Target is about 1/2 mike away. So very likely those “gang colors” walk through my neighborhood daily.
Then, don’t you have a responsibility to warn your neighbors? And if you get a couple of Mrs. Kravitzes up in arms, you can have a chuckle (and report back to us…).
Oh, be sure to mention the bloody turf war that is inevitable* between the “red t-shirts and chinos with nametags” gang and the rival gang (polo shirts, chinos, and badges on lanyards).
*Only inevitable (with little Muffy and Moofie caught in the crossfire) if neighbors do nothing. We need to shoot close-up video; and photos with actual SLR cameras, not just phones, so the FBI can run facial recognition.
I’m not seeing any of the paranoid “help, a stranger is walking down my street” type of posts in my neighborhood feed.
There is occasional Ring footage of package theft, though.
Then there was a strange video of a theft of pillows off someone’s patio porch bench. The footage showed an elderly woman with bare feet walk deliberately up onto the porch, grab the pillows, and scurry away. It turned out she was a neighbor’s not-quite-with-it mom with kleptomaniac tendencies.
I’m finding Nextdoor pretty informative. We’re seeing a series of Ring/Security-cam pics of the same group of “youths” breaking into cars and occasionally houses. At least one of the group is armed with a semi-auto, and their MO is to break into cars for garage door openers, then enter houses (unoccupied thus far).
I consider this useful information that I certainly wouldn’t get otherwise. The police are producing the standard litany of excuses for not doing anything, and the local news is too busy reporting the new Starbuck’s menu, so I’m glad Nextdoor is making us aware of it. We can track the progression of the miscreants through the neighborhood and almost predict the street of their next target(s). Until the inevitable* occurs, we can take precautions by bringing all vehicles behind the gate, and removing openers each night.
*This is Texas. Eventually an armed homeowner will put one of the little subhumans down, the news will get involved if only to show us Momma wailing that “he was really a good boy”. :rolleyes: That will get the law interested and maybe stop the break-ins.
Our neighborhood is “urban”, translate that as a mix of racial and economic backgrounds located near the downtown area. Like many similar cities, it is undergoing gentrification with all the pros/cons involved in that process. As a neighborhood we have several Facebook groups for communicating. Nextdoor popped up a couple years ago but never really caught on. The area defined in Nextdoor that includes our neighborhood is just too large of an area to be of value. Additionally, going way back to the old Yahoo! Groups which is where our neighborhood online groups started and now with Facebook groups the highest concentration of members is on the Facebook platform. Nextdoor was just too late to the party here to gain much traction. There are some neighbors on Nextdoor but most also interact with the existing Facebook groups that are more limited in membership to our neighborhood and far more active.
That said, we all know that on social media people tend to lose their common sense. It has always surprised me that in a neighborhood group people will treat neighbors in ways they’d never dare do if having the same conversation face to face.
Somehow I think that would be the last place they’d be–even if there were a park there.
Mine too, along with a few coyote/other wildlife sightings and school-related events sprinkled in.
All the drama happens on the town’s Facebook page, LOL.
Somebody should start a site like this but for vehicles. You could report the asshattery that you see from various vehicles on the road.
Someone in my neighborhood tried this on Nextdoor, about a particular street in the neighborhood and about poor driving from 3 different cars. Including license plate numbers.
Also including dashcam footage which showed a little of the bad driving, but also showed him apparently speeding in a 25 mph zone and failing to stop at a stop sign.
Several of the comments pointed this out to him.
I’d still love to look up the plate number of a car I see doing something stupid and see the other complaints with dates and times.
But yeah it could easily backfire because most people probably think they are Very Good Drivers.
Or a person could be falsely accused by a vindictive neighbor in a forum like that.
Following up, I notice today that he has deleted his post, which also deletes all the comments. Maybe he realized that it’s not a good idea to broadcast your own bad driving on social media.
My neighborhood mostly has people with NosyCams shrieking about how their lives are in danger because somebody walked by on the sidewalk.
Then there is the occasional idiot who thinks that a private security person would be preferable to our (seriously, excellent) local police force. Those get shot down pretty handily, and nearly unanimously as well.
There is also the raging argument between those who hate everyone who isn’t young and unencumbered enough to return their grocery carts to the line-up vs those of us who remember actual customer service and expect the store to hire some staff. Seriously, when did it become a moral imperative for me to do their jobs for them?
OMG we’ve got a straight up lunatic on ours now. This is in answer to a post where a woman came home from work to find an “X” in painter’s tape on her kitchen door window. The most likely explanation is that someone was going to break in, and used the tape to lessen the noise. Her two dogs probably came up to the kitchen and the miscreant bolted. It’s hardly an apocalyptic scenario. :dubious:
I will spoiler box a couple of the screeds just so you can see them. But here’s an amuse-bouche:
:eek: :smack: :eek: :smack: :eek: :smack: :eek: :smack: :eek: :smack: :eek: :smack: :eek: :smack: :eek: :smack:
[Spoiler]Something has to be done, and now, not tomorrow. People who live here must become sensitized and become spotters and reporters, and the police must become more involved and communicative and responsive. Dynamic operations such as undercover surveillance on foot during times and days where analysis shows potential for contact. Crime in this area, and I will say this again, is growing. The police must become more interactive and pro-active. The Neighborhood Watch program grew fast and was very adept and productive, but disbanded, completely astonishing. Well, this is what you want, this is what you get.
