Taking One for the Blog Team

A notice correcting the error in the first notice was posted by end of day yesterday. The Crime Free Meeting was scheduled for 10:00 AM this morning.

Chilly and windy outside, I nevertheless bundled up, took one for the blog team by heading down with the mantra to "stay quiet, just listen, don’t lose your cool".

On the way, I ran into the guy Apache tried to pick a fight with — over a woman, and ended up getting himself banned from the property.

Apache happened to be in the area the day he saw a female resident he’d gotten physically close to standing outside talking to the guy — let’s call him "P", lost his shiz, tried to fight P, called the woman a "Lying bitz", got talked down by Painted Rock Lady, who witnessed the scene, walked away mad and was told he was banned from the property everafter.

At any rate P has always been a complete gentleman, was just talking to the woman, as he does to all residents — male and female, but Apache’s jealousy just got the best of him.

As P and I walked to the Community Room, he said he himself was instrumental in having the cops come in and talk to us. That he’d been attending the every other Tuesday "Coffee with a cop" sessions at the clubhouse of the Golf Course and lobbied for them to come in and talk to us.

Today's session was relatively painless, except I couldn’t believe management actually brought donuts to a cop event.

You called it Paranormal John, but no one made jokes about it. Folks just enjoyed the donuts.

At any rate, I didn’t learn much from the session that the Grapevine hadn’t already alerted me to

The session started off with one of the two cops stressing the importance of knowing who our neighbors are, having each other’s phone number, looking out for each other.

He also emphasized to be leery of who we invite over. That something the cops deal with all the time is when people invited to spend time/stay over and ultimately become tenants. Then when wanted out, the cops can do nothing except suggest the eviction process as they are now residents, not trespassers.

Also, that sometimes the people you invite, like young people — nieces and nephews, invite their sometimes-questionable friends over, and problems are created for you and your neighbors.

Good point.

There was talk about the guys walking around all hours of the night knocking on doors.

I knew about the guys walking around, had not heard about knocking on doors.

For why?

For what?

P himself said he’d gotten such a middle of the night knock and, like a fool, opened the door where he saw a man who looked just as surprised to see P as P was to see him.

Seeing a tall bearded seemingly fit resident, instead of a little old lady, the guy ran off.

Several others reported having middle of the night knocks.

Then, of course, there was talk of catalytic converters being stolen from cars parked in the back lot area.

Not much was offered as a solution to anything, as there are no solutions.

Ring cameras were suggested. "Ring cameras are one of the best tools for law enforcement" said the other less talkative cop. They’d recently been able to solve a murder as the entire episode and identity of the culprit had been caught on Ring, said he.

More reporting of incidents was also suggested, as not much had been reported, except to management and those are not management issues. They are police issues.

That was a surprising revelation. I and others have been complaining for years that management doesn’t do anything, is negligent in its duty and responsibility to keep us residents safe when actually they have no such duty or responsibility.

In addition to Ring cameras, we were advised to take advantage of the Online Reporting System.

Good to know we don’t need to call the police emergency number or trek all the way down to the police department to fill out a report.

Someone mentioned seeing cop cars occasionally looping through the complex at night.

Those are "Extra Patrol" we were told. Officers on patrol sometimes come in and hang out as a deterrent.

One or two of the nonsensicals that so trigger me by their lack of importance and stupidity were brought up by residents — cars zooming up and down the street, homeless walking up/down the street, and P spoke up way too much, had too much to say, too often interrupting cop speak seemingly to thump his chest, expressing his friggin knowledge about anything/everything, but I stayed true to my mantra — I was quiet, just listened, stayed calm.

"It’s not a crime to be homeless" said the lead cop. "It can happen to any of us".

He also pointed out we are on the "main corridor, traffic is gonna be traffic".

Exactly!

After that, the cop said San Bernardino is a "high crime area" (not very comforting) but that, for the most part, our complex is very safe in comparison to other complexes surrounding us, and nothing anywhere is 100%.

I know and that’s the thing … there are worse places to be. Even the luxury buildings have issues with management and intruders.

When asked what exactly our Crime Free Housing Certification affords us …. "If there are fights, drinking, you are evicted within 72 hours".

Uuuuuuh, not exactly. I just mentioned a few posts ago about the battling OG’s.

Not only were they never evicted for their many battles, but they had no problem getting back in as residents.

Maybe it's because they were so well liked. On the other hand, maybe it’s because they have that "Privilege" thing a particular group is afforded.

By this time, we were 45 minutes into the session, a break was called — to discuss issues between ourselves and/or meet one on one with one of the cops. I’d heard enough and headed back to my unit, but not before Talker walked over and said her granddaughter asks about me "ALL THE TIME".

"Why … she’s turned into a stalker … what does she say?" asked I.

"How’s Shirley" she said and added "I can’t figure it out. What did you do?"

I wish I knew so I could undo it.