Results of today's "Call to Action" at City Hall

This email was forwarded to me:


Subject: Results of today's "Call to Action" at City Hall....


Dear Friends,

First and foremost, THANK YOU ALL so much for your support of our community today! The turn out, on such short notice, was stunning. You were all amazing and IT DID make a HUGE difference with our Mayor, Jesus Cabrera Jimenez. Your attendence is the ONLY reason we were 'granted' a meeting with El Presidente! And what a meeting it was! Before I get into that, I also wanted to comment to those of you who wrote me emails telling me it is 'illegal' to hold a rally or whatever you wanted to call it, and that we should just leave it alone, or that we should not make this public outside or our area. Well, what we did was not illegal and the world already knows our troubles.... But, I am sorry if the email upset you. I tried to send it only to those I felt might be like-minded or at least sympathic. I was about 96% correct. I will not send those of you another email, but I did want to let you know the results of our efforts.

On a very up side, I truly want to thank the many, many of you who forwarded my email to your friends. There were so many faces in the audience I'd never seen before and so many helpful and kind people. We now have TWO volunteers to interpret for you, should (God forbid), anything happen to you. We also have a sketch artist! Something our police department cannot offer. So this is wonderful news. Again, thank you to those of you who forwarded the email and attended the rally.

Anyway, here is what happened today. Early this morning I received an email from Kim of Number 4 informing me of a meeting they had arranged with the Mayor at 10am and to please join them at La Bodega at 9:30. I did go to La Bodega to meet with the Restaurateurs, organized by Hector of Manix, Javier of La Bodega and Kim of Number Four. Then we headed to Chapala. About 30 of us arrived at the El Presidente's office at 10am, along with at least four reporters with tape recorders and video cameras. At first, even though the meeting had been pre-arranged, we were told he was busy and we might have to wait all day. We simply went outside and waited. No more than ten minutes passed and we were told our meeting with Mayor Jesus Cabrera Jimenez was going to happen and we were ushered into his conference room.

It was a very vocal meeting, all in Spanish, but it was clear, these restaurant owers wanted these criminals caught, and caught now, so people would come back to their restaurants. The Mayor made some promises and all seemed semi-content. You'll probably read about it in detail in one local paper or another. The Mayor was then informed that I had organized a grassroots meeting at the steps of his building for noon. He did not appear upset or alarmed by that, but told me/us that there would be no more meetings today, but that he would meet with us at the Cultural Center in Ajijic the following Tuesday at 10am. That satisfied me at the time.

At noon, there were about 200 people gathered out front, with more coming in as the meeting progressed. Basically we were all in agreement that something needed to be done and done now. There was shouting and clapping and cheering and signs were waving. It was a very civilized, but energerized gathering of like minded people looking for police security in our once peaceful fishing village. About 30 minutes into our informal curbside meeting, word was sent to Dale Palfrey of the Guadalajara Reporter that I could come up to his chambers and bring five other spokespeople from the group. Immediately certain people came up front and upstairs we headed. Actually seven or us and about five reporters were allowed in.

The meeting probably lasted well over an hour and was very beneficial. We had an interpreter for the Mayor and also for us, as some of the selected attendees were Mexican and spoke Spanish.

The Mayor let us each speak (as often as we wanted) and then he spoke. He told us he completely understood our issues, felt very much the same as we did, and wanted this to be fixed as soon as possible and would do whatever he could, although he was limited by his lack of funding. But, we continued, talking about just putting police officers walking 'the beat' around our neighborhoods...therefore getting rid of the objection that 'they didn't have enough vehicles for their police force'. He also said they only had 60 officers for each shift and those 60 had to cover lots of territory. That is why so many are seen in one truck, as they just don't all have vehicles or even gas money! The idea of the 'beat' might have sunk in. He told us they had already made plans for 100 cameras to be installed in various locations throughout Lakeside. Wow! Now that's an advancement. In an 'after discussion' the idea came up about ordering 1000 cameras, 900 of them cheap, but real looking dummies and 100 that we were. Who would know which ones worked? I thought that was a great idea....

