Taming our Shrews

I read one time that pound for pound, the shrew is the most ferocious animal on earth. They have an appetite unparalleled in other mammals, consuming 80-90 per cent of their body weight each day. Shrews are small mouse-sized animals of which there are 376 species and are grouped into three subfamilies: White-toothed, African white-toothed and red-toothed. They will eat anything apparently and when cornered, they fight like an animal 10 times their size.

These little mammals live here. They blend in very well. If you were to actually see one in Baytown, you would mistake it for a common mouse…most likely. Some are actually venomous and some use echolocations just like a bat, to find their prey. To other small animals, reptiles and birds, shrews pose an extreme danger. When a shrew is around, nothing in its path is safe.

Baytown has another version of the shrew and for the most part, it resembles the average Joe. Our people-sized shrew stands on two legs and walks, talks, drives a car…and preys on everything it comes in contact with. Some are white, African, or red-toothed, just like their smaller version and some look so much like the innocent mouse, that no one is alarmed when they come around.

Our Baytown people-shrews go foraging and their appetite for dope and easy prey allow them to consume your hard earned dollars and valuables in one tenth the time it took you to earn it and many times, your stuff is sold for a tenth of its original value. These shrew-like carnivores view us as nothing more than an easy meal and like a delicious Sunday dinner, we are forgotten five minutes after they leave our house or car.

About a month ago, we Baytonians decided we had had enough. We decided it was time to call in animal control and begin the process of ridding our town of these vial pests and it is beginning to happen. I guess by this time, it’s clear I’m not talking about a little mouse-like critter, but the wide variety of criminals who have put a sleeper-hold on our community.

As voracious and tenacious as the crooks are, we have a police department which is more than capable of dealing with them. The good guys and gals don’t take a backseat to anyone. All they need to be effective is a community which will stand behind them when things get rough and believe me, it will get rough.

Note to criminals: GET OUT NOW!

Tomorrow night at 6pm on Market Street at the Community building, Baytown Concerned Citizens will congregate for the second time in a month to listen to Chief Byron Jones, Mayor Stephen Don Carlos and our new City Manager Garry Brumback answer questions submitted at the El Toro’s meeting. They will explain the solution. They will bring a strategy and an overall plan to get us back to safety.

Garry Brumback is already issuing orders to “fix it” and many of the desires and fears expressed at the El Toro’s meeting are in motion. Our Police Department is humming with excitement and activity. The Mayors Office is jumping. Ex-Chief of Police Charles “T-Bone” Schaffer tells me he has never seen this level of cooperation between citizens, a police department and City Hall in over 33 years of police work. He is very supportive, as is Garry Brumback, Mayor Don Carlos, David Bloom of the Baytown Sun and Chief Jones.

If you live in the Baytown general area, you can be a part of the Baytown Concerned Citizen group, or as its known – BCC. This is the Mission Statement: To stimulate the sharing of crime-related information on www.hotpursuit.com and actively promote a crime-free environment through robust and autonomous Neighborhood Watch programs and by citizen attended meetings with local government and the police department.

Register on www.hotpursuit.com and get involved with your Neighborhood Watch group.

That’s it folks. Citizens watching out for each other through Neighborhood Watch groups and calling the police department when you see something that doesn’t look right. We are going to smoke out the criminals through teamwork. Join us tomorrow night.