Gerard Ungerman

Here’s your reminder to turn out for the 31st Annual Pancakes for Peace this (Easter) Sunday. 

All-You-Can-Eat pancakes made with freshly ground, organic whole wheat flour, and served with pure  maple syrup, fruit salad, tea and organic juices and coffee.

WHERE: CARD Center – 545 Vallombrosa Avenue, Chico, CA

WHEN:  Sunday April 8, 2012 from 8 am to 1 pm;

Tickets:  at the Door, $12 adults, $6 children under 12.
Plus:

• Easter Bonnet Parade and Easter Egg Hunt for the Kids* (11 am)
• Music by Soul Union (11:30)
• Silent Auction including mountain getaway, gift certificates, body work and massage, and much, much more.

Raffle Tickets for Tahoe Getaway  and Peace Quilt (drawings later in the year) 

Crime Prevention Officer Tim Truby, a Chico resident since 1986, gave a speech about “Neighborhood Watch” at the Chico Grange on Nord Avenue on Monday April 2, 2012.  In front of an audience of about thirty, he began with humor and conviction a presentation that initially seemed like routine.  His conclusion however turned out very surprising and quite unsettling.  A much deeper conversation than expected ensued.

Officer Truby is a congenial gentleman who believes wholeheartedly in his missions:  surveillance, public education and crime prevention.   His concern seems totally genuine where it comes to protecting citizens from burglars or from the types of crimes drug houses bring to a neighborhood.  Tongue-in-check, he shared a few epic stories about how he sometimes installs surveillance cameras on roof tops or light poles in conditions less than safe and certainly in ways conducive of raising the suspicion of the very citizens he is assisting.  For ten years now, Officer Truby has been in charge of teaching people who are interested how to form their own “Neighborhood Watch” association.  He mentions how blocks should organize around “captains”, “co-captains” even sometimes, how neighbors should keep lists of telephone numbers (phone trees), how they should keep an eye on unusual traffic, know their neighbors’ cars and basic coming-and-going patterns and how they should go for walks around the block at night… It is all about diminishing one aspect at least of what he describes as the “crime triangle”: Desire – Ability – Opportunity.  His focus is “opportunity reduction”.  His method is to explain citizens how to become less of a target for crime and how to differentiate between situations that they should handle on their own and situations where they should definitely call the police.

Officer Truby however has a broader vision for what Neighborhood Watch programs should be all about.  Crime prevention is a critical aspect evidently but he also stresses the importance of creating what he calls “neighborhood connection”, neighborhood support groups and disaster readiness teams.   For him, the growing pattern of neighbors not even knowing each other is a disaster in itself.   What if an older person collapses in his or her home and cannot get up for a day or two ?  Who will come to their rescue if nobody knows anybody and if the unusual goes unnoticed ?  It is not just about spotting fake movers emptying a neighbor’s house during the holiday;  it is also about being able to step in when a bad water leak happens, or if a storm smashes someone’s window, or if a fire breaks out.   Connecting with neighbors, making friends whether specifically to watch for suspicious activities or simply to help each other and watch over each other’s back has been proven to reduce crime occurrences by at least 50 %.

His broader interest in neighborhood connection has led Officer Truby to link up with such civic behavior study initiatives as those of professors Mark Stemen and Michael Brian from Chico State (“Handlebar Project” for instance).  Concurrently, they began researching what kinds of neighborhoods seem more prone to organizing Neighborhood Watch programs ?  What forms will these programs take over time, depending on the type of neighborhoods ?  Are certain types of social demographics more likely to follow through, perhaps even develop into more diversified civic engagement ?  Finding answers to these questions is essential to understand needs and motivations where it comes to connecting neighbors.  It is also essential towards being able to better assist those among us who are trying to start their own networks.  This need transcends the mere need for protection against crime.  More fundamentally, it has to do also with the need to re-establish good old fashion communal relationships without which it is simply impossible to even speak of “communities”, let alone “healthy and vibrant communities”.  Without such communities, how could people feel an authentic sense of belonging, of common interests and of mutual support in the face of any possible challenges ?   How we approach life in society is becoming more critical than ever, at a time when our society slides into reduced economic opportunities and a climate of fear and despair that is conducive of crime, failures and nothing that lone individuals could readily cope with on their own.

 And this is when Officer Truby drops his bomb-of-sort.  “Starting this coming Monday – he says, and that is Monday April 9, 2012 – my job as a Crime Prevention Officer will be over.  There will not be any more Crime Prevention program in the City of Chico !”   As most in the audience were starting to get more and more interested in his presentation and sensible approach to neighborhood networking, there is a palpable sense of shock and dismay.  – “What do you mean no more crime prevention program ?”  Tim Truby means exactly that.  No more city or police action towards preventing crime from happening.  Of course police action will continue towards enforcing laws against violators, but with a meager staff of just under a dozen police officers on the job at night for instance, what can we possibly expect in the absence of properly trained neighborhood watch groups ?   More burglaries perhaps and perhaps also more desperate, sometimes fanatical vigilante action that may result in some abominations like the reckless killing of a black teenager in Florida by some overzealous, possibly trigger happy “armed-citizen-on-a-mission”.   Officer Truby is clear on that.  It is not illegal to be armed at home for protection but engaging suspected criminals when someone’s life is not directly threatened should remain the task of the police.  But if citizens feel abandoned by their police, there is a strong risk that uncontrolled situations could multiply, further eroding our already weak social fabric.