Residents must become involved and communicate with neighbors and the police. People need to watch out for one another. I am not placing this on the police alone; they are stretched far too thin, challenged yet very good at clearing cases with arrests and convictions. But they need to be more aggressive, and the elected officials must let them.
There’s collectively an abundant body of reporting on open media alone, not government record, crime in this area is rising. Much of it is violent. Additionally and a tip and cue key for all of us to take notice is-this entire area is being surveilled and then considered for exploitation by a crime against a person or their property. I suggest it is not a group, could be, but I sense independent activities.
While calling the police is the first step when observing suspicious activity, one must be sensitized to what to recognize as such, and how to report; what information or communicate by telephone or text. Who has a context of understanding of this? What do you report and how? Some PD call takes do not know the location of your address, and you must be ready to provide good information.
Ground criminal action by gangs swirls around us.
Related and unrelated violent crimes weekly now. Numerous anomalies in people on foot, in vehicles, painter’s tape on a window, strange cars cruising. Drunks walking into garages. Door knockers asking, supposed solicitors knocking. My first fear is home invasions.
Homeowners opening their door to these people. Some inviting them in, one I caught just by observation, and I went directly to the house on foot as soo as that person went in and closed the door. By the time I walked up the hurriedly left. I did not confront where one was not required.
Neighbors need to watch out for neighbors. Police officers need to start coming out. Neighborhood Watch needs to be embraced and empowered. Focused, very serious, appropriate and pro-active movement forward.[/spoiler]
[Spoiler]I am seeing in open media an surge in violent crime in the region, meaning Franconia, Mount Vernon and probably West Springfield.
The PD has recently made a media release regarding a decrease in crime, if I remember correctly. Per capita criminal acts are a gleaning from stat analysis, which while a guide, does not justify languishing or staying reactive. A lack of engagement, proactive posture, the quite presence of the frequency of marked police patrols, all provide a psychological if not material deterrence. Preventive steps such as alarms, cameras, reduce foliage, adequate lighting, which is a sore subject all provide a deterrence.
Concerning my desire to spearhead an effort, simply no because of my career demands.
However: I suggest the desire to become complex can be made and remain quite simple. We already, in XXX View have a prior template for a very successful Neighborhood Watch which was interactive with the XXX District Officers including communication when they were actively working, for free. I worked with them on one or two nights and found them to be quite competent and mature.
The HOA is fully aware of the template and successes, but the prior management company legal counsel suggested disbanding it or prohibiting the carrying of legally concealed firearms, by qualified owners for personal protection.
Intent here is to be fluid, competent, proactive force multiplier for the police, not an obstruction. In the process neighbors come together and start knowing one another personally. Once everyone knows what qualifies as anomalous or suspicious, and we report the observations, the PD can collect that information for the very same analysis I spoke of which can generate leads. Police contact of suspicious persons results in a contact report, which can be a goldmine in future investigative actions.
Case in point: Reporting the painter’s tape. An anomaly a tenacious detective would want to know.[/spoiler]
In urban Southern California, we just expect our law enforcement agencies to take reports of armed housebreakers running around seriously. Especially if Here is video evidence. Vigilantism unnecessary.
(Not that some of my neighbors on NextDoor don’t share fantasies of Texas-style justice for the “young Hispanic males” they’re always spotting zooming around - suspiciously! - on skateboards.)
Just had a great one. “Urgent alert: Dog won’t come.” It was his own dog, and it was in his back yard. But it wouldn’t go inside. Eventually it occurred to him to go get a treat. We know this because he updated.
You know, based on videos I’ve seen of folks in Asia carrying huge loads on motor bikes, it might be possible to make off with a flat screen TV in a skateboard.
That’s because you’re nice, dammit! 
I live in an apartment building in Astoria New York. I’d be terrified to join in a Facebook page or Internet site like this in such a densely populated area.
There’s an awful lot of racism, misogynistic rage and other things that go on in our rapidly-evolving neighborhood.
Feh.
I did see something on the site this weekend about a local guy looking to do computer support - as it happens, we were looking for such help. Turns out, his wife put up the notice, likely without his knowledge. I responded and said we were interested, and I gave her our phone number. Then she messaged back that he wasn’t interested in doing such work after all.
No biggie… till later when he called and talked to my husband about what he needed. They arranged to meet at 8 the next day. Time came and went with no meeting and no call or message. Spousal unit decided to contact a local computer business and they sent a guy to the house who took care of everything we needed in about an hour. So much for Nextdoor…
But you’re right, '**toons **- I am nice, dammit!
I dunno about moral imperative but when they learned that as long as you sell it cheaper than anyone else, customers will climb through barbed wire to get it, so why bother with amenities that require a higher price to make the same profit?