Story Continued

In my last post, I wrote about a recent confrontation I had with a couple drug dealers here. This is the rest of that story. Later in the day I began to think over the situation and decided there were two things I needed to do. My first action will probably seem like an over-reaction to many people. But when you have endured this kind of problem for as long as I have, I think your own thinking would change a bit.

If you recall, I had been watching Ike and Jesse, a couple of well known drug dealers here, as they stood on the corner in front of my home for over an hour when a patrol car passed by. As soon as he passed, I went back to check on Ike and Jesse and found that they were both now setting on my property. Since the police officer didn’t seem to pay much attention to them as he passed by, I figured one of two things had occurred. Either they were setting there as the officer passed or they moved there right after this.

When there is a long period of time without any police presence, or when a police car passes quickly and doesn’t even seem to notice the group of drug dealers standing there, it tends to embolden the dealers. This is when their numbers increase, when they become noisier, and when they begin to creep into my yard. So it’s possible that this officers inaction directly resulted in Ike and Jesse deciding to get comfortable and settle in on my property for a while.

The dealers prefer to stand or set on someone’s property rather than the sidewalk for more than just their comfort. If an officer sees this group standing on the sidewalk for long periods of time, they begin to look suspicious. But if they are standing on someone’s property, it confuses the police because they don’t know for sure whether these people are there without the owners permission. The police are far less likely to question a drug dealer that is standing in the front lawn of a home than if they are standing on the sidewalk or in the street.

But does it really make sense that Ike and Jesse would try to use my property as cover? After all, I have several no-trespassing signs posted, and I have (tried) to make it clear to FWPD that the illegal activities that go on in front of my home, and sometimes in my front yard, is not of my doing. So could a FWPD officer pass by here, see two well known drug dealers setting in my front yard, and just think everything is fine? The other possibility is just as bad too, that the drug dealers were just ignored as they were congregating on the sidewalk.

On several occasions the police have asked me not to confront the drug dealers myself. They tell me “Let us do our job.” But when I do call to report the drug dealers activities, I often get ignored or they imply that my complaint is frivolous. Maybe I’m worrying over nothing here. Perhaps a group of drug dealers standing in my front yard should just be ignored. Maybe I should just call FWPD if these guys are actually shooting their guns or otherwise acting violently. Maybe the fact that they carry guns and have frequently acted violently in the past should really have no bearing on the matter at all. Well, this seems to be how FWPD views the situation at times, giving the impression that they consider people like myself who won’t “settle down and quit making noise” to be the problem.

Personally, I don’t agree with that. I think any person trespassing on my property is a problem. I think that large groups of people noisily loitering on the sidewalk in front of my home for hours at a time is a problem. I especially think that it is a problem when the guys standing there are know drug dealers who have exhibited their violent tendencies many times before. I simply don’t think I should have to wait until shots are fired before I consider this to be a problem.

If the police refuse to properly address this issue, then I am forced to do so myself. Otherwise these guys will truly think they have a free pass. So I began to wonder about this officer that had just passed my house. Either he ignored a group of drug dealers who were standing on the sidewalk in front of my home or he ignored a group of drug dealers who were setting on my property. Regardless, it was because of his inaction that I felt I had to take action myself and confront these two. It was for this reason that I decided to file a formal complaint against this officer.

My logic was pretty simple here. Either that officer didn’t know what was going on, or he just didn’t give a damn. If it was the latter, then he is at fault and I would not feel bad about filing the complaint against him. But if it was the former, then there are two possibilities. There are a handful of officers who patrol this neighborhood with great frequency. It is their job to identify the problem people and make a general assessment of the area. I have mentioned one of these officers (Rice) before. I have established a good rapport with Officer Rice and I am fairly confident that he understands the situation here to a reasonable degree. There are other officers who I don’t know as well who also concentrate on this neighborhood.

