Saturday, May 31, 2008

MPD UPDATE

I am sure that you all received the Monrovia Police Department Watch Cap Newsletter last week. In case you did not I thought I would re-cap some of the highlights as part of our neighborhood watch ongoing updates.

The Chief of Police Roger Johnson urges Monrovia residents to act in the concept of community policing. He stresses that the police cannot eliminate the gang influences alone and the community as a whole needs to step up. Johnson states “It will require the collaborative work of government, law enforcement, business, schools, faith based organizations, and community members to be successful in eliminating gangs in our neighborhoods”.

The newsletter goes on to talk about graffiti. There are different types of graffiti, the taggers who believe they are creating art and the gang members who use graffiti to mark their territory or neighborhood in a city. The city of Monrovia removes or paints over all graffiti once it is discovered. If it is gang related it is photographed and passed to the Special Enforcement Team who helps identify the gangs and members. In addition the information is shared with local police agencies to raise awareness.

For those of you who did not write it all down at our neighborhood watch meeting the newsletter outlined the three common gangs we deal with in Monrovia:
· Monrovia Nuevo Vario- Hispanic Gang
· Duarte Eastside- Hispanic Gang
· Duroc Crips- Black Gang

All gangs spell trouble; please contact the police if you see any graffiti or tagging marked in our neighborhood with:
· The gang names, initials or symbol
· Nicknames of members
· Threats to rival gangs

The police suggest forming a neighborhood watch (already done!) to keep this type of activity out of our city. They remind us that criminals love darkness, (which our street is really dark at night), and whenever possible keep areas lighted to discourage criminal activity.
I hope this update is helpful if you did not get the newsletter.
Keep it safe,
Renee (and frank who pasted this in from her email)

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

How did we sleep through this one folks?

This was in this weeks City Manager Report. I had gotten a tip regarding the officer injury and posted it on the FCBlog. My tipster didn't tell me however that it took place right under our noses and slept through it all.

"Possession of a Dangerous Weapon. On May 22 at 1:41 a.m., Officers contacted a male subject who was riding a motorized scooter on the wrong side of the street in the 200 block of Poinsettia. The subject advised the officers that he had a knife in his possession. The officers removed the knife and saw that it was a home made dagger, which possession of is a violation of 12020(a)PC.

The suspect was arrested and transported to the Monrovia Police Department jail for booking. He refused to allow the officers to remove his shoes and jewelry during the booking process. He then became combative when the officers attempted to remove the items from the suspect. During the altercation, one officer sustained a fractured right hand. The suspect was treated by the paramedics for minor scratches and complaint of pain to his neck and checked out at the hospital."

I had heard one of our neighbors was involved from a source in the District Court downtown. Shane did some digging and found some information regarding the incident at LASD.Org under the inmate locator tab. In fact one of our neighbors with a long criminal history has been arrested in the incident released from jail late 5/27/08. (Name being withheld pending final disposition of his case).

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Enjoy the Holiday!


A little something dedicated to Monrovians who have given their life in for our country. Courtesy of Cyrus Kemp at Monrovia City Watch.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

strange stuff...when you see it call MPD

I got this email and am sharing with all of you. When you see stuff like this call MPD asap. They will respond and certainly those who don't belong here snooping will stop when they know MPD will show up and at least conduct a field interview.

Thanks for sharing the email(s) so everyone can be aware of what is being observed. The message:
"Hello Frank & Renee,
I wanted to send you a piece of an e-mail that Debby & Brian Baird sent me. Thought you might want to hear about this info & maybe we can pass this on to the neighborhood watch group. I only have a few e-mails so I was hopeing you could send the descriptions of what they have seen. I highlighted their letter in red. Thanks, Stace

I have also been meaning to touch base regarding the neighborhood watch. A couple of weeks ago, I was home and could have sworn that the Fed Ex guy jiggled the door handle as he delivered a package. He was a young blond guy. Well I dismissed it and figured it was my imagination, but Michele said that you had a similar experience. Was it the same guy? Also, We have had some guys looking in vehicles lately--according to Michele and Dave--we haven't seen it but they have. Do you know if anyone else has seen anything suspicious. One occaision Dave saw a guy in a grey van get out and look in Bree's car (yesterday) and then Thursday, Michele saw a long haired guy looking in Tyler's truck, an orange tree trimmer truck was parked near him.

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Lot of Rumble and Roar...Classic Car Cruise returns


After being absent for a few years, Classic Car Cruise has returned to Monrovia.

For those of you who remember when Fat Burger was around on Foothill they had the guys hosting a Friday Night Cruise that was a lot of fun. More than a few from the neighborhood showed up with our classics. When Fat Burger left it moved to Fudd Ruckers, then over to Robin's then finally it sort of went.

It's back. Mark your calender for the First and Third Saturday of each month. It is being held at the Monrovia Rail Station Park and Ride lot from 4M to 8PM.


The car pictured is our own Dave Chick's AMX that has been beautifully restored. In fact he managed to get the guys from the AMX club to show up and there were 4 AMX total there this weekend. Back in the day this was a small number production car and I doubt you would have ever had that many on a dealers lot at one time. Quite the car and a remarkable piece of automotive history parked up here on Poinsettia.