“A new, controversial study based on annual FBI crime statistics names Mission Viejo the safest city in the nation,” according to the O.C. Register. “Following Mission Viejo was Lake Forest, ranked as 10th, and Irvine, ranked as 11th.”
“The 14th annual City Crime Rankings: Crime in Metropolitan American, released on Friday, looked at about 400 cities in the U.S. with at least 75,000 people. The study was based on per-capita rates for homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and auto theft.”
Well, I am not surprised to see Mission Viejo, Lake Forest and Irvine at the top of the list, but what about the Orange County seat, Santa Ana? It took me a little while, but I found the website where you can get all of this data. Santa Ana is the 187th safest city and the 192nd most dangerous city in the U.S. Santa Ana’s score was 16.87. Mission Viejo scored a -82.11. In these rankings, the higher your negative score, the better.
Norwalk, Downey and El Monte had better scores than Santa Ana. So did Anaheim, Fontana, West Covina and Oxnard. Which reminds me of something that Santa Ana Councilwoman Claudia “Clownia” Alvarez said at a recent City Council meeting. “I’m in charge of fighting crime,” said Alvarez, who works as an assistant O.C. district attorney. Well Clownia, it looks like you’re doing an awful job!
Look no further than last year’s rankings for proof that Santa Ana is not doing well, with regard to crime. Last year Santa Ana was the 202nd most dangerous city, and the 170th safest city. So Santa Ana’s ranking has slipped in BOTH categories. Remember this when Clownia and her cohorts ask you to extend their council terms next February. If anything we ought to recall them!
When you’re looking at crime reports for cities that contract with the OC Sheriff’s Dept., including Mission Viejo, what are these numbers worth? A policeman from another city (with its own police force) said Mission Viejo doesn’t have the lowest crime rate, it’s the city with the most unreported crimes. Those who live in Mission Viejo can attest to how difficult it is to get a policeman to follow up on a complaint.
If everything were reported, it would make the Sheriff’s Dept. look bad. The Sheriff’s Dept. has no reason to admit to a higher crime rate when no one can prove otherwise.
I am sure that the Mission Viejo has no Mexicans, and if it does they are gentrificated from there.
So any crime in Santa Ana is directly proportional to your and Mill’s protection of the unassimilated, illegal Mexicans.
Poster 1,
We have the same problem in Santa Ana. The police appear to ignore certain calls.
A friend of mine recently saw someone choking a young person in a park. He called the police, and yelled at the perpetrator. The perp and an accomplice ceased their activities, which my friend reported to the police dispatcher.
My friend was then asked if he still wanted a police response. Unbelievable!
So if SAPD is gaming the system, that nullifies whatever their counterparts are doing in Mission Viejo. Apparently most O.C. cops cheat by virtue of non-reporting.
Poster 2,
Recently a dozen historical markers were pried off of buildings in our downtown area. They were recovered at two recycling centers. The perps were NOT Latinos. They were homeless guys with Anglo surnames (which means they could have been African American as well, but that was not made clear in news reports).
BTW, a judge recently approved an injunction for a street gang that operates in Mission Viejo, San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano. News reports indicated the gang members were Latinos. So apparently south O.C. does have problems that are similar to Santa Ana’s, except on a smaller scale.
The real problems in Santa Ana are an out-of-touch City Manager, an inept Mayor and City Council, and a police department that answers to the Mayor and his cronies, not to the people.
Art is right. Anglos commit most of the crimes in Santa Ana.
Many police officers in Santa Ana are very hesitant to take police reports. It’s like the more police reports they take down, the safer the city appears.
A friend of mine over at the Santiago Street Lofts said that he’s in the market for A HANDGUN because he doesn’t feel safe walking around the complex at night after work.
That’s a pretty scary thought when the good citizens feel that they need to be armed while going for a stroll after work.
Art and Larry, what percentage of Santa Ana’s and Mission Viejo’s budgets are dedicated to police services?
“A friend of mine over at the Santiago Street Lofts said that he’s in the market for A HANDGUN because he doesn’t feel safe walking around the complex at night after work.”
Earth to Santiago Loft resident….You bought a “home” next to a train station in a mixed use industrial area! It’s not Disneyland! How many cities of populations over 300,000 do you know of in the U.S. that are NOT a little scary around the train stations at night? I don’t know what those Santiago Loft Salesmen told you when you bought that place but you should be packing heat if you want to jog with your dog at night!
