Opinion: People should not be living in fear
To the community,
One of the great things about the neighborhood I live in is that we haven’t had to worry about burglars. Until now.
Suddenly, our neighbors are reporting their cars are being broken into. However, in most cases, these break-ins are not reported to the police because many of my neighbors grow medical cannabis and they are afraid to contact the police for fear they will be raided and shut down by city officials for violating the new South Lake Tahoe cultivation ordinance.
Steve Kubby
Here’s a report from one of my neighbors: “Last night my husband and I went to bed to be awoken by the teenager that lives with us at midnight because when he walked home from a neighbor’s house he noticed all our car doors open and the interior lights on. My husband and I sprang out of bed (my wallet was in the car with over $200 in it) to find that our car was ransacked. The thief stole many items: our roadside emergency kit worth about $200, our daughters’ DVD players worth $250, my husband’s GPS worth $500, our phone charger and adapter for listening to music on the radio, our cargo net and ratcheted tie downs, and they even took the girls’ sunglasses. It is so upsetting to know that random people just walk down our street (Oakland) and check for unlocked vehicles to steal from. We work hard for what we have and it is really disturbing to have some low life come and rip it away from us.”
My neighbor then told me that about a dozen break-ins have occurred in our neighborhood, but that she was the first person to report it to the police. Since my neighbors are so afraid of the police, they have decided to form a vigilante committee to catch the thieves and punish them.
Thanks to the misguided efforts of the City Council, we now have an epidemic of break-ins and the prospect of some teenage thieves getting beaten to a pulp. This is the scary and destructive outcome of local council members creating more hardship and dangers through the unintended consequences of creating bad laws.
The time has come to replace the terrible and unworkable current cultivation ordinance with one that actually helps reduce odor emissions and still protect our fellow citizens who rely upon the medical use of cannabis, under their physician’s supervision, as provided by California law.
This Friday, the South Lake Tahoe city attorney issued a “Title and Summary” for a new, citywide, voter initiative that will fix the current dangerous and unworkable SLT cultivation ordinance. That means that we can start gathering signatures for the new SLT voter initiative over the next week at local grocery store parking lots.
Until then, lock your cars and leave the outside lights on at night.
Steve Kubby, South Lake Tahoe
Who is living in the garage????
Do the car locks work?????
What are many of the items stollen doing in the car to begin with?????
Shirley — Ditto.
Shirley and 4-mer usmc- For your information we do not have a garage, the items that were taken are items that are normally used in the car and therefore left there, and the locks do work (we just forgot to lock the car one night, which based on your condescending post you never do). None of this makes it okay for someone to come and steal other people’s belongings and you really need to learn to have some compassion for your fellow human beings.
Steve- This is not a cultivation issue and I am really upset about this article. Most of the people I spoke with that have been hit by this thief DO NOT GROW!!! Please stop making every issue about marijuana and I think more people will listen to you.
Lock your car doors, never keep valuables in your car, definitely not in plain sight, and call the cops to report it, cause guess what? They’re not coming out to investigate it anyway, they take your information over the phone. This is not a big enough crime to warrant their showing up.
Admin- I wrote a very clear letter warning my neighbors of this thief and asking them to call the police so this person can be caught and you chose to post this misinformed article?
Careaboutthecommunity!!! Really? Not based on your post.
The cops do feel it is important enough to warrant showing up. They were here within minutes and when I spoke with them the next day they said the only way they’re going to catch this person is by having people report the crimes. We all need to be more proactive instead of sitting here behind our computers and coming down on the victims of these crimes. I would never come down on any of you if this happened to you or in your neighborhood. My main reason for posting anything regarding this crime is so others don’t fall victim to this thief, not to sit here and be bashed as if I’m an idiot!
Happened to me a few years ago, I never locked my car doors before, felt safe. I know how creepy it feels to be violated.
The cops said, they are mainly looking for identity information for theft.
I started locking my doors from that day forward :(
They never came out, when it happened to me, told me “These happen all the time”, and “they would not be sending anyone out”. At least one neighbor on my street was hit the same night.
Maybe your street has been hit more, and/or the value of items stolen is higher?
