Thursday, August 27, 2009

Tenderloin patrol, 8/22/09

The San Francisco Guardian Angels will be patrolling the Tenderloin Dist. today, there are 12 angels that has arrived for this patrol, there will be two teams. I J.D. will be the lead team and Scorpion will be the shadow team, there will be six angels on each team. We will be using all the radios today for communication and for training, this gives the I-Supports a chance to learn our radio codes. The I-Support is a new member, a volunteer that has to go through training for at lease three to four months or if it does not work out it does not work out. We start out the day with prebrief, everyone is in their uniform, and everyone is ready to go out for patrol.

We march on to Turk St. post up on some corners, but it is all clear, we get to one of our contacts the 201 Turk St. building, it too is all clear. Next we march down a few more blocks, post up on a few more corners, they to are all clear. Now we get to Ellis and Jones corner, this corner never ceases to amaze me how this corner can still do the things that it does and nobody does anything about it.

The drugs, the drug dealing is all over the place, so we post up at this corner and hold our ground, people are yelling, and people are pissed off that they cannot buy their drugs in front of us, the Guardian Angels. I guess they know that we can make a citizen's arrest. As we secure the area there is this store that the drug dealers keep going in and out of to do there deals, we know this but we do not work like DEA, so our hands are tied on this one. We did manage to do other things like take some needles off a guy that was asleep on the side walk, but to find out that this guy's home is on the side walk, was a sad thing to hear.

So we move on, we march to O'Farrell St. to our next contact, 631 O'Farrell St. building, it is all clear. We marched on to a few more blocks, post up on a few more corners, did not find any bad guys doing bad things today, so we decided to call it a day and march back to our HQ. We get back to the HQ, change back to our street clothes and began our prebrief of the day. Everyone always seems to learn something doing this and everyone feels they have the heart for this, but I think in some way or another the Guardian Angels are HEROES.
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Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Night patrol, Mission, 8/15/09

Saturday August 15th 2009, we the San Francisco Guardian Angels will be doing a night patrol, the area is the Mission Dist. As we normally do, we start off with prebrief before we begin our patrol, there are 9 Angels for tonight. The patrol will be only one team, and Freddy, code name Greencard, will be leading the team on this patrol, I J.D. will be his 2nd in command, and we will be using all the radios for communication.

We now partner up and head to the bus stop, we catch bus #14 to go to the Mission Dist. we get there and the first thing to do is post up, at the 16th street BART STATION. This is a hot spot for drug dealing and drug using of all kinds, on this night it seems to be somewhat calm, so Greencard calls all clear and we move on. But on this night we are out on a special patrol because a rapist has been attacking women in the area. We were asked if we could do a major patrol of the area, and that is why we are here.

Greencard is the leader for this patrol, he has done many night patrols and he knows this area like the back of his hand, he takes the team in spots that we have never patrolled before, this is good but it can also be dangerous. The patrol goes up and down Capp St. and Valencia St. and all the side streets in between and not to forget Mission St. We managed to pick up a few needles off the street and we picked up a few crack pipes as well, but there was one crack pipe that really did matter, we took it off a young prostitute on Capp St. We talked to her and advised her, she gave the pipe up and hopefully she took our advice. We move on to look for this rapist.

The night is at a standstill, and there is nothing else that seems to be going on, as Greencard is looking at everyone he decides to call it a night. It is a productive night, we did not catch the rapist but maybe he saw us and changed his mind about doing anything that night. Greencard got the patrol back safe to HQ, we did debrief, and everyone went home.

There were three members of San Francisco Guardian Angels that went to help out Oakland on this night, Cobra, Hunter, and Dragon. I J.D. received a report back from the chapter leader Ajax, she advised me that all three angels had did a very good job on the event.

I commend Cobra, Hunter, and Dragon on a well done job for representing our city of San Francisco.
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Monday, August 10, 2009

Haight-Ashbury patrol, 8/8/09

Saturday August 8th 2009, we the San Francisco Guardian Angels will be patrolling the Height Ashbury distritc today. Today there will be a time change for this patrol, 11:00am to 7:00pm, a good 8 hours is just the basic time for a patrol and enough time to reach certain areas that we want to patrol. We now begin with our prebrief and plans for the day’s activities, there are 9 angels for today's patrol and we are just going to be 1 team for today, I J.D. will lead this team.

We are all changed into our uniforms, we are all focused, and we are all ready to go out to patrol. We march to the bus stop, today's bus is the #7, or the #71, or the #6, we get on the bus stop with no problems, next we get to the Haight Ashbury Dist. to the area that we are patrolling. The Haight Ashbury Dist. is different from the Mission Dist, and different from the Tenderloin Dist. but it does have crime and it does have bad guys, and it is good that we have the support of the community behind us.