Their job is to report the facts to their superiors. Their superiors then are supposed to pass this information on to other officers who patrol this area with less frequency. This is how the information (names, pictures, methodologies, and other identifying characteristics of the drug dealers gets through to all the officers who patrol here. Now it is my opinion that the drug trafficking in this neighborhood is not only done on a grand scale, but also in a very organized way. It is also my opinion that the corner in front of my house seems to be their favorite hang-out.

So, given that the person who owns the home right in front of crack-central station has made it clear that he does not support these activities and that he is willing to work with FWPD to address the problems, I do not think it unreasonable that every officer who patrols this area be apprised about who I am and of the fact that the drug dealers make frequent incursions onto my property. So if that officer who blissfully passed by Ike and Jesse that day really didn’t know what was going on, then this points to an even greater problem. Either the officers who run this neighborhood are not passing their information on to their superiors, or their superiors are not passing this information on down the ranks.

Regardless of the reason for that officers inaction, the point behind my complaint was to make one simple statement. “I think that every officer who patrols this neighborhood should be fully aware of the situation here and should always act when they observe drug dealers congregating on or near my property.” My complaint would have been designed to get an official reaction from FWPD on this matter. If they said that this officer did not know those two guys were drug dealers or that the owner of this property has had a problem with them, then he is very ignorant. And this ignorance is either the fault of the officers who are supposed to make an official assessment of this neighborhood or it is the fault of his superiors.

If their response was that this officer knew what was going on, but intentionally decided to take no action, then some further explanation would be needed. Perhaps he was on a run to another location, so this might have justifiable been deemed as less important. Or perhaps he radioed in what he saw so that another officer could check on it a few minutes later. Either of these explanations would probably be acceptable.

What would not be acceptable is if FWPD responded “Yes, this officer recognized these two as drug dealers and he knew that you are having a long-standing problem with them encroaching on your property, but he chose not to do anything that day simply because he and FWPD don’t want to be bothered with this problem.” Actually, I think I would have liked this type of response. They would have effectively been absolving themselves of responsibility for enforcing the law here. I think this would give me legal standing if I ever decided to sue them, as well as a strong defense clause if one of my confrontations with the drug dealers ever turned violent or deadly.

When the judge asks “Why in the world did you go out and confront these people yourself?” I could reply honestly “Because the police told me to.” I can’t ignore the problems here, so if the police ignore me, then they are really forcing me to take care of the situation myself. I wonder how much of my tax money goes to FWPD. Maybe I should sue to recover this money since I am providing the service myself.

So after I stopped at FWPD headquarters to pick up a complaint form, I had another thought. It seemed pointless to file a complaint about the threat that Jesse had made against me. The police probably wouldn’t even talk with him, but if they did he would simply deny it. Without any witnesses (maybe I could convince Ike, the other drug dealer who was present, to testify on my behalf), my complaint would probably be a waste of time. But I have been chastised before by FWPD for taking this very approach. As one officer said “If you don’t file a complaint, then we’ll never know it happened.”

Suppose that a few days later I get into another confrontation with Jesse and this time it results in violent action taking place. So the police come to ask what is going on. Of course Jesse will claim that he was simply standing there minding his own business when I jumped on him for no reason. Then I will try to tell the officer that this is part of an on-going dispute. I will make reference to how Jesse threatened me recently and the officer will immediately stop me and say “Why didn’t you file a report so that we knew about this?” It will be as if the entire event never occurred.

So I decided to call FWPD back to file a n official report about my confrontation with Jesse earlier in the day. When Officer Bryan arrived a few minutes later, I began explaining the situation. From his demeanor, I took it that he thought my description of this being “A threat to commit murder” was a bit over dramatized. I had never seen Officer Bryan before, so I decided to give him just the most basic background information. When I explained that the drug dealers had thrown three Molotov cocktails at my house in October 2006 in retaliation for my speaking with the police, he seemed genuinely surprised. When I told him that is why I now take any threats from these guys very seriously, he completely agreed.

