Recently, there's been a lot in the local news about car theft. A recent high-speed pursuit resulting from the suspect stealing a car ended up killing two innocent people (one of the two injured in that article later died at the hospital) when the suspect crashed into their car at high speed. The thief wasn't hurt too badly, and now faces second degree murder charges.

Yakima already ranks among the top ten cities in the nation with the highest car theft problems (According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, Yakima had more than 2,000 cars stolen last year alone,) and there are logical reasons why.

In Yakima, car thieves don't get prison time until their seventh offense! Worst of all, this information was published in our local newspaper. I can just see people reading that and then choosing to steal a car to try to make some quick cash..."I mean, there's no real consequences, so I might as well, right?"

What's even worse is that our city doesn't seem to care about auto theft. A friend of the family recently went on a ride-along with a Yakima Police Department officer. The officer caught and arrested a seventeen-year-old kid who was trying to steal a car. He tried dropping the thief off at four different jails and juvenile detention centers, but all four of them wouldn't house the kid for various reasons, mostly because Yakima needs the jail space for the ridiculously high numbers of murder/assault/rape/drug-trafficking suspects.

So the cop let the kid go. A few hours later, the officer got a call about a car theft and hurried to the call to investigate. It was the same kid trying to steal another car.

Absolutely ludicrous.

That's the only way I can really describe the actions of city officials and police officers in Yakima.

That, combined with the corrupt cops, very high crime rate, and immense drug problems, is why I don't live there anymore, and why my parents are moving once my brother is out of school. It's just ridiculous, and it angers me to no end.

I dunno. Perhaps more innocent people just need to die before the city takes action against car thieves.

All I can say is wow!!

That sucks that innocent people get hurt or worse from the stupidity
of others. Living a hour away from Yakima I see some of that trickle
into the Tri-cities, we are getting more and more gang activity. Meth
is a major problem here as well as in Yakima. We do have the facilitys (jail space)
to manage the problem a little better, mostly because we have more funds
to work with. The neighborhood I live in is not great or terrible, kind of
midstream. I still have an alarm system for my house and locks on all
gates into my garage area and back yard. Being a parent I worry what
this situation will be like in ten years. It really sucks to look back where
you grew up and see it all going to sh*. The state of WA needs to
step up and focus $$ and resources where they need to be.

come to the EC. we are nice... for the most part

Coomer -

You best keep your arse in E-burg and not go to Yakima. Luckily your parents live in the nicer part of Yakima (that doesnt seem to stop people from F'ing with ur car tho)

Well Im looking to move out in March. You should come otu to the Eastside. No one wants to steal our cars. They go for the big boy toys lol!


Natalie

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except people from nj, there rude


edit: and they cant drive worth ****.

This post has been edited by devilsden97: Nov 9, 2006 - 12:28 PM

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ditto. here in nyc, cops are all over the place and i'm sure there'll be a place to hold them criminals.

Midwest Coomer! UNL. Every one in the midwest is nice. And crime, compared to the EC and WC is minimal.

On side note... this is probably not a good news for Acura.. I wonder what model was it.

Poor people ended their precious life just like this... sigh

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haha, depends where you are in the midwest bud.

tru^
Im talking the real midwest. You Illinois'ers? are midwest posers. : )

This post has been edited by hitcachi: Nov 9, 2006 - 1:28 PM

i never knew that yakima was that bad. though i have never been there. by the sounds of it tacoma aint much better.

Coomer. It's not the police/officer's fault. It's legislation and law. That officer had nothing to do with the number of offenses required before imprisonment. That, and if a facility does not have enough space, and doesn't have the funding to add said space, then there is nothing left to do but let the lesser offenders go. Crimes against humanity come first, not crimes against property. Taking a car is in NO WAY comperable to taking a life, or taking someone's innocence.

In fact, that was mentioned in your post:
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Do you want them to not take someone in for one of those offenses, so a 17 year old attempted car-thief can sit in jail for a night, then get out with some type of community service?

I think if anything, it's your priorities, not the city's, that is out of whack. Sure, someone died resulting from a chase resulting from a car theft, and that's tragic. However, I think the ratio of deaths caused by car chases caused by car thefts to deaths caused by murder, rape, and assualt is pretty low.

Life > Property.

It may just be that the property portion affects you personally. I think you would feel a lot different about things if someone you know had been killed or raped. And if they had, and you are still worried about property theft, that's not good.

Sure, something should be done, in the end. But the problem is that everything operates on a degree system, and personal possessions just don't rate very high on the list when compared with other crimes.

Don't think this post is to bash you, or challenge you, or anything like that, I'm just offering a differing opinion to create a dialog here for a discussion.

-John-

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I'll agree with what he said. I'm sure the police officer would love to lock the kid up and throw away the key because can you imagine how angry you would be if you let someone go and they were back in? I suggest you write the mayor and talk about your issues. If the citizens of your community paid for more jails and opted for stricter laws this could all be avoided.

oh sh*t, Johns bored at work again.

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+1. I've had literally nothing to do at work today. No schedule. No hot orders. No parts to draw. I'm sitting here playing "Line Flyer". .

John,
My complaint isn't just with the cops in this post...it's with the whole city, which I mention in my post. You can clearly tell if you read through my post again that I'm not targeting just cops.

And one of my friends from high school was murdered earlier this year...a former friend of mine was raped...one of my brother's friends was brutally assaulted for no reason. Sure, I worry about that stuff too. But I still worry about property theft, and I don't know anyone who isn't concerned. Are you telling me that you wouldn't care at all if someone stole your car or broke into your house and robbed you?

I'm in no way saying that it's more important to target auto theft than violent crimes, but the city needs to do something to change laws and such. Yakima's priorities are so backwards...it's ridiculous.

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Those priorities aren't going to change until people begin voicing their opinions. It's the founding principle of democracy.

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John dares people to break into his house.. he really want to use that XD-9 on somthing other than paper.

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XD-40. More knock-down power, and with night-sights. .

Start a petition for more jails...?

edit: or a program to bus these "excess" offenders to jails outside of your county?

This post has been edited by mzztoyota: Nov 10, 2006 - 10:40 AM

..um crowbar?

theres been car thefts in my neighborhood.. I think it was partially peoples fault.. leaving their cars unattended.. while they warm it up