Meeting Notes, May 18, 2016
Posted by Tom McClellan
on May 23, 2016
Bonnie Boyle's helipad
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Invocation: Alice Peeples
Flag Salute: John Unfred
Visiting Rotarians: David Cotant introduced no visiting Rotarians
Visitors: James Taylor, son of Joy Taylor and back from college, and our guest speaker Sean Conlon
Club Announcements:
Sunshine Report: Joyce Loveday shared news from Charlie Maxwell, whose wife Kathy has been diagnosed with colon cancer. They were to meet with the surgeon on Wednesday. Please keep Kathy and Charlie in your prayers, and cards are welcome. Please no food nor visitors at this time. They did appreciate the flowers sent from the Club.
Upcoming Speakers
May 25 - John Caufield, Lakewood City Manager on the State of the City,
June 1 - Kathryn Smith - CPTC Environmental Science Program
June 8 - Assistant District Governor Curtis Thiel on Rotary Fellowship.
Red Badge Exchange – Anne Winters is now a blue badger, and that leaves just John Unfred as our sole remaining red badge member.
Sheri Hodges reminded everyone to respond to the Evite to the Installation Banquet. It is on June 15th at the Tacoma Country and Golf Club. Social hour is at 6:00 and Dinner is at 7:00. Dinner choices are Prime Rib, Potato Crusted Halibut, or a Portobello Mushroom Stack. Cost is $50 per person, $53 if payment made by credit card. Sheri will be collecting money at the table again next week. Remember this is when we thank our outgoing officers and directors and install the new ones.
Joyce Loveday read a thank you card from Bellarmine Robotics Team 360 for our $500 support of their outreach programs in the Lakewood and Tacoma area. This is not for the team’s competition robot, but rather for kits used on outreach visits to Boys and Girls Clubs, and other venues to share the wonder of robotics. They will be able to purchase another kit to be used in programs for kids that may not otherwise be exposed to the world of robotics.
President’s Message
Question #1: Where did the kids from Four Heroes that we supported go to last month on their field trip? Nisqually Wildlife Refuge.
Question #2: Tom McClellan took many liberties last week with the newsletter, since we had no note taker until half way through the meeting. So who did he say was a visitor at a recent meeting? Bill and Melinda Gates.
Question #3: What feature does Bonnie Boyle’s new home have? A rooftop heli-pad. A big thank you to Tom for all his wit and hard work on our very entertaining newsletter.
Fun and Fines: General Ed Trobaugh on announcement and judgment duty, John Unfred on microphone and money today.
Randy Black – A $35 Wachter for his anniversary. Another $5 because he forgot that he had to pay for his anniversary, not the he had forgotten his anniversary.
David Cotant – Left early last week to go sample the wines of Northern Cal to see how they held up to the WA wines. He also attended a wedding, 7 nights plus wine equals $50.
Tom Faubion – did not get permission to stand. He volunteered over in eastern WA for 3 days and cleared 98 logs off of the trails and slept in a tent. He didn’t think he should he have to pay for volunteering and sleeping in a tent but General Ed quickly reminded him of his volunteering and 2 years in a tent. Tom had no comeback and paid $20.
Heidi Wachter – had numerous trips, AND 1 night in a tent [ed. note: by this point, the whole “tent” meme had lost its weight]. First she went on a road trip to San Francisco with Neil and the 3 girls [ed. note: okay, 3 kids on a road trip, points awarded]. They spent a night in the Presidio and attended the play “Wicked”. While at the play, she ran into Lakewood Mayor Don Anderson – small world. She paid $50 for her Paul Harris. She also went to Skamania for 3 days for work for paid $25 for the general fund. Lastly she went to Yakima; our finemaster opined that, since he had actually visited Yakima, no fine was appropriate for that trip.
Today’s speaker
LPD Investigator Sean Conlon – Lakewood Police Gang Unit. Sean has been a police officer for 18 years with experience in Seattle PD, Tacoma, Lakewood, and is now in the Special Operations Gang unit and K9 officer, and undercover officer.
A gang is when 3 or more people gather to commit a criminal act. Sean shared with us the numerous gangs in the Lakewood Tacoma area, their history, their colors, their tattoos. The Crips and the Bloods he gave the most description on.
There are three basic types of street gangs: Outlaws, Supremacists, and Militias. He shared stories of how innocent people may be impacted by gangs and how Facebook posts have helped with arrests. Arrests can be tough but they work with other law enforcement agencies to crack down on gangs. He shared their statistics for the last few years.
He discussed methods of initiation including Jump In, 13 guys in 13 seconds, Walk The Line, Sex In, Bless In, or a criminal act.
He discussed characteristics of typical gang member. They support themselves mostly by drug sales, theft, and some identity theft. Not all graffiti is gang related sometimes it is just taggers. Tillicum Park has a lot of activity.
Most of the gangs nowadays are very unorganized with no clear leadership. Many independent operators.
When asked about the legalization of marijuana and its impact, Sean shared there are now more robberies of the marijuana stores or owners, but not much impact at the street level. Plenty of other types of drugs to sell.
He was asked about intervention in the schools and the answer was not at this time. No DARE program or the equivalent in Lakewood.
Are we just moving them from Lakewood to Tacoma to Pierce County? Sean Conlon and John Unfred both stated Lakewood is very aggressive and many drug dealers won’t agree to meet for a buy (sting) in Lakewood because they know it is much tougher in LW. If moving them to another community is the best we can do, then that's what we will do for Lakewood.
John wanted to share how lucky we are to have Sean and his partner. They are doing an awesome job for us.
ed. note: The City of Lakewood is also lucky to have a police force with a refined sense of humor. Here is an electronic sign notice about a diaper distribution program:
Raffle Drawing
Jeannie Hill drew a 6 of diamonds. Almost $1200 in the drawing and about 20 cards with 3 aces.
And Finally:
We sometimes forget how fortunate we are to live in the era that we live in. It was just a little over 16 years ago when we were worried about this:
And to make you feel even better about the current day, here is a Radio Shack ad from 1991. Your iPhone replaces all of the items in this ad, with the possible exception of the radar detector, although maybe there is a new app for that now.
