Saturday, April 24, 2010

Neighborhood Alert

Hi,
 As all of you know that near the corner of Valle Vista and Rincon there was a party last night at 120 rincon that got out of hand. Shortly after midnight we were woken up by 4 gunshots, I got out of bed and looked out the window and there were several hundred kids milling around. Shortly thereafter I think every police office on duty in town showed up and broke the party up. The house in question is in forclosure and some people are "renting" the house right now and will not leave. If this happens again, and I hope it doesent, we need to be aware of our saftey. Do not go out and stand on the street to see what's going on, call Vallejo Police and STAY in your home. Gunshots don't know were they are going to stop. I did have several people e-mail and talk to me about the fact the the police dispatcher were not very responsive to the calls. I have asked some people to look into the situation and see if I can get anymore information and will forward when I get it.
Be Safe,
Rich


 
Posted by Admin at 9:36 AM

4 comments:

  1. So the lack of response from the PD after calls from the immediate neighbors about an unmanagable party resulted in shots being fired. Another good example why a YES vote on Initiative A is a good thing to do. Simple math in that average salaries = more officers on the street.

    I woke up at 12:30am with at least 4 shots a girl screaming "what did you do..." along with a frenzied exodus of teenagers that looked like masses leaving a Raider game. How do we communicate the the "renters" that this is not acceptable in the Vista?
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  2. I can back up apparent lack of interest in initial calls. It was clear to me that there was a swarm of people developing; the music and hollering was growing at least to be heard three to five blocks away; there were people milling around in the street, sitting in their cars smoking who knows what; and it was evident there was a serious problem brewing.

    The response on the phone was: "Oh, there is a party over there..." and that there someone was being sent over to respond to it. And when I pushed the matter to try to express that this wasn't an ordinary party, but a swarm of people and 50+ cars that was starting to feel like a riot, the response was simply that someone would be there soon, and sounding annoyed that I was not satisfied with the initial response.

    I personally didn't appreciate the emotional tone of the response.

    After the gunshots, I called again and after I implored that they needed to get someone there now, it was much the same.


    In thinking about this now, I wonder how this would be handled differently if it happened again. Would simple complaints about violations of ordinances by a hoard of people get a response, to thwart eruption to gunfire? I have to wonder based on the tone of the person taking calls. Folks don't call 911 unless it's serious - and so the last thing people need to hear on the other end is what sounds like a lack of belief in the seriousness in what is happening.

    In thinking about this, ordinances that could help going forward would be things like:

    anti-loitering;

    anti-disturbance of the peace (noise after 10 p.m.);

    curfew for youth unaccompanied by parents.

    I do not know if things like this are on the books - but if they are, folks need to start calling and complaining earlier...and if they are not, they need to be put in place. Given the circumstances in the community, it behooves the elected leaders to get things like this in place now before things worsen.

    It also seems like it's time to make the very best use of citizen volunteers - who appear to be numerous - getting them into action to prevent things like this from escalating.

    Strong proactive behavior on the front end of the complaints leading to this event could have helped. To that end, it behooves the police officers (and elected officials) to look at how many complaints came in about that neighbor in prior months and also earlier in the evening or days leading up to this.
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  4. Vote NO on Initiative A
    ReplyDelete

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