Neighbor Marty shared this unfortunate tale of paint-powered mayhem on Bernal’s west side:

Hoodlum revelers whooped it up along the Eugenia steps between Prospect and Winfield during the holidays. The steps were hit on December 26 & 27 December with graffiti. Monday night the 26th was just the top area of the stairs, which was cleaned up Tuesday by volunteers. On the night of the 27th, the graffiti bandits returned with gold paint to hit more than just the stairs. The list reads like the twelve days of Christmas: 1 fire hydrant, 2 fences, 3 trees, 4 houses, 5 utility poles, the stairs, the sidewalk, the curb, and even the street were all vandalized with gold paint. If there had been a partridge in a pear tree, they probably would have graffitied that too.

Neighbors bonded together to help clean up and cover the mess all day Wednesday. Please keep your eyes peeled for any late night loiterers on the stairs, and definitely report any graffiti to the police, because the gang task force may examine the photos for known tags.

Neighbors can also join the Graffiti Watch program, managed by the city. After a two-hour training, all supplies — paints, brushes, trash bags, etc — are provided by the city. In exchange, you adopt a four-block area of your neighborhood to keep the graffiti covered.

PHOTOS: Neighbor Marty

Bernalwood’s intrepid volunteer scribe on the Police Beat, Reader Sarah, attended the SFPD’s Ingleside Station Community Meeting on Tuesday night December 20. Here’s her excellent summary of crime-related issues in and around Bernal Heights.

Notes from Ingleside Community Meeting, 12/20/11
Captain Daniel Mahoney led the meeting.

GENERAL UPDATE:
Capt. Mahoney has been conducting “Safe Shopper” programs in the district since Black Friday, and these will continue until January 2. This entails increasing visibility via foot beats, bike beats, undercover officers, motorcycle police, and sector cars on the merchant corridors, including Cortland. In addition, they send officers onto MUNI lines. There’s lots of theft from automobiles because of packages left inside.

I asked about the recent spate of thefts from merchants on Cortland. He mentioned several thefts that involved ruses – like when a couple of people come in and ask for something, and then while the person in the store is getting it, they take laptops, iPads, etc. He mentioned incidents at Rock Candy Snack Shop, Piqueo’s, and Martha Brothers. So the key message to merchants is to watch out for these ruses/diversions, and I suppose we as shoppers can also keep an eye out when we’re in stores. There were three of these kinds of incidents just last weekend.

CRIME STATISTICS & TRENDS:
These are from the period November 20 to December 17. % Change Month refers to the change vs. the prior four-week period.

Crime/# Incidents/% Change (month)/% Change (YTD)/# Arrests

Aggravated Assault/25/19%/-29%/16
Robbery/29/4%/-2%/10
Sexual Assault/1/0%/38%/0 (note: 11 for year vs 8 last year)
Burglary/35/-5%/-15%/3
Auto Theft/49/-5%/-12%/0
Theft from Auto/46/-18%/-8%/0

Aggravated Assaults refer to shootings/stabbings and domestic violence. The majority of these incidents were domestic violence.

Robberies are down YTD for the first time this year. He has tried to be aggressive on robberies – using decoys, etc.

Lots of cars are stolen from Precita Park and Bernal more generally. They’ve found many cars in the Outer Mission. They think this is people “borrowing” the cars for a day. There has been a series of Auto Theft Task Force operations, including the IDing of several parolees in the Ingleside (who were convicted of auto theft in the past), and officers are working with parole officers to do home visits, etc. The captain started having all recovered cars dusted for prints so they can ID who has been in the cars. Thefts the past two weeks are way down for some reason.

There is a new trend in car thefts where the thief takes the registration and insurance cards, which can lead to identity theft and later burglaries (since the home address of the car owner is known).

Ingleside made one significant arrest related to burglaries. Captain Mahoney credited Officers Almaguer and Hauscarriague. They worked with investigators to ID fingerprints from a burglary. They found the guy and arrested him. He confessed, and then they searched his house, where they found lots of stolen driver’s licenses, checks, passports, etc. They ended up being able to close seven open cases.

