GNWatch Report: My Notes - Great Turnout!

I'll be honest with you - I didn't even take notes so this may be a bit sketchy. Several of my neighbors joined my wife and I along with Block Captains, concerned residents, board directors and folks from other neighborhood associations to listen to a great presentation from the City of San Antonio Parks Police Department.Several people told me they had head counts of 40 or more people not including the assembled police and representative from District 6.
Kudos to Chief Steven Baum and his officers for answering the tough questions from several irate residents who are simply fed up with the ongoing taggers in our area. He didn't have any miracle answers but he gave us what we needed; the truth. The truth is, he has one officer (for our area) that patrols a huge area that includes OP Schnabel and Friedrick Wilderness Parks. When they catch the little taggers (and they do catch them), the court system is not set up to hang the taggers or their parents. I know it is a tough pill to swallow, but if I understand it correctly, we will not be blindfolding taggers and executing them with a cigarette in their mouth and a bullet to their head, as much as many residents would like.So, what can we do? First, we have to take ownership of this problem. I need every resident of San Antonio to purchase a disposable camera and keep it in your car. Put down your cell phone and start watching for taggers. As Chief Baum said, "These taggers are not Houdini". The tagging is taking place, often in broad daylight but we simply aren't tuned into our surroundings as we drive down the street talking on the phone, listening to talk radio and trying to remember if we were on our way to the HEB or to the liquor store!We have to focus on our surroundings, and if we see some little bastard tagging, take pictures and call the police. 207-SAPD is the non-emergency number. Get a description of the kid, the location you are at and call them.But you know all that. We had some great questions and comments and complaints from the crowd. Unfortunately, many of them in my opinion were based on the frustration of the situation. Ask the questions you want - that is why we are all there, but it doesn't help to complain to the police about the lack of action in the courts, right? I talked to Chief Baum and he told me that he gets the frustration and often, he is happy to simply provide a forum to let people vent.So now what? I was happy to see that Mr. Sean Fitzgibbons from District 6 Council member Delicia Herrera made it to the meeting to listen to our concerns and answer questions. I think it would be an awesome idea to call or send e-mail to Ms. Herrera's office and let her know of the appreciation, and of our continued concerns. Squeaky wheel and oil theory.

I'll send some more notes and comments to the Block Captains and the people at the meeting who left me their e-mail addresses but the bottom line is - we had a pretty good meeting to get people thinking about the problem. Now, let's see if we can parlay the excitement into some action.

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