Hi! A few things...
ONE -- our next meeting is tomorrow (THIS Tuesday, 9/28) over at Regeneration Church on the corner of E. 15th St. & 3rd Ave. at 6:30p. We have 3 guests: Walgreens, America Works & MetWest High School. All these address big points on our projects regarding safety, connectedness and restorative justice. Make sure to be there!
TWO -- A neighbor wrote me about hearing a whistle blown repeatedly out in the neighborhoood and wanted to confirm we are still using those as a way to communicate that we need help and I want to just reiterate that we have not made any changes to that. The OPD also thinks it is a good idea. It is distinctly different from yelling or screaming, so make sure to also check when you hear whistles blowing!!
THREE -- this reminds me that I am supposed to send out our established safety list of procedures we came up with last year during the holiday spike in crime. PLEASE look it over and add you input, suggestions, changes, concerns. It is below.
Have a great day & see you at the meeting and around the neighborhood!
Sasha (READ BELOW! )
The simultaneous three pronged approach is what we are using to address the safety problems here. They are: 1) IMMEDIATE SAFETY ISSUE, 2) STRONG ONGOING POSITIVE EVENTS, 3) HEALING THE CAUSE INSTEAD OF TREATING THE SYMPTOM BY CONNECTING WITH PEOPLE BEING CAUGHT IF POSSIBLE.
Groups like the "wolf pack" mugging people here unfortunately has a effective strategy, they make hits all at once all over w/a driver, they sometimes fan out on a street and always wear black hoodies (remember not all black hoodies mean a threat…we all probably have one, but our assessment skills are good). They target anyone – mostly elderly and even an entire family (searched the kids, too)…we go into the safety issue first…
1) IMMEDIATE SAFETY ISSUE:
* Use Whistle instead of yelling for help because it is more recognizable (OPD knows this)
* Tell all neighbors when you hear a whistle it means distress/need of help
* Start Night hikes with groups of 4 or more (healthy to walk and is meant to be fun and vigilant)
* Get walkie-talkies on your block (we use ch. 9)
* Meet your Neighbors on your block minimum (beyond is great)
* Eye contact and greet everyone around
* Offer bathroom stops for people working here to help us – Guardian Angels are around
* Approach, introduce and meet the police that are in our neighborhoods.
* Look at all cars around you when you are out – make sure they are empty
* Multiple males in black hoodies are the recent group – so be awake and aware.
* Walkie talkie noise is somewhat of a deterrent when you are out
* Sometimes saying what is up/hi is going to make you not selected for a crime…walking with fear or
distracted is more likely to attract a problem
* When calling dispatch say you’re calling about the series of robberies (it is prioritized)
ALWAYS BE CAREFUL WHEN GIVING DESCRIPTIONS to be more specific about clothing details and
license plate and not general ethnic info because that often just ends up getting a lot of innocent neighbors
traumatized who are going about their day.
* Call someone, leave line open & tell your location, if you are out & being approached (they can call,
and a robbery in process is prioritized)
* If robbed, cooperate fully – your stuff is not worth the risk.
* If robbed, leave your cards and cell active long enough for OPD to track them
* If robbed, take as much specific detail in visually as you can to recall later to OPD
* Get cell #’s of your own block neighbors (put in ph as “NBR Lateef” etc.)
* “Phone tree” w/ your block to call incidents in – higher priority with more calls in
* Cover tagging right away every time
* If something is happening & dispatch may be slow or no, call 3 neighbors and decide what
to do together (min of 3)
* When calling OPD emergency dispatch (510 777-3211) if you give your name, this up’s priority
* CALL CALL CALL in everything – it may add to something later, it will be noted one way or other
response at times is immediate, and at times not at all – but do it anyway.
* Use luggage tag on your keys for id/bank card and don’t carry purse/bag when possible
* We will invite lead for city ofc in charge of streetlights to correct our situation of dim/no lighting
* We asked to be made a “project” by patrols so they can work continuously on our issue
Sean was looking into organizing great design/art on the always tagged PG&E boxes -- not sure what happened to that project, but it is still a good one (Pat Kernighan was looking into that for him last year?).
We want to find some Lake Neighbors to go to other neighborhood meetings to connect us all up more. Maybe Hoang can help make this easier.
There are currently no set hours at OPD’s auxillary office at Lucky’s (people were wondering).
WHAT WE WANT FROM THE OPD:
1) Great respect when questioning/approaching people -- there is no reason why this can't be done with respect and an attitude that apologizes for the interruption, that is kind and reassuring. It is intimidating even being asked. Forget the "dusting off" policy that can follow an inquiry -- make sure there is a good dialog all along, good approach, good dialog with respect requires no dusting off. We know there are OPD that already do this, but we need ALL officers to keep this as the constant operating standard.
2) Better consistency of fast response for dangerous incidents that are called in
(ie: burglaries in process, suspects in this recent wave seen in action, etc.).
3) Follow up and responsiveness to our burglaries/robberies when we call to find out.
4) OPD increase use of Lucky’s Auxillary office (we can help you have internet to helpt this)
5) Please ask your officers to meet us when they are on patrol. Be out of the vehicle -- know us, know who we are who live here in a good way. Reach out and make the effort (greet, introduce).
Foot patrol?
6) Please inform us about the latest arrests and changes in our area.
7) OPD come to meetings -- plain clothes and off duty is great, too.
Questions: Is OPD checking ATM camera’s for the stolen ATM cards that are being used after muggings? What do you advise when we see a spread out group of males in black hoodies walking the entire width/span of the street/sidewalk on a street? Can we have the regular beat officers (not just the PSO’s) come out of their cars so we can see them – we see them, but in motion in vehicles.
