“’We’re starting a new group,’ said Coy Tolonen, who lives in unincorporated Clackamas County. ‘We don’t feel neighborhood watch is sufficient, and we don’t feel the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office is sufficient.’ Tolomon and a group of Jennings Lodge neighbors say they’re responding to escalating crime on their block by also making fliers that read ‘This is a Glock block. We don’t call 911.'” That, from koin.com on the latest trend in law (self) enforcement — those unwilling to wait the minutes (or more) it can take for the local 5-0 to make the scene are providing for their own common defense . . .
The KOIN story makes it sound like it’s only a short step from there to shoot, shovel and STFU. And they dutifully advise that “Police, of course, caution against any vigilantism.” Because who wants another Trayvon-like media circus on their hands? Still, that’s always good advice. Let your conscience (and your attorney) be your guide.
But in light of local budget cuts and correspondingly longer response times, especially in larger, more rural locales, people like Tolomon figure, if not us, who? If not now, when? Have you banded together with like-minded neighbors to keep an eye on things? Would you? Do you live on a Glock (or Smith or Kahr) block?