Warden message I'd like to see

Do not travel to south east Los Angeles ever! Murders, car jacking's, robberies and associated felonies are so common they are not published in newspapers. Same with Logan Heights in San Diego and areas of every city or town in America. Also be aware when in public, at malls, churches, businesses and schools to include the other parts of any city you may visit. Be especially aware of gang members wearing their 'colors', crack heads and disgruntled white men carrying assault rifles.

Notice: This update is permanent.

It's been many years since I've been in LA. I had no idea it was that bad.

It isn't!!!

simpsca wrote:It's been many years since I've been in LA. I had no idea it was that bad.

Demonio goes on to say, in response to this post, "It isn´t."

Well, it is and it isn´t as is the way it is in every place inhabited by humans. As a friend of mine from the most violent pricincts of Manhattan who inadvertently strolled through the deepest gutters of San Francisco´s Tenderloin District on his way taking a shortcut to his fancy hotel in that city told me, I´ve never been so scared in my life - and this guy was a tough Manhattan cop in the 60s and 70s.

When I was a kid in Alabama before and during the days of the civil rights struggle and cities like Birmingham were considered chaotic and dangerous, most Birmingham citizens, whether of European or African or Asian American descent, went about their everyday business more or less in peace.

That doesn´t change the fact that social upheaval often changes things and whether those changes are good or bad is always according to one´s perspective.

When we were considering where to retire, Egypt seemed a decent alternative. We liked various parts of Colombia but, in those days it seemed too dangerous. Tunisia seemed a delightful place to buy on a Mediterranean beach or in pine scented mountains. We speculated on Oran, Algeria before that country became an obvious war zone between Islamic fundamentalists and a repressive government. The Kenyan Highlands on the Equator with what we think is the best climate in the world, was enticing but sometimes there is a certain tension in the air.

We settled on Mexico and today live in both Jalisco and Chiapas. The way things are going in Guadalajara and at Lakeside. We are glad to be in Chiapas where life among the Zapatistas is sublime compared to the violence we see developing in Jalisco and neighboring Michoacan. Perhaps we will return to Jalisco if you guys can get your act together. It´s a little scary at present.

To see the gritty reality of murders in LA as reported daily by the LA Times...

http://projects.latimes.com/homicide/blog/page/1/

I'd have to agree with Dawg. Feeling safe, or unsafe, in a particular location is in the mind of the beholder.

I was not only born and raised in south-central and east Los Angeles - I also policed Los Angeles for most of my adult life. L.A. doesn't scare me - very few places do. But, neither does Lakeside (recently lived there for 18 months). There's potential danger anywhere you go or live.

The BIG difference for me was having to "blend in" with the locals as a survival tactic. Good forbid you display wealth in MX for fear of being targeted for theft, kidnapping or worse. I had to leave my "toys" NOB when in MX. I found that I just wasn't ready to "blend in" with the locals and live almost like a peasant. NOB, you can live in an up-scale home, drive a luxury car, wear expensive clothes and jewelry, eat at fine restaurants, lodge at five star hotels, etc., etc. and not be targeted. I worked HARD for what I have and intend to enjoy it while I'm still relatively young (49). I have rich friends and family in MX and they live in seclusion or surrounded by body guards - NO THANKS!

Intercasa wrote:To see the gritty reality of murders in LA as reported daily by the LA Times...

http://projects.latimes.com/homicide/blog/page/1/

Spencer, surely you don't mean to compare crime in the 2nd largest city in the U.S. (a population of up to 10 million people) with a quaint little colonial village in MX - do you? Naw, you're too smart for that - right?

The OP mentioned LA so I listed LA crime stats, apples to apples.

The population of Guadalajara metropolitan, including Chapala, is 8.9 million (http://www.nndb.com/geo/978/000096690/). My point was that if any major city in the states were in Mexico there would be warden messages posted pretty much everyday. jus saying...

