Last Month the San Jose Chapter Guardian Angels received a call from citizens in Santa Cruz. They asked if we could help out in starting a chapter there as the gang violence is increasing. We immediately started the planning process by first meeting with the citizens who contacted us so we can understand what is going on.
Patrol routs were organized and mapped out, near by chapters were contacted and transportation was arranged.
Once we had our game plan in place The San Francisco and Stockton Guardian Angels agreed to come along for this effort in starting a new Chapter in Santa Cruz and also help out in any way they can.
This day began with the SJGA's picking up the transport vans, the meeting place is at the SFGA's HQ we arrive on time to pick up the Angels and have a 2 hour drive to Santa Cruz.
We arrive in Santa Cruz and meet up with Sarge the San Jose Chapter leader, he met with the individuals who want to join the GA's and try to start their own chapter. The media was there so we conducted some interviews. You can read them at the following links:
http:\\www.santacruzsentinel.com\/localnews\/ci_15385762
http:\\www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_15374255?source=rss
There was also NEWS coverage, you can view it at the following link:
http://www.ksbw.com/video/24057142/
Everybody is paired up and we begin our patrol through the streets of Santa Cruz.
We do our usual, we sweep the parks, the streets and pass out fliers to everybody we can for recruitment. We post up where we feel we can make the biggest presence.
The only issue we had encountered was a group of protesters cussing at us and telling us they do not want us there, we post up on them and try to calm the situation but they kept it up to the point we had no choice but to call the police. The police arrived so naturally they calm down, we left the area after is was clear and moved on. We did run into them again but it was not as bad as the first encounter so we moved on. We marched back to our meeting place, talked with our contacts and hopefully they will follow up and step up to Dare To Care.
Now the long drive back to the SFGA's HQ to drop off that Chapter and drive back to SJ to return the vans, it was a long day but we did our part in helping out a community that asked for our help. We will follow up with SC and go from there.
The San Jose and Santa Clara GA's would like to thank the SFGA's and Stockton GA's for helping out, professional as always!!!!!!BRICKS
SFGA's posted a video of this patrol at the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/thesfguardianangels
0 comments:
Post a Comment