When we were children, we all learned about the little boy who cried wolf. Every time the little boy wanted attention, he yelled: "WOLF!" That got everyone's attention, and the people came running.
But when they arrived, the little boy admitted that there wasn't really a wolf. And pretty soon, it got so that all the people in the village got used to hearing the little boy cry wolf, and they learned that he did it when there wasn't really a wolf there, and eventually, they stopped paying attention altogether.
When Los Gatos Town Council members disregarded LGPD Chief Larry Todd's dire warning that rival gangs from Los Gatos and Monte Sereno were engaged in a gang retaliation attack, they were like the people in the village of the little boy who cried wolf.
They did allocate the Supplemental Local Law Enforcement funds to hire a full-time police officer for the Santa Clara County Special Enforcement Team as Todd requested.
But they did it in spite of--not because of--the chief crying "GANG!"
Todd has a reputation for exaggerating the evil lurking in Los Gatos when it suits his needs.
When the Los Gatos Weekly-Times took Todd's department at its word and reported some time back that gangs from San Jose come to Los Gatos to stake out territory on downtown street corners, many who read the article gave us a wink and a nod and said: "Sure they do."
When the chief wanted the council's approval to spend the department's state windfall money on participation in a county-wide narcotics team, he apparently thought it would help to suggest there might be a wolf lurking about.
But like the little boy we all learned about when we were children, the chief's cries almost fell on deaf ears. He's lucky the council didn't reject his request out of hand because Los Gatos should participate in the special enforcement team.
As we all remember, deaf ears is what the little boy who so enjoyed flexing his lungs encountered. The more he cried wolf when there was no wolf there, the less they were inclined to believe him.
With Los Gatos' reputation as a community where drugs are plentiful, Todd should have been able to make his case without turning an incident well known to many people in town into something it wasn't.
What happened was bad enough; a youth was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer.
No one in the community is taking the incident lightly. The incident, in fact, spawned a group of concerned parents that meets weekly and was the moving force behind drug testing of Los Gatos High School football players.
The police chief is the key authority figure in the community. People look to him to keep them safe. And the people understand that it's a tough job.
But they have a right to demand that the chief be straight with them. The more people believe that he exaggerates dangers, the more they will disregard what he says. Then when he says, "But this time, there really is a wolf," no one will believe him.
And when the wolf finishes gobbling up the chief, he'll come into town and eat up all the unprepared citizens.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, September 18, 1996.
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