Captain Mahoney continues to run pedestrian-safety operations. Recently, they did one at Mission and Lawrence involving five separate traffic stops. They issued 37 citations. This came about because a parent or staff member from Longfellow Elementary called and asked the station to do this since it was a danger for kids/parents going to and from school. I wanted to highlight this since some of you may have identified similar issues that could use attention.

I asked about the recent homicide on Justin Dr. He said that because it was an open investigation, he couldn’t comment, but the suspect appeared to be “mentally challenged” and is in custody. I also asked about the Mission rapist, and he reiterated the information that has been out there – attacks on solo women, two in the past two months, early morning hours.

One thing that came up in the questions from the attendees was what to do if your wallet is stolen. The captain’s opinion is that you shouldn’t cancel your credit cards for a few hours because usually the thieves will buy gas, and basically every gas station has video cameras, and this is very helpful to the police. He conceded that the credit card companies would disagree with this approach.

Someone asked about what to do if you encounter someone dumping stuff. The captain said that if you see it IN PROGRESS, call the police. If you come across dumped items after the fact, call DPW.

KEN CRAIG – NEIGHBORHOOD EMERGENCY RESPONSE TEAMS
Ken Craig from NERT came to talk about safety and self-defense. He pointed out that he holds three grandmaster-level black belts and still tries to avoid confrontations where you NEED to defend yourself because you don’t know what your opponent is on (meaning drugs) or is carrying. He handed out safety whistles. The convention for alerting others that you need help is THREE SHARP, SHORT BLASTS. Also useful if you’re stuck in rubble after an earthquake. In that case, one whistles means YES, two whistles means NO, and three means HELP. The sound of whistles carries much farther than human voices.

He handed out a brochure on self-defense that used the acronym BEWARE.

B: BEFORE you go somewhere, think about your routing and what you might encounter.
E: EVADE – as soon as you recognize a dangerous situation developing, do anything to avoid it. Run away, change routing, etc.
W: WARN – warn your attackers that you will defend yourself. Most attackers are cowards and are looking for an easy target.
A: ATTRACT – attract attention of others around you and make them aware of your situation. Shout “fire” instead of “help” because people may be more likely to assist.
R: REACT – when all else has failed and you cannot get away or get assistance, you must react.
E: ESCAPE – your goal should be to escape from the situation as quickly as possible and immediately report it to authorities.

Ken suggested leaving yourself a voicemail or writing down details about the attacker as soon as you can get away from an incident since your memory will fade. If someone wants your property, give it to them. The case where you should NOT be compliant is if someone is trying to get you into a car or take you to a secluded area.

Community Patrol USA is holding self-defense seminars in January at the Eureka Valley Rec Center – for more info, email info@CommunityPatrolUSA.org or call 415-967-3080.

NERT is also starting up its training sessions again in January – see for dates and locations: http://www.sf-fire.org/index.aspx?page=879. These are free.

UPCOMING EVENTS & UPDATE ON STAFFING ISSUES:
Three holidays are coming up – Christmas, New Year’s, and MLK Day. Staffing can go as low as 80% of normal now, and the holidays are often a time when it does. Crime is typically lower then anyway, but he wanted us to be aware of the staffing issues SFPD is facing. They lost all eight probationary officers and got three officers back, but still a net loss. Occupy SF still requires 24-hour coverage and Ingleside sends one person every seven hours. They send two to Critical Mass next week. They send two to every 49ers game and, when requested, send officers to the hospital to monitor prisoners (the sheriff’s department no longer does this). So his point was that staffing is getting tricky with so many external demands.

Foot beats are the first thing to get cut when resources have to be diverted elsewhere. He is now having officers do split beats – e.g., Geneva/Mission corridor, then Cortland. These will continue to be a challenge. 267 officers are retiring by June ’14. They lose nine captains and 17 lieutenants in June ’12, 100+ sergeants and inspectors in June ’13, then officers. The Police Academy has a class of 50 graduating in April. The captain said that when he started 30 years ago, there used to be a class every seven weeks.

The next Ingleside meeting is January 17.