He also said, "Same with Logan Heights in San Diego and areas of every city or town in America." The weed available Lakeside seems to be MUCH better than when I was there. Might be time for a week or two visit. I did however agree with this from the OP - "Be especially aware of gang members wearing their 'colors', crack heads and disgruntled white men carrying assault rifles." LOL

Unfortunately we live in a world of unrest and violence. I have choosen to live in Mexico and will stay right here. The good out weighs the bad for me. I am currently in Mazatlan and find much more unrest here, but I still choose to be here. I really don't care how safe L.A, Mannitoba and the like are, I do not choose to go there or live there. There is no place on earth that is paradise, but to me Lake Chapala is close. And no....I don't have my eyes shut, I read the news everyday and keep my eyes and ears open. Just loving life!

Demonio wrote:NOB, you can live in an up-scale home, drive a luxury car, wear expensive clothes and jewelry, eat at fine restaurants, lodge at five star hotels, etc., etc. and not be targeted. I worked HARD for what I have and intend to enjoy it while I'm still relatively young (49). I have rich friends and family in MX and they live in seclusion or surrounded by body guards - NO THANKS!

Well, there is certainly merit to what Demonio says but I must say that Dawg grew up in the 40s, 50s and early 60s in an environment of privilege in a South Alabama town distinguished by magnificent homes and lush vegetation where homes of the successful or even the moderately successful, at least among the white population, were characterized by vast manicured lawns and exquisite Oaks and Pecans and Walnuts and other gorgeous hardwood trees and beautiful hedges and orchards that defined property lines and provided privacy in communities where man-made walls or fences were considered gauche and one never presumed to build a high wall around one´s stately home when one could parade that estate about the town and for the "enjoyment" of any stangers venturing there as a badge of honor and then Dawg, sfter having been raised in that sort of ostentatious environment, discovered, at a late age, the pleasures of seclusion provided by living in a Latin American country such as Mexico where wealth and splendid isolation is valued and the thought of parading one´s wealth ostentatiously about the community is considered equally gauche and even foolishly enviting of thieves and plunderers.

We have lived in modest privacy behind high walls now in Mexico for some ten years and we live in a community where some from NOB still feel the need to show off their "accomplishments" by building obnoxiuos estates peering out over desolute towns filled with people scratching out a living just to feed their families and we no longer see any value in prancing about the community with your chin in the air.

As far as danger is concerned; there were two times I recall most vividly; the most frightened I have ever been and assured at the time that my life was over was in 1969 when I was almost charged by an innocent but irritated African buffalo in the bush in Murchisan Falls National Park in Uganda I had startled that buffalo by foolishly traipsing through the bush taking a shortcut to a tent encampment. He/She did not charge and lay waste to me for reasons only known to the buffalo. The other incident I remember even more vividly, was on the branch floor of a branch office of Barclays Bank in Downtown Oakland, California in about 1982 when a gang of thugs burst into the branch one morning about 9:00AM and had us all prostrate on the floor ready to blow our brains out with sawed-off shotguns and, for reasons of their own, they took the money and ran without killing us.

Now, you tell me which was the cleanest way to die since we all must die. Ground into the earth by an enraged African bufflalo acting in presumed self defense in the middle of the African bush or blown to pieces by a sawed-off shotgun wielded by some thief from the Oakland ghetto who hates your guts simply because you exist? Either way, we all end up worm food. Get over it.

Oh, incidentally; when the Oakland cops got to my branch that morning, thy told me, yeah we know these guys. They come form a West Oakland familiy that specializes in robbing banks. Chaos rules Oakland and you worry about Cairo?

oncesubtle wrote:The population of Guadalajara metropolitan, including Chapala, is 8.9 million (http://www.nndb.com/geo/978/000096690/). My point was that if any major city in the states were in Mexico there would be warden messages posted pretty much everyday. jus saying...

