Welcome to the latest edition of the Crimson Crusader’s column.
File your question, comment or complaint with the Red Phone by
calling 770-4106 ext. 206 or e-mailing
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LOCAL FRUIT?
My call is concerning the fruit stands that pop up on the roadsides this time of year. I just stopped at one on Cochrane Road and Highway 101 where they were advertising fresh local fruit. When I asked the kids that were running the stand where the fruit came from, they told me it came from Fresno! Fresno is not local. It’s not even in this part of the state. This is not truth in advertising. Is it legal for these non-local people to even set up these fruit stands?
RED PHONE: Setting up a fruit stand involves quite a few steps. The first logical step is to get the landowner’s permission to use his property. Next, the operator must secure a temporary-use permit from the city’s planning office. Jim Rowe, of the Morgan Hill Planning Division advised me that this permit will set you back $1575 and is good for 90 days, with no more than a 30-day consecutive run for any one crop.
The fruit stand you are referring to is not at that location today. Sounds to me like the operators were taking advantage of the swelling crowds of 50,000 that converged on Morgan Hill last weekend for the Mushroom Mardi Gras.
Although I tend to agree that the fruit stand was possibly misrepresenting its Fresno fruit as local, the word “local” is really up to interpretation, especially when it comes to farming, which by nature covers huge areas. The same may be said for “fresh fruit;” what may be considered fresh by the consumer may be much different in the supplier’s way of thinking. If the grower can harvest, package, transport and market the crop in three days, he may meet his goal. Three days to consumers may be considered an eternity.
Nothing will ever compare to the fruit stands set up in the field right where the crop was being grown, as has been the case in many fruit stands throughout our valley. Sadly, they have been slowly disappearing, and I, for one, will miss them dearly when they are gone.
A NEED FOR SPECIAL TRAINING?
I’m calling in response to the article in the newspaper about the man arrested for alleged threats to police. The article explained that the police came to this guy’s house several times. They should have taken him to the hospital long before now, and he wouldn’t have been arrested; he wouldn’t have spit on the police officers with blood.
I have a son with a mental illness, and had to call the police because he was hearing voices that were telling him to kill himself. It took three hours to get a police response, and when they arrived, they refused to take him to the hospital. I requested that he have a mental health evaluation at EPS. Instead, the Morgan Hill police left him here with me. As it turned out, I had to have the police come out again in the middle of the night to finally take him. That was after one young officer told me how awful it was that I had him in my home. I told her, “He’s sick and needs to be in the hospital. You’re going to deal with him either on the street or in my home. You should help me.”
This situation is just ridiculous and shows the need for Morgan Hill to have a crisis intervention team of police officers who are trained to deal with people who are mentally ill.
RED PHONE: Caller, it is not easy for someone who is not in your position to understand the day-to-day challenges that you must face, but we certainly sympathize with your situation.
Cmdr. Joe Sampson advises us that police officers, as part of their training, receive very few hours of instruction on dealing with persons with mental illness.
Then again, are the police the people that need to be summoned when a person with mental illness needs help, as indicated in your call? The police deal with situations where there is a safety threat or risk to the public. Persons finding themselves in your situation need to call an ambulance. Also, involved medical personnel need to be advised as to what is happening so the patient can get the help he or she needs before the medical emergency escalates into something irreparable.
