Chula Vista and National City joined law enforcement agencies throughout the nation for the annual National Night Out, an event held on the first Tuesday of August to promote police-community partnerships and crime prevention.
Grace San took her elementary school-aged daughter for the first time to National Night Out to interact with Chula Vista police officers.
San said National Night Out serves as a good opportunity for her daughter to understand the role of police officers.
“It’s a good thing so kids know not to be afraid of the police,” she said. “So that they know what police are for – to protect – so they are not going to be afraid when they see a policeman.”
San took her daughter to the dispatch booth where she learned how dispatchers receive an emergency call and the process of alerting first responders. San also took her daughter on a tour of the police station.
The Chula Vista Police Department had various booths on display showing many of the services and resources it has to offer including the Community Emergency Response Team, senior volunteer patrols and its graffiti abatement program.
Community members also saw a canine demonstration and a show of its mobile field force, which is often used to combat violent protestors.
Police Chief Roxana Kennedy said National Night Out gives officers a chance to show the public that they live normal lives away from the uniform.
“This allows people to understand there is a heart behind this badge,” she said. “We’re human beings, we’re mothers, fathers, grandparents, and we care about public safety.”
In National City, National Night Out ran without any disruptions at Kimball Park. Demonstrators had disrupted four consecutive National City City Council meetings demanding answers into what they say is the June in-custody death of Earl McNeil.
None of the demonstrators, who Mayor Ron Morrison has often said are mostly not National City residents, showed up to National Night Out.
“Here’s the community,” Morrison said about the turnout at National Night Out. “Not what we’ve been seeing at the council meetings that last few weeks.”
Police Chief Manuel Rodriguez echoed the mayor’s comments.
“The people that have come and protested are these professional protestors that are from outside our community,” he said. “When I talk to the people here (in National City) they are very supportive of us as police officers, they are very supportive of the department and very supportive of the city. They see that the city is going in the right direction and I think the same thing for the trust that they have in the police department.”
Earl Mc Neil protesters are not ‘ out of town professional protesters’ as Mayor Morrison asserts. Most are friends and neighbors of Earls family. While this Police Night Out event is fun, it does not restore the communities faith in their NCity police department. Earl Mc Neils family still waits, after 70 days, for a coroners report, and his cause if death us still unclear. As each day goes by, trust in NCity police becomes less and less.
The people you see at the recent city council meetings are very much the community, unlike what the mayor alleges. He is like so many other racist sexist white men who don’t see people, especially women, with black or brown skin and instead sees all of us as outsiders, which we are not. I am very much a local. Besides, If he was so against people from outside National City border, why did he take the bulk of his Measure B contributions from OUTSIDERS? I guess it’s fine if they are throwing dollars at him, not criticisms. I hope the good people of National City remind him at the polls in November that we don’t want his failed leadership any longer as a city councilman.
As for Chief Rodriguez, like him, I also talk to a lot of people in NC, and nearly everyone has a horror story about an encounter with NCPD. What the hell does he think people are going to tell the top LEO in the city? The truth? So they can get on his shit list? The trust is all in his imagination. He needs to release the Earl McNeal video or resign.
If we are paid protestors someone is holding back on every last one of us bc we’ve received no checks maybe Ron can direct us to the person we can collect from!
The powers that be in NC are so out of touch they can’t understand that human beings living in our county can care for a Black man whom suffered a tragic childhood,
mental ilness, used by SD county law enforcement /district attorney and murdered when he went for help. If Earl was such a bad person why did they pay him as an informant? Why wasn’t his past so bad then?
We all live in SD county and all travel through NC to work, visit family and friends. And just like Noon said why does Ron welcome outside money, but not people whom frequent NC? Matter of fact Mayor Rob….Do all of the people on your police force reside in NC? I rest my case bc we all know the answer is HELL NO!
Ron is equal to “Massa” the old plantation owner!