First, apologies to all of you who still live in Vallejo. I know how irritating it is to hear bad things about Vallejo from people who have moved away. Even when the bad stuff being discussed has nothing to do with you personally and is in no way under your control, it’s still hard not to get defensive. I know I did. As a Vallejo resident, I was forever trying to make things work and connect with people and improve things, and those tasks are made more difficult when people insist on dwelling on the negative.
But . . . Vallejo seems to be getting worse.
I read the on-line version of the Vallejo Times Herald this morning. Even allowing for the multiple errors/omissions in fact and grammar that have to be assumed as a matter of course in the Vallejo Times Herald, the account of the city employee backhoe operator being attacked by a group of alleged students from the nearby high school is pretty chilling. According to the story on SFGATE (the San Francisco Chronicle’s on-line version) a “swarm” of up to 40 people surrounded the man and several individuals attacked him, fracturing his skull, breaking his jaw, and shattering his teeth. And then they stole his wallet. This after the backhoe operator stopped to confront a youth who was throwing rocks at his backhoe.
This happened at 3:20 in the afternoon, just after school was dismissed at Vallejo High School, which is located less than a half mile away from where the attack occurred.
What the hell?
And because I know just how minimal the police and fire departments are in Vallejo, I am almost afraid to ask how long it took emergency personnel to get there. 10 minutes? 15? More? Terrifying.
Much of the attack was caught by a store security video camera, so maybe this time there will be some answers, some follow-up, and some consequences.
Too often in Vallejo, there are not.
My thoughts and prayers are with the injured man.
Prayers too that the young people responsible for this are quickly caught and punished.
Funny to follow later today. But this was blocking the funny and needed to be written first.
It makes me so sad to hear this. I lived in Vallejo and some of the best people I ever met were in Vallejo. However, I had to leave for my children. Vallejo does have some great qualities but unfortunately we always hear about the bad. I just wished the leaders had more of a vision to help this town.
When we moved away, the people were who we definetely missed. There are great people in Vallejo. We miss you Kris and the bookclub! That was a wonderful idea!!!!!!! But, yhe city is definetely messed up. It makes me really sad.
I agree about the wonderful people. Vallejo is filled with fabulous people who are working hard to make their little corners of the world a better place. I miss our friends in Vallejo terribly. The book club? The home-schoolers? I miss you guys so much! It’s not the families of Vallejo that are broken (although clearly the families of the students who beat that poor man could use some 1st aid). But the city itself? The city is broken.
I don’t want to spend my time here obsessing on the bad things that happen in Vallejo, but did anyone else see the story this morning about the ice cream truck driver who was shot by Reignierd School? She was shot in the chest for no apparent reason — whoever did it didn’t even take her money. That happened right next to Kallan’s old preschool and next to Children’s Wonderland, which was the only park in Vallejo I could ever talk anyone from out of Vallejo to visiting with me.