By Donna Westfall – December 12, 2016 – Is 9th and J Streets cursed or does it have anything to do with having a liquor store there? Early in the afternoon, a two car motor vehicle accident occurred. Is it that people are drunk and driving? If not, what is it? Impatient to get their booze? Does it have anything to do with alcohol at all?
Residents are aware that minor’s come around wanting adults to purchase cigarettes or alcohol for them because it’s illegal for retailers to sell to them. Actually, the law changed this past year and became effective on June 9, 2016; and the minimum age to sell tobacco was raised from 18 to 21 years old which is also the legal age to purchase, consume or possess alcohol. The accident information didn’t reveal any underage persons involved.
According to Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC), some of the rules and regulations regarding the sale of who cannot purchase alcohol fall into these categories:
- Can not sell to obviously intoxicated person, habitual or common drunkard. This is a person that lacks the will to refuse drink, or received a 647 f (drunk in public) three times withing a 6 month period, or has been deemed by the court as a habitual drunkard, or a person who can not care for, or provide shelter for themselves.
- Can not sell to a customer who is obviously intoxicated when an average person can plainly observe that the patron is intoxicated. The usual signs are staggering, alcoholic breath, slurred speech, poor muscular coordination, etc. (Section 25602)
According to one witness that lives in the neighborhood who wishes to remain unnamed, “The driver of the Honda in this photo said she rear-ended a driver turning into the liquor store. I spoke to her and she was sober and did not look to be under the influence of anything.” The witness also stated that he did not see the second car involved.
Is this traffic accident caused because a traffic hazard exists due to the liquor store, or is it because drivers are driving too close and cannot stop in time?
The problem is complex, and there is enough blame to go around to share among politicians and LE as well. Cops around here are understaffed and under funded, and are limited by the constraints of the law. In California criminals can get away with more than in any other state — face it. So much crime comes with homelessness, which is in part a result of a lack of jobs and affordable housing. Mental illness and substance addiction is also a major contributor. Del Norte suffers from the new laws in Humboldt, such as the shopping cart and panhandling ordnance, passed this past summer. That is pushing them this way.
Those that want to leave, need to be given a bus ticket back home after signing an agreement that if they take the free bus ticket, they will not come back to this county for an agreed on period of time. If they don’t take the ticket back to where they have people that will help them, then other options, and even jail time needs to be considered. While it is not illegal to be homeless, the homeless break a lot of laws. So many could get roommates and rent a place, but instead had rather spend their SSI disability checks on drugs and alcohol. Others are just hard core criminals and are hiding out in the woods because they have warrants on them, and would not work if you offered them an easy job on a silver player because they like to lay around and drink and take drugs, while stealing to support their habit.
This conversation needs to continue; It takes everyone working together.
I listen to the scanner practically 24/7.
The problem areas I hear on the scanner every day:
9th/101 intersection through 9th/G street (Mostly traffic accidents or drunks fighting)
Rite Aid & Safeway thefts (it’s almost always the same people repeatedly stealing)
Chevron south (Every kind of problem shows up there for some strange reason)
100 Block of Elk Valley through 600 Block of Elk Valley. (Fights, assaults, arson, etc.)
East end of 5th street (Homeless encampments and constant drunks.)
I was around 11 years old when “Al Airs” was arrested for the murder of a woman named Katherine and her newborn child, buried behind Safeway in a shallow grave. After all these years, the justice system, law enforcement and the rest of the community REFUSES to fix this vagrant homeless problem and this makes me sick to my stomach, especially since there have been several murders behind there since I was a kid.
The same people who are arrested nearly every week are back out, causing problems. THIS NEEDS TO STOP. Stop blaming lawmakers. They make the laws, but we already HAVE laws to deal with these things. Those laws are not being applied.
I also want to point out that as of today (Dec. 13, 2016) since Sept 4th, ’16, there have been 150 entries for “9th” street.
You can perform searches yourself here: https://ois.delnorteonline.com/blotter.php
And about 10-15 minutes ago another MVA at 9th and 101.
