The population of the “24 de Abril” barrio are victims of a series of daylight robberies and the cops are not doing much about it. This, despite the fact that there are not one but two police precinct houses in the barrio. Young people can’t leave their houses to study or work or to have fun. The Neighborhood Board of San Rafael is asking for action to put a stop to the delinquency, as was done in Capotillo, the barrio next door to 24 de Abril.
According to the reporters from the Listin Diario, the neighborhood seems like an ‘open city’ where the delinquents can do what they please. Over the weekends, the locals have to “take to the trenches” inside their houses, as if they were in a war zone, as before the dawn the vandals attach anything and anybody in their paths, according to Amparo Galan, the president of the Housewives Association of the neighborhood. She told the reporter haw last week as she was waiting for her daughter to come home, three delinquents and then two more, walked by with firearms in their hands as if it was nothing. A short time later she heard shots fired. Another neighbor, Angelica Vargas told the reporters that she and her husband go to the corner of “Ovando and Albert Thomas each evening to meet our daughter as she comes home from work, just in case.” Because of this, the Neighborhood Council is asking for a Police presence similar to what is happening in the neighboring barrio of Capotillo. The Police assigned 17 cops on Harley Davidson bikes to patrol Capotillo and there are reports that delinquency has considerably declined.