Crime, Cops, and CoolDMZ, part 3

Read part 1 and part 2…

Our own sac-eats tipped me to the Bee’s coverage of the home invasion robbery in Arden Park that a commenter brought my attention to the other day. (Ain’t the internet great?) Though the victim in this instance escaped with only a head injury (from a gunshot wound!) the Bee piece is notable for some of the details that back up what I’ve been saying.

Sacramento Police Sgt. Terrell Marshall said officers saw a spike in home-invasion robberies in May but said most of them stemmed from drug thefts, disputes over property or fights within families.

“I don’t want people in the community to have fear that they’ll be the next victim, because statistically speaking, that’s not true,” Marshall said.

“Statistically speaking it’s possible” and “statistically speaking it’s not possible” are both truthtful statements, wouldn’t you agree? Also, don’t we have a little more on our side than statistics? You know, those guys who go around in blue suits and drive black and white cars? Aren’t they involved in keeping us from being victimized? I wonder why this sentiment is being voiced by the cops at this point in time. Could it be because they realize they have an increasingly brazen and violent criminal population on their hands and they need to do some damage control by downplaying the risk? It sure seems to me like the cops are exhibiting a little more CYA than usual these days.
Continue reading “Crime, Cops, and CoolDMZ, part 3”

Bistro 33 (Lofty Aspirations)

Great things are supposed to come from the corner of 16th and J. Just like Zeus was born of Hera’s thigh (or is it the other way around) all things hip, stylish and lofty are born from the revamped corner project. Bistro 33 was to be no exception to the rule as expectations ran high. Most Sacramentans are familiar with if not very fond of the 33rd St Bistro on Folsom and 33rd, and this new child of that restaurant enterprise was to equal and maybe even outshine its parent. (Similar to Prometheus outshining the other gods by inventing fire or something like that.)
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Public Transit Tip

To the guy ranting and raving on outbound bus 34 at 6:45 last night, just an FYI: to use public transit you have to go to a designated transit stop and wait for it to come to you more or less on schedule. That’s how it works. Apparantly this dude felt differently, because he chased the bus to a stop only after attempting to flag it down at a random point. When he finally got on he proceeded to scream at the driver for about 5 stops about how he couldn’t believe she didn’t stop the bus mid-road at his beck and call. It’s not a cab, dude. It’s the bus. He then progressed to screaming generally, “I CAN’T BE IN THE SUN! I CAN’T BE IN THE SUN!” Understood. The heat is making me crazy too. May I suggest a hat or some SPF. Or perhaps private transport. Lastly, he resorted to screaming over and over, “You are a jerk!” Kudos for refraining from outright vulgarity. Nevertheless, sir, have you considered that perhaps it is you who is the jerk? P.S. to the couple making out in the seat next to me, RIGHT AWN! That was better than free cable.

More on Nájera

An anonymous tipper reminded me that I left off the end of his, err I mean Graswich’s bit about Nájera the other day. This was an oversight on my part, because to my mind it is likewise worthy of snark:

Albert wants to study why young people join gangs and turn violent. “Why is the key,” he said. …

Ooh yes, let’s cozy up to the fireplace with some port and dive into the academics of the situation. “Please ignore the fact that I just told you the murder rate is up, I have some major studying to do.” Sac-eats, there’s your “sensitive” PoPo man. While I do appreciate the need to turn around gang recruitment numbers, I’d like to ask why this is such an important factor to study, if the public is not meant to worry about gang murder?
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Affect this, Wikipedia

At the risk of distracting attention from my earlier post, of which I’m quite proud, I’d like to draw attention to the OntoWorld‘s entry on Sacramento. What’s OntoWorld? Only an experiment in Web 3.0, the “semantic web” where all information in the world is ordered in a logical relational manner. Or something. Anyway, about Sacramento some yahoo has written

The Central Valley’s would-be hipsters and hard cases, meanwhile, have affected the moniker Sactown in imitation of the nearby hip-hop hub of Oaktown.

While I love the phrase “hard case” I think that description is a bit unfair. Affected? “Would-be”? It is hardly an affectation. Do the real hipsters call it something else?

“Perspective” on the crime wave

I don’t know how R.E. Graswich gets the quotes he uses for his bits, specifically the ones from local newsmakers and politicians. But I’d like to thank him today for giving Police Chief Albert Nájera a chance to show his true colors.

