The Neighborhood Watch

Over the last couple of years or so, I’ve gotten quite involved with our Neighborhood Watch group.  The neighborhood in which I live has a very low crime rate.  Mostly what happens is that someone leaves something valuable in plain sight in their vehicle and the opportunistic criminal walking by sees it, breaks the window and steals it.  We see a very small amount of tagging here, but it doesn’t seem that there are any gangs fighting over the territory our neighborhood encompasses.  At the first of the year, there was one armed robbery that was attributed to gang activity.   Most of the time, this is a very quiet and safe neighborhood.  The same cannot be said for some other areas which are quite near us, but for some reason the immediate area in which we live is a little island of safety. 

Of course there are people who live in this neighborhood who see danger lurking everywhere.  When I hear a report of graffiti, gang activity, suspicious character loitering the dark places, my first inclination is to go and see what is going on.  In recent years, in every case, I have found nothing to be very alarmed about and no reason to be afraid that we are being taken over by the forces of evil.  That wasn’t the case when we first moved to this neighborhood some twenty-four years ago. 

When we first moved here from Hollywood, there was already an active Neighborhood Watch group headed up by the wife of the neighbor across the street.  At that time there was a rash of burglaries going on.  The house next door to us was broken into twice.  Eventually, the criminal was caught and the burglaries stopped.  It turned out that it was just one guy who was responsible for all the burglaries and with him off the street the problem was solved; a triumph for the Neighborhood Watch.  Carol and I were assaulted out in front of our house one night by a couple of kids who has walked up the hill from the boulevard below us.  They demanded my wallet.  The young gentleman who was confronting me claimed to have a gun.  I asked to see it.  He waffled.  I told him that he had better leave the neighborhood and never come back.  Meanwhile, Carol was telling the other gentleman that she was going to tell his mother what he was doing.  I don’t think our reaction was what they expected.  They left and we finished putting out our trash cans so that they could be picked up in the morning.  We also had a car stolen from in front of the house, a 1967 VW Beetle which Carol had been driving back and forth to work.  We went out one morning and it was gone.  The police took a report, but we never saw it again.  I never expected them to find it.  The 1967 Beetle is a “one-year” car, which means that many of the parts are unique to that year.  That makes the parts worth more than the car and that, or course, is why it was stolen.  If you want to learn more about my Volkswagen adventures, which are ongoing, you can find those stores on my “If All Else Fails” blog.  We replaced the stolen car and no one suffered very much over the crime.

The woman who was heading up that first Neighborhood Watch group eventually divorced her husband and moved away.  Without her that first group faded away. 

This second Neighborhood Watch group, I believe, will last a while.  Its membership spans a wider area and there are more active members.  I am one of those.  Having been involved with the new group since its initial formation, I have watched it grow and, perhaps, even helped it grow in some small way.  I was giving the whole concept of Neighborhood Watch some thought a couple of weeks ago and in light of some of the other subjects that I’ve been studying, I wrote a few paragraphs on what my ideal Neighborhood Watch would be.  That is what follows.  I hope you find it enlightening. 

What is a Neighborhood Watch?

Most of the descriptions of a Neighborhood Watch group tell the story of a group of neighbors who get together to keep an eye on what is going on in their immediate area.  When they see anything unusual and/or possibly criminal, members are advised to notify their local law enforcement organization with as much information as they can provide about the nature of the unusual or suspicious activity.  Often a description of a Neighborhood Watch also includes the fact that it enables the members to get to know each other better so that they can be aware of when someone is going to be absent (away on a vacation or business trip), when someone is having work done on their house, or any other unusual activity that might be scheduled so that they can keep a more watchful eye on each other’s property while that activity is occurring.  These are good things, but I don’t think this description goes far enough in describing my ideal of a Neighborhood Watch.

The value of a Neighborhood Watch

In the city, people tend to keep to themselves.  We don’t want to bother anyone else or be bothered ourselves.  Our lives revolve around working, commuting, TV and our social media.  We don’t get out as much as we did in our distant past.  Entertainment comes to us inside our houses and apartments, not from getting together with friends and neighbors as it did some time ago.

