Among our readers are some people who quite properly admonish us from time to time about these pages being too negative. We do not take issue with that complaint. We've asked our Newsroom Elves to write nice articles that can go in our "Good Things" tab in the Main Menu of our Home Page. All too often, though, our blog gets distracted by things going haywire in our community and we wind up writing something "negative". Like this story, for example.

Yesterday the County Sheriff posted a snippet on Facebook about Deputies investigating an assault at the Jack in the Box at Marconi and Watt. The Sheriff's statement said one of the people involved had been taken to a local hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.  No more official information was available as of 9:30 last night, as the case was still ongoing. The Sheriff, BTW, would like witnesses to contact the Sheriff’s Office at (916) 874-5115.

UN - officially, though, here's what we have been able to learn: Two homeless guys were fighting over a drink. The instigator was taken to the hospital and died. The other guy was detained and then released. Obviously this is a sorrowful story, one we are certainly not happy to have heard. No one should have to die like that. However, the incident seems to fit a pattern that's been going on for a while in a sort of homeless free fire zone that runs along Watt from Country Club Plaza to Marconi and eastward a bit on Kings Way and Marconi. Not all, but some, of the unhoused people in that area have been aggressive, flaunt their drug use and even sell drugs openly. A few havbe baseball bats and tennis rackets to use as weapons. We've also heard there was a massive fight over the weekend at the One Community Health building on Kings.

Most of the businesses in the area have asked the Sheriff (filed access permission for enforcement on private property) to intervene as necessary. The Jack in the Box on the corner of Watt and Marconi has not done so, despite the persistent presence of homeless people there. We even heard about a Jack in the Box employee getting punched by a homeless patron, resulting in a 911 call to the Sheriff. Compounding matters in the vicinity, the Sheriff's people only show up sporadically. It's not that they don't want to engage. The Deputies are law enforcement professionals who put their lives at risk for us. But they are just spread too thinly across the county to be able to do their job. They have way too much to do and nowhere near enough time and resources to do what has to be done. And they are sometimes reassigned due to staff shortages. Still, when we are told the Sheriff won't take on homeless campers at the bus stops since "they might be waiting for the bus", we have to shake our heads. Real bus patrons waiting for the bus don't have shopping carts, sleeping bags, trash and extra bicycle wheels with them at the bus stop. The bottom line, though is that you shouldn't be using our businesses like you are playing hockey, but if you do, you deserve more than 2-5 minutes in the penalty box.

That said, here is the fundamental problem: the Sheriff's North Division is vast. It includes all the unincorporated communities from the Sacramento River west of the airport and north of the American River to the north and east county lines and the City of Folsom, minus the City of Citrus Heights and some portions of the City of Sacramento that lie within those boundaries. There are 408,000 residents and hundreds upon hundreds of businesses to protect in that unincorporated territory. While there are something like 75 FTE employees who work in the North Division, maybe that's not enough. At a recent Sheriff's meeting, people were told that there are just 6 Deputies assigned to  patrol that whole area and that the POP and HOT deputies do not work nights and weekends. That's how the County defines "public safety" for our communities. Frankly, we're concerned about that. If our community was a city, we could take the issues to the Mayor and the City Council and we could expect action. But our community isn't a city, is it? Our only alternative is to speak with the County, which can be like talking to a brick wall.

We are now thinking about asking Supervisor Desmond for a public forum to address these issues. And we will probably also have to get a delegation together to speak with all the Supervisors at a forthcoming Board of Supervisors meeting. We know this isn't the kind of happy news that some of our readers would like to get from us, but we don't see any other choice - only squeeky wheels get greased when the County is in charge. Please let us know if you would like to add your voice(s) to the chorus.