Chacon gives mixed messages on property crime
By John Earp
At the “Meet the Candidates” event this past Monday, held in the Jal City Council Chambers, which was attended by dozens of Jal citizens, a question was asked concerning whether the candidates for city council thought that property crime was a serious issue in Jal, and what they thought the city should do about it. Councilor Lorenzo Chacon was the only candidate who responded to the question, stating that “Any pr0perty theft is a crime and we shouldn’t tolerate that, you know? I mean, if somebody is tearing up your property, you know, you need to call law enforcement and have them take care of it. That’s what I feel about it.” Chacon did not address anything the city might do to try to prevent or lessen property crime in the city.
On page 1 of the September 30, 2021 edition of The Jal Record, we reported on an incident which occurred during the scheduled-but-then-postponed September 27th meeting of the Jal City Council, which was quite revealing of Councilor Chacon’s attitude about property crime in Jal:
“Just prior to the meeting, Councilor Stacy Ward mentioned that he had heard that the Church of God’s van had had its catalytic converter stolen recently, which is true. I also am pastor of the Church of God. As soon as he heard it, Councilor Lorenzo Chacon commenced to laughing as he asked for more information about the theft, which seemed to me to be a very odd thing to be doing.”