Posted on 02/09/2010 7:37:14 AM PST by SmithL
Times are tough in Vallejo these days, a city with more street violence than nearby Richmond, and a rapidly shrinking police department.
In the last week alone, the city has witnessed two homicides, a knife attack that injured three people, the shooting of an ice-cream vendor and a mob assault on a city employee - an incident captured on video at a local gas station.
One of the homicide victims was Matthew Allen Hicks, the father of one of two teens suspected in the attack near the gas station. Hicks was found shot in the head early Monday.
"It has been quite a while seen I've seen (so many) incidents of this magnitude in such a short period of time," said Lt. Abel Tenorio, a spokesman for the Vallejo Police Department.
If this is a snapshot of crime in Vallejo nearly two years after a bankruptcy filing, it does not bode well for the next five years.
As part of an effort to close a $16 million budget shortfall in May 2008, the city slashed essential services, chief among them the number of sworn officers in the Vallejo Police Department.
Since the department began cutting back in 2005, the number of sworn officers has dropped from 158 to 104. More layoffs are planned in June unless city officials can close a $5 million budget shortfall. If that happens, Vallejo's police force will be reduced to 89 officers - that's for a city of 117,000 residents and 30 square miles.
Consider that Richmond, a city of similar size, has 181 sworn officers, and the Berkeley Police Department has a 185-member police force.
As the city's resources to address crime have dwindled, the number of reported incidents has risen. In 2008, Vallejo had a higher violent crime rate than...
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Sounds like a little street justice got dished out. Not a good sign.
Hoppe & Change. Open borders etc.
Its all Bush’s fault. s/
I used to live there. Too bad, it was a nice town in the 80’s.
How’s that Leftist Utopia working out for you these days?
Their diversity will carry this great town forward and ever upward.
OK this is quite EASY, pass a city law that states that EVERY able-bodied male 18 and above(to 70)and w/out a crime record is required to carry a weapon of .38 or greater 24 hour a day and they would be deputized as the city militia and be exempt from ALL lawsuits. The county sheriff would be in charge of creation of a city “Watch Bill”. WALLA problem solved! What does everyone think?
Doesn’t even hold a candle to daily events in Salinas these days.
As society breaks down the animals roam free.
Is this a city full of illegal immigrants?
I hated to see Mare Island shut down. They had some good people working there. MINSY was one of our clients, back when I worked for a computer maintenance company. When they closed all the bases in Northern California, I got into another line of work.
Wow, more crime that Richmond. I wouldn’t have guessed or conceived of that.
Lock and Load.
You are on your on and the Hyena’s are on the prowl to take advantage of you.
1880s
80s?
Zodiac Killer days?
I have the perfect song to go with this situation!
Just Like Paradise by David Lee Roth.
And being Kalifornia, everything POSSIBLE is being done....to prevent law abiding citizens from arming themselves!
“As society breaks down the animals roam free.”
Like the coyotes in Manhattan?
Anti-hyena applicators recently purchased at a gun show:
I don’t think this issue is about crime, it’s about money.
Rather then cut the ridiculous salaries of the city’s employees, they choose to cut the police, etc.
They’d rather keep their money and let the citizens suffer.
Why should citizens be forced to do the police departments jobs. It’s because government pay and benefits are more important, in the goverment employees minds.
What they don’t realize, is at some time, the criminals will target the ones who have money, mainly the city employees.
What goes around comes around, that’s why it’s called a “revolution”.
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