At that point I mentioned to Officer Bryan that I was upset that an officer had passed by only a few minutes before this episode and seemed to ignore these guys. I told him that was the reason that I had to confront them myself. When I mentioned the time that this occurred and the patrol car, Officer Bryan stopped writing. He looked at me with a smile and said “Actually, that was me.” I looked over his shoulder and in fact it was the same patrol car - what are the odds?

I didn’t want to seem overly confrontational, and I didn’t want to get too far from the present task of filing a report about Jesse’s threat, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to question Officer Bryan about this. I simply said “Look, I know you guys have a lot going on, but if you don’t act on things like this then it forces me to take action myself. These guys used to set on my porch and stash their drugs in my mailbox. If I let them get away with just setting on the edge of my property, then before long they’ll be back on my porch. If you don’t run them off then I have to, and I would much prefer that you do it.”

Officer Bryan’s response - “Actually, this is my first day patrolling here.” - again, what are the odds? Not only did this make me look at the situation a bit differently, but the fact that he said it almost apologetically, made me feel like a real ass. Officer Bryan decided that my situation was important or complex enough to warrant calling a sergeant to the scene. As we were waiting, Officer Bryan and I talked casually. He grew up just two blocks from my house, so he has at least some understanding of the neighborhood from that. But not only was this not his regular area for patrolling, but he has only been a cop for one year and had been assigned to a different quadrant. So if he was not fully aware of the situation here, it was understandable.

His supervisor, Officer Seward, arrived within a few minutes and I explained the situation to him. I asked him what I have asked dozens of officers over the years - “What can I do about this?” I explained that whenever I see the police failing to act, then this forces me to act myself. I explained that the reason I confronted Ike and Jesse that day is because Officer Bryan’s passing without taking action actually seemed to embolden them. I explained that I now realize Officer Bryan is new to this area and that I understand that there are things that have priority over my drug dealers at times. I added though that when the police make a habit of ignoring the problem, then I have no choice to get involved.

Officer Seward was genuine in his response. Sure he was a bit defensive on the actions of his officers and his department, but not in a rude or belligerent manner. He started out by explaining that communication within FWPD is not always perfect, making the point that just because one officer says something does not mean that the entire department is going to immediately hear it. He also pointed to the fact that this was the first time he had actually met Officer Bryan, attesting further to the difficulties of communicating among an organization with several hundred members.

He also talked a bit about some of the actions the police have taken here. Again, this did not seem designed to imply that there was no justification to my frustration, but just that it is unfair to portray the FWPD as doing nothing about the problem. After speaking for a few minutes, I felt that our conversation had been productive. First of all, I got the chance to plead my case to two more officers individually, rather than speaking to a bureaucracy that either doesn’t want to listen or doesn’t know how to listen. Both of these officers seemed genuinely concerned about the situation and sympathetic to my plight.

At this point, I decided there was no need to file the complaint against Officer Bryan. Obviously he wasn’t the problem, so this would have been unfair to him. The purpose of the complaint would not have been to just bitch about the situation or to get someone in trouble. The purpose of my complaint would have been to force FWPD to view this matter differently and to take action on it. By establishing communication with two good officers, I felt that I had made some headway on the matter. And although I still think there are some major problems with some high ranking members of FWPD, the fact that these two officers gave me the time to explain the situation and just to vent about my frustrations a bit was an adequate compensation for dismissing the complaint.

As The two officers were leaving, Officer Seward turned to me and said “You probably don’t remember me, but we’ve met before. It was a couple years ago when you were working on your siding, just after you moved in here.” I first apologized for not recognizing and remembering him and joked that I guess it really is difficult to keep track of all the details here. I then added “Actually, I’ve been living here for thirteen years now. The fact that it took nearly a decade of my asking for help before your department even recognized my existence is part of what upsets me. But I’m sure that’s not your fault, it’s just what happens when dealing with a bureaucracy.”