The day asshole members of organized crime syndicates closed down the 405 Freeway (or any of the many other traffic arteries leading to LAX) by shooting at motorists to commandeer their vehicles and set the vehicles ablaze. OR, throw hand grenades at the home of my friend Charlie Beck, the LAPD Chief of Police, in an attempt to assassinate him, etc., etc. - you can bet your ass there will be much more fanfare than a chicken-shit Warden's Message - ALL HELL WILL BREAK LOOSE!!! Witness Tucson, AZ.

I realize some folks have invested their life savings in buying a home in MX. Now they are trying to convince themselves and each other that it wasn't a mistake. That MX is no more dangerous a place to live than anywhere else. You're only fooling yourselves!

Meanwhile you live behind iron bars, with broken glass bottles protecting the top of exterior walls and other precautions that are the envy of most prisons. Then, you have to "blend in" with the locals and live like peasants because God forbid you display any significant signs of wealth. You don't dare go out at night, much less drive during hours of darkness. etc., etc.

I understand you're STUCK - after all, who in there right mind could you unload your investment on now? Perhaps some ballsy investor for pennies on the dollar! Don't get me wrong, you're right to make the best if a BAD situation and Lakeside is a wonderful place, but burying your head in the sand and posting nonsense is not the answer. You're not fooling anyone - including yourselves. Things are BAD and getting worse. Ironically, if Felipe Calderon is successful in disbanding the cartels it's going to create a whole lot of unemployed criminal assholes. Guess what they'll be doing? Here's a clue, don't expect to see them bagging your groceries at Superlake. Buena suerte! Jus sayin'...

My point was that if any major city in the states were in Mexico there would be warden messages posted pretty much everyday.

Demonio wrote:

I realize some folks have invested their life savings in buying a home in MX. Now they are trying to convince themselves and each other that it wasn't a mistake. That MX is no more dangerous a place to live than anywhere else. You're only fooling yourselves!

Meanwhile you live behind iron bars, with broken glass bottles protecting the top of exterior walls and other precautions that are the envy of most prisons. Then, you have to "blend in" with the locals and live like peasants because God forbid you display any significant signs of wealth. You don't dare go out at night, much less drive during hours of darkness. etc., etc.

I understand you're STUCK - after all, who in there right mind could you unload your investment on now? Perhaps some ballsy investor for pennies on the dollar! Don't get me wrong, you're right to make the best if a BAD situation and Lakeside is a wonderful place, but burying your head in the sand and posting nonsense is not the answer. You're not fooling anyone - including yourselves. Things are BAD and getting worse. Ironically, if Felipe Calderon is successful in disbanding the cartels it's going to create a whole lot of unemployed criminal assholes. Guess what they'll be doing? Here's a clue, don't expect to see them bagging your groceries at Superlake. Buena suerte! Jus sayin'...

Snork... if U had posted this verbal diarrahea on the other boards it wouldn't have lasted a nano-second...

[quote="hockables"]

Demonio wrote:Snork... if U had posted this verbal diarrahea on the other boards it wouldn't have lasted a nano-second...

I realize that cuz TOBs have a vested interest, like property owners in MX, to treat potential victims - I mean buyers - like mushrooms. At least here one can tell the truth.

Cauldron will hopefully call a truce somewhere along the way... neither side is going to win
There will always be another bad guy to fill any vacancies left in the organizations,
just as there are always more Presidents, Judges, and Police Chiefs ...

I wonder if he knew then, what he knows now.... if he would still have started his little war against the Cartels

hockables wrote:

Demonio wrote:

I realize some folks have invested their life savings in buying a home in MX. Now they are trying to convince themselves and each other that it wasn't a mistake. That MX is no more dangerous a place to live than anywhere else. You're only fooling yourselves!

Meanwhile you live behind iron bars, with broken glass bottles protecting the top of exterior walls and other precautions that are the envy of most prisons. Then, you have to "blend in" with the locals and live like peasants because God forbid you display any significant signs of wealth. You don't dare go out at night, much less drive during hours of darkness. etc., etc.

