Greg Dicum is a concerned citizen. He is upset that there are prostitutes in his neighborhood. But instead of working with his community to create solutions, he is attacking some of the most marginalized people by demanding increased criminalization of their means of survival. From his letter to the police:
“We find it unacceptable that we are woken up at night by screaming hookers, that we are endangered by the reckless driving of their customers and associates, that we have to step over used condoms in the morning with our children, and that we feel a sense of menace when we are walking home at night.
Since this is a sudden and new blight in our neighborhood, a criminal enterprise operated by people who are not from the community, we believe it should be relatively easy to nip it in the bud: simply patrolling Capp street frequently- especially on Friday and Saturday nights-and establishing a visible police presence here will scare off potential customers and make our streets an unprofitable place to undertake prostitution.”
His solution is to “scare off” the hookers. Let’s tell him what we think.
Community Meeting
Mission Police Station, 630 Valencia Street (near 17th)
6PM, Tuesday April 24th
Um, it’s hardly news that there are folks working around Capp & 17th. The “sudden and new blight” is all the people who moved to the Mission because it’s cheaper & funky, and then complain about the folks who were already there.