Sticking Up For Antioch California in the Garrido Duggard Case
Some one needs to Stick up For Antioch California. With the recent news on the capture of Phillip Garrido in regard to the kidnap and rape of Jaycee Dugard and holding her captive for 18 years Antioch has another Black Eye.
This is not fair to Antioch. Antioch has had a lot of issues over the last few years with growing gang violence. I moved to Antioch in 1997 because of the affordable housing. There are problems in Antioch to be sure. A lot of these problems were the result of rapid growth and the affordable housing. Antioch became the location of choice for the county to put Section 8 residents. Most people on Section 8 are fine people, but in general home owners make better residents and Section 8 has brought in some bad apples.
The city of Antioch in the midst of budget cuts and a huge foreclosure rate has been doing everything in its power to turn the situation around. The police union has even accepted pay cuts to keep staffing up. Neighboring communities are helping out too. The primary tool has been a rapid response to crime and code enforcement. There have been a few voices charging racism. This is not the case; the focus is on the activity not the race of the people. Many of the people that have come to Antioch came to escape gang violence and do not want it to follow them into a new community. The steps Antioch is taking have broad community support. What I would consider racist is the County sending a large portion of the Section 8 housing to primarily one city and away from the affluent suburbs in the center of the County.
The Garrido residence is not in the city of Antioch and it was not the Antioch PD that dropped the ball on prior calls to the house. It is in an unincorporated section and is serviced by the Sheriff’s department. I do not want to knock the Sheriff department either, as the Sheriff Department duties are much broader than local police and they do not have the focus. (A good reason for an area to incorporate).
The map below shows roughly the city of Antioch and the Garrido residence in an out of the way area in the north east corner.
Antioch’s number of registered sex offenders is not unusually large and any citizen can check out were the offenders live on line. Be warned Sex Offender can be a large category; but they all get lumped together. As an example I heard about a guy that at 19 got arrested for statutory rape for having sex with his 17 year old girlfriend. He is tagged for life, but is probably not a threat to anyone.
There are areas of Antioch that are excellent places for a first time home buyer and offer very nice affordable homes. There are areas that are not nice. There are areas that are getting better that might prove a bargain right now.
My wife practices softball and let’s my kids play in the nearby playground while she practices less than a half mile from the Garrido residence. My church is in Antioch less than ½ mile away. I am not afraid to have my family in these areas.
In the area a within a half mile of Garrido’s house is excellent entry level homes that may be in one of the quieter parts of Antioch.
Finally I want to say one more thing. It seems Garrido did his crime in South Lake Tahoe, where he was convicted of a prior rape and kidnap. No one seems to avoid South Lake Tahoe; where the Casino’s and tourist can draw some rather strange people. You were safer in Antioch from Mr. Garrido than you were in the affluent South Lake Tahoe.
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