Think about forming a neighborhood watch group
Ah, a new year’s here. Most of us look at the New Year as an opportunity to make some positive alteration in our lives using the addition of one year to the calendar as the perfect catalyst. Unfortunately Gilroy’s arsonist or arsonists and their sick and deplorable obsession seem bent on keeping with the old rather than with the new. This year I won’t hope these depraved individual(s) will stop setting property ablaze. Rather than hope I’m going to find or start a Neighborhood Watch program to help make them stop.
A review of Gilroy crime statistics shows between four and 13 fires of suspicious nature occurring each year until 2006. In 2006, 37 arsons occurred in Gilroy. More arson occurred in 2006 than in the five previous years combined. The most recent happened only a few days ago and consumed several needed classrooms at Gateway School. In August, an agricultural container was broken into and torched. In October, Budget Truck Rental burned to the ground. A partially constructed townhouse on Lewis Street burned in late November. Arson totals only cannot indicate crime is rampant in Gilroy, but they do indicate arsonists are becoming far too prolific for the public good.
What is the answer? Although no lives were lost in the most recent rash of arson, it is only a matter of time until an innocent person, Gilroyan or not, dies as a result. The financial loss due to arson is very complex. While immediate losses are easy to calculate, the compounded loss people and businesses face in replacing what was lost to arson are not easily tallied and the end costs easily multiply. In the Lewis street townhouse arson, South County Housing will incur additional expenses to repair what was burned. Those costs will be passed onto the buyers of the housing units. Considering margin and currency devaluation, the end result can only be described as staggering.
What is the answer besides the arrest and successful prosecutions of the perpetrator(s) of these crimes? At the risk of sounding like a poster child, Neighborhood Watch (www.ncpc.org) is a good preventative measure, and easy to start. The idea is neither new nor complicated. Currently, many Neighborhood Watch neighborhoods successfully operate in Gilroy right now. It’s not a difficult principle. You organize with neighbors and commit to keep an eye out for suspicious persons and happenings. Usually a map with names and telephone numbers is drawn to allow your neighbors to contact you should something arise. The Gilroy Police Department has a phone number for Neighborhood Watch: 846-0524.
It doesn’t matter of you’re new to a neighborhood or even if you cannot stand your neighbor. There might be a working program in your neighborhood already. Looking out for one another’s homes and neighborhood is a common need and can be done from a distance. An un-neighborly neighbor isn’t an excuse. Neither is thinking, as many people do, that being a part of Neighborhood Watch is “snitching”. Watching out for your property by watching out for your neighbor’s property is not snitching. It is good sense. I’m expecting email from those Gilroyans who favor criminal rights and minimal police intervention. The emails will probably say that assisting in the policing of neighborhoods and protecting our property is somehow a violation of a criminal’s constitutional rights.
In California, unless the perpetrator of a crime is inside my home and I have a legitimate fear for my life, I can’t shoot them. I cannot forcibly detain a person trying to start an illegal fire in mine or a neighbor’s yard. All I can do is call the police. If I’m not home, I hope my neighbors will call. If I don’t in advance agree to call the police in their absence how can I expect them to in my absence? That’s the premise behind Neighborhood Watch, neighbors working together to make their neighborhood a safer, better place to live.
The crime statistics don’t lie. Had someone looking out a window or driving by any of the past arson sites called the police, Gilroy as a whole would be better off. Not only will those who suffer the initial loss benefit, but those who must pay more as a result of the arson will as well. Neighborhood Watch works. Protect yourself, please meet your neighbors, make a friend, and organize now.
