Defending your neighborhood

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sturmruger

sturmruger

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My wife and live in a newer subdivision on the edge of our small city. There are probably around 60 newer homes in this subdivision. There are only two paved roads that connect our neighborhood with the rest of the city. I have thought about talking to people about organizing some type of neighborhood watch if the something should happen in our city.

Has anyone else thought about organizing something like this?? I am sure most of my neighbors would assume I am crazy, but I think there would be a few that think it is a great idea. For those of you that think nothing like this could happen we recently had the small town of Hammond get hit by a tornado. Some of the people in the neighborhood helped the police setup up a road block to keep everyone except residents out of the affected area.
 
Don't wait for an emergency. Talk to your local PD or SO about setting up a neighborhood watch now. Having the organization in place and functioning to any degree before something like that happens is a huge advantage over trying to get something impromptu done when the situation is deteriorating. People in the neighborhood need to get to know each other, liasons need to be established with LEOs who work the area, communications protocols need to be set up within the neighborhood, plans made to control access using your two roads in as choke points, etc. You have a lot to get done and don't need to wait to get started.

lpl/nc
====================

http://www.nnwi.org/
National Neighborhood Watch Institute welcomes you to our site. NNWI has been dedicated to supplying excellent crime-fighting material since 1982.

Within our web site you'll find information on our complete line of crime prevention materials.

NNWI products are in use by over 5,000 police and sheriff agencies, as well as concerned citizens. Neighborhood Watch groups across the United States utilize NNWI training materials, standard signs, reflective street signs, window warning decals and labels.

NNWI recommends starting a Neighborhood Watch program in your neighborhood. Also protect your valuables by implementing Operation ID in your community. Join the fight against crime today!

Our materials are available to local Neighborhood Watch groups, home owner associations, police and sheriff agencies, and individuals involved in crime prevention activities.
======================

http://www.usaonwatch.org/

What is USAonwatch (UOW) / Neighborhood Watch(NW)?
USAonwatch (UOW) was created by the National Sheriffs' Association, in conjunction with several well-known federal agencies, to advance this cause by encouraging the initiation and/or revitalization of Neighborhood Watch programs throughout the country. One of the oldest and best known crime prevention concepts in history, Neighborhood Watch was created to unite law enforcement agencies, private organizations, and individual citizens in a massive effort to reduce residential crime. USAonwatch is used not only to promote NWs, but also record the number of NWs started. The President asked the National Sheriffs' Association to double the number of Neighborhood Watchgroups by January 2004. We encourage you to learn more about these programs and their history

What is the National Sheriffs' Association role in the USAonwatch/Neighborhood Watch program?
The National Sheriffs' Association is the founder of the UOW/Neighborhood Watch program, serves as the primary contact, and oversees the program. We invite you to learn more about the National Sheriffs' Association online.
 
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My neighborhood has a Watch, which probably needs some dusting off.

I also have spent quality time with google earth, so I know exactly where to position the barricades, er, checkpoints, for the inner and outer perimeters, overwatch, and qrf. ;)
 
sturmruger

Form up a Neighborhood Watch as soon as you can. Funny, first one I went to in my neighborhood, a lot of the younger guys had the gun fanny pack with obvious hidden gun pocket. (big sag in the bottom of the fanny pack) I stayed away from them the first few meetings, made acquaintances with the older guys and mentioned that I was a 'Nam vet. Met three old timers right away who had been in various "Police actions". They had long guns in their houses. After one or two meetings we had our own meetings and talked about setting up a neighborhood defense plan..Y2K was about to hit. They talked to the younger guys and we set up a mutual defense plan.Made some good friends with this group.

Younger guys like to go shooting at the range to improve.

Can't hurt, right?
 
Back in the day when I was a civvie in AZ, we had a problem w/ the pipeline that brought gas into the valley. I was seriously concerned about riots as the gas shortages got progressively worse, and for a few days I spent a lot of time planning to abandon our apartment and set up a defense of the home of a good friend of mine. I was making packing lists, plotting fields of fire, figuring out which car to use to block which access route etc. Nothing came of it, but ever since then I try to always devote the occasional spare moment to planning for little inconveniences like hurricanes, earthquakes, riots, and of course invasion by the MZB's. :evil:
 
Sturm,

Anyway you can cut brush and get out of your subdivision without using
the two roads? Are you surrounded by concrete walls, a river, dense
forest, etc? Is there a sidewalk out the back through a park or something
that a Jeep Wrangler could fit through?
 
There are a few back ways into our Subdivision that we could keep an eye on, and escape if we need to. I think our biggest concern are people that try to drive in so we would most likely try to block the roads in, and have roving partrols on some of the bike paths to make sure we don't have hoodlums sneaking in.
 
Where actively blocking routes is too extreme...

it would be reasonable to passivley watch the routes into your neighborhood. A guy with a radio hiding behind the bushes could relay information to a car-full of his neighbors who are prepared to respond. In many situations actively blocking a road will bring unwanted attention from LEO's who may not like you blocking a public roadway.
 
Apparently one neighborhood in Katrina’s wake used empty cans on sidewalks to alert neighborhood defenders of possible intruders at night:
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=157611
(Or alerting them to a stray dog, deer, etc.)
I’ve seen in Vietnam war movies empty cans strung on trip wires or barbed wire, as a nighttime early warning system, but I don’t know if this was really used over there, or if it really is effective. Sounds good though, for a S-already-HTF situation.
 
10 points to anyone who knows what had to be done to the cans to make them sound effective.
Click to expand...
Put pebbles in them?
String them close enough together so they hit against each other?
Install a 500 Watt minimum pre amp?
Flush them?
 
I'd start with the neighborhood watch. Doing so is a "sane" action to most people, and during the process you should be able to gauge different neighbors, identifying which ones would be likely supporters of developing and implementing defense plans.

Then it will be "a group of the neighborhood watch participants" making the plans, not just "the crazy new guy down the street with the tinfoil hat."

I'm the crazy new guys down the street with the tinfoil hat in my neighborhood, so I understand your concerns.
 
This is a very good idea.

It helps if you have enough neighbors you can trust. :uhoh:

Apartment complex life is difficult...
 
Watcha need you see, is a couple of old ladies who love to gossip ;) Nothing will ever be a secret in the 'hood again :p

Seriously, the neighborhood watch thing is about the only way to go...
 
I think my dad has mentioned the can deal from his VN days. I'll have to ask him about it again.
 
For awhile, the Crips and the Bloods were "discussing" which was going to take over my neighborhood. I had already setup a neighborhood watch, seperate from the official, polce department sanctioned one. We took turns on active patrol and had radio communication with a base station 24/7. When things began to go sour, I put out ranging stakes in my yard and several neighbor's. Stakes soon appeared in several other locations around the 'hood.

I was told by several of the officers at the local copshop that the backs of all the stop signs around our area were marked by both gangs as "off limits." Something was working, as we had NO home invasions in 2 years, while areas around us were hit regularly.

Pops
 
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