Anyway, after much discussion and some heated debates about 'if you can't solve this, we will leave and take our money with us and then Ajijic will return to the sleepy fishing village it once was,' etc., etc. Or that we would stop paying property taxes or even boycott everything for two weeks, just stay home and read and watch TV.....if the criminals who were doing these violent home invasions were not caught as well as the murderers. Of course, our Mayor did not want that any of those as solutions to this problem. He wants to get our Ministers Publico re-vamped and really working to solve crimes and to solve these violent home invasions and this horrific murder in broad daylight.

He promised to call the Governor, the Chief of Police, the Head of Ministers Publico, and the Head of Tourism and heCHANGED OUR NEXT MEETING TO WEDNESDAY, DEC 7TH, at 4 pm at Real del Chapala Hotel in La Floresta. PLEASE PUT THAT DATE AND TIME ON YOUR CALENDARS. He told me this meeting would NOT be to rehash all that is wrong and all the various crimes, but to bring SOLUTIONS to this awful situation. He said I could speak and three others ONLY. That I was to ASK YOU all (by this email), WHAT IS YOUR ONE LINE BEST SOLUTION.

So please, think long and hard and come up with ONE SOLUTION. And send it to me. I will send them all to my 'committee' and we will pick many and we will present them to you all and to the Mayor and hopefully, the Governor and the other department heads.

THIS IS PROGRESS. Our GRASSROOTS GATHERING made a difference. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH.

Now please, do it again. Send this email out tonight and again next week. Write down your solution (one per person), and send it to me.

I asked the Mayor if we should limit the number of attendees to 100 or so. He said NO....BRING THE WHOLE TOWN to show soliditary and force. It will make a difference. But to please be peaceful and let the chosen speakers speak. I said we could do that. Can we? I hope so.

If you did not attend today because you had fear that we are 'not allowed' to voice our opinions in a foreign country, well....you are just plain wrong. Or that they did not want to hear from us, you are wrong. Think about it again and join in your own protection.....

However, if you want to be off this list, just say so, but please, don't give me a lecture....I'm just trying to do my best. I'm not perfect. I didn't want to be in this position, I resisted it. But it was my best friend who was brutalized in Rancho del Oro and I felt I just had to do something after I attended several 'attorney meetings with her and her family', which frankly, were a joke. I told the attorneys we probably had to do some kind of 'call to action to the community' and they agreed. That's why this happened.

And please, next Wed at 4pm, bring youR Mexican neighbors and maids and gardeners and pool men. This is serious and this is their village and they need to know, they are scared too! Everything will be in Spanish and English.

Hopefully I will see hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of you there WITH YOUR SIGNS and BANNERS and your energy.

Sincerely,
Linda Fossi

There needs to be some fund raising to help pay for these cameras and the extra patrols. If there is put me down for the first 1000 pesos and let me know who is collecting. Once we arrive back down in March I will also volunteer my time and anything that would help via this forum.

Simpsca, please pass my suggestion along to Linda.

I know that it's not a good idea to post personal email addresses on any public forum, but is there a way to publish Linda's - with her permission obviously?

Several of us will want to send her an email - instead of publishing our thoughts publicly.

As I do not know her and didn't have her info, I googled her this am and she is with Arellano realty. I sent her an email through the contact function, asking that an announcement for this meeting be drawn up in word. I asked that it be in both english and spanish and sent as an attachment so everyone can print and pass it out to friends, neighbors, etc. I also think everyone can take a copy to their local merchants to post in the various establishments. We need to get everyone involved.

Thanks for the information. Following your suggestion, I found her web page (http://lindafossi.com/) and have sent her a message.

That link doesn't seem to work.

Try this one:

http://lindafossi.com/

I sent my message directly to Linda. Thanks Oatsie.