the meeting last night

Barbara wrote a little post about last night's meeting...

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Last night Capital St. had its first organizational meeting as a block club. Hoang Banh was there, plus some residents not even on Capital, AND 8 police officers. The police pretty much stayed for the entire session and contributed some old, some new information.

Here are some self-defense tips: look straight at persons walking toward you to indicate that you are aware; if asked for the time, be on guard for a robbery. Most of the other ideas are old ones that work on and off. Here is new information about our current spike in crime: it is being done by very young people, often as initiation for joining a gang. The police are reactive and depend on us to alert them to a nasty situation. They cannot always react as fast as they would like, but knowing what is happening where is very important for them.

And finally, and again, know your neighbors.

How sad that getting to know each other is being driven by crime. One encouraging event will be when we are able to recognize police because they are familiar figures and spend most of their time in our area. The 15X beat is like candy for opportunistic crime. We are on top of 580. In the 10 minutes it may take for a squad car to reply to a call, the criminal can be on the other side of Oakland. If not another city.

Capital Street Block Club has begun to coalesce because two people decided to take action, Michael and Kate. Nothing happens if we all wait for someone else to do something. That is what alot of criminals are planning on.

Barbara Newcombe