PHOTO: Telstar Logistics

With the sweet, sometimes comes the sour.

No sooner had the New York Times run that charming article about the charms of Bernal’s St. Mary’s Park microhood than the local newspapers began reporting on a bizarre homicide that happened on Friday bight in a home on Justin Drive, in St. Mary’s. From the San Francisco Chronicle:

(12-12) 12:24 PST SAN FRANCISCO — A 72-year-old woman was found dead Friday night with a blood-covered suspect at the scene in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights neighborhood, San Francisco police said. The medical examiner identified the woman as Hao Mei Wu of San Francisco.

Police were called to the 200 block of Justin Drive around 10:30 p.m. to assist San Francisco fire officers who were already on scene, police spokesman Albie Esparza said.

Wu was found unconscious on the floor. Authorities said they also found a suspect, whose identity has not been released, at the scene with blood on him.

The suspect suffered self-inflicted wounds and was taken to San Francisco General Hospital, Esparza said.

Reader Sarah and Sidekick Edie attended the monthly Captain’s Meeting at the SFPD’s Ingleside Station (so you didn’t have to). And once again, the notes they shared with us are invaluable. Read on to find out what’s going on in the neighborhood, and how to stay safe:

Ingleside Community Meetings are held on third Tuesday of every month from 7 to 8 pm in the Community Room of the Ingleside station, and all are welcome to attend and ask questions. This is a great opportunity to meet and discuss crime and other problems affecting the district. 

Captain’s report by: Lieutenant Mario Delgadillo (filling in for Captain Mahoney, who was at a training session).

1. The biggest new issue for the police is Occupy SF. All districts have been sending four to five officers to the site regularly during the week, which then means fewer officers are available in the district. It also affects their ability to train the officers new to the district. That said, he added that only small splinter groups had been at all violent, and he said that many officers “would like to agree with their cause.”

2. There was a double shooting last week in the Sunnydale area; both people survived. The police have been successful in getting guns off the street in the past week. One incident, however, involved someone holding a toy rifle that looked extremely realistic. If it had been night, the person would likely have been shot. The upshot: don’t let your kids have realistic-looking guns, especially assault rifles (in case you thought that was a great idea).

3. There was a spate of robberies over the weekend in the district – across neighborhoods, apparently unconnected. There has also been a spate of bike thefts along Monterey Blvd, so the bike decoy program will likely show up there soon. It’s slow going but several people have been caught. Also have a laptop lojack decoy – an officer sitting with a bag, waiting to catch anyone who runs up and steals it.

4. There have been some new personnel rotated into the station since June:

• Lt. Parra was a lieutenant before he transferred here. 
• Lt. Delgadillo started off 30 years working gangs and narcotics in the Mission, as Sgt. he worked gangs all over the came to Ingleside. Now he’ noticing a new generation: retired police officers’ kids are arresting older gang members’ kids.
• Lt. Tom Feledey was a sergeant before he came here. 
• Lt. Trena Wearing is familiar with this district because she did recruiting here.

5. Sarah asked about the spate of wallet/bag thefts at the library playground in Bernal Heights. This had been a topic of discussion recently on the Bernal Parents List. Lt. Delgadillo didn’t think most of them had been reported, as is often the case when the victim assumes that there is little chance that the item will be recovered. But let us encourage everyone to report these crimes, even when they’re small, because the data is what allows the police to spot a trend and start using decoy programs, stationing plainclothes officers, etc. to catch the perpetrators. Lt. Delgadillo made a note of this rash of thefts, however, and will report it to the captain.

6. The lieutenant came prepared to talk about Bernal Heights. There are lots of social and cultural activities in Bernal Heights, with lots of people on the streets, so people look out for each other and don’t hesitate to call the police. Only 4 incidents reported in Bernal in the month reported on (9/11 to 10/8):

• Shooting on Franconia. Two friends got into a fight in a house, one shot and killed the other. Arrest was made the following day when the suspect returned to his house to walk his pit bull. Officers had staked out the house and arrested him.
• Aggravated assault at 30th and Mission
• Bike theft
• Car break in

Miscellaneous other information:

– Captains throughout the districts: District captains work the day shift. At night there’s a single captain for the whole city.

