Vandalism

Pastor Dave · Vandalism

Wednesday afternoon, my car was sitting in the parking lot of Fellowship Bible Church, 2201 Jay. When I came out to head home, I found that all 4 of the side-windows and the rear hatch window had been shattered. The Edgewater Police officer who responded said that a few other cars had been hit, and they suspected teens driving by with a pellet gun, or something.

I am just wondering...
If anyone else's vehicles were similarly vandalized?
If anyone has any information about who may have done this?

THANKS!
I enjoy reading posts on the Talking Stick...thanks to ALL who contribute!
Pastor Dave

Farmer Scott · General stupidity.

Hello Pastor Dave,
I'm so sorry to hear about your little incident or rather costly day. I for one know how this feels and nothing will get my blood boiling quicker than the total disregard of ones property.
You said, it happened Wednesday afternoon. Could you be a little more specific? I love our police officers but, I think that is the standard answer. If my memory serves me correctly I think, the middle school did have a half day yesturday.

Very little consolation,
The Farmer

Customer · US Thai Cafe

It May be the same pieces of s_ _ t that did the U.S. Thai Cafe and I suggested cameras be set up on 25th Ave. Main Street to catch them the 1st time...get it together city!!!...use your emergency fund for an inexpensive recording operation! (or let them just take over as most of you oppose this kind of "big brother" B.S.)...if you are cool, than you should'nt be worried!

Pastor Dave · Vandalism

Farmer Scott,
I believe I looked out when I had my lunch, about 12:30 pm.
The windows in the upstairs of our church are tinted and "textured," so one cannot really see any detail. BUT...I had gone downstairs about 12:30 pm., and I think I would have noticed if they had been shattered then.
Today, our letter carrier told me that she thought she noticed my windows looked like I had applied something to give them a "krinkled" appearance, so...it had probably already happened by then. SO...a "best guess" would be between 12:30 pm., and about 2:30 pm.
I can't be any more specific than that.

Get Real

Camera's don't mean anything unless you can i.d. the person. Most camera systems even in banks are not very good. Even if you had a perfect photo, crime stoppers has more to worry about than putting a photo of a person in a minor crime on every news program it just does not work that way.

Farmer Scott · Thinking like a kid.

Kinda fits with a half day of school. I work at Stevens Elem. and I tend to pass these individuals on my lunch hour and go humm apparently the middle school has a half day. I will be talking to the Chief (Dan). There is no pill for this. And if there is, its called Family. The Farmer, could care less if these kiddos spend 7-10 days in juvy in addition to the loss of their licencse til their 18 for the 1st offense and I understand how bad that could be perceived. But, the district has the point to teach the children to respect one another. That's were the ball gets dropped. That's were the school does not go outside the playground and it certainly doesn't go to people they don't know (personal property). Like many things I deal with on any given day its always a sad story that only gets sad...er. Until, the punishment is greater than the act I have little faith in a cure.
With all of the great information I have bestode upon you I will leave you with this nice surprise: Spring Break: Schools out, Friday March 27th til April 6th.

Keepin' an eye on one and the other,
The Farmer

hit again

I have also been vandelized, by more tagging on my garage in the alleys. As have my neighbors. It seems there is an increase in this kind of activity and will only get worse as the weather gets warmer is my guess. Maybe we need to ask the PD to start patroling the hood a little more actively. Maybe the city can sport some funds for supplying white paint to cover all this graffiti, instead of issuing warnings and tickets. maybe we can use some community service wrokers to paint over the graffiti. maybe we should form a more formal neighborhood watch program to protect each other and our things...

Guest

If the police can't patrol the streets let's invite the guardian angels to form a division here.

curious and furious

Guest

How about more than 1 cop per shift for starters.

Devon Barclay

I don't know, but I've been told we usually have two cops running patrol in this city. No idea, even as a guess, what's on the back-end.

BUT, Edgewater does own a lot of police cars.

What if, instead of just parking the fleet at the cop shop, we moved one or two of those cars around town? We could park a car or two at some visible locations, and have actual officers looking out for 'trouble' driving about. It'd make it seem like the police presence was everywhere. It's something that worked pretty well for Laramie, Wyoming. In ten square blocks, some conveniently parks police cars would make a good statement.

