significant police presence, and, police are expensive. It costs a lot of money to maintain a "vibrant" urban area. It may (or may not) be worth the price, but, there are major costs.

>> This is why other communities resisted growth so much. Downtown used to be vibrant, safe and exciting,

Imagine how vibrant and exciting Newton's Trinity College, Cambridge must have been in the late 17th Century. But, I think developers don't know the difference between vibrancy and mere noise.

It’s disgusting that people have children and don’t even love them. Children who feel respected and loved do not get into trouble because they want to please them.

"Mom" - Making a judgement on the parents of these kids is just wrong. How do you know the circumstances of these households? How do you know the kids are not loved and recpected? Seriously 'mom', focus on your own kids. You sound like Marianne WIlliamson; All you need is love.

Posted by A description is not racism, it's safety, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood

>> @Anon: "Juvenile male wearing a hoodie? What more do you need to confirm your prejudices?"

I guess you didn't follow my link, or, you would know that the description already included the most highly correlated (and genetic) factor with respect to violent crimes. Not that it would help a member of the general public to locate the particular criminal.

>> I'm so tired of people calling everyone racist.

Just wondering: do you believe "that race accounts for differences in human character or ability" ? If so, what do you mean by that? Web Link . Genetics has come a long way in the last 100 years.

@Mom - seriously??? To have such a defensive reaction, you must be guilty of having children who get into trouble or you don’t have children.

I cannot understand why parents don’t appreciate their children, their own flesh and blood, whom they welcomed into this world with joy. Perhaps these boys didn’t have that welcoming.

[Post removed.]

Same guys came up to my car on Channing and I got into an argument with them for blocking the road. The one kid got off his bike and punched me in the face. PAPD was called but I’ve heard nothing until this article. Lame!

Stanford police are too busy issuing citations for making illegal turns into parking spaces and other important safety violations, to generate more revenue for the university, than to stop armed assaults and battery. Heck, they probably bring in more money than the football team. Their motto should be: Come visit Stanford, leave with a $300 ticket.

[Post removed.]

@Gale Johnson- Please let me know when you want to take a stroll downtown with me. I would be happy to act as your bodyguard while listening to your stories of the past. I teach Karate and self-defense as a profession. So you won't have to worry about your safety.