When a frustrated Sharpstown resident asked the Guardian Angels to come to Houston and help with the crime problem, Polimom was excited by the idea and wrote about it several times (here, and here). It is a sign of a healthy community when citizens get involved with the issues in their own neighborhoods.
At last, it seems the Angels have begun organizing their Houston chapter, but Polimom is concerned, because there seems to be a problem with how they are recruiting for members.
Earlier this week, GregsOpinion.com posted a recruitment letter received from the Houston Chapter of the Guardian Angels. In it was this [my emphasis]:
Crime is on the rise, toward an 11 year high. The homicide rate has increased 50 percent over the last year. Where does it end?
Polimom was surprised by this number, which seems rather a lot larger than has been reported, and so I queried Greg. He referred me to this article that ran in January on KPRC, which said:
Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt said the city’s homicide rate is up 50 percent in 2006 compared to the same time period last year. As of Jan. 17, 2006, Houston police had reported to 21 homicides. In 2005, the department reported 14 homicides as of Jan. 18.
KPRC apparently used 17 days of data to generate this article, complete with an hysterical title, and Polimom ignored it at the time as unfortunate journalistic drivel. That paragraph was not well-conceived, for precisely the reason I’m seeing now. Spin confuses people.
Polimom strongly supports the idea of community involvement in crime prevention, but I also believe there’s a right way to do things, and falsely fanning flames is more likely to bring vigilantes than civic-minded people.
If it’s true that the Guardian Angels found their 50% in the KPRC article, then Polimom feels that they need to issue a correction. Immediately. By annualizing two-week microdata, the letter is effectively spinning a statistic into an unnecessarily inflammatory lie – and that’s really not how this effort should be coming off the ground.
Polimom wrote twice to this organization about my concerns with the mis-statement, but their response was a terse “thank you for your concern”, and that they’ve “requested that [the letter] be taken down”. (!!?)
Do they intend to keep using the 50% statistic as a hyped-up scare tactic? Since their reaction was to try to hide the letter rather than respond, Polimom supposes so. What a shame.
The escalating crime situation in the city is serious enough; it doesn’t require exaggeration. If they can’t recruit honestly, they’re not who Polimom hoped they would be. I’m so disappointed.
Why are you and Greg like this?
?? I’m really not sure what you mean. Like what?
Maybe Houstonian means, by “like this”, “so rational and logical.” I can only conclude that Houstonian’s remark is admiring and that Houstonian seeks to emulate your characteristics, and is looking for guidance on how to accomplish this.
Abelard,
I confess that wasn’t my first thought – but I like it! I’ll have to play around with some ideas for a blog entry that might assist poor Houstonian in the quest for enlightenment.
First and foremost the Guardian Angels is a volunteer organization so we are not on the streets 24 hours a day. When we are most people are already in bed. Unfortunately we also do not have the manpower to patrol the entire city so we have to concentrate our efforts in neighborhoods where we have membership. I can send a patrol to your neighborhood but if I do not have quality people from your area who I can leave there to patrol regularly then the criminals will come back as soon as we leave. As for your comment about fundraising you could not be more wrong. More than 90% of what little money we have raised has come from our volunteers (donations are NOT a requirement for membership). My suggestion to you and anyone else who reads this board is to take a couple of hours one weekend and come and see what we are about. You seem to have a strong opinion about us but never once have you attempted to contact me even though my information is easily found on-line. Since you do seem so passionate about what we do I personally invite you to attend one of our patrols or even one of our training sessions and see for yourself what we are about. You may even decide to join, if only to patrol your own neighborhood.
Sincerely,
Scott Ward
Alliance of Guardian Angels
Chapter Leader-Houston
832.428.1612
Mr. Ward —
Your comment is very confusing. This post has nothing to do with fundraising, or the make-up of your organization, or where you patrol…. I’d be happy to respond to you, if I could see a connection between what I wrote and your input.