(BTW - the statement we make by having 7-10 cop cars parked at the cop station is LESS impressive)

Guest

NO OFFENSE BUT THAT'S A STUPID IDEA. WHO'S GOING TO BE SHUTTLING ALL THESE POLICE CARS AROUND TOWN AND LEAVING THEM ABANDONED WITH 4,000 WORTH OF COMPUTER MOBILE DATA TERMINIALS INSIDE? THE REASON THE PD HAS 5 PATROL CARS EXCLUDING THE CHIEFS AND DETECTIVES IS BECAUSE MOST OF THEM ARE OVER 4 YEARS OLD AND THEY BREAK DOWN. FIGURE IT OUT 3 SHIFTS PER DAY 10 HOURS EACH SOME SHIFTS OVERLAP. IF YOU HAVE TWO COPS WORKING YOU NEED AT THE MINIMUM 4 CARS PER DAY. YOU CAN'T RUN ONE CAR 24 HOURS PER DAY EVERYDAY OR THE MAINTENENCE WOULD BE OVERWHELMING. I DON'T THINK IF THE GENERAL PUBLIC DOES NOT GIVE A RATS ASS ABOUT THE CRAPPY LOOKING POLICE BUILDING I DON'T THINK ANYONE WILL CARE THAT POLICE CARS ARE PARKED IN THE LOT. AT LEAST WITH THE CARS YOU CAN TELL THE BUILDING PROBABLY HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE POLICE.

Devon Barclay

Wow - that's a lots of capital letters.

This town is about 10 city blocks, square - if that. What I'd suggested in my post was a prop to scare away the bad guys. Good lord, don't put expensive equipment in abandoned vehicles! The cops need, by EVEN THE VERY URGENT POST AFOREMENTIONED, like 6 vehicles a day (if that). We have substantially more vehicles than that. In fact, and I may be wrong, counting the cop bicycle, we now have more police vehicles than officers.

Mine might be a silly idea. But it was just that - an idea. If we have two officers on shift, in patrol, what would it hurt to devote 10 minutes each shift to moving a prop vehicle someplace in town?

Are we really so scared harm would come to the vehicle? And if so, what does that say about our PD's ability to keep us safe?

DB

I think the City has more important matters to deal with than police cars in a parking lot.

Let's hire a City Manager first and let him / her deal with image issues.

Guest

Thanks, <idiot> poster.

Um, not just no, but hell no. To DB (who I doubt is Devon): if punks are messing up this town, and painting stuff on my property, why are are our cops doing nothing about it. To whoever posted that, grab a paintbrush and fix my alley.

I WANT SOMETHING DONE.

Can I be plainer?

Debbie

Why not ask the police chief to give you an idea of how many people they have caught trashing property. By the way I'm not an idiot and D.B. in this case does not mean Devon Barclay.

Guest

How about Dev B and DB drink some JD while sitting in the HT watching a DVD on the HDTV.

Devon Barclay

I'm game! As long as someone brings the ICB and some IPA.

Seriously, with break coming up, there are going to be a lot more kids roaming our streets. While it'd be nice to have a stronger neighborhood watch, the fact is that even if neighbors call in the police, the cops just can't get to the scene in time to stop most of what happens when the kids are running amok - petty tagging, kicking up signs, breaking windows, etc. etc. etc.

Cameras in the alleys? Sounds a little big-brotherish, though the deterrent value is interesting. It wouldn't have to go on national TV, BTW, whoever said that - a cop here could just take the image down to the school and ask staff to identify someone from footage. I'm assuming the cost for setting up such a system would be pretty high, but I've got NO idea.

Seeing more cop cars actually around the place? I dunno. I know that when I see a cop car, I slow down my driving and it makes an impression on me. I'm assuming kids walking around or on bicycles - especially if they're out looking for trouble - would probably notice the occasional cop car and it'd be weighing on their minds a little.

That, or maybe they'd tag it :)

One of the big problems is that we don't offer our youth anything else to do around here - so the kids are just roaming about, and, being kids, sometimes get into causing trouble.

My advice? The weather's been really nice. If you're at home, spend some time in your garden, and if you see kids walking around, wave and say hello. It lets them know you're watching them, and it also lets them know this is a community that cares a little bit.

Boris Badanoff · Welcome to the 21st century

A complete mini camera spy setup Wireless is $40-$50 on Ebay. That includes everything. You do have to plug in to a video recording device... If your having problems with tagging or other stuff have 2 or 3 neighbors buy one together. As citizens its our responsibility to look after ourselves when the police are not around..... THE POLICE CANNOT BE EVERYWHERE

Vandalism

General stupidity.

US Thai Cafe

Vandalism

Thinking like a kid.

Welcome to the 21st century