I understand you're STUCK - after all, who in there right mind could you unload your investment on now? Perhaps some ballsy investor for pennies on the dollar! Don't get me wrong, you're right to make the best if a BAD situation and Lakeside is a wonderful place, but burying your head in the sand and posting nonsense is not the answer. You're not fooling anyone - including yourselves. Things are BAD and getting worse. Ironically, if Felipe Calderon is successful in disbanding the cartels it's going to create a whole lot of unemployed criminal assholes. Guess what they'll be doing? Here's a clue, don't expect to see them bagging your groceries at Superlake. Buena suerte! Jus sayin'...

Snork... if U had posted this verbal diarrahea on the other boards it wouldn't have lasted a nano-second...

Demonio, has said he lived Lakeside for 18 months, what is the longest visit you have spent Lakeside.....since you bought the house?

Demonio wrote:

Meanwhile you live behind iron bars, with broken glass bottles protecting the top of exterior walls and other precautions that are the envy of most prisons. Then, you have to "blend in" with the locals and live like peasants because God forbid you display any significant signs of wealth. You don't dare go out at night, much less drive during hours of darkness. etc., etc.

Hyperbole from either side of the debate serves no purpose.

I've lived here far longer than anyone on these boards. I became a citizen many years ago, raised a family blah blah blah. We don't live like peasants. We have more than most. Less than many. Is a Blackberry or an iPod or an iPad a sign of wealth? A new Apple computer? How about a late model car? If a woman wears nice clothing and carries a fashionable handbag is this flaunting wealth? The definition of wealth is very subjective. We don't flash money or wear expensive jewelry but we never did that even long before the recent surge in violent crime.

We also dare to go out at night although I recently curbed my college age sons wee hours of the morning arrivals on the weekends. We are very concerned. But we still lead a normal life. A normal middle-class i.e. not a peasant life.

cane wrote: Demonio, has said he lived Lakeside for 18 months, what is the longest visit you have spent Lakeside.....since you bought the house?

Undoubtedly far more than you.

hockables wrote:

Cauldron will hopefully call a truce somewhere along the way... neither side is going to win
There will always be another bad guy to fill any vacancies left in the organizations,
just as there are always more Presidents, Judges, and Police Chiefs ...

I wonder if he knew then, what he knows now.... if he would still have started his little war against the Cartels

"Cauldron will hopefully call a truce somewhere along the way."..

¿WHO WITH?

[quote="Demonio"]

hockables wrote:

Demonio wrote:Snork... if U had posted this verbal diarrahea on the other boards it wouldn't have lasted a nano-second...

I realize that cuz TOBs have a vested interest, like property owners in MX, to treat potential victims - I mean buyers - like mushrooms. At least here one can tell the truth.

Yeah... but problems exist everwhere.... answer me this ( from your police experience )... there is a story in the NEWS about a 16 year old kid being beaten by Dallas Police...
Seems, they were chasing him from a burglary ,when they hit him with a patrol car, ran around and apprehended him, then 8 of em punched and kicked the shit out of him...
this of course all caught on camera... so now theres hell to pay....

As a cop... are these cops bad guys? or are they burnt out with all the thieving little bastards, they deal with every single day?

The community, up in arms is saying " there's no hiding this "

Apparently, they missed the part about the little shit being caught in the commision of a crime...

So where should a person invest in a home?

cane wrote:

hockables wrote:

Cauldron will hopefully call a truce somewhere along the way... neither side is going to win
There will always be another bad guy to fill any vacancies left in the organizations,
just as there are always more Presidents, Judges, and Police Chiefs ...

I wonder if he knew then, what he knows now.... if he would still have started his little war against the Cartels

"Cauldron will hopefully call a truce somewhere along the way."..

¿WHO WITH?

I believe the Americans have coined the term " Cessation of Hostilities "

hockables wrote: So where should a person invest in a home?

Do you mean a "Home" or a "House"?.........Where do you know?

I hope that the Moderator will shut down this useless topic with all the verbal diahrrea coming from Demonio's trap.