Thursday, May 28, 2009

Carnaval patrol 5/24/09

The 2nd day of the event SUNDAY MAY 24th, THE LA CARNIVAL. We will begin early today because of the parade, meeting time is 9:00am. Everyone has arrived that is going to do this event has arrived, we have 12 angels, 6 angels on each team. Same as yesterday two teams, Greencard will lead the first team, I J.D. will lead the shadow team, and we will use the radios for communication. Next thing to do is our prebreif, and advised everyone again about crowd control because this is the biggest day of the event, everyone was ready and everyone was focused.

Got to the bus stop, caught the #26 bus, next stop 16th St. and Valencia. Soon as we got there we could tell this was going to be one hell of a day, there where a lot of people heading towards the parade, and we where going to head that same direction. The parade began on 24th St. and turned off on 17th St. straight down Mission St. and there was people on both sides of the street.

Our tour begin on 17th st. and to march up to 24th st. as we started the patrol it was not so good, right of the bat we took five beers off the streets from individuals that knew not to drink in public. Then we responded to a electrical cord going across the side walk that could easily make someone fall, it was coming from inside a business, we talked to the owner about it, and he advised us that he would put tape over it for safety, we agreed and went on our way. As the parade began to end we had already toured up and around from 24th st. back down to 17th st. we stopped off for lunch, we regrouped and begin our tour to Harrison St.

This is going to be very exciting evening there is 3 times amount of people than yesterday, but we can handle it, we are Guardian Angels. Once we had got inside the event it was more than we expected for a crowd but it was safe and it was in control by the SFPD. Every time I see something like this I think we need more Angels, but what I have learned over the years is that we need good leaders. The day was closing the night was coming an end, we did what we could and I am thankful for this safe day, so we headed back to HQ on the #14 bus. Today was only the San Francisco Chapter that did this event and we did a good job, a great job, because we are a close group, a family. We did our debreif and we went on our on ways thinking about our next event. THANKS GUYS! your chapter leader J.D.
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Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Carnaval patrol, 5/23/09

The LA CARNIVAL is a major EVENT of the year for the San Francisco GUARDIAN ANGELS, and this is the first day of the event, SATURDAY MAY 23RD. We did have guests for this event, we had the RENO CHAPTER, and we had the LA CHAPTER at our side.

This is a good thing to get a chance to see angels from other chapters. As we began the day we started with lunch from Subway because we knew how busy the day was going to be, this was good for everyone. Then we got ready to pick out our two teams, pass out our radios for communication, did our pre-brief to make sure everyone knew what to expect in a big crowd. Total angels we have is 16, 16 GA is very good, two teams of 8, we are strong and we are ready.

Got to the bus stop and caught the #14 bus to 16th St. got off at 16th St. and Mission and began our patrol, I (J.D.) was lead patrol, Scorpion my second in command is the shadow patrol. We marched down 16th St. to Harrison St. where the LA CARNIVAL began. The event consists of 7 whole blocks of fun, food, rides, and a lot of people, drinking was allowed only in curtain areas but we know how that goes. We posted up on a few corners and kept our eyes open for anything that could happen, we were focused and we were alert, and yes we did take a lot of pictures from people who had cameras, a lot of pictures.

As the day got later and the event was as peaceful as it could get we decided to call it a day, everyone agreed, we were on 22nd St. and we had to march back down to 16th St. this took some time but we wanted to see if anything would happen and nothing did. So we got to 16th St. made a left and headed back up to Mission St. caught the #14 bus and made our way back to the HQ, got to HQ for our debrief. I was amazed of how this day turned out, SAFE AND SECURE. I ask everyone how they felt, they said they felt tired because this was a patrol, a patrol of all patrols, AN EVENT, but we still have tomorrow to go.

THANK YOU! RENO, THANK YOU! LA For Your Support And Your Help!
Chapter Leader J.D.

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5/21/09 Tenderloin Community Meeting

May 21st 2009, we the SFGA had a community meeting at 201 TURK ST. with all the tenants of this building. We believe the meeting went well, the turn out could of been better, and there were some language problems. Our contact person was Kate, she is the one who set up this meeting for the tenants to be more organized, to be more safe in there community that they live in.


As the SFGA got up to talk to the concern tenants, we advised them that we are going to watch and patrol there building as much as we can, we advised them to be more observant of their surroundings, and to report crime activity they see to there manager, police, or the guardian angels. As I (J.D.) remember talking to this group of people, I saw a lot of children, children that want a chance in life, children that want a role model, and I felt a good feeling about being there, talking about safety, talking about matters, and saying that we do care because we are the GUARDIAN ANGELS. As the meeting began to end we did answer questions, and we did pass out our flyers that we hand out, we did not want to leave until whole the meeting was over. I do wish we could attend more meetings like this one because this gets the word out, that we are here and we are going to help out in anyway, the GUARDIAN ANGELS. (J.D.)
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Monday, May 25, 2009

Carnaval 2009

Thousands celebrate Carnaval in the Mission

San Francisco Chronicle


Jim Doyle, Chronicle Staff Writer

Monday, May 25, 2009

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Jocelyn Boreca of San Francisco patched together her scanty outfit, adorned with sequins and beads, a few days ago.

"It was easy. All you need is a hot glue gun," said Boreca, whose costume was topped with a blue feathered headdress.