I don’t see how a string of car burglaries is due to a decision by the city council. A cultivation issue, really??
Vigilantism can only cause problems, and normally its not the ones their after than get harmed. Neighborhood Watch programs are a good thing and many neighborhoods in our town have a system in place already. Meet your neighbors, have a plan, watch out for each other (talk about random acts of kindness), be familiar with what cars parked around are normal and not normal, and this will provide an atmosphere where the car burglar will have no chance and move on.
There are figures out on crime but without knowing them I think Reno and Sparks are seeing an increase in car and home burglaries….they don’t have a cultivation ordinance that allows pot growing, just a ban on growing. There are causes…the person out of work that is desperate, the drug user than needs a quick buck for a quick fix, people not caring about their actions and so on.
30yrlocal- You are totally right!!! This is not a cultivation issue. I don’t even know where Steve got the idea that people are planning vigilantism. He spoke with me and my husband and that was never part of the conversation. It just shows that Steve likes to take other people’s words and twist them to suit his own agenda!
Although Snoheather says this is not a cultivation issue, my other neighbors have told me otherwise.
It was Shoheather who first told me the neighbors “were afraid to report these breakins to police.” However, I sought further confirmation after speaking with her, so I spoke to other neighbors who grow and who told me they are very afraid to report breakins to police.
What perplexes me is that I specifically told Snoheather that I would be writing this article, something she seemed to think was a good idea at the time. In fact, she even told me where to look to get a summary of what had happened to her family.
I believe this article is a fair and accurate report of the facts as I understand them.
My apology to Snoheather for offending her, but I’m sincerely trying to do the right thing here.
No neighborhood is exempt from thieves. I think you just look for reasons to blame everything on the pot law. Sounds like your neighborhood is full of sick people if you have so many pot growers. Get your head out of the smoke and quit blaming everything on the laws.
Steve- When we spoke I told you that I had spoken to many of our neighbors and that they weren’t reporting the crimes. Nothing was ever mentioned in regard to them being afraid to contact police.
Yes, I was fine with you writing a piece regarding the breakins to warn our neighbors of these occurrences and encourage them to be watchful and to contact the police. Never did you make it sound as if it would be twisted into an argument against the city council or the cultivation issue. I should have known better!!
I can’t believe this inflammatory, ill conceived ‘article’ was allowed,to be posted on this site. Kubby is literally and obviously attempting to incite fear, create fear, in order to get people to sign His petition to create a special south lake tahoe law allowing even more growing of marijuana in this town. City Attorney’s don’t issue ballot summaries, the question would be WHO submitted the request to the city to put another pot legislation on the ballot? I’m going to take a wild stab here and guess it’s Kubby. Kubby who wants to turn this town into his own field of pot, Kubby who wants to control this town pushing his desire for unregulated pot everywhere. He pushed the city to allow the all the pot stores and now wants no regulation.
Kubby, is this new ballot measure your idea? Why should our town become your testing ground for more more legislation to allow,unfettered growing here? Why did you come here to bring all this havoc with you? How do you sleep,at night knowing you’re just trying to manipulate those who don’t smoke pot into thinking all this growing is just for the sick who can’t get better any other way? Oh, forgot, I do know how you sleep at night, pot induced. Kubby, how many pot smokers did you get sign voter registration cards last time out- heard it was about 400, isn’t that the number of votes you got? How does it feel to use other people for your own personal glory? Since you were behind voter initiatives on pot legislation in other communities, why did you set you sights on SLT? Were we a sleepy little community you thought you could take control of? Looking back over the past few years since you moved to Tahoe City, It’s clear you set your sights on a small rural community that so happened to be a city enabling your mission.
