There will be a candidate forum on Thursday, May 1, from 6:30 to 8 pm at the city council chambers (301 West Second). Those running for seats on the city council have been invited. Major issues are disparities in patrols and other APD staff coverage. Based on City response to a public information (what we once knew as “open records”) request, a presentation (by public-spirited citizens Linda Yeatts and Lori Renteria) is available analyzing assignment of police officers and concluding that APD staffing is not adequate and is not distributed proportionately and fairly in accordance with such factors as population density, volume of calls to the dispatchers, or per-capita incidence of violent crime. Another conclusion that some have drawn is that police coverage (along with proposed alterations in public transportation coverage) is biased toward downtown business and tourism interests. Early voting has begun, but there’s still plenty of time to mull things over before the May 10 election. The League of Women Voters non-partisan guide is now available, but this forum on public safety is especially important for decision-making since we have a new police chief in town. If you want to know exactly what areas are covered by which of the area commands, good luck! The most recent on-line information about district or area commands does not appear to have been updated. If you find current information on the APD site, please do let the rest of know.

I tried to stop at P. Terry’s on Friday after work to pick up dinner for the kids and I, but was thwarted by APD and crime scene tape. Josephine St. was blocked off at Barton Springs Rd. and Butler Rd. was blocked off at Lamar Blvd. along with tape all around the perimeter of P. Terry’s. I could see a couple of employees inside the burger stand and several standing around in the parking lot. I checked the Statesman for the last two days and didn’t see anything. Does anybody know what happened? 

I was really annoyed that they weren’t open as I had my heart set on one of their burgers with jalapenos. I hope no one was hurt.

I got even more annoyed when I got to South Congress at Riverside. I started to turn south to find an alternative to P. Terry’s only to run into a mass of stopped traffic because of the hot rod rally. I ended up hooking into the parking lot of Freebird’s to get back to Riverside and head east to avoid the traffic problems. Speaking of the hot rod shenanigans, The Statesman ran a nice article on Steve Wertheimer and the Continental Club on Saturday.

A police sting operation to catch purse snatchers was foiled when helpful Austinites kept warning the undercover policewoman that her purse was left unguarded. This from the meeting notes of the South West Area Command, Commander’s Forum on January 28, 2008.

“A purse snatching initiative was tried by the command, but happily, concerned folks kept warning the undercover officer that her purse was open, unattended and watched out for her when she walked away and warned her of the error. No arrests were made.”

This started out as a rant about squeegee guys, but I decided to make an overall crime post. First, the squeegee rant, does anyone else feel like they’re living in NYC circa 1989 all of a sudden?

On my way to take the kids to day camp, I stopped on the northbound frontage of I-35 at Riverside. An aging bearded guy in a Guero’s shirt came up to my car with a squeegee and a wet rag. I immediately rolled down my window, told him that I didn’t have any cash or change (which was 100% true) and asked him not to clean the windshield. He proceeded to do it anyway, which stunned me. He said something about having kids in the car, so I suppose it turned into a good deed in his mind. However, I think cleaning the windshield when told not to do it is crossing the line, even if he didn’t demand money for it. Anybody else think that?

On my way home, I passed the southbound frontage of I-35 and Oltorf and found a second guy with a squeegee. I also passed the guy from the morning who was still in the same area, but on the southbound frontage.

In other crime news, last night was National Night Out. Our neighborhood had a small gathering of roughly 20-30 people with reps from APD, Fire and EMS. We feel we’ve been experiencing a spike in crime over the last year or so, but I’ve heard things from those living in Hyde Park and there was a story about a Rundberg neighborhood getting fed up with crime this past week. What about you? Do you feel crime is on the rise in Austin?

Last, the new police chief, Art Acevedo, seems to be busy making changes at APD. He’s in his third week on the job and there’s been at least one or two news stories a week on what he’s been up to, just search his name on Statesman or News8Austin. A local blog reports that at a talk last week Acevedo said that Austin is a major metropolitan center and we can’t run the police department like we’re a college town with a few thousand students. It’s early to tell, but it appears that he might make a difference.