Just a couple hours ago, if that, there was a woman with warrants running from an officer down J street towards Cooper.
9th and J through G streets is a particularly bad area for low lifes and motor vehicle accidents.
And again:
“2016-12-17 18:05:21”, “TC”, “700 Block”, “L ST”, “CRESCENT CITY”, “CCPD”, “RP REPORTS THAT SOMEONE HIT HER CAR”
So…
The county IT department just implemented a Google Recaptcha Captcha utility to disable my access to the OIS system via an automated fashion. I just so happen to be a master of data mining and will devise a method to continue to collect these public records for use in analytics and to help improve public safety systems being built.
Imagine that, an IT department disabling access to public records. I use this dataset to do analytics for future Public Safety projects. I smell a lawsuit coming.
It is very odd that they have also disabled/blocked my access to the online call log on Dec 20.
It is evident Tom Mazzaglia has zero understanding of the law, nor does he care how negatively other property owners are impacted, just so habitual drunkards can conveniently stagger in and get a bottle at anytime they want. Many businesses that do not promote bad behavior are making lots of money.
According to California ABC law, a liquor store can not be located within 100 feet of a residence or church. Both are within 100 feet. There is also the health, welfare, and safety of the general public to be considered. Y Liquors and Wayside Liquors are not in a residential neighborhood, and nair-do-wells don’t loiter around those stores.
How about simply moving it to a new location which is not located in a residential neighborhood? The vacant store at the corner of 9th and 101 would be a good place. A person’s right to make money ends when it does so at the cost of public peace and safety.
“A nuisance (sometimes called a private nuisance to distinguish it from a public nuisance, which is a completely different subject) is an interference with the right to use and enjoy real property. Physical invasions onto the property are trespasses, so a nuisance can be called a nontrespassory interference with the use of real property.
A property owner doesn’t have the absolute right to use her land any way she can imagine. Such a right would be impossible because one person’s right to do whatever she wanted on her land would sometimes conflict with another person’s right to do whatever he wanted on his land.”
Here is a good explanation of the law from http://www.dummies.com
http://www.dummies.com/education/law/nuisance-law-enjoying-property-without-unreasonable-interference/
but then it is one of the few businesses in this town that’s doing well so yes we cant have that lets close them down after all we know they are breaking the law if not we will make up some to get them out I love this town
Not only are wild-driving motor vehicle operators who are under the influence coming and going from Discount Liquors at 9th and J, but they also do so while on bicycles and walking, as they peddle around in circles in the middle of the street, and drunkenly stagger in and out of the store and down the middle of the street drinking, vomiting and littering. About 30 minutes after this rear-end collision, another vehicle hit a pedestrian at this same intersection. Within about 2 hours on either side of this MVA, and within a block or two of the liquor store, if not directly at the intersection of 9th and J, was a residential burglary, a driver stalking a pedestrian, a transient in the street blocking J Street with a shopping cart and refusing to move, another person being stalked by someone he has a restraining order on, and someone trying to steal the Christmas lights decorating ReMax at 9th and K. Beer and liquor bottles are thrown all over the streets and into yards, while public urination (and worse) is an often seen occurrence. Seniors, women, and children must constantly endure the worst foul language being shouted by the patrons of this store. I submit all this is precisely because of the public nuisance that liquor store presents. ABC should revoke their license to sell alcohol. It is a public nuisance. Just check 12/12/16 on the Sheriff’s Online Information System: Call Log. http://ois.dnco.org/tos These are only the ones called in to 911, there are many more that do not show up as emergency 911 calls.
The OIS system covers far more than 911 calls. I know this for a fact.
I am a software developer. I wrote software that periodically grabs new information from the OIS website and imports that data into my databases. These databases will later be turned into a real-time analytics website at DelNorteOnline.com for the purpose of keeping the community informed. The existing OIS only holds records for up to 7 days. My database will keep track forever.
https://ois.delnorteonline.com/blotter.php
The most recent events are at the top of the feed. THe oldest at the end of the feed. It is sorted by date. These records are not modified, they are verbatim from the OIS website.