Friday, October 19, 2007
Updates on deer, and then a real problem, crime
Wow. The deer saga keeps growing. The discussion about hunting by Councilmen Ron Cronk and John Arbeeny is turning into quite the deal. You can read some of the opinions in today's News Tribune.
KOMO TV also had a story (you might try clicking on their link to see the report; I could not get it to work on a Mac, but it did play on a PC). KOMO reported as fact that the entire council was "considering" a hunt "this week," which is a very unfortunate impression round town. Given all the confusion, I can understand why people are concerned about a lack of public participation in such discussions. You can read some earlier correspondence below, and meanwhile even just this Friday morning the council has received two emails of concern from citizens.
Please, please, help us get the word out. Tell everyone you know that no hunts are imminent. No hunts have been authorized. No study of the deer situation has even been scheduled.
Relating to more serious matters, police are planning a major mobilization around Oh!Gallaghers, the bar that has seen a couple of gang-related shootings recently. From our Police Chief, Larry Saunders:
"After a second shooting at Oh’ Gallagher’s tavern at 74th and Lakewood Drive, LPD has launched a major gang suppression operation. We will continue this for the next several weeks. The regional gang task force will join us for several of the suppression operations. Despite some sentiment that the tavern has had problems historically, it was actually 16th down on our police call for service tracking system for this year (recall we only have serious problems with two or three bars). ... Nonetheless, the significance of these two incidents justifies a decisive response."
"We met with the tavern management this week, and they have agreed to a written safety plan, mandating all the best practices in our Raising the Bar program. Additionally, for the next several weekends, while we get potential gang retribution threats under control, they will use off duty police officers in the parking lot. We have also encouraged them to attend the community incident debrief we have scheduled for next Monday ... We have invited the property owner of the strip mall, other business owners in the strip mall, as well as nearby residents to the debrief. Our goal will be to underscore the measures we are taking to assure their safety, communicate the actual past history of police interaction with the bar and the control measures the bar has voluntarily agreed to, and mediate neighborhood concerns with past bar practices, such as partying in the parking lot, litter, etc. "
I'll be interested in the reaction of other members of the Lakewood City Council to this. Not all members have approved all of our aggressive anti-crime programs, out of concern for civil liberties. Individual members of Lakewood CARES have traditionally opposed the city's Raising the Bar program, in which police work with bar owners to limit crime, and been critical of the employment of off-duty police officers in bars. It will be interesting to see if they oppose the crime measures in this case, given the gang shootings.
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KOMO TV also had a story (you might try clicking on their link to see the report; I could not get it to work on a Mac, but it did play on a PC). KOMO reported as fact that the entire council was "considering" a hunt "this week," which is a very unfortunate impression round town. Given all the confusion, I can understand why people are concerned about a lack of public participation in such discussions. You can read some earlier correspondence below, and meanwhile even just this Friday morning the council has received two emails of concern from citizens.
Please, please, help us get the word out. Tell everyone you know that no hunts are imminent. No hunts have been authorized. No study of the deer situation has even been scheduled.
Relating to more serious matters, police are planning a major mobilization around Oh!Gallaghers, the bar that has seen a couple of gang-related shootings recently. From our Police Chief, Larry Saunders:
"After a second shooting at Oh’ Gallagher’s tavern at 74th and Lakewood Drive, LPD has launched a major gang suppression operation. We will continue this for the next several weeks. The regional gang task force will join us for several of the suppression operations. Despite some sentiment that the tavern has had problems historically, it was actually 16th down on our police call for service tracking system for this year (recall we only have serious problems with two or three bars). ... Nonetheless, the significance of these two incidents justifies a decisive response."
"We met with the tavern management this week, and they have agreed to a written safety plan, mandating all the best practices in our Raising the Bar program. Additionally, for the next several weekends, while we get potential gang retribution threats under control, they will use off duty police officers in the parking lot. We have also encouraged them to attend the community incident debrief we have scheduled for next Monday ... We have invited the property owner of the strip mall, other business owners in the strip mall, as well as nearby residents to the debrief. Our goal will be to underscore the measures we are taking to assure their safety, communicate the actual past history of police interaction with the bar and the control measures the bar has voluntarily agreed to, and mediate neighborhood concerns with past bar practices, such as partying in the parking lot, litter, etc. "
I'll be interested in the reaction of other members of the Lakewood City Council to this. Not all members have approved all of our aggressive anti-crime programs, out of concern for civil liberties. Individual members of Lakewood CARES have traditionally opposed the city's Raising the Bar program, in which police work with bar owners to limit crime, and been critical of the employment of off-duty police officers in bars. It will be interesting to see if they oppose the crime measures in this case, given the gang shootings.