– Urban Shield: This past month, SWAT teams from all over the world (Jordan, Israel, East Coast US, etc.) came here to do 31 exercises in 48 hours. The teams worked non-stop in various scenarios including hostages, terrorists, dignitaries and moved from one incident location to another all over the Bay Area, including on ferries, BART, aircraft, etc. Interesting trivia: Jordan’s team shot everyone in sight in an exercise to protect a dignitary (considering everyone they “shot” as collateral damage), but they also have a separate all-female SWAT team to work in areas men aren’t allowed. SF has two SWAT teams. Some of the Peninsula cities have shared SWAT teams.

– Neighborhood watch groups are very good at affecting crime. In the Mission, when Lt. Delgadillo was working there on gang matters, neighbors began doing neighborhood walks, accompanied by police officers. The gang members saw them with the police and realized that they couldn’t touch the neighbors or they’d get arrested, so they moved away from the walkers and changed to other streets.

– Alemany trash and graffiti: Police are trying to clean up abandoned cars and campers (some with people living in them) because they’re a hazard to kids who might try to get into them. Campers also go to Holly Park to camp – probably when the police have moved them off of Alemany. Police are being aggressive (within the law) by towing vans, but there’s only so much they can do. (A member of the community had asked about these.)

– The sidewalk at the top of the hill overlooking San Jose Avenue between the Highland and Richland Avenue bridges is not mapped in the 911 system. When neighbors call, the operators always thinks they’re talking about the sidewalk at the street level on San Jose Ave. itself, not the paths behind the houses up above San Jose. The group discussed how to fix this issue using specific language and asking to speak to a supervisor.

– Marijuana dispensaries: will the Feds start clamping down again? Rumors abound, but not an SFPD priority. FBI and DEA can undertake their own actions, however.

– A suspect in a recent series of bank robberies all over the Bay Area was apprehended on Tuesday in the Ingleside District. Another bank robber turned himself in the same day. 

CRIME STATS:
4-week period, 9/11/11 to 10/8/11

Crime/Number of Incidents/% change (month)/% change (YTD)/# arrests

Aggravated Assault/23/-12%/-33%/13
Robbery/23/-12%/6%/4
Sexual Assualt/2/1/100%/0
Burglary/34/10%/-16%/1
Auto Theft/40/-30%/-13%/0
Theft from Auto/43/-17%/-6%/0

PHOTO: Telstar Logistics

Horrible:

A suspect has been arrested in the killing of a man who was shot while hanging out with friends in the home he shared with his parents in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights, police and a relative of the victim said Tuesday.

The man was shot in the head at the home on the 400 block of Franconia Street, just west of Highway 101, shortly before 9:40 p.m. Monday, police said. He died at the scene.

A family member identified the victim as Richard Ray Fowler Jr., 28. Police said the murder suspect was 34-year-old Anthony Wright, who lives in San Francisco.

Fowler was playing video games with two friends when the suspect arrived, said Daniel Martinez, 48, Fowler’s half-brother.

All three men knew the suspect, who shortly after arriving drew a gun and indicated he was there to settle a score, Martinez said. The half-brother was not in the home at the time but said he had spoken to witnesses.

The gunman fired one shot, which struck Fowler in the head, Martinez said. Fowler’s parents were upstairs at the time.

Apprarently, Wright, the suspect, lived on Holladay.

The SFPD has adopted a new strategy in the War on Bicycle Theft: The cops search for pilfered bikes amid the stolen merchandise offered for sale around Sixth/Mission in SoMa, then try to trace the stolen bikes back to burglary or theft reports from other neighborhoods around the City.

This week, the strategy paid off — leading to the arrest of a Bernal Heights bicycle thief. Mike Adax of the SF Examiner got the story:

The victim, an Anza Vista resident, found his stolen bicycle listed for sale on the Internet and called police. The listing led police to a pawn shop in the first block of Sixth Street in the South of Market district.

