RogerBy Roger the Scanner Guy
A gun incident took place earlier today in the first block of E. Montecito Street involving a business owner and a transient
I got an eyewitness account from the business owner who stopped by this evening and told me what happened. He tells me that he has a lot of problems with the homeless. Every day they enter his business and shoplift. They steal things off his property and use them in their camps and they use the bushes around the business as their bathroom. Mark, the owner of the business, has had problems there for many years.
Today the problems almost became deadly as he had to pull out a firearm to protect himself. The transient was yelling in front of the business, Santa Barbara Koi in the first block of East Montecito Street. Mark went outside to ask the male to quiet down. The subject yelled that the business was his property and told Mark to leave as he walked toward the door holding a large rock over his head, he kept yelling “This is my property!” Mark grabbed a nearby baseball bat for protection and the subject kept coming so Mark got his gun which was fully loaded and aimed it at the subject who was now yelling “I’m going to kill you!” and still coming at Mark with the rock over his head.
By this time Mark called 911, and was telling the dispatcher what was happening, Santa Barbara P.D. was responding Code 3 (lights and sirens) to the incident. They knew the business owner was armed and pointing a loaded firearm at the aggressor, there was no time to waste and they got there quick as usual when there is an emergency.
The transient heard the sirens, dropped the rock and left the scene. Mark had been asked to put the gun away and did so only after the subject had left. The suspect was taken into custody without incident, about a block away. He was arrested for 422pc Criminal Threats, and Assault with a Deadly Weapon 245pc of the California State Penal Code.
Mark is grateful the police responded quickly and he did not have to kill a man today, he only wants to know one thing,”What the Mayor and City Council is going to do to protect the citizens of our fine city from these Criminals?”
Protect the homeless and the profits you make from “Helping them” Forget the citizens. SB’s new mantra
They’re doing absolutely nothing.
City council now calls vagrants our “houseless neighbors” and we must treat them with dignity. How about turnabout is fair play is the best way to treat their chronic abuse of our “housed neighbors” (aka the tax payer residents)? No wonder this city council is keen on turning everything into one-way streets because that is what they demand we do for the vagrants – give them everything and ask for nothing from them in return .No wonder civic life has gone down hill these past few decades. Living in any community is always a two-way street.
This is disgusting. These people are not from our county, not the result of increased housing prices, and not victims of anything I can think of that can be solved from existing government programs. These people love this way of life and do not want help. This will continue until it pervades every neighborhood and affect every person in our community. I don’t think we’re there yet, but we will be soon, and then there will be a change.
Unfortunately it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better. In order to solve this problem, we need a paradigm shift in our approach. We need to take the mentally ill and the drug addicts into locked care facilities, and in order to do that we need to add hundreds of thousands of beds worth of capacity. Most people still seem to be convinced this is a housing problem, so it will co to use to spiral out of control until that mindset changes. For the time being, I would recommend relocating to more rural areas.
Notice that Mark is an excellent employer providing full time gainful employment with benefits . While the mentally ill represent a significant percentage of the homeless, most are economically lost and their spirits often follow suit. I see this violent act as another manifestation of Social breakdown such as all the multiple shootings. Instead of meaningful employment the workforce now gets “jobbed” (look it up). The 0.1 % created this with their manipulation of legislation, and greedy, rapacious business practices. They rule now, so aside from some sense of nobles oblige on their part, there may be no answer. Their allegiance is to their pocket at the expense of our Nation.
Here’s a novel idea. The homeless that want help, such as rehabilitation, documentation, housing and all, get them the help they need. The “houseless neighbors” that DON’T want help, do a little warrant check on them. If they got warrants, JAIL THEM.
If any of us who aren’t “houseless neighbors” have warrant, for whatever reason, you know where we go, but that’s because we’re not a protected species like the “houseless neighbors” are.
Stop protecting and defending bad behavior, those that need a lengthy stay in the Graybar Inn And Suites earned it. 3 hots and a cot and automatic rehab.
By the way, PLEASE, stop confusing mental illness with brain damage. Mental illness is naturally caused by changes in brain chemistry that occur naturally.
The tweakers and junkies, they fried their brains by self induced choices and their choice is to continue doing it. They can be rehabilitated, a mentally ill person can’t, they can just be accommodated.
Stop accommodating the junkies and tweakers and most importantly, stop insulting the mentally ill by lumping the junkies and tweakers in with them. Enough is enough.
Comment of the day ABean! Jokes aside, that isn’t far off from how many of the anti-firearm / defund the police crowd think these type of situations should be handled.
People, please, enough with the excuses already! Enough already! Stop making excuses. Stop treating these individuals like the salt of the earth!
The most used excuse is mental illness. Sorry folks, that only makes up a fraction of that population, the studies are there to support that fact.
Stop blaming income inequality, childhood trauma, rising house and real estate prices, and covid. The vast majority of these individuals didn’t just instantly “lose their homes due to any of those things. They found a new religion either called meth or heroin and that became their world and what better place to worship that god than in filth and squalor. Sorry people, you’re getting taken for a ride. You’re being mocked.
I had a similar incident happen to me. A transient approached me as I was walking my dog. He started yelling that I was enslaving my dog and then attempted to forcibly liberate my dog. Not surprisingly, my dog (an Akita) didn’t want any of his liberation and started to bark aggressively, snapping at him. They transient lunged at me so I delivered one clean round house kick to his head and he went down. My wife called the police and grabbed the dog leash before my dog could shred this guy. In the mean time he got up and lunged at me again. By the time the cops arrived I had him on the ground, riding his back and slamming his face into the asphalt a few times every time he’d try to reach up for me. He was a bloody mess by the time the police took him into custody. I had plenty of witnesses that documented his attack of me and my family. He plead guilty and walked with no jailtime. This was a few years ago. Wonder if it’s the same guy? This attack took place in Goleta.