Publication Date: Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Editorial: Enough is enough in EPA violence
Editorial: Enough is enough in EPA violence
(August 24, 2005) New Police Chief Ron Davis deserves praise for aggressively pursuing a wide range of alternatives to curtail community shootings and other violence
A terrible night of shootings in early August left 16-year-old Jorge Hernandez dead.
Other shootings have punctuated the nights and days of August. One incident left a tow-truck driver wounded as a sniper or snipers fired at him and police officers from behind a fence. A 41-year-old man, Lausei Tuimavave, was stabbed and died in his front yard during a personal squabble.
Residents are saying it's "scarier now" because some shootings -- many unsolved -- are occurring in broad daylight. The violence has bloodied the community's streets and raised fears about a resurgence of the period nearly 15 years ago when East Palo Alto had one of the highest per-capita murder rates in the nation.
For several years, as the crime rate crept higher year by year, the Weekly has called for a more aggressive, multi-jurisdictional response to curtail the violence -- similar to the "Red Team" days in the early 1990s that helped squelch the violence and put the struggling community on a more peaceful, positive track.
But a combination of a police department in chaos, police recruiting problems generally and a chief, Wes Bowling, who couldn't seem to get an effective response together allowed matters get worse for years while the City Council stewed over what to do.
In June, current Police Chief Ron Davis took over from interim Chief Steve Belcher, who did a creditable job of rebuilding a department sorely in need of an overhaul. While things on the streets remain chaotic, Davis has picked up on earlier initiatives by Belcher and San Mateo County Supervisor Rose Jacobs Gibson, a former East Palo Alto City Council member and mayor.
On Aug. 17, Davis and a bevy of California Highway Patrol officials and officers jointly announced the launch of "Operation Impact," in which a half-dozen CHP officers and a sergeant will work in East Palo Alto, reinforcing local officers.
Davis also is a hands-on chief who surprised both his own officers and a deputy district attorney in mid-August when he radioed that he was in pursuit of shooting suspects under his radio code name, "Alpha 1." Officers arrested several suspects.
But that same night the city logged its ninth homicide for the year -- more than in all of 2004.
Davis's initiative also builds on the work of Gibson, who late last year created an "East Palo Alto Crime Reduction Task Force" of police, school officials, ministers, nonprofit organizations, the county sheriff's department and parole and probation departments.
But Davis's efforts are more front-line. Steps include expanding the department's "Metro" team of investigators; adding two investigators to the Regional Investigations Bureau; obtaining help from the state Department of Justice to conduct a three-year analysis of violent crime; increasing officer availability for active crimes; and increasing compliance checks of registered sex offenders.
Those, plus expanding drug enforcement investigations and increasing supervision of those on probation or parole, are among the "short-term measures" he cited in a report last week.
Longer term, he has developed a crime-reduction plan, worked with Crime Stoppers to help locate criminals, applied for a Project Safe Neighborhood anti-gun-violence grant, set up a "most-wanted program" for the community, established an anti-graffiti program, met with school principals to address truancy, and even set up a "police chaplain" program to work with local churches.
Overall, Chief Davis's moves are impressive and -- even though long overdue -- should soon begin to make a difference.
Serious questions in Explorer leader sex case
Serious questions in Explorer leader sex case
(August 24, 2005)
The arrest of an Explorer scout leader for alleged statutory and forcible rape involving three underaged girls in an emergency medical training program he founded has shocked Palo Alto parents and young persons alike. If true, the allegations indicate an extended time -- perhaps years -- when the leader abused his position of trust.
Regardless of the ultimate legal outcome, the situation shows the vital importance of having adequate supervision of any program where adults and minors are involved in close associations -- it protects all parties, including the accused, and prevention is far better than any corrective or punitive actions later.
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