Another "Vandalism on the American River" story

[Steve Dinardi]

It really is unfortunate that you are having constant vandalism on the American River. I was a park worker for many years in San Joaquin Co. and we had the same problems at the river parks. The park ranger was useless. People were getting sick and tired of their windows being broken out. I swept up broken glass for days on end for years. Remember, the rangers has a boss who has a boss and they all answer to the County Board of Supervisors. Put pressure on that local District Board member by going down to their meetings with buckets full of broken window glass and make yourselves heard. Your taxes are paying these people's salaries. Forget the baseball bats, shotguns and whamo slingshots. Get the local newspaper involved. Politicians hate negative print. You just might see some results.

[Charlie Gonzales]

Jeff sorry to hear about your truck. With the contacts that you and Ryan have made with Fox 40 I would think that they would be interested, have you tried to get them involved?

[JerryInLodi]

Bill, you might call the SO and see if you can schedule a meeting between the guys that fish the American and the SO rep at your store. You'd be surprised how much the deputies would like to catch these guys. After all, they drive cars too.

Of course, you guys would have to show up and talk to the deputies about times, dates, and a possible sting operation or multiple sting operations.

I was a sergeant on Sac PD for 13 years. I would have LOVED to be able to make a bunch of vehicle burglary busts!

[Dabalone]

You can't catch all of them, there is an endless supply. The streets raise and produce these thugs on a scale which far exceeds law enforcements capacity to control. The penalties for those caught are laughable, equaling little deterrent. Could be hope if the family unit makes a comeback, you know the one with a dad that cares. Deal with gang activity swiftly and harshly and get rid of the I am a victim mentality often supported in our schools, otherwise probably a lost cause.

I never go down there very early or stay late. I know those are the two prime times for fishing but its also prime time for the activity being talked about.

[Jgoding]

Sorry to hear about everyones troubles along the parkway. It does stink as they raise prices for parking just about every year but they keep cutting back on rangers it seems. It's kind of why I stick to my usual place as well, it's big and fairly popular for day use by just about everyone. I always park right next to the bike trail as well as it has a lot of random people traffic.

I don't really think you can blame law enforcement for being seemingly unhelpful either. They have bigger fish to fry... you know, catching people talking on their phones while driving and such...

[Jeff Putnam]

Wow, I hate to see this club growing in size...except for the fact that there are a lot of us that want more patrolling along the river. Hopefully we'll see more in the near future especially after figuring out what my students paid for parking at Watt Access in a year... approx. $1600. (not counting locals with passes). With all the people using the accesses on the river you'd think there might be enough revenue for some patrol.
Charlie, great suggestion to get the local news involved! They'll shed more light on this problem.
Its such an awsome river in our own backyard, we cant let some bad people screw it up for the rest of us. (especially all the people that leave their $#%! along its banks), TAKE YOUR TRASH!
Thanks to the organization (SARA?) on Monday that I saw Watt Ave Acces (20-30 people) picking up everyone elses trash, you guys are awesome!
Thanks for the responses and thoughts of rising fish to all...(unless you like to nymph) jp

[Grampa Spey]

With all of the breakins of vehicles, is the Grist Mill entrance to the park re opened?

Its unfortunate that we cant even enjoy a morning on our local river without some #$%! messing it up. Three cars were broken into this morning around 8:30am-10:00am at the Watt access paring lot and one of them was mine. As I walked to up to see the damage to my car, smashed out the rear side window, stole an emergency roadside kit (orange bag, in case some crack fiend tries to sell it to you, please let me know where they are), a county park worker was sweeping the glass up from all three cars and told me he was there two hours earlier doing the same thing for two other cars that had their windows smashed out. He went on to tell me that break-ins have really increased on the American River lately and some mornings, usually the time when most of the vandalism occurs, they go from access to access and clean up broken glass until the afternoon. He also brought up a good point about the lack of patrolling by park rangers and the local police/sheriff dept. He told me about another group of cars at Rossmore last week that were also broken into. This is getting very old , especially with the price of a yearly access pass at $100. not to mention a window at $200 and the time to have it fixed!
I think some camo clothes and a baseball bat might just do the trick!

[gryhackl]

This is no new phenomenon. A few years ago I began to notice a few unsavory characters hanging around accesses and parks and I quit going down to the American to fish alone. I was concerned over not only my vehicle but personal safety as well. Today I wouldn't go down to the river at all without some kind of personal protection and be very aware of what's going on around me. It makes it difficult to concentrate on fishing and isn't much fun anymore.