The disengagement of local police departments from their communities for lack of budget originates from the same root cause as that of companies off-shoring their activities in search for increased profits.  “Money first !”  People come before money.  If money comes before people, then society erodes until it collapses in abysmal chaos, leading to the replacement of legitimate authority by thugs and gangsters of all kinds (see Mexico as a good example).   We absolutely need to connect with our neighbors and network on a friendly basis before our society totally disintegrates in a feast of “save the money first” when the ship begins to sink.   Officer Tim Truby is also the President of the California Crime Prevention Officers’ Association.   His concerns are the concerns of many other community-minded police officers, not just in California but in many other parts of the nation where budget cuts have even led to the closing of entire precincts.  As he was finishing what might well be his last public presentation on “Neighborhood Watch” programs, Officer Truby encouraged every person in the audience to call Chico City Manager Dave Burkland, Chico City Assistant Manager John Rucker, Chico Mayor Ann Schwab and Chico PD Interim Chief Capt. Kirk Trostle to voice concern about the disintegration of crime prevention programs.  Beyond specific concerns over such disappearance, this entire turn of event speaks volume about the absolute need for citizens to link up, get organized and prepare for a new era where communal cooperation towards resilience and self reliance will be more needed than ever before.

 - Gerard Ungerman

You could be a part of a huge wave of progressive direct action this spring. Learn how to practice nonviolence in the spirit of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. at a:

99% Spring action training in Chico
on Saturday, Apr. 14, 2012, at 12:00 PM.

Click here to join in and attend a Training: http://moveon.org/event/events/index.html?search_zip=95973&search_distance=30&action_id=268&submit=1&fallback=full&id=38399-22677587-8exzubx

Dear MoveOn member,

America has a long history of everyday people standing up for justice by taking courageous direct action—from the great Flint sit-down strike, to the bus boycotts and lunch counter sit-ins of the civil rights movement, to last year’s protests in Wisconsin and at Occupy Wall Street.

But these courageous social justice leaders didn’t just know what to do—they were trained in how to take direct action. This spring, MoveOn members and our allies are organizing these trainings at a scale never seen before. You should join in!

We’re coming together from every corner of our movement to provide in-depth direct action training to 100,000 people from April 9 to 15. The goal is to pave the way for a 99% Spring filled with a huge wave of progressive direct action nationwide.

Some of the best trainers in the country have been working for weeks to put together a powerful interactive training experience and the folks who’ve already participated say it’s electrifying.
You’ll pick up crucial action skills that are hard to come by, work with your neighbors to dream up alternatives to an economy that’s leaving most of us behind, and work together to organize powerful actions to directly take on the 1%.

There’s a training in Chico on Saturday, Apr. 14, 2012, at 12:00 PM, can you join in?

Our movement will be holding huge rallies in every major city on Tax Day to call out the 1% who refuse to pay their fair share. We’ll be gathering massive crowds to confront CEOs and top executives at annual shareholder meetings of Wall Street banks, dirty energy polluters, and corporations that refuse to treat workers fairly. And we’ll be doing everything we can to call out the corrupting influence of corporate money on our elections.

At the training in Chico, you’ll get prepared to take part in these bold actions and to build connections with other progressives who want to see a 99% Spring in America.
We’ll practice telling the story of what happened to our economy and what a different future could look like, we’ll learn the history of nonviolent direct action, and we’ll train and plan to take direct action ourselves—in the footsteps of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.—to win change.

By the end of the training we’ll be ready to join the legacy of people using direct action to transform the political landscape in this country.

Will you join the 99% Spring action training in Chico on Saturday, Apr. 14, 2012, at 12:00 PM?Yes, I’ll be there! http://moveon.org/event/events/index.html?search_zip=95973&search_distance=30&action_id=268&submit=1&fallback=full&id=38399-22677587-8exzubx

Thanks for all you do.

–Lenore, Joan, Robin, Carrie, and the rest of the team

Want to support our work? MoveOn Civic Action is entirely funded by our 5 million members—no corporate contributions, no big checks from CEOs. And our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. Chip in here:

https://civic.moveon.org/donatec4/creditcard.html?cpn_id=457&id=38399-22677587-8exzubx

Launch your own MoveOn-style campaign – and sign up other members to get involved. Start a petition on SignOn.org – http://signon.org/create_start.html?source=mo.footer&id=38399-22677587-8exzubx

Massive clearcutting in the Sierra and Cascades is destroying wildlife habitat, threatening water quality, replacing diverse forests with highly flammable tree farms and contributing to climate change. Please act today to stop clearcutting in California’s forests.

Please, join the efforts of MoveOn and many other environmental activists throughout California. Sign petition now at:

www.thebattlecreekalliance.org

Thank you,

Marily Woodhouse
(530) 474-5803

Growing Heirlooms, Best Varieties for Our Area, and Secrets to Growing Mouth Watering Tomatoes and Plant Sale !

Nancy and Brian of Sawmill Creek Farms will describe all the tricks of the tomato-growing-trade.  On top of it, you will also be able to buy and bring home beautiful, robust, hardy, ready-to-plant tomato starts and know exactly what you’re getting and how to grow them.

WHERE:   Matthews Cafe – 1600 Mangrove # 175, Chico, CA

WHEN:  Tuesday April 26, 2012 from 6:30 to 8:30 pm

$10 at the door.