Remarkably, people seem content with this development:
At the Westwood Montessori school, director Kathy E. Marquez agreed that police presence had been beefed up, helping drive down crime."We do see more police officers in the neighborhood," she said. "There is not as much graffiti yet this summer as there was last year. They clean it up now."
She said four employees of the school and a parent had their cars vandalized and broken into in broad daylight before police put the new program in place.
She said fears that the "broken windows" policing method could promote racial profiling should be laid to rest.
Jesus Espino, 17, said he welcomes more officers in Westwood because now he and his friends can walk without fear.
Espino said police officers do sometimes stop him in the street to ask him where he is going and for his identification, but he doesn't mind.
"It don't bother me 'cause I don't do nothing wrong," he said.
Evidently, the teachers in his school haven't taught young Mr. Espino to feel sufficiently oppressed by El Hombre. I'm sure that the ACLU and La Raza will want to attend to this gap in his schooling.
