Antioch Mayor Jim Davis told a phalanx of media that reports saying kidnap suspect Phillip Garrido was a resident of the city are wrong, and hurting his town's image.
Photo by Rick Lemyre
Photo by Rick Lemyre
Davis said that the city had tried to annex the area in order to provide sewer, water, police and code enforcement services, but that the residents of the area soundly rejected the idea of coming into the city. The neighborhood of about 250 residents remains in the jurisdiction of Contra Costa County and the Office of the Sheriff, surrounded on three sides by the city and by the Mirant power plant, also in the county, to the north.
Crime Prevention Commissioner Hans Ho said Antioch has an extensive Neighborhood Watch system, but it was not available in Garrido's neighborhood because it was outside city jurisdictions. "Should we annex that area, we will be the first to get in there to help organize those neighbors so we can exorcize the criminal element from their midst," Ho said.
Davis also offered praise to Officer Allison Jacobs and Specialist Lisa Campbell of the UC Berkeley Police for cracking the case, and expressed the city's "elation" that Dugard and her daughters have been rescued and were doing as well as could be expected under the circumstance.
Davis also announced the establishment of a trust fund to assist in the family’s recovery. Donations should be made to the Dugard Family Trust Fund, c/o Bank of the West, 2507 Somersville Rd., Antioch 94509. To see the press conference, scroll down on our home page at thepress.net
First, the greedy home owners that are now in foreclosure. They are the ones that bought 2, 3, or more houses on no down with a variable rate. They decided to take advantage of the system by using their brand new homes as S8 housing.
Second, group to blame is HUD. They have some crazy way they do their zoning for S8 housing. I'm not against S8 housing at all. In fact, there are those that truly deserve to be helped. However, you can't turn an entire city into S8 housing and not expect problems. You put any group of poor people (black or white) in one area and crime will surely rise.
As far as this topic goes, I can’t blame the city from trying to disassociate itself from the situation. National news has Antioch looking like a backwards town. In my opinion, there are more important matters to clear up in the city. Antioch has been poorly mismanaged for many years now. Let’s worry less about “Image” and worry more about actual problems.
In regards to "saddened by reality," why did you feel the need to politicize this discussion? Why do you assume that it was only poor people that voted for democrats? I’m a hardworking middle class American that owns his own home that pays his taxes and debts. I voted whole heartedly for Obama. Want to know why? Because of the past 8 years and the horrible policies that President Bush and that congress put us through. No, I’m not a Democrat by any means. In fact, I voted for Bush in 2000. 2004, I voted for Nader because I couldn’t stand either of the Buffoons running for office. 2008, I learned my lesson and vowed that I would not let another neo-conservative Republican into office. That neo-conservative Republican wasn’t McCain, it was his vice presidential pick Palin.
Regardless, there was a huge movement in America to look for radical change in the way things are being done. Unfortunately, those changes are barely taking place. The Democrats are showing that they have no spine. Obama has bailed out failing companies, created a Stimulus package that is on life support, has us stuck in Iraq and Afghanistan, and is creating massive confusion by talking about health care but not presenting a solid plan of what health care should be in America. I won’t go into health care as that will be an entire different discussion.
Here we see a very poorly educated person who appears to feel that investigating Section 8 Housing abuse equates to harassing single black mothers. The anger expressed is sincere, though clearly misguided.
Now consider that for the first time in our nation's history the majority of the electorate does not pay any Federal income tax. Is it any surprise that this electorate would empower an ultra liberal man with the presidency and at the same time elect a liberal Democratic Congressional majority?
Unless the taxpaying, law abiding citizens stand up and express ourselves we will look back on this decade as the decade that brought about the end of free market capitalism and hard working American virtues.
In short, rather than bother to respond to "NICE COVE UP", we should both feel sorrow for the complete lack of education and reasoning ability and be warned that this is the future of our Country.
And for your information, Chief Hyde receives a tremendous amount of support from the black community in Antioch. Of course, those with the thug mentality would disagree.
Take some advice and go back to school and learn to speak proper English. Obviously, while everyone else was paying attention in class, you were somewhere smoking a joint.
First of all, learn to spell Chief, hiring, and county, and policing! By the Davis is a city, not a county. You should also work on your reading and listening skills since just about everyone else understands the area where this heinous crime occurred in not within the City of Antioch therefore its out of APD jurisdiction. The CC Sheriffs Dept is responsible for patroling this area.
Secondly, Jim Hyde is an outstanding Chief of Police and has done a great job since coming to Antioch. The only individuals who seem to have to have a problem with Chief Hyde and our police department are individuals with criminal intent such as yourself. Perhaps you should consider moving to an area the best exemplifies your THUG culture. Need any help moving?