Posted on 11/20/2006 9:36:34 AM PST by kiriath_jearim
[This weekly column is supplied by Citizens' Crime Watch of Miami-Dade and is intended to provide information that will help readers in their efforts to be safe.]
Before I get into this week's subject, I would like to comment on a couple of things from last week's column on gun safety. I received dozens of e-mails from people across the country who did not agree with my suggestions on gun safety measures. I should have stated that those measures are recommended by groups such as the National Crime Prevention Council.
Those who wrote were adamant about not giving up their guns, and many referred to incidents in which people used their guns to protect themselves. One reader even indicated that his 4-year-old child already knows how to handle a gun.
It was quite enlightening to learn how people around the country feel about their guns. Several felt insulted by my comment that ''in 26 years of crime prevention I had not seen anything good regarding owning a gun.'' I should have clarified that my 26 years have been in Miami-Dade, which is apparently very different from the rest of the country.
What many of these readers do not understand is that residents of Miami-Dade County prefer to work with their law enforcement, working to prevent crime by cooperating with their neighbors and using their intelligence to avoid becoming victims of crime. This is a lot more challenging than just owning a gun.
So, I want to let everyone here in Miami-Dade know that the Miami Police Department Community Relations Section, the South District and the State Attorney's Office will present ''The Crime Prevention Gun Buy Back'' from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Dec. 2 at the Winn-Dixie Supermarket parking lot at 3275 Coral Way. You will receive a $50 voucher for each gun you turn in, no questions asked. So, if you have a gun that is just sitting around, drop it off.
Several businesses have e-mailed me to ask about preventing crime in the upcoming holiday season. Here are some suggestions:
• Keep your cash register in plain view from the outside so that it can be monitored by the police and passersby after business hours.
• Keep only small amounts of cash in the registers. Empty the cash drawers and leave them open after hours.
• Make bank deposits often and during business hours but don't establish a noticeable pattern.
• Be sure your safe is fireproof, securely anchored and in plain view. Use a drop safe so cash cannot be taken out once it is put in -- and post signs accordingly.
• Do not keep valuable goods in display windows when the store is closed.
• Consider installing antitheft devices on inventory.
• Mark valuable equipment such as registers, computers and calculators with an identification number. Post an ''Operations I.D.'' warning sticker in your storefront. You can obtain these from our Citizens' Crime Watch office once you have marked the equipment.
• Make sure that your employees know how to reduce opportunities for shoplifting. Use mirrors to eliminate ''blind spots'' that may hide shoplifters.
• Train your employees to report suspicious activity and write down the information for future reference.
• Talk to employees about what to do if confronted by a robber. Remind them that they should cooperate to avoid harm and notify police as soon as possible. Make sure that your employees know where alarm buttons are located.
• Make sure that you have proper lights in and outside your business, especially around doors, windows and other entry points. If possible, use vandal-proof fixtures around outside entrances.
First step, buy a .45!
So, if you have a gun that is just sitting around, drop it off.
...how about I load it and stick it up your a$$ first.
Several businesses have e-mailed me to ask about preventing crime in the upcoming holiday season. Here are some suggestions:
• Get rid of your cash register. Accept only credit cards or bartered goods for transactions.
• Or better yet close your brick and mortar shop altogether, rent a PO Box, and sell goods via PayPal on the internet.
• Do not keep valuable goods in display windows when the store is closed. Unless that VALUABLE GOOD is the cash register, which as noted above should be in plain view of the window after hours.
• Make sure that your employees know judo so they can safely approach a customer who may be shoplifting.
• Talk to employees about what to do if confronted by a terrorist. Remind them that they should cooperate to avoid harm and that the plane will land safely if everyone sits down like a trained sheep.
So, educate yourself on how to avoid becoming a target becuase being a crime target is bad, but first get rid of your self defense of last resort because being a crime target is - wait, what?
• Be sure your safe is fireproof...
Holy Shiite. And all this time I've been using a cigar box. Guess ya learn something new every day.
DUH!!!
(paging Captain Obvious)
"...residents of Miami-Dade County prefer to work with their law enforcement, working to prevent crime by cooperating with their neighbors and using their intelligence..."
So I guess that is why Miami has such a low crime rate and the rest of us gun-owning ignorant folks should learn from them.
So my 44 MAG is only worth $50 to them? pfft, the ammo I use cost more.
A robber hath no scorn like a pissed off kitty. :>)!
"I should have clarified that my 26 years have been in Miami-Dade, which is apparently very different from the rest of the country.
Well, Carmen - yeah it is 'different'. At least according to the TV show COPS.
From what I see on COPS, Miami-Dade is comprised of nothing but meth dealers, hookers, crack heads, slack jawed inbred morons and basically the dregs of society who believe 'Crime' is a profession like Doctor or Dentist.
And the only people with real 'jobs' in Miami-Dade, except the Police are Bail Bondsman and Bounty Hunters.
So yep, it is a tad different than say .. Keokuk Iowa.
Why was there a tv-show called Miami Vice if there was no crime in Miami?
Or were those all victimless crimes?
Or were the guns the bad guys carried evidence of WHY they were bad men?
Actors, musicians, and models have also flocked to Miami. I guess they fall under the "hookers" you mentioned though. They just don't do their job IN Miami.
Can you make a drop-safe fire-proof?
Why must there always be hate?
And, once you have completed these thoroughly brilliant suggestions, feel free to post - alongside you "Operation ID" decal - a decal proclaiming your store (your life's work) as weapon free!
You're bound to get MUCH more foor traffic with that !
Okay, I done proved it!
"foor" = "foot"
Crime Type 2004
......................Miami..Per 100,000 People............. National per 100,000
People Overall Miami Crime ...... 8039.2 .......... 3982.6
Miami Violent Crimes ................ 1677.4 .......... 465.5
Miami Murders ............................. 17.9 .......... 5.5
Miami Rapes ................................ 26.5 .......... 32.2
Miami Robberies ........................... 614.5 .......... 136.7
Miami Aggravated Assaults ........... 1018.5 .......... 291.1
Other than rape, look at the ratios between Miami and the National Stats. In Miami, after they rape you, they kill you and you move into a different statistical category. carmen is stuck on stoopid.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.