Why not get a countywide initiative going instead of just a little city one? Is is because you don’t need very many votes to get a law passed in this town so you figure let’s get some unfettered pot-growing law passed in a small city in California, where we only need a couple of thousand voters to believe some ridiculous thing like pot is the only medicine these poor sick people can get their hands on to feel better, we’ll manipulate them with fear, oh and we can incite their frustration with their local city , let’s tell them everything wrong in their lives is x-y-z’s fault and voting to allow pot growing everywhere in the town will solve their problems, oh and let’s get all the kids who are smoking pot to sign voter registration cards and tell them passing the law would allow free legal pot smoking everywhere in town, oh let’s not forget the elderly, we need them too, let’s tell them the it’s not legalizing pot it’s growing medicine so they can feel better and young again. . . Hum, we’re leaving out the conservatives, oh let’s tell them it’s like the tea party movement and it’s not voting for free pot growing, no it’s voting to finally get the cops to come out and handle burglariy calls,mean that’s it, to vote for free pot growing everywhere is really voting for more cops on patrol and more cops who will answer burglary calls. oh and one more thing, never ever say the word pot anymore, never use those words, pot smokers, let’s always be sure and call it cannibals or medical marijuana or better et, medical cannibals , yeah that’s it,mhalf the people won’t even pay attention.
Whew, think we’ve covered all the angles? Now, as long as we can keep manipulating. Each group of people, and if the voters of SLT stay home like they often do, we just need a few thousand easily fooled folks to vote for this pot thing, oops, medical cannibias thing. And then what? Oh Kubby will take to the initiative to other counties, other communities, and promote South Lake Tahoe is the place to moe to if your want free unfettered growing of pot, pot smoking everywhere anywhere. Landlords will no longer have a say in Niot allowing pot growing in their rentals… It’ll be the Land of Pot. And Kubby will have all his little manipulated, not able to clearly think, minions doing his bidding to get his power , attention , and control of the town.
Just one little hurdle Kubby, it’s us. The long time locals. This is our town. We built it, we won’t let you destroy it. We will speak up, we will not let you ruin it any more. We were tolerant for awhile bud, but those days are over if you think we’re going to stand aside. We’re on to your schnanigans and can see though the haze even if you can’t.
Snoheather, don’t feel bad, Kubby is just doin his normal thing, he was obviously going to write this opinion peice which is really about the ballot initiative and he was just looking to use someone , something or some angle to stir it up get people thinking it’s not a ballot initiative about pot it’s a ballot initiative that will stop burglaries in our neighborhoods and apparently in some neighborhoods in Oakland too, and voting for his initiative will “fix the dangerous.” Wow! A ballot measure to fix danger, stop fear, halt burglaries and send the cops out to take care of our dangerous orld…holy Toledo Batman, we have a winner here! A law to do all that just by allowing more pot to grow unregulated by anyone! Fantastic! In a single swoop too.
Kubby just needed to use someone and you so happened to give him the angle. Don’t feel too bad, he’ll use any neighbor, any idea, statement or thought if he thinks it will divert the truth. He’ll do it again too , just start tracking how many things his new pot law is supposed to “fix.”
Here is the letter I wrote to the editor:
I am writing this letter so that people in the Al Tahoe neighborhood, mainly between Los Angeles, Oakland, and El Dorado Avenues, can be warned of a thief lose in the area. Last night my husband and I woke up to the knowledge that our car had been robbed. We had many items stolen out of our car while parked in front of our house. This is a very upsetting event and makes us feel utterly helpless and angry.
We have since talked too many of our neighbors and have come to the realization that this is not a random occurrence but has been quite frequent as of late. Most of the people I have talked to either know someone nearby, or they themself, have been robbed when they forgot to lock their vehicle. This leads me to the impression that there is a person who has been wandering the neighborhood for the past few months checking car doors at night to steal whatever they can grab that has value.
I ask that everyone in the neighborhood watch for whomever this person may be and report any suspicious activity to the police department immediately. If you are victimized please contact the police. Most of the people I spoke with never contacted the police about the theft because they felt nothing would be done. When these crimes go unreported there is no way for the person to be caught and will only cause the problem to continue.
Definitely no talk of any “vigilante committee”.
Just a little input. I too had my things stolen from my unlocked car. The sheriff did come and take a report. Eventually, I received some compensation from the perpetrator along with an “apology” where the criminal actually blamed me for leaving my car unlocked. In another instance, I had my identity stolen through the company I work for. The sheriff all but refused to complete a report as advised by my insurance company. When an officer finally did come to take my report, I was told by the snarky little punk sheriff that they would not be doing anything and that this was a “piddly little crime”. It turned out to be a very large, multi-state criminal conspiracy that was handled by the Secret Service and EDSO DID have to become involved.
