Operation Phoenix off and running to expand to other crime area's, which is great, or it would not work if they just worked in one area and not any others. San Bernardino Mayor Morris is the most progressive Mayor that San Bernardino has had in such a long time that they better keep a hand on this guy and see if they can keep him around for a while! He is so forward looking that he saw that they had such a Crime problem that he used what was made available to him, by sugestions of his administration and the people around him and that was where Operation Phoenix Came from. Now it is one that he doesn't want to see dewindle and die, so he is pushing it to work on the Down-Town area and move to the 20-Block Area North of City Hall! That is much Further South then where the Operation Phoenix started, and I would caution him that he might now want to spread Phoenix to thin, but he has a capable administration that is running it and it will take off and do wonders with it. so that is great!!
GREAT JOB San Bernardino and OPERATION PHOENIX!!
BS Ranch
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Volunteers start watch program
SAN BERNARDINO: The mayor says residents must reclaim the 20-block area just north of City Hall.10:00 PM PST on Friday, November 24, 2006
From the day he launched Operation Phoenix in a crime-wracked SanBernardino neighborhood, Mayor Pat Morris stressed the importance ofresidents' help.
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Without that, Morris said, nothing would turn around theneighborhood -- neither police work nor code enforcement, not a newneighborhood center or the help of governmental and private sponsors.
For the 20-block area just north of City Hall to be safe again, theresidents would have to reclaim the neighborhood themselves, Morrissaid.
Now, six months into Operation Phoenix, the first volunteers have stepped forward.
They gathered recently at the project headquarters, some 15 prospective organizers for the area's first Neighborhood Watch.
The group included a man who described himself as a recovering drugaddict, a woman whose son is in prison and a recent purse-snatchingvictim. Some expressed a fear that if they reported wrongdoing, thecriminals might retaliate.
But when Glenn Baude, director of the Phoenix pilot program, askedfor a show of support for speaking out, a half-dozen people slowlyraised their hands. By the end of the evening, people talked eagerlyabout bringing friends to a second meeting next month.
To Shirley Varner, a neighborhood resident who said she already iswaging a lonely struggle against drug dealers and prostitutes, it wasan encouraging moment.
"We really need something like this," she said. "Now, people aregoing to have to get out there and walk the streets. They're going tohave to get the people involved, because if you look at the places thatdo have a strong neighborhood watch, you don't see a lot of thugshanging out."
A chain smoker with a level gaze, Varner said she never hesitates to confront people when she sees them breaking the law.
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But until now, Varner said, only one person helped -- her godson, David Winchester.
During an interview at Varner's and Winchester's Sepulveda Avenuefourplex, a teenager with a cell phone pedaled a bicycle in lazycircles on the street outside, accelerating after every passing car.The boy was dealing drugs, Winchester said.
He said he regularly warns such people away from his door. Butrecently, when he found a plastic bag of bullets, razor blades and whatlooked like cocaine in his apartment complex laundry room, severalneighbors told him they had known about it for months.
They did not seem to grasp that their young children might find thedrugs, too, and that failing to challenge dealers undermineseverybody's safety, Winchester said.
"If we get enough people at these meetings, maybe people will start realizing that this is something we need to do," he said.
For Jerry Martin, co-founder of the Central City Neighborhood Watch,the key to that recognition lies in building a sense of community. Atthe organizational meeting for the Operation Phoenix watch program,Martin started his presentation by asking people to turn to the personnext to them and to say, "Hi, neighbor!"
The new volunteers did, some looking bashful.
Later, Martin told how local hoodlums tried to undermine his programby ripping down meeting notices. But when law-abiding residentspersisted, the criminals retreated, Martin said.
Debbie Cayaso, who recently moved out of the Phoenix neighborhoodbut still works part-time at the program headquarters, said crime isnot always so easy to drive away.
As a little girl, she said, she dealt drugs for her addict father.Nobody told her it was wrong, and now she sees neighborhood childrendoing the same, Cayaso said.
As for reporting crime, "I have my God, and I know that he willwatch over me," she said. "But here on Earth, people get killed. A lotof people are afraid."
Morris, a retired San Bernardino County Superior Court judge, saidhe understands such skepticism. Nevertheless, he said he's encouraged.
"For the first time, these folks have been given the power to decidewhat happens in their neighborhood, and they're starting to respond,"he said.
Reach Chris Richard at 909-806-3076 or crichard@PE.com
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