(Picture courtesy of the O.C. Register)
Isn’t crime supposed to be going down in Santa Ana? I keep getting mailers from Santa Ana Mayor MIguel Pulido and his Council Cabal indicating that we are the “safest city in Orange County,” but the headlines in our local newspapers say otherwise. Just this week Santa Ana High School officials “offered a $1,000 reward for information that leads them to six metal plaques pried from the walls of Santa Ana High School – four of which honor the school’s war dead.”
“School officials suspect that at least two people took the solid bronze- and –brass plaques this week to sell as scrap metal. Four of the plaques paid tribute, name by name, to former students killed in World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War,” according to the O.C. Register.
This is an absolute atrocity! From a risk management perspective, it should be clear to everyone in our city that anything that can be recycled is at risk. Earlier this year thieves stole historical markers from the front of various historical buildings in our downtown, mere blocks from the Santa Ana Police Department headquarters. And other criminals stole a beautiful sign from the Sandpointe Neighborhood Association. As our police cannot assure our safety or the safety of our property in this town, my suggestion is that we all need to review such objects on our properties and take steps to secure them.
And I think that the nine people running for the Santa Ana Unified School District’s Board of Education should step up and help raise money to replace the stolen signs from Santa Ana High School. They may however want to go with either wooden or plastic sign materials.
“The Santa Ana Unified School District asked that anyone with information on the plaques call an anonymous tip line at 714-558-5111.”
Isn’t Irvine or Mission Viejo usually selected among the safest cities in the county? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Santa Ana is not among the safest cities in the OC.
I’ll bet if there were a plaque listing the names of those mexicans who died while crossing the border illegally it would still be hanging up there proudly.