Neither instance had anything to do with pot growing to my knowledge but illustrated the entirely too arbitrary powers of law enforcement in the execution of their duties. I had to demand my rights to protect myself and my family. That is unfortunate and I always remember this when any question of support for law enforcement comes to my attention as a voter.
Personally, I don’t see Mr. Kubby as somehow trying to take over our town. That is a bit of a stretch. I hear a man who has been dragged through the muck because he is sick and is fighting back through the only avenue left, law. Indeed, after being mistreated by law enforcement, you tend to get pretty outraged as you provide their paychecks. The larger problem, from my perspective, is that the police have entirely too much discretion to enforce or not enforce law, or even investigate criminal activity. A salient example is the recent SnoGlobe Festival where the police seemed to entirely forget the noise ordinance, but paid special attention to drug laws. Do laws matter or not?
Lake Tahoe News would like to set the record straight from our point-of-view. Snoheather has not submitted anything for publication as a letter or guest column. So the implication we have not posted something is wrong.
The first reference to the thefts from her vehicle where written by her on a Random Acts of Kindness entry where she called it a Random Act of Unkindness.
Only she and Steve Kubby know what their conversation was.
The fact remains, whether a door is unlocked or not does not give anyone a right to steal from someone else. The victim of a crime should not be ridiculed.
Whether you agree or disagree with Steve Kubby, he always uses his full name. This is something no one else on this string of comments has done.
Anyone may submit a letter or guest column to info@LakeTahoeNews.net for consideration for publication. But your full name will be used.
Kathryn Reed, LTN publisher
Snoglobe had a permit given by the city leadership and when snoglobe violated the terms of the permit, they were cited. I’m pretty sure the police could have arrested nearly every attendee of the festival if they were paying “special attention to drug laws”. Lets blame the cops who have half the size of the department they had 10 years ago. Some basic home safety like, not leaving valuables in your car and locking it would prevent most of these thefts. If my wallet had $200 in it, I would make sure I knew where it was and I wouldn’t leave a DVD player in my car if it came out easily (put it in the trunk). It sucks to be the victim of the crime,I’ve been one myself. But when are we going to start blaming the criminal instead of everyone else?
Kae- Thanks for responding. I submitted the letter that I have posted on this thread as a contribution Friday, January 13, 2012 around 2:30pm to this site and the Tribune. Something must have gone wrong in the transmission. Sorry for the misunderstanding and I truly feel this website is beneficial to our community. Thank you.
youhavegottobekiddingme- Your post is very confusing. First you sit there and put me down for leaving things in MY CAR and then the end of your post you ask, “when are we going to start blaming the criminal instead of everyone else?”
Just because I leave something in my car doesn’t mean it is okay to steal it. Stop giving these criminals justification for their acts.
One of the many ways to NOT be a victim of criminals is to not put yourself in a very vulnerable situation. When you cross a street look both ways continually especially at night. Lock all doors, both car and home. Don’t leave anything of value in your car.
Thieves love easy pickings. Don’t make life easy for the crooks.
an old friend of mine Fearles Fred used to have a target from the shooting range
that was well shot up, posted right in front of his door, I asked him why it was there? he answered “so the thieves would know that he was a good shot”
Wow, I can’t remember the last time I read such a use of gymnastic logic to arrive at the conclusion that this is all “their” fault (whoever, “they” are depends on the perspective of the opiner of course).
My take, we are all a community and we need to stop thinking in us/them terms.
1. If you are the victim of a crime, report it.
2. We can’t hide behind how others “should behave” in order to diminish our own responsibility in the matter. Theft (as are most other crimes) result from an combination of opportunity, need translated as greed, and sense that the risk of capture is low. Lock it up, lock it down or take it in the house.
3. No vigilantism will solve the problem but good old neighborhood watch type vigilance and communication generally wins the day.
And to Kae, thanks for reminding me that hiding behind an alias is that, just hiding.