Boreca was among thousands of dancers, musicians, stilt-walkers and giant puppets who took to the streets Sunday for the 31st annual Carnaval celebration in San Francisco's Mission District.

The event, a street fair that embraces the sounds, colors and positive energy of its Latin America and Caribbean roots, drew tens of thousands of spectators, despite gray skies.

Boreca, who danced near naked with the group Energia do Samba, summed it up this way: "You couldn't feel more alive. It's all about confidence."

Other dancers - accompanied by drummers and musicians of all ages - wore traditional Bolivian, Indian and African costumes.

The Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts was represented by a multilayered float, which featured a handful of drummers and women in costumes followed by dancers in vivid, gold-yellow dresses.

The parade began about 9:30 a.m. and slowly snaked its way through the neighborhood for hours, as floats, reggae bands on flatbed trucks, vintage cars and sanitation workers with steel garbage cans on wheels all rolled by.

Gerry Clark of Daly City set up a deck chair beside the parade route to catch a glimpse of her 16-year-old grandson drumming and her daughter Kim, who dances.

"The rhythm, the dance, the beat makes me want to dance and sing," Clark said, "but I don't know if my body will let me do it any more."

Kasia Meron, and her son Eitan, 5, watched the parade from atop a stepladder that they brought from their house. Her husband, Adam, stood nearby with their other son, Avi, 3.

"We love it," she said. "It's great to see everyone celebrating their place of origin."

Even the San Francisco Bookmobile showed up.

"It's fun to be a part of it," said librarian Marianne Robatto, who held a banner in the parade for the Mission Branch Library.

Police in sunglasses ogled the dancers, along with everyone else. And the local chapter of the Guardian Angels, a nonprofit community group, also watched over the event.

"I always dress up and float in and out of the parade," said Beta Colussi of San Francisco, who wore a wraparound skirt and headdress with flowers. "The more glitter, the more sparkle, the more fun."

Colussi said one of the things she likes best about the event is "you see so many kids involved. It helps them stay connected to their culture."

Scores of young girls from the Edison Charter Academy in San Francisco were dressed in butterfly costumes.

"It's my first year. I didn't expect it to be so much fun," said Amaris Tenorio, 11, who wore a red headdress and danced with a Latin hip-hop ensemble.

"I think it's the best thing I've ever done," said Esperanza Tirrez, 12, who also danced with the hip-hop group.

"This is one day they look forward to all year," said Rebecca Benavidez of San Leandro, who brought her daughter Anna, 11, and granddaughter Angelina Perez, 8, who were dressed in Tex-Mex costumes and danced with the Aquarela samba group.

"It makes me feel happy," Angelina said.

E-mail Jim Doyle at jdoyle@sfchronicle.com

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/25/BA0517QG5S.DTL

This article appeared on page B - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
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Monday, May 18, 2009

Tenderloin patrol, training, 5/16/09

On Saturday May 16th 2009, we the San Francisco Guardian Angels began the day with prebreif, first half of the day patrolling the Tenderloin, second half of the day First Aid and CPR class. I J.D. will be leading the patrol with 9 other angels, total 10 angels, we got outside the building of the Bayanihan House to team up and headed down 6th street toward the TL.

Got to Turk St. same old stuff different day, smoking crack, drinking, and the drug dealing, but we posted up as we usually do, and it got quiet, a bit peaceful. As for this spot we do what we can to the best of our abilities, we have took chances and we have took risks but we are a team, and a team sticks together because we watch each others back, that is why we do this.

We care, we DARE TO CARE, you have be trained and you have to have experience to go to these kind of places. Next to 201 Turk Building for our break, but we headed right back out into the streets because there is so much going on today, the Bay To Breakers and we had our training back the Bayanihan House, so we called it a day in the TL. Got to HQ to find out the trainer for our class was not there, he had to call it off because he could not get away from the class he was in. Plan B, patrol UNION SQUARE, we are not just going to call it a day we are going out on patrol. So we headed to Union Square, posted up on a few corners, went around a few blocks, we took photos with a lot of tourists, and we got to show off our colors in places we don't always go to. Not a bad day, and we came back safe, did our debrief. Thank You guys for a great job, your chapter leader J.D.
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Tuesday, May 12, 2009

May 9th patrol

We began the day with 9 guardian angels, this day was suppose to be spent on self-defense training, but the instructor did not show up, this happens I guess, its just we try to get as much training as possible when we can. We did have other things to do in case things like this happens, we began our updates about upcoming events and other training classes.


So looks like we are on track and we are on schedule and we are on the same page. Now we get ready for our patrol, we have been getting alot of calls from UNION SQUARE, we thought we would go and check on this just to see how things are really like there, but everything was fine and there was a lot of tourists, so we made a U-TURN and went into the Tenderloin. One patrol one team to go into the Tenderloin, we must focus on a good and productive patrol because I JD will lead this patrol. Got to Turk St. all hell was all over the place some people just don't care about themselves and some people do, you see a lot of it in the TL. But we posted up as we do and things got quiet and cool, next we went to 201 Turk Building where we can take a bathroom break and water break.

Then we headed down the street, talk to a few neighbors that are happy to see us out in the street, we do get people that really like us and then we get people that really hate us. But we keep moving to other streets, post up a few more times, things got better and we began to feel a little bet more relaxed. Time to head back to the HQ to do our debrief, and to be thankful for another safe and productive day as a Guardian Angel.

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