Dear Community,



On February 11, 2005 at approximately 2:00 the Riverside Park Playground was set on
fire and has been significantly damaged. The police say it is difficult to prosecute
for arson unless they come up with an eye witness. The Major, Dept. Major and Sgt.
Proctor have already been notified.



The playground is more than just plastic and steel, it’s a place where children play
and memories are made. It’s a magnet of youth and vitality. Maybe I am being a bit
melodramatic, but nothing is lower and more despicable than hurting our children
either directly or indirectly which is what this person did by ruining our
playground.



Who ever did this is going to brag about it to someone. Be it a classmate if they
are in school, a buddy, a bartender, a family member so on and so forth. If you
hear ANYTHING at all you have a civil duty to call the police. If you want to be
anonymous, use your crime watch number. If you actually saw the crime being
committed, then we need you to step forward and do the right thing. I am beside
myself with anger right now hearing the message that this cretin has said to each
and every one of you good, honest, law abiding people. This needs to stop. It was
not done out of need such as stealing money or goods to support a drug habit for
example, but rather out of hate and spite. Hate and spite don’t belong here.



Please spread the word to neighborhood leaders, parents, teachers, business owners
and children. We need to find this person and send a message to the people who want
to hurt us that we are no longer going to stand for this behavior.



If you needed a reason to attending tonight’s crime walk, its starts of all places
at Riverside Park. Come out in force to show everyone that we are not going to take
this standing down. 7:00 PM. This is why we do this.



Jeff Ratnow

President

Riverside Action Group

Major Bealefeld will be at the January RAG meeting to give us a “State of the District” address. He will discuss in detail 2004 crime stats, trouble spots (theft from auto!) and his 2005 goals for our area in terms of crime reduction and citizen involvement. This is going to be a very informative presentation and we are encouraged to ask questions so please attend the January meeting.

As mentioned above, theft from auto continues to be our number one reported crime. Criminals come to our area because we have made it a target rich environment. On every COP walk we notice car after car filled with items (portable CD players, golf clubs, clothes, laptops, etc.). Since thieves know we are still leaving things in our cars, they will continue to come and break into them. So please remove all items from your car! Another concern is the safety of people leaving the Cross Street area at night.

Several recent events have been a sober reminder that we need to walk together at night and to be aware of our surroundings. Myself and other peninsula crime chairmen plan to meet with several of the bars in the Cross Street area to see how we can work together in order to make that area safe for bar patrons and neighbors. Lastly, COP walks are still going on strong in large part due to you. Members of our neighborhood have attended every single walk, walks that even occurred in Curtis Bay and on weekend nights. The dedication shown by our community sends a very strong message of support to the police and other neighborhoods in the district. So thank you for making the Southern District Citizen’s on Patrol a success. For information on the next scheduled walk please email me at sullivansox at yahoo.com so I can send you crime notes and upcoming COP walk updates

There is much to report from the crime committee this month so I hope everyone can make our RAG meeting. As usual I will provide a crime update (statistics on the type and number of crimes that occur in our neighborhood) and answer any questions you may have regarding the details.

I will also ask the community to approve a $100 donation towards the cost of last month’s Officer Appreciation Day. This event, planned by the Southern District Community Relations Council, provided free meals for all the officers working that day.

In addition, I hope to have a very informative guest speaker, Tony Savage of the State’s Attorney’s Office for Baltimore City. He will discuss the importance of community impact letters and how they play a role in keeping our neighborhood safe. His attendance is still being confirmed so if he is unable to come this discussion will be rescheduled.

Crime Walks: Our last crime walk was attended by over 30 people; residents from our neighborhood, South Baltimore Improvement Committee, Locust Point, Federal Hill South, Curtis Bay and Brooklyn came. This is exactly the kind of commitment Major Bealefeld is looking for and in response he sent a district wide memo to the officers about our efforts and encouraged them to support us.

We are making incredible strides that can lead to regular weekly peninsula and southern district wide COP walks and car patrols with the support of the police. Speaking of walks, the next walk to begin at Riverside Park will be on Monday, December 6th at 7 p.m. Dogs are welcome and flashlights are strongly encouraged. I realize that December is a busy month for everyone but it is also a month when crime increases so this walk is very important for our community.

Also, I would like to thank those who spent an hour during the Raven’s home game on Sunday, November 7th canvassing the streets near the stadium with police flyers about car break-ins. Unfortunately, game days are very popular with burglars who target the cars in our area but this effort can help reduce this type of crime. I hope we can plan a few more of these short but important walks before the season ends.

For those who could not attend our last crime walk - you really missed out. Accompanied by Major Bealefeld, Concilman Ed Reisinger and members of Feeral Hill South and Sharp-Leadenhall communities, we witnessed serval arrests and heard a behind the scenes account of the recent police shooing in SBIC that involved a robbery suspect and officers from the Southern District. Granted not every crime walk is this "exciting" but it does prove out walks make a difference. As we walk the Major imparts important crime fighting tips and gives us all updates and first hand reprots of crime in out neighborhood. This time with the Major is invaluable and I encourage everyone to attend out next walk scheduled for Thursday, October 28th at 7pm. We will meeting at Riverside Park under the mansion/gazebo and weave out way through the neighborhood. Again, the last walk was atypical because we were actually witness to a crime but but regardless if we see criminal activity occur or not we are still using this time to make out neighborhood safer and more enjoyable for everyone. Lastly, please make an effort to attend the upcoming RAG meeting as I give more details on out last crime walk as well as provide and update on the neighborhood crime stats. Also, I want to thank everyone who attended the Citizen's on Patrol (COP) training that took place on October 13th at the Southern District Police Station. If you were unable to attend but would still like to go through the training process please let me know so I can work to schedule another training date.