Participation in the Neighborhood Watch group gets us back in touch with our neighbors and our neighborhood.  It gets us looking out instead of looking in.  That, in and of itself, would be a good enough reason to have a Neighborhood Watch group, but there is more to it than that.

When disaster strikes, be it earthquake, wildfire, civil insurrection, or something else, who will help you survive?  The first responders readily admit that they will be overwhelmed and unavailable shortly after any disaster begins.  Who will you turn to for help when you need it most?  If you’ve gotten to know your neighbors, worked with them while building a safer community, talked with them about what to do in a disaster, then you will know who to turn to and so will they.  Together you can enhance your chances for survival, not guarantee it, of course, but significantly improve your odds of surviving a disaster.

As my C.E.R.T. (Community Emergency Response Team) instructor explained to me in the very first class, disasters come in all sizes.  Some, like a car accident or a house fire or the death of a loved one, are very, very personal.  Train wrecks, floods, earthquakes, wildfires, freeway pile-ups, and riots are disasters that have broader effect and involve whole neighborhoods, communities or cities.  If you know that you and your neighbors can call on each other for help, potential disasters become a little less frightening.  If you and your neighbors have talked through possible disaster scenarios; if each of you has put aside a few essential first-aid, food and shelter supplies “just in case;” then you may find that your neighborhood is a sanctuary in a disaster, a place where you can go to find help, a shelter from the storm.

At this point, instead of creating a Neighborhood Watch, you will have created a community.  You’ll have people around you whose combined skills and resources can see you through the disaster, whatever it might be.  But you have to create it.  Look around you.  Do you know what your neighbors have planned in case of a disaster?  Do you know what skills and resources you will need to live “off of the grid” for a week, two weeks, a month, six months?  What will you eat?  How will you cook?  Where will you dispose of your wastes?  Where do you find water?  What native plants can you safely eat?  You probably couldn't survive for very long on your own.  Survival is a big job and you won’t have time to do everything yourself.   But with the variety of resources and skills that you can find in a community of people, you might find that, together, you and your neighbors could do okay for a while.

What can you do?

You’ve already taken the first step.  You have attended a Neighborhood Watch meeting, or several.  You are interested in creating a safe neighborhood.  The next step is to talk to your neighbors.  If you don’t know them yet, wait until they’re outside and go introduce yourself.  Or be bold and knock on their door and introduce yourself.  Bake a cake and share it with someone nearby.  Talk to them.

Ask them what they plan to do if there is a major earthquake?  That question will either be a conversation starter or the end of the conversation depending on the answer you get.  If you live near someone who plans to let the police department, fire department, utility workers, rescue organizations – everyone else, in other words – take care of them, then when the disaster does happen that neighbor will be part of the problem, unless you can find a way to enlighten them.  Find the people around you who are interested in being prepared for whatever the environment might throw at them.  Those are the people to cultivate.  Get them to Neighborhood Watch meetings.  Have get-togethers with them, cook-outs, block parties.  Get to know each other and together you’ll begin to form a group that can work together if and when something bad happens.  Keep talking.  Keep planning.  Keep preparing.

Only the unknown is frightening.  The known you can plan for and do something about.  Take a look around you and think about what will happen if the power goes off, or the water stops flowing, or the grocery stores are empty.  Figure out what you and your neighbors can do to survive under those conditions.  Learning and knowing what you can do will help assure your survival.

Plan for the worst and work for the best.
Build a first-aid kit and learn how to use its contents.  Build a survival kit.  Include in it those things which you think you might need when you only have your own resources to call upon.  Stock up on food and water.  How much you set aside will depend upon how long you think you might have to live on it.  Study, learn, and practice those skills you might need if the power and water stop and if the first responders are overwhelmed and unavailable to you.  It is your responsibility to take care of yourself and your loved ones, including your pets, in a disaster and every day.  When you know that you can do that, and know that you’re surrounded by others who can help, you’ll be ready for whatever might happen.  And if that disaster never happens, well, you got to make some new friends, learn some new skills, and, perhaps, you gained a little more confidence in your ability to take care of yourself in any situation you might encounter.