I live in the city streets and have heard my door handles on the car being opened…this happened several nights in a row. Luckily we lock the doors — but every time we heard it we never saw anyone. If anything it’s a tweaker… It gives them something to do late at night. If you are scared to call the police cause you grow pot then you should resolve this issue on your own by remembering to lock your doors. By writing this article you have drawn more attention to your illegal operation then the thief stealing valuable items from innocent families.
I missed the part where I blamed “them” or blamed the police for any crime. My problem comes from my perceived arbitrary enforcement of law. My opinion has been formed by my personal experiences. I still hold a great deal of anger for the sheriff who described the crime against me as a “piddly little crime” that they had no intention of doing anything with. This was almost 10 years ago. I clearly gave kudos to the same department that I criticised. Hence the claim of arbitrary behavior.
As far as anonimity, if you do not want anyone to be able to be anonymous, Kae, you certainly can do that. Anyone who choses to be anonymous has their reasons to remain so. Let me know of your preferences and I will gladly unsubscribe, that is entirely your perogative. Thank you for your open forum.
Excerpt from the City of SLT Noise Ordinance:
“18-10.2 Offensive noise standards.
The following acts, among others, are declared to be offensive, loud, disturbing, and unnecessary noises originating from residential properties or on public ways in violation of this article, but such enumeration shall not be deemed to be exclusive:
A. The using, operating, or permitting to be played, used, or operated of any radio receiving set, musical instrument, phonograph, stereo, television, or other machine or device for producing or reproducing sound in such a manner as to disturb the peace, quiet, and comfort of neighboring residential inhabitants at any time with volume louder than is necessary for convenient hearing for the persons who are in the room, vehicle, or chamber in which such machine or device is operating and who are voluntary listeners thereto. The operation of any such set, instrument, phonograph, stereo, machine, or device in such a manner as to be plainly audible at a distance of 50 feet from the residential building, structure, or vehicle in which it is located shall be prima facie evidence of a violation of this article;
B. The using, operating, or permitting to be played, used, or operated of any radio receiving set, stereo, tape recorder, sound amplifier, or other machine or device for producing or reproducing sound from any motor vehicle in which such sound machine or device is operating and who are voluntary listeners thereto. The operation of any such sound machine or device in such a manner as to be plainly audible at any time at a distance of 10 feet from the motor vehicle in which it is located shall be prima facie evidence of a violation of this article; and
C. Yelling, shouting, hooting, whistling, or singing originating from any residential property or upon any public way at any time so as to annoy or disturb the quiet comfort or repose of persons in the vicinity. (Ord. 762 § 1)”
youhavetobekiddingme, Perhaps you can explain how “citing” the promoters of SnoGlobe were stopped in any way from violating this ordinance. The enforcement was, by any measure, arbitrary. However, without the specifics of the permit (which was issued for property that the City did not have legal title to) no true determination of legality could possibly be decided. Of course, this is not what this article is about and I apologize for that. I felt that I had to explain my reasoning after being accused of blaming the police, which I did not do.
Mr Kubby I would like to ask you something, based on my life experience.
Usually when someone steals things as a crime of opportunity to make a quick buck selling the items for cash (or in trade) its often to pay for something else.
That something else are usually:
Adult Beverages
“Girlfriends”
to Gamble
and most often … drugs … usually the type not approved by the FDC.
Since the first three aren’t going away and are after all mostly legal, could it at all be possible or anywhere near in the realm of possibility that maybe perhaps, that said alleged criminals are using said proceeds to later acquire said product from said plantation?
How about it Mr. Kubby? Could your contention, to make cultivation more open, have some logical, and plausible negative externalities? By making cultivation more open, does not one invite more crime?
I am amazed to see this conversation. The speed with which several members of the same community are actually discussing the local issue. The strange thing is you know each other.
Several points:
1. I have tried to get local involvement for issues occurring in my small town (Lakeside, TX). This is very difficult, especially since the population is largely geriatric, and not tech-saavy (they don’t communicate on forums such as this). However, the most disturbing part, to me, is the lack of communication between neighbors in my community.
