4 comments:

• Josh Morgan posted at 7:47 pm on Thu, Dec 20, 2012.

  Posts: 518

  Doug, I'll take your word for it. But are you telling me that gang intervention in Stockton has been working? The murder and crime rates have sky rocketed.

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• Doug Chaney posted at 11:24 am on Thu, Dec 20, 2012.

  Posts: 388

  Mr. Morgan, I use Stockton/Lodi only as an example of a successful gang intervention program directed by Mr. Ralph Womack, who is also a very well respected member of the LUSD school district board. I worked very closely with Mr. Womack in 2008 when myself and several other interested parties brought the issue of a gang intervention program to the city of Lodi and I moderated the panel at the public meeting at thhe community room at the police station and Mr. Womack conferred with us and shared resources on how we could initiate our program, "Impact Lives". Needless to say the turnout from the city of Lodi was pathetic, as were the results. If you think that Operation Peacekeepers and similar gang intervention organizations aren't making progress, you're completely wrong. They only work in the shadows with the real gangbangers and seettle many differences before they hit the streets and impact many young lives by offering them alternatives to gang life. Maybe you should have attended that forum in October 2008 and witnessed first hand the hardcore gang members that are now mentoring those young people that sat on the forum and have become those I respect and still resource with in my daily life trying to better the life of those eastside youths that are left out of Lodi's social community/ladder.

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• Josh Morgan posted at 9:57 am on Thu, Dec 20, 2012.

  Posts: 518

  Doug, I think you'd be much better off if you used some other City other than Stockton as a model City for fighting crime and gangs. Stockton is the laughing stock of the nation. What ever Stockton is doing has been an absolute failure.

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• Doug Chaney posted at 7:04 am on Thu, Dec 20, 2012.

  Posts: 388

  Those headlines relate to me that crime, gangs and drugs are the major problem that need to be addressed in Lodi. When will there be some progress fighting these crimes with all this government grant money LPD has been awarded? It's going to take more than a couple of outreach workers and I think those funds could be better used to form a gang intervention orgaization right here in town, such as Operation Peacekeepers. The city of Stockton grants funds to their organization, so why can't the city of Lodi organize a similar program and spend some of their own money like Stockton instead of running on a shoestring budget. Lodi has plenty of cash they bleed from the electricity utility funds with their high rates and I don't see any reason some of that cash can't be used for this purpose. I believe there's already more than enough surplus in the electric fund to more than support a gang intervention group like Operation Peacekeepers and that would allow LPD more freedom to concentrate on the drug and crime problem that is overwhelming Lodi now. The problems aren't exclusive to the eastside contrary to popular belief, either. I think the city leaders want Lodians to think it is to protect those affluent and well connected from being embarassed when they, or their family members or relatives are arrested.

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