Update on Dec. 22: The Palo Alto Police Department has arrested a man in connection with Thursday's alleged attack. Read the story here.
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Palo Alto police are looking for a person who they said attacked a woman as she was walking in the Southgate neighborhood on Thursday evening.
Police said the woman, who is in her 30s, was walking south on Castilleja Avenue, near Churchill Avenue, when the attacker came up behind her and put his hand over her mouth. He then pushed the woman into the bushes and began struggling with her on the ground, according to a news release issued Friday from the Palo Alto Police Department. When the woman started screaming, the attacker began to punch her in the face repeatedly, police said.
Neighbors heard the screams and stepped outside, prompting him to run away east on Miramonte Avenue and turn south on Mariposa Avenue, police said.
Police were notified about the attack just after 6 p.m. on Thursday and conducted a neighborhood search with a canine, according to the news release. They could not find the attacker.
The woman suffered bruising and swelling to her face and bruising to her shoulder, police said. She declined medical attention.
Police said the attacker did not steal anything form the woman and are not aware of the motive for the attack. The woman could only describe the suspect as a male of unknown race wearing jeans and a black backpack, police said.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call the department's 24-hour dispatch center at 650-329-2413. Anonymous tips can be emailed to paloalto@tipnow.org or sent by text message or voicemail to 650-383-8984. Tips can also be submitted anonymously through the police's free mobile app, downloadable at bit.ly/PAPD-AppStore or bit.ly/PAPD-GooglePlay.
Comments
Midtown
on Dec 21, 2018 at 1:17 pm
on Dec 21, 2018 at 1:17 pm
Thank you to the neighbors for rescuing this victim.
Castilleja Avenue is a dark quiet street, but it is also the main bicycle and pedestrian route from Paly to the California Ave business district and train station. Another pedestrian was recently attacked and robbed on the bike path behind Paly (also rescued by witnesses). Are the police stepping up patrols of these pedestrian routes? We need to encourage city residents to walk more, not scare them off by high crime rates. Both of the recent attacks were during the evening commute hours.
another community
on Dec 21, 2018 at 2:29 pm
on Dec 21, 2018 at 2:29 pm
We recently relocated to eastern Idaho and immediately noticed some differences from when we resided in Palo Alto, California.
First, vehicle registration is handled by county and the car license plates reflect what county the car is registered in. No long DMV lines and the process is handled very expediently.
Secondly (and this is in connection to the PA Weekly reported incident)...Idaho is an 'open carry' state. In other words, people are allowed to carry handguns on their person. Nearly everyone does and there are laws to prevent misuse (i.e. shooting someone in the back or a DUI with handgun are felonies).
That said, in a threatening situation a presumed assailant has 15 seconds to back-off or they can be legally shot whether in the public domain or at home. Law enforcement and the courts acknowledge this legal guideline and guess what?
Crime is very low in Idaho as everyone is concerned about getting shot. So even though many of the residents are packing heat, actual shootings are kept to the absolute minimum.
Perhaps this incident could have been avoided if CA had 'open carry' as well. It is not a license to kill but rather a preventative measure to crime.
During our time in PA, we never owned any handguns but now that we reside in Idaho, it seems like the natural thing to do. Being from Palo Alto, it was initially kind of strange seeing so many people with sidearms...the elderly, convenience store clerks, gas station attendants etc. Regular people. Even our daughter's elementary teacher carries a firearm after school is out.
At first we didn't feel particularly safe around here but I guess public safety is sort of 'built-in' with Idaho's open carry law.
Community Center
on Dec 21, 2018 at 3:23 pm
on Dec 21, 2018 at 3:23 pm
Idaho, my brother says the same thing about living in Utah. He used to live in Palo Alto and these days he feels a lot safer in Utah because physical crime is not common given that no one ever knows who will shoot them during the commission of a crime.
That being said, we all know what California is and how it will remain but the good part is tasers are now legal to own. They are $450 but if you're someone who walks and runs a lot it's probably a good investment.
Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Dec 21, 2018 at 4:57 pm
on Dec 21, 2018 at 4:57 pm
Just think of it as more of "the vibrancy and vitality we all want". :rolleyes:
Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Dec 21, 2018 at 10:11 pm
on Dec 21, 2018 at 10:11 pm
So in other words, when EVERYONE is carrying around a gun the crime rate actually diminishes because no one wants to get shot. This make sense.
It would be very effective towards preventing robberies and sexual assaults as the Idaho '15 second rule' clearly warns an assailant to stop whatever it is they're doing or else.
Midtown
on Dec 22, 2018 at 3:10 am
on Dec 22, 2018 at 3:10 am
Idsho’s Entire population is 1.7 million, less than the combined population of San Jose and San Francisco, in over 83,000 square miles. Boise, the biggest city, has about 223,000 — a little bigger than Fremont, CA.
