Bullets Flying! Puerto Rico’s Government Money in the Trash!

Photos of Raul Colon Web Developer Puerto Rico

Update: January 2, 2012 – We have uploaded the new video Sariely updated on youtube titled “

Tiroteo en San Juan en Despedida de Año 2011-2012″.

While many traditional outlets make money out of the ads created against shooting in the air during new year’s eve here in Puerto Rico you can clearly see very little is done to solve the problem

You can create awareness but with very little enforcement of our laws we have scenarios like what you will be watching in this next video.

If only the government focused on battling crime instead of students and pushing their political agendas this type of situation would not happen on New Year’s Eve.

Once again our government has failed greatly at giving media outlets a huge chunk of cash when 4 people where injured by stray bullets including a 15 year old with possible brain damage.

If only we all could understand how locally media is controlled to benefit a few and not truly benefit society as a whole. If more organic efforts covering all the basics like the awareness, monitoring, and enforcing the laws that should not allow this to happen.

I would like to hear an explanation on Government Officials on what will be done for the next year.

Clearly we can see how the New Year Video (“Año Nuevo”) sounds like if in Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico minutes before receiving 2012 they are in a war zone!

Watch the video Titled “Tiroteo en San Juan en Despedida de Año 2011-2012″ captured by Sariely and I will let you be the Judge?

Tiroteo en San Juan en Despedida de Año 2011-2012

12 Comments

  1. L F-COX on January 2, 2012 at 4:28 am

    That at the “drop of the ball” at Midnight families have to huddle together to shelter themselves from bullets, instead of hugging each other is on itself tragic. Over 5 min of video went by and I can only guess that we didn’t see the end of it.

     Where was  the police. What’s the response time, or did they even show up? Traditionally in the Puerto Rico Metropolitan area police stations are either within the confines of the public housings or at a short distance.
    This incident  not only reflects badly on the Governor’s office, it also reflects badly on the police as enforcers of law and order The fact that  bullets were flying for that long of a time is a sad state of affairs. Puerto Rico’s deep rooted problems are not only political then, or are they?



  2. Tatianna M on January 2, 2012 at 10:02 am

    She’s trying to get ahold the newspaper. I think someone is threatening her or something like that. I really hope that the news or someone gets ahold of her, anyways they were the ones who put her name in the first article published. She needed to take the video down. thats sad. 



    • Raul Colon on January 2, 2012 at 10:14 am

      Tatianna, 

      I gladly removed the video. I am conversing with her as you left this message. 

      I think we all need to support her and find a way where these things can be reported and no repercussions will be made. 

      Hopefully we can bring the video back up so everyone  can praise what she did and others can follow.

      In a place where people live in Fear? Are people really living?



  3. Bianca* on January 2, 2012 at 11:09 am

    How can the campaign of no bullets on New Years Eve be effective if the shooters don’t mind to kill at full view, plain day? Will they care if one of their bullets hit someone by accident?



    • Raul Colon on January 2, 2012 at 11:26 am

      Bianca, 

      I completely agree the same reason that instead of throwing away money to the press to advertise awareness we need to pay our police force so they can actually have adequate resources so they can enforce the law! 



  4. Gamal on January 2, 2012 at 12:01 pm

    Not in the trash….. It used to be worst and you can never achive 100%. More people are now aware of the danger.



    • Raul Colon on January 2, 2012 at 12:04 pm

      Do you have any stats proving it use to be worst. I did not see as much advertising last year. 

      When our police force is lacking adequate resources and we spend the money on media I guess we are approaching the problem in a wrong way. 

      I am more than sure that an advertisement will not change the mind of those that where shooting in the air. 



      • Gamal on January 2, 2012 at 2:37 pm

        Is not only
        Puerto Rico….(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebratory_gunfire)
        and the first step is from time to time to let people know the consequence….
        of course this will not stop people without morals…. but it will make a
        person who was doing it without knowing the consequence stop and consider the consequence.

        What would you
        consider a success? 100% compliances?

        I don’t see
        it as a problem with Puerto Ricans…. I see it as human problem…

        Some people
        just don’t care…. those you can do anything but hope to catch them in the
        act…. Other can be made aware…. those are the one, the advertisement are trying
        to reach



        • Raul Colon on January 2, 2012 at 2:42 pm

          To achieve 100% compliance we have to make an example of those that did violate the law. We clearly don’t see a way to report any incident on any of those commercials. 

          Throwing money away on awareness is as effective as telling people not to steal in a store and never processing those that do it. If we go in the business side places like Wal Mart process even the smallest issue to make an example out of them. 

          In New York City when crime was rampant one of the biggest changes leading towards fixing everything was processing even the smallest infraction (like not paying the subway). 

          I think once again we need to move our resources and spend the money in where it can stop that. 

          If the Puerto Rico Government officials where intelligent they would support grassroots movements to move the word instead of throwing money away at the media channels. I know a few individuals who would be more than willing to spread the word. 

          If people here are willing to work for politicians for free during elections I am more than sure we can get volunteers to spread the word thru new media and pounding the pavement. 



  5. Rick Lipsett on January 2, 2012 at 8:44 pm

    Raul, I’d like to thank you for putting this visible. Even though I feel ashamed that this happens, it’s something that needs to be shared. Regarding catching the culprits, I ask: is shooting to the sky a crime? If it is, how do you catch someone that killed a victim and never knows it?

    I believe that the advertising efforts, are neccesary.maybe the networks should play the ads without charging for the space. Maybe it all should be done with volunteers, but still I think it is neccesary. People with some morals will see them and maybe think teice about doing it. Maybe someone with morals, will try to convince some shooter without morals. We will never know. Nevertheless, a neccesary effort, in my opinion.

    Thereare people whom will never be reached by any campaign. But they won’t be through new media either… An advertising effort will never reach or touch EVERYONE. Doesn’t mean we should stop voicing it. Putting the message out there.



  6. Rick Lipsett on January 2, 2012 at 8:47 pm

    One other thing: Is there a way of knowing where a casualty bullet came from? When it might’ve been miles away, from an unregistered gun? Seems like a long shot to me, doesn’t it? It all starts with gun control, if you ask me.



    • Raul Colon on January 2, 2012 at 9:06 pm

      Rick,

      While being in the military I remember memorizing maximum effective range of an m-16 and also the approximate calculation of how far a bullet can travel. I guess if we had more cameras (although some privacy advocates might be against) we could narrow it down to a specific perimeter. 

      Another thing would be to place technology that can identify where a bullet comes from or shots are being heard. Maybe from a high building or rise. 

      Their might be many options but most importantly if you create awareness an nobody is enforcing the law the fact of having no consequences to act that way can clearly send the wrong message to those that do it year and year again. Like I said in a previous comment I did not see any hotline or phone number so the police could react quickly if there was a similar incident. That might be a start. 

      What I find as a hypocrisy is that the same individuals that got money to run the campaign are the same ones reporting on the incident so for example Primera Bola and El huevo Dia win both ways!