Chaparral Village standing up to crime

By Barrett Goldsmith Baytown Sun

Published June 17, 2008

About 35 residents from the Chaparral Village subdivision met this week at the home of a local resident to discuss ways to prevent and fight crime in the area, including a recent spate of car burglaries and late-night street racing.

Folks spilled out of the living room and up the stairs to hear Crime Watch leaders and Capt. David Alford, head of the community service bureau of the Baytown Police Department. All stressed the importance of remaining vigilant and taking steps to ensure the safety of every family.

“Basic crime prevention doesn’t change – it’s a mentality,” Alford said. “Remaining observant doesn’t mean being paranoid. Just be aware. And always lock those doors and keep those valuables out of sight.”

Alford said such community involvement was essential, helping the police department better execute its fundamental task of reducing and punishing crime.

“I hope they keep doing what they’re doing,” Alford said. “They need to continue meeting so they can continue to share information with each other and with the police department. That helps us find out what their needs are, and helps them understand our limitations. We tell everybody to call. We may not get to it right away, but we’ll get on it.”

The resident who hosted the event, who asked not to be identified because of family concerns, said the neighborhood will get serious about the “watch” in Crime Watch, perhaps creating patrols that will observe and report any suspicious activities.”

“But a lot of what we need to do are common sense things,” she said. “Don’t leave valuables in the car. Don’t have shrubs that are easy to hide in. Don’t leave ladders lying against the house. And keep your lights on.”

Increased lighting, both on the street and at Barkaloo Park, is a priority for residents of homes in the area, which number about 500. The park, said several residents, has been the site of drug deals and other criminal activity at night.

The crime stopping spirit of the neighborhood is embodied in perhaps its most prominent citizen, “Baytown” Bert Marshall, who began the Baytown Concerned Citizens group last year. Marshall is a longtime resident of Chaparral and hopes to stay there for a long time to come. On his web log, www.baytownbert.blogspot.com, he calls on his fellow residents to help in the cause.

“It boils down to what we as tax-paying home owners want to see when we look around our homestead,” Marshall said. “Do we want to stop crime before we are victimized or do we want to pretend it couldn’t happen to us? Are we willing to change the way we do things if it reduces the chance we will be robbed or targeted for criminal mischief?”

It appears that, for at least 35 people, the answer is yes.

Do You Hate Gas Prices? Blame Yourself

It seems that nothing can stop the galloping gas prices. Blame the stubborn Congress that refuses to allow the drilling in the Atlantic and the Gulf of Alaska. Blame the vicious Arabs who keep the price at an artificially high level by greedily stocking their resources in their own countries. But first and foremost blame yourself.

If we are to believe the latest news, Brazil may soon become one of the world leading oil exporters. In April, the Associated Press informed that researchers had found an underground deposit of some 33 billion barrels of oil, three times as much as the country had possessed until then. Only last year, a national company discovered some 8 billion barrels in another location hidden deeply under the seabed. Unlike Arab states, Brazil plans to export most of the oil in order to hold down the skyrocketing gas prices.

It would be a mistake, however, to hope that we will again pay $2 per gallon. Financial experts predict that unless the world major oil exporters significantly increase their production, gas prices will not tumble or even stabilize. Short-term solutions such as the proposed drilling in the Gulf of Alaska or the suspension of federal gas tax will not help. If anything, they could only enrage consumers when after several months of relative improvement at gas stations they will have to pay more when the additional resources have been digested.

The painful truth is that we, consumers, are to blame for the present $4 per gallon. We drive more than our grandparents and even if contemporary cars burn less gas than a couple of decades ago, the difference is still too thin to compensate the shortages of oil on the world market. Moreover, Americans now have to compete with consumers from China, India, and other fast developing countries that we could hardly find on the map twenty years ago. It is easy to imagine what may happen to the world market when one billion people in China scrap their primitive bicycles and roll into the narrow roads with their new, big cars.

Some thought that biofuels would save us from bankruptcy. Enriched with plant extracts, biofuels were to make cars not only environmentally friendly, but also cheaper in maintenance as more plants meant less oil. But what looked like a miraculous solution now turns into disaster with much of Africa and Asia starving. Farmers quickly smelled that growing biofuel plants was very profitable and soon large paddies of rice gave way to the fields of linen and algae. The fact that millions of people have nothing to eat derives from the green policies of the European Union and United States.

With all its political and military might, the United States seems hopeless when it comes to controlling gas prices. With most of its gas reserves used up, the world sole superpower depends heavily on such unpredictable countries as Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and Iran. The oil crisis from the late 1970s was a painful lesson but it hasn't taught us anything. We are more oil hungry than ever.

Krzys Wasilewski is a NewsBlaze journalist, particularly interested in history and literature that expands his love of travel and historical curiosity. If you have any comments or suggestions, please write to: krzys.wasilewski@yahoo.com.