“Without context, crime statistics mean nothing,” the chief said. “It’s too easy to come out and scare people by saying, ‘The murder rate is up.’ In Sacramento, the vast majority of murders are committed by drug dealers and gang members and felons. Take away those categories and domestic violence, and you are left with maybe four people a year killed by random violence in Sacramento. That’s four too many, but it gives perspective.”

So by “context” you mean “ignorance”? That is really helpful. Especially to the families of the victims of domestic violence (you have to be kidding me! did he really say that Bob?) and any innocent victims of drug dealers and gang members and felons (seriously Bob, you’re putting us on, right?). Murders committed by gang members don’t count? What if they take place in broad daylight in front of a crowded shopping mall? That seems like the kind of thing you think, but don’t say outside the police locker room. I’m going to go ahead and speak for all citizens everywhere: We are concerned about murders commited by gang members, drug dealers, and felons. Go ahead and include those when you run the numbers.
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Tall tales at the Big O

By now you’ve heard of the Police pursuit that ended in a scary crash at 59th and Folsom, right in front of Corti Brothers, on Saturday. Well, we hadn’t yet when we found ouselves at Big O (just across the street) just after lunchtime, just a few hours after the incident had taken place. (Link below, but wait for it, trust me.) The manager reported to me that the suspect had tried to run, and had been taken down and taken from the scene in an ambulance. Later, I overheard the same manager saying that it had taken several officers to subdue and handcuff the suspect, that he had been “a pretty big dude.” Police tape cordoned off the entire intersection of 59th and Folsom–clearly, some bigtime shit had gone down.

Not being satisfied with one source, I chatted up one of the shop guys while he rolled my repaired tire out to my car. According to this young man, the suspect had flashed a gun, and when cornered, had fired into his own car, killing his passengers, before being gunned down by officers and “taken away in a body bag.” How did he know this? His boss had gone down there, don’t you know, and asked around.
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Would you pay more for a cooler car?

Wouldn’t you think by now there’d be a car that keeps itself relatively cool when parked in the sun? Turns out there used to be:

Fifteen years ago, Mazda introduced a solar-powered ventilation system that would continuously flush hot air out of a vehicle parked in the sun. A solar cell array was mounted on the moon roof, supplying power to a small fan that drew in outside air.

The system worked only when the car was parked in the sun, exactly when it was needed. It was not hooked up to the car’s battery and therefore could not drain it. A Mazda spokesman confirmed that the system was offered as an option and that it was dropped.

Seems like an option that would be extremely popular in Sacramento. Here’s a piece on the history of such systems, how they work and why they’re not available. (Bugmenot will get you in to the Web site without signing up.)

In the meantime … oh, for a parking spot in the shade!

Handy Vector Control

As previously mentioned we just moved into a new house. It came with a coi pond full of water. But no coi. So in other words, it’s basically a West Nile Virus breeding ground in my back yard. The mosquito society going on back there was kind of interesting at first but it got old fast. We plan to get rid of the pond but until then we’ve been debating what to do since we don’t want to poison the ground, birds or our dog drinking from it but we also don’t care to raise insects. Then the coolest thing happened. This morning a worker from the County Vector Control stopped by because they had a report of our house being vacant with a coi pond in the back. He let us in on the County’s policy of providing, free of charge, teeny mosquito-eating fish for just such a situation. He then offered to come back regularly and service the pond by taking care of the fish, which he said would eliminate the bugs. Pretty handy service that I never would have thought to call on. So way to go, Vector Control. Thanks for the fish. PS: if anyone wants free fish about two weeks from now we’re still getting rid of that pond. Maybe we will take them to the pound and pit animal control against vector control.

Not sure what to make of this, but …

… according to this piece in the Los Angeles Times (Bugmenot will get you in without registration), the Sacramento Bee has the most diverse sports staff of any big newspaper in the country.

The level of The Bee’s diversity wasn’t noted in the LAT piece, but the national stats showed that “94.7% of sports editors, 89.9% of columnists and 87.4% of reporters are white. The study also showed that 95% of the editors, 93% of the columnists and 90% of the reporters are male.” From the LAT:

The report, the first of its kind, was released Thursday at the Associated Press Sports Editors’ convention in Las Vegas. It was requested last year by the APSE board. [Richard] Lapchick, who compiles similar reports on professional sports leagues and the NCAA, said this was his first such report requested by the organization studied.

“We hope they’ll be looking at this as a tool by which to expand who will be hired in the future, to better represent the workforce and the athletes they are covering,” Lapchick said, noting that women make up 40% of the country’s workforce, that minorities constitute more than 37%, that black athletes dominate the NFL and NBA, and that Latinos have a strong presence in baseball and soccer.