Local Resident Deputy Entertains

Last night hubby and I attended a Town Hall meeting intended to inform all the good citizens in our foothill community about how we can protect ourselves. Besides our resident deputy we had personnel from the Forest Service, California Highway Patrol, the local fire chief, Fish and Game and the local game warden, and others.

Most of the meeting was informative and stuff we've heard before: Don't advertise when you're away. Don't leave your garage door open. Clear the brush and debris 100 feet from your house, etc.

One big plus is in our area all the agencies work together because none of them have enough staff.

But what I want to write about is how funny our resident deputy was.

He read the statistics and most crime had gone way down and there were no murders in our area in the last three yeas. Then he said, "We take all the bodies to the city." He named it, I won't.

He also remarked that "the city" was a crime capital. The mayor of "the city" was there and protested, gently, of course. The local deputy's boss was there and explained that most of the crime in "the city" was due to gangs. The shooting being gang members shooting at other gang members.

Gang members do visit the area (especially in the summer because we have some great camping, fishing, and swimming spots a bit higher in the mountains) and it was stated that they leave courtesy of the CHP.

Our deputy told about an occasions when a suspect was being chased through the nearby low income housing complex and people came out and sat in their lawn chairs to watch.

Someone asked, "How far do I have to let someone come onto my property before I shoot them?"

Our deputy said, "How good a shot are you?" He went onto say that we have every right to protect ourselves and our property--but make sure the person or people are really a threat, that he doesn't want to shoot a group of Jehovah Witnesses.

He also said he likes to greet new people who drive though the area--especially those who look like trouble. His greeting: "Welcome to our town. This is a rural area and everyone has guns and practices using them."

I went to the meeting to hear what everyone had to say, but I also was looking for material for my Deputy Tempe Crabtree series since Tempe is the resident deputy of the fictional town of Bear Creek. I certainly got some, but Tempe would never say the things our resident deputy did. He was definitely entertaining.

Marilyn
Books by Marilyn

Comments

Interesting background there for stories and books! Good idea to go.

Here in Virginia, I have to put up "no trespassing" signs to keep people off of our property and I can't shoot at them. Have to have "no trespassing" every so many feet to keep bow hunters out and to prosecute them. Can you believe that?

Monti
NotesAlongTheWay
Hi, Monti, I think our deputy is one of a kind. I also know he is a caring person and happy to be living in our little town and have his kids go to our great school.
Anonymous said…
Love your local deputy! My kinda proactive cop. And his "greeting" is a surprisingly good way of knowing who is around. Look forward to what you do with this.
Holli Castillo said…
You mean you can't shoot Jehovas who wake you in the early a.m. on the weekends? Just kidding, before anyone gets riled up. That's just the New Orleans in me talking. (My hubby answered the door naked to them once, they haven't been back since.)

We can definitely shoot when people get into our houses and we have a shoot-the-carjacker law. It's all fact specific as to whether you'll get in trouble, however. Usually, carjackers and people who break into houses have rap sheets the size of the phone book, so nobody looks too closely.

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