By Geoff Page
As I came down to Dog Beach on Wednesday, I was forewarned that there was a sick or injured sea lion on the beach and I might want to keep my dog away. As I got down on the sand, I saw the animal lying in shallow water. It was moving its head but did not seem to want to move otherwise.
But what caught my attention even more though were two San Diego Police Department SUVs parked side by side on the dry sand about 25 yards from the water line. When someone got too close to the sea lion, the cops spoke on their loud speaker and warned people to stay away.
These two SUVs were parked there for 45 minutes and none of the officers ever even got out of their vehicles. I had to wonder why in the world we needed cops to be there? Why two SUVs? Why they didn’t at least get out and interact with the crowd. In other words, why the f&%k were they even there?
This is the kind of crap that costs every taxpayer needless dollars that could be spent ticketing drivers running red lights or drivers blocking Voltaire on Sunset Cliffs Blvd. in order to make their light or a hundred other things. This city needs a real leader badly.
Problem is, if they don’t have cops dealing with the sick sealion area, John Q Public will waltz right up to it, and it will probably bite them. Then the tax payers get to pay a lawsuit because the curious public couldn’t figure out to stay back and leave it alone.
That is what the lifeguards are for. And the cops were ineffective. As I left, two great Danes were snigging around the animal and I heard nothing from the cops. And, they left before Sea World even showed up.
Thanks for point this absurdity out. I’m fairly certain protecting sea lions below the tide line is both outside the PD charter and jurisdiction.
If we learned anything from the Uvalde Tx, school shooting it is that many police officers excel at doing very little. When actually called upon to protect and serve, it is a coin toss as to whether or not they will actually do it. No, many officers prefer to sit in their vehicle and drink coffee and watch seals in the surf instead of protecting and serving.
I know whenever I call the non-emergency line for the police department, they rarely show up in a timely manner, that is if you can even get them to answer their non-emergency line within 20-30 minutes.
Even if it were the case that these officers were doing as Pat’s suggested, that is to prevent folks from getting injured by this seal, does it really take two squad cars to do so?
Cops are expensive. There’s no cops guarding the sea lion colony in La Jolla.
Maybe not cops, but park rangers do monitor and inform the public at La Jolla.
That’s what I’m sayin’. I also wonder whether anybody called SeaWorld’s rescue team?
My daughter called Sea World twice in the early morning. She did get a call from them later in the afternoon saying that the Sea Lion had been removed and was being taken care of. I heard that the animal actually swam off on his own, and I do not know if that was what Sea World was reporting, but the did make a follow-up call.
A follow up to the above: There were actually two animals exhibiting signs of illness at the same time. The one farther north actually did go back in the water and swim away. The one that Sea World rescued my daughter said looked very ill; could not swim away. That is the one that she was emailed about and had been rescued. And, as a dog owner, I am glad the police were there to warn owners to stay away from the Sea Lion. Of my 3 dogs, one would have ignored the animal, but the other two would have approached the lion and could have caused more damage to the Sea Lion, or to themselves.
But, we did not need the police to be there, certainly not two, this was a lifeguard job and the police were ineffective.
I was told when I got there that Sea World was coming.
Well, you had better get Mayor Gloria on the phone, so he can send the ENTIRE force there to sip coffee and yell at the public if they get too close.
I was told that SDPD was on scene because Jen Campbell & Todd Gloria were planning to showup for a Photo Op of the 2 of them sitting on the Sea Lions back while petting it…then promoting this Act as a sign of success for their new Seal-friendly BIKE LANES & a tribute to Mayor Gloria’s SEXY STREET Campaign..!!!
You said, tongue planted firmly in cheek.
HA!!!! You nailed it Robin. Good one.
It’s not that big of a deal. They’re just making sure no one does anything dumb, remember there are still a lot of tourists around this area who do not know to not touch the lions (and even some locals, sigh).
I have to disagree, it was a big deal. Trained police officers and two very expensive SUVs sitting on the sand for 45 minutes babysitting a sea lion was a costly deal for the taxpayers. One lifeguard on a quad could have done this easily, and better. The cost of a quad pales in comparison to the cost of one a police SUV, let alone two.