Police then learned that a 46-year-old Bernal Heights man had pawned the bicycle the day after he allegedly stole it on Aug. 16, Park Station police said.

On Saturday, police went to the Bernal Heights man’s home, but did not find their man. Instead they arrested another occupant on a felony warrant.

The following day, the suspected bike thief called police on his own, admitted to the burglary and was later arrested at his home and charged with stolen property and first-degree burglary, police said.

PHOTO: Bike in Bernal Heights, by juicyrai

Reader Sarah, who graciously covers the Bernalwood Crime Beat, attended the SFPD’s Ingleside Station Chief’s Meeting this week (once again, so you didn’t have to). Here’s her excellent summary of the latest Bernal Heights crime and crime trend news:

September 20, 2011

I. Captain’s report by : Captain Daniel Mahoney

Monthly Ingleside Community Meetings are held monthly on third Tuesday from 7 to 8 pm in the Community Room of the Ingleside station. This is a great opportunity to meet and discuss crime and other problems affecting the district.

Recap since August meeting
1. On August 29, the street where the Ingleside station is located was rededicated to officer John V. Young, who was killed in 1971 by members of the Black Liberation Army. The flag will permanently fly at half-mast in his honor.

2. Compstat crime stats for the past 28 days (the formatting doesn’t come out that well in this text format, but hopefully you can get the gist):

Type of incident / # incidents / % Change monthly / % Change YTD / # Arrests:
Aggravated Assaults: 26/ –4% /–32%/ 16
Robbery: 25 /–19% / 5%/  3
Sexual Assault: 2 /– 0%/– 0%/ 1
Burglary: 28/–15%/ –17%/ 2
Auto Theft: 42/ 2% /–11% /1
Theft from Auto: 46 /5%/ –5%

Crime Trends and Information:

1. Most aggravated assaults are caused by domestic violence (DV). There’s a lot of DV in the Ingleside, but most is behind closed doors, where it’s hard to stop.

2. Robberies are continuing, especially grab-and-run robberies. Often a person is sitting on the bus near the door, talking on their cell phone/listening to an iPod, and a thief grabs the phone/iPod and jumps off the bus. The officers and outside resources assigned to the MUNI Response Team are excellent investigators and very responsive. They download the video from the buses the same day, share it with the stations, and work together to make arrests. They also often know the criminals. There have also been many chain-snatch robberies because gold is at $1900/ounce now. Recent victims have been between 48 and 65, mostly female.

3. To stop auto thefts and auto break-ins, police put a decoy car out in areas of high auto break-ins and theft to try and catch the perps. They recently had success with this at Mission & Kingston.

3. Shootings in the Ingleside
Several shootings within the past month, all people known to each other and/or gang-related.

There was a recent homicide at Alemany and Putnam at 1pm. A car pulled up to another car stopped at a light, and someone got out and shot someone in the car at the light. The suspect and victim knew each other and did not live in the Ingleside. At Geneva and Delano, there was a similar shooting at 11:30am (car pulled up and shot 18 rounds at someone in another car). That person survived. Similar circumstances. The captain said these incidents involve people coming in from other neighborhoods “to the east” and doing their nefarious business in the Ingleside.

One and a half weeks ago there was another shooting Mission and Excelsior that started as a fist-fight, then the loser pulled out a gun; Norteno/Sureno related. Finally, there was a homicide in the Sunnydale area that was also not random.

3. Smoke Shops selling Bath Salts that kids snort to get high.
There’s been a problem with this recently in a few smoke shops. These bath salts cause a meth-like high. Legislation making it illegal to possess or sell bath salts with that kind of chemical derivative is about to pass the state legislature. The city attorney’s office has also taken successful action against the smoke shops.

4. Traffic Enforcement
Ingleside put two operations to put decoys on the street to cross the street. Anyone who doesn’t stop for them gets a ticket, 32 people cited. Will create flyers to pass out to those who are caught to teach them what the laws are about pedestrians crossing the street. Will also put out speed monitors to educate people on the speed they’re going.

Many thanks, as always, to Reader Sarah. Let’s be careful out there, people.

PHOTO: Telstar Logistics