El Independiente

              El Periódico de South Tucson South Tucson's Newspaper
EL INDEPENDIENTE
Free! gratis SERVING SOUTH TUCSON December/I)iciemhre 2003
SINCE 1976
Shoplifting Up; no easy solutions
By Bob Purvis
El Iode1,est diente
While South Tucson's crime rates
have plummeted overall in recent
years, shoplifting has stubbornly per-sisted.
Police said they were fmstrated to
find the number of arrests for shoplift-ing
up roughly five percent in the first
nine months of 2003 compared with
the same period in 2002.
Holidays
critical at
rehab center
iSv Devin Simmons
Ei Independiente
This will be the first sober Christmas
in a long time for John Fischer. and
though a history of alcohol abuse has
left him with little, it will probably be
his best.
Fischer, 36. is one of 84 men who call
the Salvation Army Rehabilitation
Center home this holiday season.
For these men, and for many others
suffering the effects of substance
abuse, the holidays can be a time when
the consequences of their destructive
behavior come to a head.
The families of the men are invited to
attend a dinner on Thanksgiving day at
the center, 2717 S. Sixth Ave.
Captain Michael Roland. the head
administrator at the center, expects as
many as 150 people to attend the event
and is asking the community to donate
turkeys.
"The holidays can be a real downer,"
said John Edgemon, director of person-nel
for the center. "A lot of these men
have alienated themselves from their
family through drugs and alcohol."
The special pressures associated with
the holiday season can lead those try-ing
to recover to revert to destructive
behaviors, causing them to spiral
downwards, said Edgemon, himself a
graduate of the Salvation Army sub-stance-
abuse program.
"There are a million things that can
cause people to relapse," he said. "It's
an ongoing battle."
South Tucson Police Chief Sixto
Molina said although the number of
shoplifting arrests is in the normal
range" they are still alarming.
'Violent crime keeps going down but
shoplifting is staying the same. In my
mind that is way too much," Chief
Molina said.
Geographic Information Systems
crime maps on the department's web-
Site show that the three major shoplift-ing
targets in South Tucson are the
That is why the Salvation Army,
through a series of activities and pro-grams,
is seeking to make the season
one of growth and affirmation, instead
of guilt and depression.
The Thanksgiving dinner is the first
of many events planned for the holiday
season including choral concerts, holi-day
decorating, making Christmas
cards and watching movies and lots of
football.
John Bodie, director of rehabilitation
services, said the goal is to get them to
"Being separated from family is very hard. But we are still
celebrating the holidays and doing it with great friends."
- Steve Hinrichs
Walgreens. Circle K. and Food City on
South Sixth Avenue.
"You are probably not going to have
as many at the mom-and-pop down the
Street," Chief Molina said.
Police have targeted shoplifting by
patrolling these shoplifting hotbeds
more aggressively and stationing
police officers at the Walgreens. Off
duty STPD officers also moonlight at
the Food City and Circle K to deter
See SHOPLIFTING. ¡sage 5
Photo by Devin Simmons
Several men, staying at the Salvation. Army Rehabilitation Center,
2717 S, Sixth Ave,, stork on the bric.and.hrac tine. Donated items are checked
and the salvageable ise,no are kept and sold in Salvation Army stores.
do what "normal people" do for the
holidays, so that they don't feel left out.
Captain Michael Roland. head
administrator for the center, said the
holidays are a time when depression
can get the best of people.
"This is a critical time of the year,"
he said. "This is a special time of the
year. but we.are working even harder to
make things much more than special."
The Salvation Army is also excepting
donations of new toys, which will be
given by the men to their children,
since many of them have no way of
purchasing gifts themselves.
Though many of the men are separat-ed
from their families they are finding
Sec SALVATION ARMY. page 5
Gang activity
no threat -for
Pueblo High
By Kristopher Cahfano
El Independiente
Some school safety experts and
criminologists say that being a student
in the United States has become more
dangerous due in part to gang violence,
but officials and students at Pueblo
Magnet High School say that gang vio-lence
is not a threat on campus.
According to Michael Polakowski, a
University of Arizona public adminis-tration
professor who specializes in
criminal justice, gang activity has been
on the rise over the last five years.
"Nearly every State has had to imple-ment
a special task force to deal with
gang activity,' he said.
Pueblo assistant principal Eduardo
Nuñez admits that there are some gang
members enrolled at his high school,
but he said there have been no
instances of gang violence over the last
few years.
Administrators at Pueblo have
recently instituted the Warrior hotline,
a 24-hour voice mail system named
after the school's mascot. Students are
encouraged to call 225-4326 when
they suspect or have been affected by
school violence.
Administrators check the messages
daily and act upon students' reports
swiftly, Nuñez said.
Nuñez credits having a campus free
of gang violence to several programs.
He cites student and employee support
and the police and security staff who
patrol the campus.
Beside school administrators and
teachers, two off-duty Tucson Police
Department officers, six security
guards and a district safety employee
Supervise about 900' students during
each of the two daily lunch periods.
See GANG FREE, page 4
Shoplifting Arrests
2002 2003
Ist quarter
Jan-March 61 50
2nd quarter
April-June 35 38
3rd quarter
July- Sept. 42 57
Courtesy of South Tucson Police Dept.