Art:
A number of people saw present Mission Viejo Councilman Lance MacLean remove an opponents campaign sign in the last city council election. The OC Sheriff was called and did nothing about it. Why–the on site officer said, ” We don’t want the statistics”
The OC Sheriff in Mission Viejo has a long and “proud” history of not reporting the actual crimes committed. The thefts from the Shops at Mission Viejo just underscores that problem.
Don’t belive the spin from the Sheriff in Mission Viejo
#9, you’re a moron. No deputy on that scene said they did not want to take a report because of crime statistics. No beat cop cares at all about statistics. No matter what city they patrol. You think they will get a bonus or raise if stats are low? Just another blogger posting blah blah blah, he knows nothing about.
Art, in regards to post #3, I think it’s more an issue of the the police being highly understaffed. Well, at least I hope it is.
Poster #6, I live at the Santiago Street Lofts as well and don’t see a need for a gun yet, pepperspray maybe.
Please tell you friend who’s looking to get a gun to get in touch with me if possible. I’m very curious and alarmed as to why and how they’ve arrived at this position.
Thanks.
#9 , by the way, the man and his two son’s who are responsible for the thefts at the MV mall were arrested recently at their Chop Shop in Los Angeles, and after good work by OC Sheriff’s detectives, the man admitted to many thefts there. Did’nt know that, did you? Well there’s alot you do not know. Every arrest, and theft, are not made public, most of the time for good reason. Something else you do not know. Don’t talk smack about things you really have no knowledge about.
Amazing… Art.
Any criticism of Michele Martinez is not posted.
Now we can see how unfairly you would you run the city if elected as Mayor.
Another child murdered in a heavily residential area during Sunday evening family hour. How is it that this is allowed to happen in such a densely populated area?
Don’t give me any crap about infrastructure, opportunities, demonization of a population or any other of that tired, socialist horsepoop. Somebody pointed a gun at this kid and executed him in a very crowded neighborhood. What the hell is wrong with these people?!?!
Santa Ana is in big trouble – this is happening ALL THE TIME. Time to look inward and STOP blaming Pulido, Art. He didn’t put a gun in someone’s hand. All of you lefties on this blog yammer endlessly about injustice and Dave Ream, or some republican flunky saying/doing some stupid thing, while congratulating yourselves on your latest City Hall expose. Meanwhile, gangs are destroying your city and killing your youth.
WAKE UP, Art – Tom Tancredo isn’t the problem! The HISPANICS killing other Hipanics ARE.
Its the gangs, stupid. What a pandering fool you are…
Santa Ana teen fatally shot
The 17-year-old boy was shot Sunday in the 500 block of South Lyon.
By DENISSE SALAZAR
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Comments 0| Recommend 2
SANTA ANA – Police continue to investigate the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old boy in an apartment complex.
Police responded to a call of shots fired about 5 p.m. Sunday in the 500 block of South Lyon Street near Chestnut Avenue, said Santa Ana police Cmdr. James Schnabl.
Officers discovered the boy lying on the ground with a gunshot wound. He was taken to Western Medical Center
poster #5 please put down arts la raza newspaper and the beer . santa ana is 90% latino and your telling me whites commit most of the crimes . what are you on . its like the afro americans when they live in watts and scream out racial profiling because blacks are getting more tickets than whites ..
#9 and #10
You both don’t get it. I doubt any deputy admitted that they do not want the statistics. Whatever he did say amounts to the truth that he doesn’t want to be bothered writing a 2 hour report against a political candidate his supervisor will quash before it is ever filed. The truth is most cops do not want to be bothered writing reports for minor crimes. It takes longer to file them than it is worth to them. Santa Ana is no better or worse than any other department in this modern era.
Most of these gang related killing are in the areas that the single family homes were replaced with apartments (mid-density) in the 80
“Any criticism of Michele Martinez is not posted.”
Art, answer what happened with Martinez’s EPIC??
If you will not answer or post this request than you are the sauce of the problem, not a solution.
In such case you should stop blogging about Santa Ana crime and bashing Pulido for it.
#2
You are so wrong; MV has a large population of Hispanics. MV has done an excellent job in integrating their low income housing and services for the under-served.
Next time take a drive to SoOC and you will see a large diversity of races.
#10
I was there and have the recording. Would you like to hear it ?? Would you like some pictures.
