I want gangsters stopped, don't you?

Last Saturday my husband painted out a gangster territorial message scrawled across an elderly neighbor’s garage door. The woman has lived in her home, on what is now a busy street, since her kids were small. She is now in her eighties and frail. “This didn’t use to happen,” she said. I could see the fear in her eyes.

Just then a Mexican man with his wife and daughter in the car rolled up and stopped. “Thanks for doing that. They got my house, too,” he said, pointing up the street. “I’ve painted my wall eight times.” A middle-aged woman walking her dog stopped to comment, “They also marked up all the power boxes on the street.”

Once the painting was completed, we moved on with our Saturday tasks, but I couldn’t get the picture of the elderly homeowner’s face out of my mind. Now that gangster life in Fallbrook has touched her personally, does she wonder if it’s safe to go out?

Is it safe for me to go out? What about you? Are you safe? Is your house, car or wall the next bit of territory Fallbrook gangsters will mark up as theirs, not yours? Did you move into Fallbrook to have your property damaged and defaced by gangsters? I didn’t.

I want the San Diego Sheriff’s Department to arrest the gangsters for defacing property because I pay them to keep the peace and to me that also means “peace of mind.” I want to sleep at night knowing they are protecting us from all gangster activity in Fallbrook, not prioritizing it by degrees with gangster markings at the bottom. Don’t you?

If it means more deputies, hire them. If it means paying them better salaries to increase recruiting, pay them. If it means raising taxes to pay higher salaries, raise taxes.

I don’t care who the gangsters are — if they are Caucasian or Mexican; identified by numbers, letters, baggy pants or haircuts. I want them stopped. I want to live in a safe Fallbrook free of organized gangsters whose objective is to fill neighborhoods with fear. Don’t you?

If you agree with me, write a letter to Sheriff Bill Kolender at PO Box 939062, San Diego, CA 92193-9062 with a copy to Lt. Grant Burnett at the Fallbrook Sheriff’s Substation, 388 East Alvarado Street, Fallbrook, CA 92028. Tell Sheriff Kolender that budget constraints, the lack of qualified law enforcement applicants and low salaries doesn’t make Fallbrook safe. We hired him to do that. If he doesn’t, you won’t be returning him to office.