States with numerous big cities are going to have higher crime rates even in smaller towns that are near the big cities, because cities tend to increase transience and personal alienation between people; it’s easier to objectify someone and act violently toward them if you don’t know them or anyone they know and probably will never see them again. This is true even in countries with much stricter gun laws than California (Japan being one exception, but that is a huge cultural difference more than simply different laws) — urban and nearby suburban areas have more violent crime, and by California standards, there ARE no big cities in Idaho.
It is patently absurd to claim that Idaho has lower crime because everyone carries guns, that’s just Idaho gun nut propaganda working on your minds. If everyone in California did that, there’d be total mayhem in the streets, because we would still have all the problems of a state with lots of urban and large-suburban environments.
Registered user
Embarcadero Oaks/Leland
on Dec 22, 2018 at 6:29 am
Registered user
on Dec 22, 2018 at 6:29 am
The comments encouraging guns in California are silly and dangerous. if Californians were allowed "open carry", blood would literally flow in the street and we would have a nightmarish society. Please remember that Idaho is a scanty populated and very white state and if there were significant minority populations there, especially after what has been transpiring in the nation since Trump became president, many of them would be gunned down in Idaho for the flimsiest of excuses.
Palo Allto's violent problem began with the "vibrancy and vitality" mindset, when politicians like Liz Kniss insisted that keeping Palo Alto as a quiet peaceful small college town with great quality of life was bad, and it needed to urbanize, densify and become a metropolis. Criminals are attracted to urban centers, and now frequent violent crime is in Palo Alto to stay.
Registered user
Crescent Park
on Dec 22, 2018 at 8:43 am
Registered user
on Dec 22, 2018 at 8:43 am
Interesting. Do recreational skiers, snowboarders and lift operators at Sun Valley also pack heat?
I would imagine this 'open carry' practice is probably minimal in tourist towns like Ketcham & Hailey (western Idaho/Sawtooth Mountains). On the other hand, it's still perfectly legal as per state law.
The argument citing that a smaller population armed with guns is safer than a denser population carrying guns makes sense to some extent given the population mix in a larger environment. Curious...as Idaho's population grows with a growing number of expatriates from California relocating there, will this traditional 'open carry' law have to be amended? The established 'locals' will probably be fighting this change tooth and nail & as witnessed in other communities, the countless newcomers will then become viewed as unwelcomed carpetbaggers altering a traditional way of life.
Perhaps the only way to reduce the growing street crime in Palo Alto is for the city to have armed security guards walking the streets to assist the PAPD in curtailing criminal activity...another infrastructure expenditure that comes with 'vibrancy & vitality'.
The arising and potential issue is that if Palo Alto started looking like a Banana Republic with paddy wagons and armed security patrolling the streets, would residents eventually complain that the perceived imagery is reducing their residential property values?
You can't have it both ways.
Adobe-Meadow
on Dec 22, 2018 at 8:59 am
on Dec 22, 2018 at 8:59 am
The increase in crime in CA is in part due to the increase in homeless and illegals. To attribute that to Trump is a "dog whistle" to assign every problem to Trump vs the actual perpetrators of illegal and violent actions. The anonymous crime perpetrators must be laughing. We have allowed this whole problem to increase in our state over a number of years. And our state legislators and county and city managers are not stepping up to the plate to put more officers on the streets. We need to own the problems we create. We do not need to tear our city apart to accommodate the big city problems that SF and SJ can no longer contain.
Palo Verde
on Dec 22, 2018 at 9:21 am
on Dec 22, 2018 at 9:21 am
I recently had my car vandalized when parked in a parking lot during the evening, but not late. My car was empty of valuables and anything that would make my car a target and only empty grocery bags in the trunk.
Blaming this type of vandalism on anything other than the mindset of those criminally minded is stupid. People who think they can get away with this type of crime with no benefit to themselves are unquestionably not victims of anything other than no moral standing and good citizenship ideals.
I don't know what the solution is, but good policing and better education by parents and schools of good manners and the definitions of right and wrong.
The feeling that there are people in this world who are just out to ruin other people's lives is not a good thing to have at the time of "peace and joy to all the world". There is enough bad fortune from genuine hardship, pain and suffering, but when something happens to you that causes you to wonder just what society now values or accepts as norm it makes me wonder. I think parents and schools should bring back severe punishments on children who misbehave. Punishment should hurt. Psycho babble helps nobody to adjust their bad behavior. It is time for old fashioned discipline and respect to return to society.
Registered user
Downtown North
on Dec 22, 2018 at 9:34 am
Registered user
on Dec 22, 2018 at 9:34 am
@victim,
I think if only California allowed cars to concealed-carry handguns, there would be fewer break-ins.
Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Dec 22, 2018 at 10:10 am
on Dec 22, 2018 at 10:10 am
> The increase in crime in CA is in part due to the increase in homeless and illegals.
Then once apprehended and convicted, they should either be incarcerated for an extended period of time and/or deported immediately.
That's what prisons and ICE + Homeland Security are designed for.