John

With all due respect, I disagree 100% with you and
also find your email offensive.

This situation has nothing to do with someone's race.
It has a lot to do with improving our neighborhood's
safety and quality of living. I find it amusing that
the race card is so easily used.

It is great that perhaps the situation has improved in
the last 30 years. (Should we stop working on
improving it? Do you have facts? How much
improvement?) But I believe we can try to work
together and try to further improve our area instead
of watching people driving by exchanging bullets.
Regards, Renato

--- John J Geibel <geibel@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

> I think that all of you are putting far too much
> into this episode. Yes it is frightening to have
> this happen nearby. And yes we all want a safe
> neighborhood for our families. But we are far safer
> in this neighborhood than when driving on the
> freeway. My daughter, wife, and a friend were
> driving back from SF the other day and just missed a
> tire that came over the divider on the freeway. The
> car behind her hit it and it flew 30 feet into the
> air and went over to on coming traffic where it
> caused a series of accidents and brought the whole
> freeway to a stop. Let us keep things in proportion.
> We all stand a much greater risk of being killed on
> the freeways then by being shoot to death in the
> neighborhood.
>
> Please do not consider any rash actions in response
> to the shooting. Over the last 30 years the area has
> become much safer. Also the police where right on
> top of this and caught the guys. That will go a long
> way toward keeping these kinds of activities to a
> minimum. Cell phones are great in this respect. The
> minute that we observe illegal activities, we can
> call 911 and report it. So stay allert and call the
> police when you do see illegal activities. Practice
> reading and remembering license numbers. It is good
> for the brain and helps if you ever witness
> activities like this.
>
> I also agree with the Mesters. The statements about
> East Palo Alto boarder on profiling and are racist
> which all of the liberals out there should find
> troubling and unacceptable.
>
>
> John J. Geibel - Statbio
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Ann Ryals <ryalshousehold@mac.com>
> To: mester <Mester@relgyro.stanford.edu>
> Cc: WillowsNeighborhoodWatch@yahoogroups.com;
> willows_neighborhood@yahoogroups.com;
> willows_block_captains@yahoogroups.com;
> city.council@menlopark.org;
> willowsmomsandbabes@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2007 8:54:43 PM
> Subject: [willows_neighborhood] Re:
> [willowsmomsandbabes] For All Concerned About the
> Chester Street Shooting
>
> Thank you so much! That has been a concern of mine
> looking at the response to a very frightening
> reality. My daughter's boyfriend's family lives in
> East Palo Alto along with many similar wonderful
> families who have to (and have had to for some
> while) live with this reality.
>
>
> I think it would be great to have a coalition of our
> communities working together both for the welfare of
> our families and for the future of the youth who
> have been ensnared in a lifestyle where violence is
> an acceptable form of self expression.
>
>
> Ann
>
> On May 15, 2007, at 9:51 AM, mester wrote:
>
>
> Dear All,
>
> We have been away and just read the reports of the
> shooting this
> weekend. We are grateful for the information
> circulated, and we are
> relieved that no one, including the victim, was
> injured in this case.
> We live on Arnold Way and have two small children.
> We enjoy taking
> evening walks. Any of us might have been harmed or
> any of our
> neighbors as well.
>
> We too are frightened, angry and deeply concerned
> about the safety of
> OUR streets, our children, and our neighborhood.
> Expedient AND
> carefully considered steps must be made together to
> insure safety and
> peace in our lives.
>
> At the same time, statements such as "these people,"
> "all the
> residents involved were from East Palo Alto" and
> "protecting the
> residents of the Willows...with street closures at
> the border" are
> equally alarming and disturbing not to mention
> offensive and
> incendiary. Are we to condemn an entire city and all
> its residents?
> Is this what we wish to teach our children?
>
> Let's remember many of the residents of East Palo
> Alto work in our
> neighborhood, take care of our children and are our
> friends,
> colleagues and valued members of our community. In
> searching for a
> solution to the extremely troubling incidents that
> have occurred in
> the Willows, let's not cloud the issue with blanket
> statements that
> lead to even greater problems.
>
> Let's find a way to work together and address the
> root issues here
> which have more to do with the presence and threat
> of guns in our
> community, the fear of related violence and criminal
> activity
> REGARDLESS of residency of the victims or
> perpetrators, and the basic
> need for safety in our neighborhood and the
> surrounding communities
> than the need to exile an ill-defined enemy in the
> form of "these
> people of East Palo Alto."
>
> We believe directly involving the East Palo Alto
> Police Department,
> the East Palo Alto city council and the East Palo
> Alto community will
> improve our chances of finding a solution that works
> for everyone.
> It can be done without violence and hatred and
> walls.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> The Mesters
>
> >Thank you Terry for the report.
> >
> >
> >
> >Quite frankly it does not matter to me whether this
> is gang related or
> >domestic violence. The fact is these people were
> racing down my street and
> >shooting a gun out of a car window a few feet from
> where my son was sitting
> >in our home, in front of his bedroom window doing
> his homework.
> >
> >
> >
> >He could easily have been the victim in this case.
> >
> >
> >
> >Are we going to wait until one of our children is
> killed by a stray bullet
> >before we see some action from the City in
> mitigating how these people end
> >up in our neighborhood?
> >
> >
> >
> >These shootings are no longer isolated incidents.
> >
> >
> >
> >Had there been no access down Chester Street from
> East Palo Alto this
> >shooting would not have occurred at this
> intersection. All the people
> >involved in this shooting lived in East Palo Alto.
> It is a straight get-away
> >for them to drive down Chester to Willow and
> disappear.
> >
> >
> >
> >It is time for us as a neighborhood to put a stop
> to the easy get away
> >routes and cut through traffic that traverses the
> Willows. I highly doubt
> >that the Vintage Oaks or Felton Gables
> neighborhoods have domestic violence
> >and gang related (as was the case on Laurel)
> shootings occurring on their
> >streets. It is time that the City steps up to the
> plate and protects the
> >residents of the Willows by eliminating the spill
> over crime from East Palo
> >Alto with street closures at the border.
>
=== message truncated ===
Received on Thu May 17 17:10:08 2007