And for catching them–great–how about doing what your paid to do–prevent them. Also you skip right over the cover up during the council elections. Keep covering your miss management— boys.
I think the point of the story is the fact that cities in south Orange County are far superior to that of central OC cities, but especially SanTana. If you were to ask 10 people if they would choose SanTana or Mission Viejo as a place to live, 10 out of 10 would say Mission. SanTana is a toilet bowl. People who can’t afford to buy something in a nice community have to settle for SanTana. And then they have to send their kids to schoolw with a bunch of savages.
What has the new gang commission done to help the gang problems in Santa Ana? It is just more people collecting a paycheck from the city to attend meetings and do nothing. That’s why all the commissioners think it will be easy to become councilmembers, so that they can get paid to go to meetings and do nothing. Right Sal?
What has Councilwoman and Crime topper Claudia Alvarez done to stop crime in Santa Ana? Nada-zip.
Gang murders have increased every year that she has been on Council except for one. Pathetic record from a pathetic self serving clown.
anon. 8:12 a.m.
For starters we are not comparing apples to apples. Mission Viejo is a Contract City and utilizes the OCSD while Santa Ana has it’s own police department with all the related infrastructure expenditures.
To your question. Mission Viejo’s General Fund Budget for 2007-08 is $70 million of which $16.5 million is for our police service Contract or 23.5 percent.
anon 9:20 p.m.
2007 population of Mission Viejo is reported at 98,436 of which 70,735 are White, 11,266 Hispanic, 7,244 Asian, 1,032 Black, 2,825 other races.
Said another way our hispanic population is 12.1 percent.
I’ve lived in Santa Ana for over 20 years, sent my kids to public school; they didn’t get the greatest education and now I’m ready to pull up stakes and not only leave Santa Ana, but leave the state. I do not see Santa Ana getting better, I see it getting worse.
Folks. A few months ago I attended and blogged a meeting in Santa Ana where it was reported that Santa Ana has 118 gangs. To the best of my knowledge there are no gangs that call Mission Viejo their home turf.
For those of you asking about the EPIC commission, I ask you to please direct your questions to Thomas Gordon, my co-blogger. He is a member of that commission.
To date Councilwoman Michele Martinez is the ONLY Council Member who has gotten involved in the issue of stopping the gang violence in our city. The rest of the council is antagonistic towards her.
Martinez was the only one who thought of having an anti-gang commission. She was the ONLY council member who showed up for the anti-gang peace march. The rest of them simply are not worth a damn.
And since Martinez took office, has anything changed? Did the peace march do something spectacular to stop crime? Statistically, since Martinez took office, things got worse. I don’t like bashing anybody who is trying, but at the same time, don’t be singing her praises unless she accomplishes something. To date = nada.
# 20, or should I say Uncle Joe H.” The MV Mall is PRIVATE PROPERTY. They have their own security, and plenty of it, that is suppose to crush the MAJOR crime of auto theft at their location. Sheriff’s Deputies are paid to patrol the city street and “your”neighborhood, making it as safe as possible. Enough of that…, If you have,recordings which you feel are legitimate or can substantiate anything improper, then bring it on. We’re all waiting. A report for theft of campaign signs would not take two hours, but twenty little minutes. It’s funny how you think you know everything about police protocal. I’ve said before, you know nothing and you’re comments are ignorant.
Santa Ana Unified states that they are experiencing a decline in enrollment. Gang membership in Santa Ana is increasing. Any connection?
#30
I agree bring on the videos,tapes and see what a deputy, or any cop does afterwards. Since this was a misdemeanor not committed in the officer’s presence he needs to find a victim willing to file a complaint, make a private persons arrest and go to court. The officer will write the suspect, in this case a political candidate, a ticket. The deputy or officer will drive back to his substation where he will type up the crime and arrest report for approval and book the tapes, or sign if it still exists into evidence. Which protocol out of all that do you think will only take 20 minutes? By the way cops live for statistics. It is how supervisors review the productivity of their subordinates. Law enforcement management on the other hand hate to file too many petty ass reports as it makes the crime statistics jump up and the department/city look bad.
Don’t assume that just because supervisors at Ford or McDonnell Douglas use stats to evalauate their employees that the world is the same in the police business. OK, maybe it would take a little more that twenty minutes for ALL that, but not much more. Again, cops do’t care about stats. No supervisor is going to counsel an officer over writing a cite/report for theft just to keep stats low. You’re living in another world, but some of us “executives” know everything and cannot be counseled themselves.
