Faith
04-09-2009, 08:10 PM
Tracy native starts 'vigilance' Web site
4/9/09
http://matchbin-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/public/sites/543/assets/tracy_vigilance_committe1__04_11_09.jpg?AWSAccessK eyId=0B7XE4Z9Y6MDGTWDRJG2&Expires=1239325957&Signature=c1odexnKE7GSHlrapM6vg%2FiXBcc%3D
A screen capture from the Web site, tracyvigilancecommittee.com.
Though J. Oliver Johnson lives nearly 3,000 miles away in New Jersey, the pain he felt from Sandra Cantu’s death was close to his heart.
Johnson, 28, who grew up in Tracy and graduated from Tracy High School in 1999, said he had trouble sleeping when he heard about the 8-year-old girl’s tragic ending on Monday.
Johnson said he felt he needed to do something to help the situation. Motivated by Sandra’s death and other events in town, such as the tortured teenager and the various child porn cases, he started a Web site Tuesday called the Tracy Vigilance Committee.
There’s no actual committee just yet, but Johnson said the site and its MySpace page is just a way for people to share information and vent. It’s his way of connecting to a community, even though he can’t be there.
“I wanted something like a Web site where I could reach people without physically standing there with them,” Johnson said. “We’re not out to blame anybody or anything like that.”
He got the idea to call his site a vigilance committee from a time a couple hundred years ago, when citizens in small towns got together to protect their land .
Johnson said he hopes to move back to Tracy in a year or so, when things calm down. Military obligations (he’s a former Marine, and his wife, Danielle Johnson, is in the U.S. Air Force) are keeping him near Trenton, N.J., for now.
“Some of the things that have happened in Tracy recently have given me a sense of concern over going back there,” Johnson said. “You go to a national site like CNN, and you see negative things in the news regarding Tracy.”
A half dozen friends have contributed to the Web site — tracyvigilancecommittee.com — which links to organizations such as the Klaas Kids Foundation and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The MySpace page has 1,200 friends.
Johnson said he hopes the Web site will motivate people to play a more active part in the community, strengthening things such as Neighborhood Watch.
“I hope to build a bit of a readership on the Web site, and then when I return to Tracy, we can actually have a committee with members and people involved,” he said.
• Contact Tracy Press reporter Justin Lafferty at 830-4269 or jlafferty@tracypress.com.
http://www.tracypress.com/pages/full_story?page_label=home&id=2285927-Tracy+native+starts+-vigilance-+Web+site&article-Tracy%20native%20starts%20-vigilance-%20Web%20site%20=&widget=push&instance=home_news_bullets&open=&
4/9/09
http://matchbin-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/public/sites/543/assets/tracy_vigilance_committe1__04_11_09.jpg?AWSAccessK eyId=0B7XE4Z9Y6MDGTWDRJG2&Expires=1239325957&Signature=c1odexnKE7GSHlrapM6vg%2FiXBcc%3D
A screen capture from the Web site, tracyvigilancecommittee.com.
Though J. Oliver Johnson lives nearly 3,000 miles away in New Jersey, the pain he felt from Sandra Cantu’s death was close to his heart.
Johnson, 28, who grew up in Tracy and graduated from Tracy High School in 1999, said he had trouble sleeping when he heard about the 8-year-old girl’s tragic ending on Monday.
Johnson said he felt he needed to do something to help the situation. Motivated by Sandra’s death and other events in town, such as the tortured teenager and the various child porn cases, he started a Web site Tuesday called the Tracy Vigilance Committee.
There’s no actual committee just yet, but Johnson said the site and its MySpace page is just a way for people to share information and vent. It’s his way of connecting to a community, even though he can’t be there.
“I wanted something like a Web site where I could reach people without physically standing there with them,” Johnson said. “We’re not out to blame anybody or anything like that.”
He got the idea to call his site a vigilance committee from a time a couple hundred years ago, when citizens in small towns got together to protect their land .
Johnson said he hopes to move back to Tracy in a year or so, when things calm down. Military obligations (he’s a former Marine, and his wife, Danielle Johnson, is in the U.S. Air Force) are keeping him near Trenton, N.J., for now.
“Some of the things that have happened in Tracy recently have given me a sense of concern over going back there,” Johnson said. “You go to a national site like CNN, and you see negative things in the news regarding Tracy.”
A half dozen friends have contributed to the Web site — tracyvigilancecommittee.com — which links to organizations such as the Klaas Kids Foundation and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The MySpace page has 1,200 friends.
Johnson said he hopes the Web site will motivate people to play a more active part in the community, strengthening things such as Neighborhood Watch.
“I hope to build a bit of a readership on the Web site, and then when I return to Tracy, we can actually have a committee with members and people involved,” he said.
• Contact Tracy Press reporter Justin Lafferty at 830-4269 or jlafferty@tracypress.com.
http://www.tracypress.com/pages/full_story?page_label=home&id=2285927-Tracy+native+starts+-vigilance-+Web+site&article-Tracy%20native%20starts%20-vigilance-%20Web%20site%20=&widget=push&instance=home_news_bullets&open=&