Who Let the Dogs Out?

Staff Writer, DL Mullan

Community Interest / Pets

____________________________________

Sometimes people have to make light of a serious situation. Like, who is letting their dogs out at night or during the morning without supervision? Phoenix has a Leash Law. So if you cannot keep your dogs safe, then adopt them out to someone who will. A pet at the vet for being hit by a car is heartbreaking to a family.

As you know, Villa de Paz is currently fighting a developer and the city against a proposed housing development as well as accusations of our community being run down. 

It might be a once and awhile occurrence but please, respect your pets. Respect your neighbors. Respect the community of Villa de Paz: keep your canines in your yard or on a leash.

Let's show the world that our community means more to us than not picking up our own backyards.

Your neighbors thank you.

Police Crimes on the Increase

Staff Writer, DL Mullan

Community Interest / Police

_______________________________________

In an article on BenSwann.com, Innocent Man Sues After Cops Beat Him & Pepper-spray The Wounds, it appears that this growing trend of brutality in the peace officer ranks may be linked to the militarization of police departments around the country. 

How else do you explain this negative behavior? 

Here are some Law Enforcement Misconduct Statistics:

These statistics are for a five month period in 2009, but we have seen more brutality cases in the news than numbers from four years ago.

Let's make a quick list:

Cop Breaks 84 Year Old’s Neck For Touching Him

Cop Breaks 84 Year Old’s Neck For Touching Him

Cop Breaks 84 year old's Neck for Touching Him

Family of a Man Playing with a Hose Nozzle Awarded $6.5 Million

State Troopers Shot at Minivan with Five Children

SFPD Cops Attack Innocent Man, Neighbors Beaten for Helping

and the list goes on...

As well as articles about police shooting people's dogs are on the rise, which is despicable. 

What is happening? Are too many war veterans coming home without proper mental healthcare and being unleashed on an unsuspecting public? Or are police more concerned about filling private prisons and their quota of corporate revenue? Or perhaps it is the shiny new tanks given to police departments by the government? 

You tell me.

In another,  Police Brutality Statistics article on CopBlock shows a nineteen month period as well as some good responses from the public like this one:

According to the FBI website, there were about 13,000 murder victims in 2009 (2010 data not available yet it seems). There are about 250,000,000 people in the US. Assuming there was one murderer per victim, the murder rate of all Americans is 0.0052 percent.

Now compare that to police. The chart above indicates 13% were fatality-type misconduct. That comes out to be about 330 misconduct-fatalities. There are 415,000 officers. That’s almost a 0.08% murder rate compared with 0.0052 of the general population (including police officers). That would indicate police are 16 times more likely to murder.

Or, of you add the police killings (330 people) to the 13,000 murders, police account for 2.4 percent of the murders, whereas they account only for 0.2 percent of the population.

So the question remains: are police officers here to serve and protect or cause the crimes they are supposed to stop? 

But there are more crimes to report on:

Not Using Turn Signal Results in Strip Search
Wareham, MA Police Officer and Police Sargent Run Law-Abiding Citizen Out of Town
Illegal Stop by Lakewood Sheriff’s Deputy, Civil Rights Denied
Nocona, Texas Police Abuse and Arrest Bellevue Man Attending Basketball Game
Toms River, NJ Police Extremely Unproffessional, Unnecessarily Strike Groin
Allegations of Police Brutality in Troy, NY
Texas Cop Accused of Handcuffing and Raping Teen at Traffic Stop
Attorney Stephen Stubbs Arrested for Refusing to Leave His Client’s Side

What was this article's complaint about militarizing the local police:  U.S. Police Agencies Receive 165 MRAP Vehicles Cost-Free in 2012.

If you are a police officer and are quite upset with these facts, then return to your captain and lieutenants and begin to clean up this corruption from within.

If any officer is afraid of public filming of their duties, then that officer needs training in the Constitution and Bill of Rights. No officer on the streets should be doing anything against the law. Officers are supposed to be the epitome of good citizenry.

Any of type of police behavior that is contrary to our laws, values, and morals should be punished and the conducted eliminated from service.

Source: see links above.

aw Enforcement Misconduct Statistics

Law Enforcement Misconduct Statistics

Villa de Paz Resident Speaks Out about Development

Writer, Karen Kopchick

Community Interest

___________________________________

I'm writing to you to voice my opinion regarding the need for the Villa de Paz Golf Course stipulation to remain intact.  We have been residing in Villa de Paz since my special needs/cognitively disabled daughter was in kindergarten (Villa de Paz Elementary was crowded back then) for whom just graduated high school on mine and my husband's 27th anniversary 5/22/13.

Have our homes not suffered enough of a loss of property value due to the economic collapse of housing?

My daughter gets around in this neighborhood pretty good.  She is unable to ride a normal bike and therefore has a 3 wheeled version.  I'm afraid that if it is made to handle more people/houses that she will possibly get lost in her own neighborhood and have more traffic to deal with.  Special people are known for not acclimating to change very well so please help maintain our neighborhood for her as well as the other residents of this awesome neighborhood.

 

pic of me and my daughter

I'm from Memphis, Tennesse and bought specifically here due to the green space.  I also bought specifically here to avoid HOA's for which we had bad experiences with while residing in Kissimmee, Florida for four long awful, terrible years, and the cost of living is that of New York City.

As well, there was some concern expressed at the meeting at The Hope Center regarding construction causing dust/dirt debris and therefore exposing us to Valley Fever.  The neighbor across the street, who is no longer with us, had this fungal infection and battled it for years and it was a contributing factor to his death.  They also have a special needs son residing there.  I also have 2 beautiful dogs and it would devastate me for my 2 family members to be stricken with Valley Fever.  

I have no pet insurance and their medical bills are usually MORE expensive than ours. Their treatment would be so expensive that I would probably have to euthanize them due to being unable to afford treatment.  I can't even afford my copay right now due to the deplorable conditions of our insurance in this country.

When the City of Phoenix annexed this neighborhood 20 years ago, a stipulation was set in place that the golf course land can ONLY be used as an 18 hole golf course.  

Please help the City of Phoenix keep their word and do not allow the greedy developers to change the rules for their benefit.

Thanks for your consideration in this matter.