There’s a lot of local and national coverage of the beating death of David Morales, passenger in a car that apparently hit a 2-year-old yesterday. The child was described as having non-serious or non-life threatening injuries.

Initial coverage, including the APD press release seemed to imply that there was a huge mob of 1,000 or more involved. It now appears that there were only 20 people in the immediate area and only 5 or fewer were involved. A larger crowd from a nearby Juneteenth celebration may have formed after the incident and were merely spectators to the aftermath, but the updated APD press release is very careful not to associate the incident with the Juneteenth festivities at least 2 blocks away.

The News8Austin story says that our incoming new police chief pushed for the more moderate update of the press release. This is the last thing APD needs given recent events and their current reputation in the community, especially East Austin. The city has been making a big deal about the selection of the new police chief, Art Acevedo. It looks like he’s got his work cut out for him.

I caught this in the Chronicle. The first session just started at the Federal Building downtown. There’s another session this Saturday and then three more after that.

FREE VIN ETCHING Preventing crime is always preferable to reacting to it after the fact, so Austin Police Department is hosting several workshops this summer in which you can have your vehicle identification number etched on your windshield. Doing so will make your car more easily identifiable and therefore less likely to be stolen.

• Thu., June 21, 10am-1pm: Federal Building, 300 E. Ninth.
• Sat., June 23, 10am-1pm: Target, 11220 FM 2222.
• Thu., June 28, 5-8pm: St. James Baptist Church, 3417 E. MLK.
• Wed., July 11, 10am-1pm: Wal-Mart, 9300 S. I-35.
• Sat., July 21, 10am-2pm: Dolores Catholic Church, 1111 Montopolis. 974-5017.

The Statesman is reporting that there have been two bomb threats to St. Edwards University and one to the Texas School for the Deaf since 10pm last night. This is in addition to the bomb threat that shut down St. Ed’s on Tuesday and in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shootings on Monday. I was going to stay away from talking about any of this, avoid drawing parallels to the Charles Whitman shooting, but this is getting ridiculous. What the hell is going on around here?

Xeni at BoingBoing points to some photos over at losanjealous that appear to show a man being arrested for trying to post Zune propaganda. It looks like it happened on Sixth Street right in front of Casino El Camino.

We’ll have none of your crappy mp3 player propaganda in our city, buddy!

When tragedy occurs at UT, each drop of bloodshed plinks and ripples throughout the campus.

The murder of Jennifer Cave in 2005 was shocking then, even when we didn’t know the full and gruesome story. Youth is on our side at this time in our lives and we are invincible, it seems, so when we heard about her West Campus murder the gossip and confusion spread like wildfire- she was a slut, she was a cokehead, she was a great girl but HE was really messed up, why else would he run off to Mexico OF COURSE he did it, etc. People who knew the suspect, Colton Pitonyak, wrote messages of disbelief and sorrow on his Facebook wall. He was a suspected murderer….but he was still someone they’d shared their life with. He was still their friend.

After the murder Pitonyak and his (soon-to-be-tried) accomplice Laura Hall ran for the border in Hall’s Cadillac. They got into Mexico and tried to sell the car but didn’t have the title, and were strongly averse to going back to Texas for it, according to testimony from the manager of the inn where they stayed. The two were apprehended in Eagle Pass, Texas, as a result of collaboration between US and Mexican law enforcement.

The ensuing trial for Pitonyak has been covered meticulously by the Texan, and today they found him guilty of Cave’s murder, sentencing him to 55 years in prison. It’s not life, but for a twentysomething, it might as well be. The Cave family was there to watch the trial- the end of a 17-month wait for some sort of retribution for what they’d lost, as if anything could be enough.

I’m not convinced he did it, honestly. I’m not. There’s too much unexplained- why did Hall supposedly mutilate the body but not shoot the bullet that killed Cave? Why are there both prints on the gun? The more I read about it the more questions I have. Hall’s trial will yield more answers, and more questions, but the only one certain to be on everyone’s minds will be How could this happen here?

The UT Campus Watch newsletter from UTPD has released their best crime stories of 2006. There’re an awful lot of ties, which kind of defeats the purpose making it a top ten, but who am I to argue?

Enjoy the results after the jump. Drum roll please. Number 10…
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