Afternoon Cockler's
Wanted to review last night's HPTF meeting with the bloggers
1) A discussion about increased criminal activities around the area, especially the death of a known gang member about 1500 feet from our driveway on Wednesday. Talk with the attendees about signs of gang activity, what signals to watch for, and a show & tell of recent tagging of signs, roads and neighborhoods within the past few weeks. It appears that a new/old gang has risen in the area. Known as MS-13 or La Zitas, they are compromised of around 400 known South American radical faction members. Considered Heavily armed, as opposed to normal 9mm or AK-47 crews, these gang members have no fear of firing into residences, citizens' vehicles or shooting into a crowd to hit one opponent. Their activities are increasing in the South as a whole, due to the influx of Latinos and drug activities. These gang members are normally enforcers of drug activity or transporters of larger amounts of drugs. Just thought this should be shared with the readers of their presence in Anderson now, along with renewed violence with Cripe, Bloods and the assorted wannabee groups. I would encourage anyone with actual questions to contact Chad McBride or Jeff Black at the Sheriff's office for sheets with various "tagging, bagging and shaggin"info.
2) Tom Dobbins was one of our guest speakers. Mr. Dobbins gave a brief background of his education, school board affiliations, aspirations for office and a light touch on topics like healthcare and taxes. Mr. Dobbins took questions ranging from District 5 school proposals to Title 388 small business tax burdons.
*** While the HPTF does NOT endorse any candidates we have speaking at our functions, we DO encourage every candidate the opportunity to have a public forum to get their message out.***
3) Dennis Gough was also our guest last night. Mr. Gough has a varied platform which he proposes to implement. Some of his ideas are to introduce a PAL program ( Police Athletic Program) for youth intervention from gangs. His thinking is that it makes sence to intervene before the kids are "lost" to gangs and boredom. Obviously this would entail some costs which were not discussed as how to fund.
Another idea is to create a Sheriff's Posse Program, similar to Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arapaio's model in Arizona. Using unpaid volunteers who are given aproximately 80 hours training, they will suppliment the actual officers who can be freed to perform more pressing duties. the Posse would be charged with taking property reports, collecting evidence from crime scenes ( not a CSI style job but fingerprinting thefts or stolen vehicles), processing paperwork and serving subpoenas. These Posse members have NO authority to enforce felony arrests, but perform basic menial jobs which take away from patrol officers time. They would also be given a marked patrol vehicle and semi-uniformed style, along with the capacity to carry weapons( once passing background checks of course!).
Mr. Gough wants to increase the amount of K-9 patrols from the current 2 to at least 6 to 10 within the first year. Greenville County has 12 units, Spartanburg has 16. Dog patrols are a known asset, and a low investment to any department. Payback of K-9 units is immense and a valued tool for tracking criminals and sniffing drugs from suspects or vehicles. Mr. Gough wants also to return the aerial helecopter patrols to the skies.
Another idea he wants to enact is introduction of the FOP ( Fraternal Order of Police union) to the Sheriff's department. Statistics quoted was in the last 4 years, between 80 to 100 officers have left the department, costing Anderson more than $1.2 million more than retaining officers and ensuring continued employment during transitional periods of new Sheriffs. This adds to an officers ability to perform their jobs without threat of being fired after a few years on the job, along with other union benefits.
4) Of course, we discussed our Clean up for tomorrow morning. Because of LACK of donations of food or beverages, it will be light on the catered part. We could not get anyone to donate this time, maybe a sign of the times?
