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hydrospanner t1_j3lns71 wrote

I mean...are those people wrong?

How is an organized "crime watch" any different than the same collection of individuals separately having an MO of "if I see sketchy shit I'll call the cops"?

Just seems to me like the sort of thing that everyone is fine without, but it is formed by people craving any sort of authority they can get their hands on...uniting with the people who want to be up in everyone's business.

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just-kath t1_j3mgu6s wrote

Well, mostly it was a monthly meeting where people told of any experiences they had that the police didn't share. It's good to know if cars are being broken into or things being stolen from porches. There were no cameras trained on people's homes other than their own. But everyone was encouraged to call the police if they saw something suspicious. That didn't seem intrusive to me, it is just what I do anyway. Neighbors should watch out for each other. Some of us do. One of the best additions to our neighborhood is a very young family and they are so nice, and the young man keeps an eye out.

For instance. I was coming home with my golden and we had just gotten out of the car. A very large, unknown to him the dog was coming right for us. I stuffed my dog back in the car... he actually saw it from his upstairs office and came out on his porch roof to try to distract the dog from me so I could get into the house. It turns out it was a neighbors dog that I had met.. fierce looking but not fierce. When I realized who it was, I called him by name and corralled him for the neighbor who owned him. .

So. He helped me when he thought I was in danger. I helped my neighbor who wasn't home by keeping track of her dog so he wouldn't get hurt. This is being neighborly. This is how it used to be. Now... people just don't look out for each other in a lot of cases. So.. Whatever. The young guy is so great and I appreciate him.

Forming a group didn't help, the good folks are still good and the bad guys benefit from the good guys watching out for them... life goes on

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