#33
You are right I live in another world now. But for 30 years I lived in that world. The alternative that would probably be used in this case you are so hot over is that the cop would do all the stuff I mentioned before except actually cite the violator. Instead he/she would write an information report for the district attorney and let them decide if they wanted to file criminal charges. Want to bet where that would go? Into the circle file. By the way, just how do you think supervisors evaluate the field cops anyway when they are not always around. Answer. By their productivity also known as stats.
If you think a supervisor wants his cops tied up for 2 hours, and yes that would be close to average from investigation to filing, over a torn down sign when the officer could be free to handle more serious crimes you live in another world. Would a supervisor counsel an officer over such a case as this? Depends on the supervisor. It probably would never come to that.
It would never come to that because If the officer does what he is expected to do at the original time of the incident he will ask the complaining party if he was willing to make a citizens arrest. Then he would advise that person if the arrest is unfounded he may be liable for civil action for false arrest. He will also ask if the complaining party is willing to take time off work to go to court over a removed sign. Nine times out of ten, the answer is no. That’s the reality bro. Live with it.
Webster definition..Oxymoron..acutely silly
Mission Viejo, the safest city in America, with population between 75,000 and 100,000, has declared itself BLIGHTED.
While tyhe legislature struggles with the definition of blight, a true definition would be an area that among other facts has a high crime rate.
Tom McClintock was right in his description of Mission Viejo’s RDA. He labeled it a “bogus declaration” and I concur.
Under the leadership of Mayor Gail Reavis, Mission Viejo has stayed the safest city in America. They have worked with ICE to keep illegals out of the city as well local activists who keep tabs on illegal boarding homes with multiple mexican families living in them. Mission Viejo is the prime example of keeping illegals out, keeps out crime.
#34, Your right, I don’t disagree with that statement.
Your’s truly, #33
are we to believe that a 30 year old cop is full of wisdom? wisdom comes from age, experience, heartache and courage. most of all it comes from listening. you should try it.
instead of showing your foolishness through mockery, you should listen to what is being said.
it is obvious that you are blinded by bias and distracted with emotions. the wise enjoy wisdom and are admired, while the foolish are arrogant and lash out.
# 33 might I suggest you see the following that was on the OJ Blog.
http://www.ocblog.net/ocblog/2006/11/oops_mission_vi.html
#36.
You must be kidding. Let me say that Gail Reavis is a friend and my comments are not to discredit her. As a resident of MV I need to remind you that we have five members of the city council, not just a mayor. In truth, other than approving our Contract with the OCSD they have zero to do with the honor as received.
Further, we have received similar honors while others occupied the center seat.
Larry:
Hazaaa–I would say it has more to do with the composition of the community than anything that the police or politicians do, or say.
#38
If you are making reference to #34 try reading it again. That poster stated he had been in the cop world for 30 years not that he was 30 years old. Wisdom not only comes from listening, but from reading and comprehending what is written.
#39
Thanks for posting the link to the story in MV over this cop thing. It provides a lot more detail and adds all the political implications the officers were dealing with. I think it would be interesting to find out what the outcome of the situation was.
#43 you asked for results
The results–the COPs caved into the the politics of power. Instead of doing the right thing–they followed those with the money–the city council member who took the sign.
Results– a slap in his hands and a kiss behind the citizens backs. Of course they work for Mike Carona so what would you expect.
#44
Thank you for the reply. It is about what I expected.
crime? what crime?
my apologies , #42. i hope the police reports are/were written with better clarity.
i find the comments thru-out this post revealing. what is glaringly apparent are some police do not like criticism of any kind, and view themselves as separate from the rest of the public. also, it seems if the deputy does not personally witness a crime, the witness is asked to perform a deputy’s duty and make a citizens arrest.
a policeman
#44, I must remind you. The “intelligent” public voted for Carona, not the deputies and their union. It appears THEY knew what they were doing.
# 47, Police Officers don’t mind constructive criticism. But it would be nice if the people giving it knew what they were talking about. And, don’t blame the deputies for Carona. Bill Hunt rules.
# 44, Just what I’ve been blogging about. Here’s a news flash. If a deputy/officer does not witness a misd. crime, then he CAN’T make an arrest. The complaining party has too. That’s the law. People (Public) think they know everything, but you DON’T. Just what I’ve been talking about