imported post
Often times, management will be scared into 'looking the other way'. And I think an OC barbecue is a great idea.
When I was living in Lakewood, we had some shady dealings in our apartment complex; this was before I was 21 unfortunately, so the only thing I had was my .22 rifle. But I still would team up with my neighbor and we would walk around the complex at 2-3 AM. We stopped probably 3 or 4 attempts at GTA, and called in many DVs. Funny, that a month after we started doing that, suddenly, people weren't getting broken into, the crackheads who wanted to beat their girlfriends all ran off or were in jail, and things were actually pretty quiet.
Unfortunately, my neighbor moved, and I switched to day shifts, so the nightly "patrols" stopped. When we moved out, 6 months later, cars were being stolen every night, drug dealers had overrun the place, and we had at least one shooting right out in front of our apartment. Unfortunately, constant vigilance is required to keep these scumbags out of where you live. Just walking around of an evening is a good start at trying to keep the idiots out of your complex. OCing while doing so is even better.