Neighborhood Alert ~ Msg from Officer Clark

Mr. Martinez....My name is Brett Clark, I am a Sergeant with the Vallejo Police Department. I was appointed the Community Liaison by Chief Nichelini this month. My office hours are Tuesday-Friday 0800-1700.

I read your neighborhood alert on the Vista neighborhood web site. It is important for me to say that Chief Nichelini and the members of the Police Department are also concerned that our level of service has been impacted due to budget cuts. We at the Police Department are very sympathetic to your concerns and we too are frustrated that our citizens have been victimized more often.

Unfortunately Police Services have been reduced from 158 Officers (1.3 officers per thousand citizens) to 116 officers (0.96 officers per thousand citizens) which is a 26% reduction in staffing.

It is my goal to provide some guidance and/or assistance with long term quality of life concerns you and your neighbors have in the Vista. If you would like me to attend a community meeting I can make arrangements to accommodate your group. All I ask is that you give me a couple of weeks notice.

You may cut and paste this message and place it on the web site if you feel it is appropriate. The members of the Vista can e-mail me at, BClark@ci.vallejo.ca.us (in case it didn't show below) and I will address any individual concerns. Talk to you soon.

Brett Clark #436, Sergeant
Community Liaison
Vallejo Police Department
2 Florida Street
Vallejo, CA 94590
Office (707) 553.7218
FAX (707) 649-3519
E-mail BClark@ci.vallejo.ca.us

Neighborhood Alert

Hi,  Recieved this morning am passing it along, I have no idea of the street address or which street it is on. Rich   I had an incident happen at my house on this past saturday night at 2:35 a.m.  I was telling my neighbor about this and he said to let you know as well. I had a vehicle parked on the street in front of my house and I heard some young men say something loudly and then I heard to bangs as if something was hitting metal on metal.  I ran downstairs and rain into my driveway and was so close to them I froze.  I saw 2 young thin men or boys dressed in black on the drivers side of the car.  I did not say anything.  They saw me after a few seconds and then started running towards Tennessee Street. There was a car parked down across the street from US Bank on Amador that they jumped in and drove off.  I know that when they were running someone was speaking in spanish saying to hurry up and that someone was on the street. I went to see what happened to our car and they had taken a garbage can from the middle school that was not secure in the canister it is heald and carried it across the street and hit our car with it.  There was no broken glass only garbage on the ground and all over the car.  This car is new to us as we had just purchased it days prior.  I then took the can and put it on the sidewalk so no passersby driving would hit it.  I got my husband and son and made sure everything was secure.  30 minutes later after we had come back in the house and still had lights on we heard someone say something loud again and my son and husband saw someone kick the car and they headed outside.  They approached the 3 people 2 of which were black and one hispanic and asked what's up and what the problem was they just kept saying f your car.  They  ran off and we later drove around to see which way they went.   My frustration with this whole situation was that when you call the Vallejo  Police Station you get a recording to call 911.  When you call 911 they say if there is no real emergency then they will have Vallejo Police Department send you a from so this incident can be documented.  We encourage our children to call the police department for help but when we would have had a good example for them on the police helping us they failed.  Please pass this information on so we can keep our neighborhood safe.

Neighborhood Alert

Hi, Recieved this morning so I assume this happened on January 26th. This occured in the 500 block of North Camino Alta Today between 4:00pm and 7:15 PM Pried off bedroom window in rear master bedroom to gain access. Stolen two loaded pistols by forcing open a locked and bolted down pistol box with an alarm. Police report filed. Rich

Happy Chinese New Year

Today it is officially the Year of the Ox or the year 4706 according to the Chinese calendar. According to tales and legends, the beginning of Chinese New Year started with the fight against a mythical beast called the Nian or "Year" in Chinese. Nian would come on the first day of New Year to devour livestock, crops, and even villagers, especially children. To protect themselves, the villagers would put food in front of their doors at the beginning of every year. It was believed that after the Nian ate the food they prepared, it wouldn't attack any more people. One time, people saw that the Nian was scared away by a little child wearing red. The villagers then understood that the Nian was afraid of the color red. Hence, every time when the New Year was about to come, the villagers would hang red lanterns and red spring scrolls on windows and doors. People also used firecrackers to frighten away the Nian. From then on, the Nian never came to the village again.

For more information click here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_New_Year