Back-to-back disturbances disrupt Cambria’s calm

You don’t have to look far to find antisocial, boorish and even criminal behaviors. Bad manners and imbecilic stunts take place just about anywhere, including within the mostly genteel, well-mannered populace of Cambria.

To my knowledge, there has never been an official sign at the city limits demanding legal and ethical behavior for all those entering — or residing in — Cambria.

For the record, two disagreeable events happened in Cambria at the tail end of March (the 27th and 28th) and a there’s a tale to be told for each incident.

The pocket park on Bridge Street, a few steps from the Post Office, is now utilized by a gaggle of homeless folks. During a break in the musical performance at Las Cambritas on Sunday, March 27, I walked back to my car near the pocket park and was stunned to see the concrete tabletops (from both tables) and the concrete seats deposited on the grass.

And there were noticeable splotches of dried blood on the sidewalk. On Monday morning, the tables were back in their original positions, but the blood was still visible. I phoned Carlos Mendoza, Research and Facilities supervisor at CCSD, and he said someone apparently pulled what he termed “a prank” by removing the table tops and curved seats, stealing the bolts, and placing the tops and seats back in their correct positions.

Apparently the vandals’ sick strategy was that someone would sit down, the seat lid would give way, and the unfortunate soul would tumble to the ground. If the unbolted concrete tabletop fell on a person (after leaning on it), a serious injury could have occurred. Mendoza had replaced the table parts (with a new set of bolts) by Monday morning.

A person with firsthand knowledge of the East Village violence Saturday night reported that several men left a local watering hole (perhaps fueled by alcohol and/or other substances) and decided to mix it up with males hanging out at the park.

That violent encounter reportedly did not go well for the uninvited individuals, hence the blood on the sidewalk. Speculation is circulating that the bloodied assailants returned to the park late at night, removed the bolts, and put the tops and seats back on, perhaps hoping to injure those that had driven them away.

When I saw the tabletops and seats on the ground Sunday, the CCSD had removed them to avoid injuries until new bolts could be purchased.

Brief standoff

A day after the pocket park incident, on a breezy Monday afternoon, I was wrapped in a cocoon created with my top sheet and a comforter — hoping for a brief afternoon nap. I was startled by a loud voice amplified over a public address system: “THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING!”

I knew it wasn’t a nightmare because I hadn’t yet fallen asleep. I figured a production company was in Cambria shooting a movie and the scene involved criminals holed up in a house down the street.

The amplified voice rocked the neighborhood again. “THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING — COME OUT NOW OR WE’LL SEND IN THE K-9!”

I slipped into my street clothes and walked west down Orme Place to the intersection with Newton. Neighbors were watching sheriff’s deputies packing weapons near the tree-shrouded residence across the street.

The neighbors shared stories about previous goings-on at the residence, but we were in the dark as to the nature of this ongoing bust.

There was nothing about the incident on the Sheriff’s Department’s daily log Tuesday morning, so I called Public Information Officer Tony Cipolla; he promised to look into it.

Cipolla reported that a deputy had attempted a traffic stop on the 2800 block of Ramsey Street around 5:15 Monday. The driver used a false name, but the deputy’s digital technology search provided the correct name (Michael Shibles), and discovered that Shibles had a “felony no-bail warrant out of Susanville.”

While attempting to arrest Shibles, he “broke free” and ran onto the property (on the 2800 block of Newton), kitty-corner from where we watched this scene unfold. A sheriff’s K-9 backup deputy had used the public announcement system to coax Shibles out of the building.

However, the suspect ran out of the back of a building beside that house, “at which point the deputies drew their handguns on Shibles,” Cipolla explained.

Shibles gave up. Besides a methamphetamine pipe (illegal paraphernalia) found in his backpack, he was busted for resisting arrest, giving false identification to a peace officer and violation of probation.

Because Shibles had a meth pipe, it’s safe to assume he is a user. The literature on meth reveals that addicts become erratic and paranoid, use poor judgment and engage in risky behavior. Running away from an officer is risky.

What about the late-night dudes itching for a fight in the pocket park? Did the effects of this dangerous drug fuel their irrational behavior? Who would (or could) disassemble concrete tables in the dark of the night? Is there a meth problem in Cambria?

Looking back at the drug history of literary icon Edgar Allan Poe, his biographers catalogued his abuse of opium, laudanum (containing morphine and codeine) and alcohol. Poe famously wrote: “I have absolutely no pleasure in the stimulants in which I so madly indulge.”

He went on to say he put his life “in peril” by using drugs “from a sense of insupportable loneliness and a dread of some strange impending doom.”

Et tu, Michael James Shibles?

This story was originally published April 6, 2016 at 10:18 AM with the headline "Back-to-back disturbances disrupt Cambria’s calm."