We march down the main street of this area all the way to the Golden Gate Park, we did post up on some corners but there were no problems. Now we march right into the Golden Gate Park on this beautiful day, and soon as we get to where the trees are there are some bad guys that are calling us every name in the book that hate the Guardian Angels with all of their hearts, but we are ready in case it escalates, but nothing happens so we move on. We march around to the Koret Children’s Quarter, a playground for the kids, and we post up outside around the gate to observe safety and drug activity, there where no problems. We did what we could to do a good patrol for this area, we next begin to march out of the park and guess who we run right into the same bad guys again, they cuss us out again, there where no hands put on anyone and that was it, we showed no fear and we did not back down. We march out of the park feeling pretty good, next we march back down the main street of the Haight Ashbury Dist. there where no problems. Got to the bus stop, posted up and this man came up to me J.D. and ask to take a photo of us all, I said sure, he said come with him to his house where he had this set-up for a professional picture, this was a good photo and we cant wait to this guy e-mails it to us.

Got back to the bus stop, caught the bus and headed back to downtown, we were on the bus talking about the Filipino Festival and decided to go and check this out as we where on our way back to the HQ anyway. Got off the bus at 3rd street to march to the Filipino Festival, we arrive and there where a lot of people but no bad guys. So we march to the HQ, got to the HQ, change back into our street clothes and begin our debrief, everyone got a chance to speak about the day and everyone said we all did a good job for today's patrol.
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Friday, August 7, 2009

8/5/09, Mission patrol

On Wednesday morning Greencard led a patrol in the Mission for training and recruitment purposes. With seven Guardian Angels, they rode the 14 Mission bus to 16th and Mission to begin the patrol.

At 16th and Mission we left the bus, and Scorpion led one patrol and I was leading the other.

Scorpion was leading a three member patrol (Old school, Thunder and himself) while I took the rest of the members, (Williams, Zorro, and Dragon), Williams was leading the second patrol because I was training him to become a leader.

Scorpion’s patrol posted up on 16th Street while William’s patrol starting recruiting, we were there for about 20 minutes and then we went to check "Central Park" playground located near the 16th Street, a playground that drugs users goes to do drugs, in that area it was a guy smoking crack inside the park, Zorro talked to him and confiscated the crack pipe from him and destroyed it outside the park, the suspect left the playground with nothing else but a dirty look to us.

On the way to check "Caledonia Alley" we met a resident from Rondel Place, he told us that this neighborhood was quiet and nice, but lately there have been many problems. Some of them are that people go there to do drugs, urinate and sometimes some people that come from a nearby bar on the corner use that place to have sex. We checked the area but all we found was couple of syringes, and we picked them and put them in a disposable container, and of course the heavy smell of urine. We promised to him that we are going to start doing some patrols from time to time in the area and he is going to talk with all the residents of that neighborhood to let them know who the Guardian Angels are.

After that meeting we continue our patrols, we went to 24th. Street, for recruiting, but we left the area around 3 in the afternoon because one undercover agent talked to us and told us that they were going to do "undercover ops" in the area so we decided to leave and do the bus patrols again, we have couple of numbers from some people, and after that we called off the day. -Green-Card, S.F. Senior Leader
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Tuesday, August 4, 2009

8/1/09, Tenderloin patrol

Saturday August 1st 2009, we the San Francisco Guardian Angels will be patrolling the Tenderloin Dist. today, we have 11 Angels for patrol and we will be using the radios for communications. Before we leave the HQ, we have our prebrief and upcoming events, everyone is ready and everyone is focus, we will be in 2 teams, I J.D. will be lead team and Scorpion will be shadow team with Greencard as a observer.

We leave the HQ, and head out to the TL, we get to Turk St. to patrol the area, the area is all clear. We get to the 201 building where we post up for awhile, it too is all clear. Next we get to Eddy St. to patrol the area, this area is all clear, then we head to Ellis St. to patrol the area. Ellis St. and Jones St. this is where it is at today, the drug dealing and the violence, so we post up for awhile and it calms down and the bad guys leave, this is what we do. Next we get to O'Farrell St. to patrol the area, it too is all clear.

As Guardian Angels we want to do something for this city, this community, this neighborhood, but at times there are no bad guys and there are no troubles, then we must be doing something right for it to be like this. But there is one other thing that really matters to us also, that is we come back SAFE. We call it a day and we head back to the HQ, we get to the HQ, change into our street clothes and we begin our debrief. Debrief is something that helps the chapter be a better chapter, it helps us not to make the same mistakes again, it helps us to become closer to each other as a team and a chapter, it helps us in our own personal lives. It was a good patrol today and we have a very good chapter for the state of CALIFORNIA.
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