3) STRONG POSITIVE EVENTS…
We have many going. We have a continuous flow of great art exhibits and gigs and goings on in many different forms. We have the outdoor movies, “happy hour” (at one persons front steps so we meet people walking by), BBQ’s, pie party, a word fast party, garden work day, progressive dinner parties, valentines pancake block party in PJ's, community gardening, art shows, movie/documentary showings, rafting trips, neighborhood clean up, someone put together a guerilla cake fight that actually got rained out – but the ideas are boundless – be creative or be basic – anything is great). We have many ideas to grow and we need to have many people take this on and spread the active part. We have event's coordinators now who can help make anything happen.
2) HEALING THE CAUSE:
We have a varied range of great and talented and good hearted people who are long standing members of this group who a great deal of experience working with youth and adults who have gotten into some really dangerous places and we want to work hard to meet them and get to know them and they get to know us. Lately we have had several new people attending that are expressing great interested in that approach. We must do that, we all agree – that is one of the prongs in our 3 pronged approach. We are pursuing this by approaching 2 programs in particular and also the DA’s office. We can seek being a part of restitution for people (youth and adults) arrested for crimes in this area. I recently found 2 people willing to really head this project up and 3 that want to get involved in making this get someplace strong. If you are wired for this and interested, just speak up and get involved.
Proactively start something and there are several of us that will support that cause/action. Which of the prongs are you going to take some action on? Organizing this group and all this momentum took a great deal of effort and persistence to make happen, support it and bring up your most passionate cause in this. This group is not a place for judgment – it is a wonderful place because it is accepting of all our differences and varying gifts and efforts.
FROM A PAST EMAIL FOLLOWING UP ON THE SUBJECT…
We never want to forget our main focus to improve the area, is our positive community building efforts with great events and meetings all the time. Please add in your own events and lets keep that growing. If the OPD or city can help connect us with some of the taggers that get caught and we can meet them and work with them to make things look better around here with murals or any vast number of great things the artists in this area can create. We have so many artists, it would be great to make that obvious by driving around and seeing creations from the people who live here with signs or ?
We talked about some strategies we can use in the mean time. If there is something of concern you can call it in – also you can call all the neighbors (get their cell #’s, make sure several of you have walkie-talkies if that is easier – we are using channel 90, by the way.) …and if you have 3 neighbors then consider ways to safely approach and address the problem. Always be mindful that there can be a weapon or a person who may be violent/unstable. Don’t go deal with it on your own. Try to maintain a rule of 3. A citizens arrest is always our right to do – with enough of us, we can detain someone (sit on them, handcuffs, whatever that is safe enough) until the police can get there – BY THE WAY I think that would also qualify a fast response time if we are in that situation because of the threat/risk.
So, other than being always vigilant, calling in suspicious things, calling in 3 neighbors minimum, then beyond that we are talking about adding cameras to the wireless internet we have. There is free wireless internet for all Lake Neighbors that can get the signal and we are slowly working on increasing the signal – anyone wanting to join in can add a camera to the area outside their home, we number that camera so you or anyone can just get online and view that space. It can also record certain things that may end up being helpful in catching and stopping some of this.
Take self defense (not just martial arts) – girlarmy was a resource given here in Oakland that is good for women.
We want to pursue putting signs up telling about the video surveillance (the OPD says we can put signs up where we want to and that we can also do that thru City Planning…).
Put up lights that have movement sensors so that more places are less ideal for bad events.
(borrowed from The WhistleStop Committee...)
How and when to use your whistle
You are confronted on the street
1. Cooperate. It's safer for you.
2. BLOW YOUR WHISTLE when physically safe. Others: respond and call the police.
You fear trouble on the street
1. Run toward the middle of the street.
2 BLOW YOUR WHISTLE. Others: respond and call the police.
You observe trouble on the street
1. BLOW YOUR WHISTLE to scare off the assailant
2. Keep at a safe distance.
3. KEEP BLOWING. Stay until the police arrive.
You observe trouble from your home or car or you hear a whistle
1. Call police fast. State clearly address and description of the incident observed.
2. Open your window and BLOW YOUR WHISTLE.
3. Go outside, move toward first whistle and KEEP BLOWING.
4. Assist victim if possible, and stay until the police arrive.
Carry your whistle and post your sticker. Parents: Children should know the seriousness of whistle blowing in our community and how they can participate in their project. Discuss with them the above instructions. Top
The Conference at Work: WhistleStop
by Joanne Howard
WhistleStop is a committee and program of HPKCC. For members who are unfamiliar with the program it was brought to the Conference by Ross Lathrop in the early 1970s. This program is an action-safety program that provides each resident of our community with a practical way to protect themselves and their neighbors on the street.
Essentially, a person purchases a whistle and carries it with them. If you see suspicious activity or need to protect yourself or a neighbor from physical harm, you can signal for help by blowing your whistle. Members of the Hyde Park-Kenwood community understand the meaning of the whistle and will gravitate towards the direction of the sound.
People who perpetrate unlawful acts want to do so in silence. The WhistleSTOP program is a "blow" to their attempt to commit such an act in silence.
Please visit our Web site at www.hydepark.org. Or simply call the office (773-288-8343) and we will get one to you. We look forward to getting a whistle in your hands.
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November 2006 Maroon Crime Report notes that a Hyde Park woman was able to make her aggravated-robbery assailant flee by blowing her whistle