2. I suspect your criminal is not a roving thief. He/She is likely a member of your neighborhood. Opportunities are taken; that is the nature of reality. The easier the opportunity, the more likely the crime. This is not a question of law or order; it is a simple fact of life. Those most likely to know of your patterns and possessions are closest to you.
3. I don’t believe in government. In my experience, it grants us individually with very little protection. Our protection is up to us. As the t-shirts at the gun shows say: “WHEN SECONDS COUNT, THE POLICE ARE ONLY MINUTES AWAY” (remember, I live in Texas – no shortage of guns or conservatives here).
4. I do not believe a petty thief should be shot. Lock your doors if you want to keep your possessions, however. It may be nice to live in an enchanted community where no members are willing to commit crime for self-gain; but, I don’t believe such a community exists. Don’t make yourself the most vulnerable prey in the vicinity.
5. If the people of the community were present, the crime would not occur. This thief is obviously not bold enough to commit armed robbery. This is not an issue that can be resolved by government intervention (unless the police agree to patrol your street continuously). The fact is the “authorities” cannot be everywhere at once; however, members of the same community can always look out for each other when they are home. Do you have each other’s phone number?
6. The whole issue has very little or nothing to do with cannabis.
I’d like to see as much effort put into community vegetable gardening… because gods know there’s plenty of weed around. I’ve never seen a shortage of available “medicine” in the almost 40 yrs. I’ve been here. We never needed “grow houses” before. This is somebody making $$$ that shouldn’t be.
Smedley Butler is an American hero!
The most decorated soldier in American history when he died, still the most decorated Marine, author of “War is a Racket.” Brilliant.
Really?
Really? I did not know that.
See no evil,speak no evil, hear no evil.
CLOSE THE BLINDS, TURN OFF THE LIGHTS, AND EVIL WILL PASS YOU BY!
Somebody making $$ that shouldn’t be? Are we in comunist Russia?
Give me a break folks. Just leave the growers alone they are keeping alot of doors open at business around town and do we need even more unemployed here?
If someone in your neighborhood is doing something so aggresious that it actually bothers you, knock on thier door and address the issue or piss off.
SmedlyButler – great idea on the community garden!
Gee Steve, just once could you post something without your picture, and on some subject that doesn’t involve pot? Just once, please?
Steve, Steve, Steve, there you go again. Playing on people’s emotions and fears to do nothing more than push your agenda and your ballot initiative. You never ceased to amaze me on how you link each and every issue to marijuana and if we just support your cause and pass your initiative, ALL of the problems in our community and society will just disappear.
Let’s face it, you don’t really care about your neighbors, or this community in general, you just continue to bash the city council and those you don’t buy into your propaganda. You use people who believe in what you are preaching to push this endless agenda, and it’s worn us all out. In a Steve Kubby fantasy land, if you subscribe to the benefits of marijuana or pass his newest scheme (ballot initiative) all of a sudden our problems will disappear. Steve links legalizing marijuana to tourism, our streets, our economy, and on and on and on. Then he tries to pull one over on the citizens of this community by pretending to care about the odor marijuana emits into the environment and neighborhood’s but all he was doing was pulling a bait and switch to promote his agenda and why his initiative needs to be signed and vote for.
I’m appalled that the newest scheme on Steve’s agenda is to link vehicle break-ins and marijuana. In this fantasy land Steve lives in, he believes that all of a sudden because the city council decided to pass ordinance regulating marijuana, it has forced people to now break into vehicles in neighborhoods. Get a grip Steve, vehicle burglaries as well as various other crimes have unfortunately been taking place long before this ordinance was ever crafted and passed, but I guess you don’t pay attention to facts, or history or reality. People steal because it’s a choice, they chose to do what they do, it’s not because they were forced to lie or steal due to a city ordinance.
Get a grip, please, or at the very least, get involved. You never partake in council meetings, or community events or originations, which gives my claim some truth that you could care less about this community and its people. We that have actually lived here and help build this community will not sit by and watch you transform this community to fit your vision and agenda.
I’m sure this post may deleted, but enough is enough, and the 1st amendment protects my speech, whether its harsh and/or blunt…