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Dear Mr. Newson,
I live on Eddy Street between Laguna and Gough and in the past year our block has been terrorized by a number of daylight murders. Back in February, I wrote to your office to express my anger at your apparent refusal to bring foot patrols to our neighborhood. My letter, as well as my request, remains without a response.
Many in our neighborhood, which has a clear view of City Hall, feel very much ignored and neglected by you.
I realize that police resources might be quite strained in our city, but I just don’t see you, the honorable Mayor of this great city, or the police department, doing anything to stem the violence. We are very grateful, my neighbors and I, that there appears to have been a slight drop in the number of daytime murders since those very difficult few weeks back in January-February when we had at least 2 such murders in as many weeks. However, I cannot say that I attribute this drop to any effort on the part of your administration or the police department. As of this writing I have yet to see any real foot patrol activity in our neighborhood and while patrol cars can often be seen responding to calls, there has been no detectable increase in the frequency of patrol activity.
I believe that what we need is for police officers to regularly patrol our neighborhood on foot. I realize that this has previously been proposed and that you have stood in opposition to such a measure. At the time I believe you indicated that you would defer to Police Chief Heather Fong on whether or not such foot patrols are needed. It appears that she has decided not to institute such a policy in our neighborhood. Therefore, I ask that you please reconsider and use your considerable authority to make this happen. While such foot patrols may not be the answer to the problems in our neighborhood, I believe that they are worth a try.
Our neighborhood has been plagued by a long list of murders that have taken place within earshot of me and my neighbors in the last year. Most of these, as I understand it, remain unsolved. The lack of results in these investigations coupled with the often conspicuous lack of police presence make it very clear to us that we are not a priority.
We ask.
We plead.
We beg of you to take notice and to please, for God’s sake, do something to make our community safer.
Jorge Saavedra
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