The Richmond District Police Station will host a community meeting on Tuesday, May 18 from 7pm – 8pm. The meeting wil be held at the Richmond Station, 461 6th Avenue.
I know that many readers and neighbors were concerned and dismayed by the events related to the Mountain Lake Park incident. In light of this, Inspector Jim Serna of the SFPD’s Sexual Offender Unit will attend the meeting.
This is a great opportunity to ask Inspector Serna questions and find out more about this specialized unit, as well as helpful tips and guidance on how to handle safety issues in our neighborhood.
The meeting will also cover other community police and safety programs, including those run by SAFE such as Neighborhood Watch.
For more information about the meeting or these programs, please contact Officer Connolly at the Richmond Police Station, 666-8023 or Irina Chatsova at SAFE, 553-1968.
Sarah B.
I’m hoping many of those folks who had strong comments and questions come to this meeting. We will get information in person direct from the source and people trained and working in this area. If you’re a parent please circulate the notice to the family lists you may belong to. Find out what’s going on and the proper actions to take and how you can make a difference for everyone.
regarding your posting about the “sex offender meeting” that is coming up at the Richmond station, I think you missed a REALLY important opportunity here. You wrote :”I know that many readers and neighbors were concerned and dismayed by the events related to the Mountain Lake Park incident.”
There WAS NO “MOUNTAIN LAKE” INCIDENT. The community got whipped up into near hysteria and actually sent around a PHOTO of one of our local neighborhood residents, basically labeling him a dangerous pedophile — when no charges had been brought against him, no arrest made.
I found this breach of civil rights enormously disturbing.
As I’m sure you know from the Richmond district’s online police newsletter, it turned out that this man was not stalking kids — in fact, he wasn’t even taking photos of them. He was simply using an app on his phone that helped him assess the efficiency of his physical training routine.
Imagine if YOU were doing something quite innocuous — and suddenly found a photo of yourself had been sent all around the neighborhood basically branding you a social pariah, the scum of the earth?
Surely the least you couid have done was to publish a story saying that this “evil predator at large” was not out there victimizing kids?
Perhaps you should read the rest of the blog or use the search box to see the other coverage on the story before ranting in your comment?
Sarah B.
@Susan, Please read all the posts, the Blog has done a great job at reporting this story. It’s a bit late to rant on those who over reacted. It is not to late to attend this meeting and get facts on how to handle a situation like this from experts so the initial mistakes that brought us here can be avoided. I hope all that joined in the witch hunt will attend, actually all neighbors should attend and get the facts. It was an injustice, it cannot be undone but can be prevented from happening again.