Current Events: August 2008

The Rest Of The Story

The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette reports that this past Tuesday a man was arrested for selling drugs to an undercover officer a block from my home. The report states that the drug dealer punched the undercover officer in the face, then fled on foot as other officers pursued. He was finally captured when he fell on top of a police car that he tried to jump over.

When I first read this article, I had an idea who this person was. He does not go by the name given in the newspaper, but rather by a name that starts with the letter “D“, the same as the middle initial of the arrested person’s name. The described actions of the arrested person also fit my profile of “D”.

Since I began my blog, I have met several local news reporters. I called a couple of them to see if I could find more information about this person. I was told that the official report only listed his middle initial, so no help there. But when I was given his DOB and his home address, I knew that my hunch was right. By the way, the particular reporter who gave me this information said that he saw no harm in doing so since it was considered public information. I’ll leave him unnamed though, so as not to antagonize any relationship he might have with FWPD. I expect if they knew he was talking with me, they might cut him out of their loop.

There is much that I can tell you about the person who was arrested here, but I’ll just make two quick points. First, this is the same person who recently threatened to “take my house down” when I asked him to get off my property. This is also the same person who I witnessed while he was in the process of attempting to buy a gun from someone right here in front of my house. The first point deserves mention because his violent behavior this past Tuesday proves that I was right to take his threat seriously enough to call the police and file a report over it. The second point deserves more discussion.

If you will recall, several months back I was working outside when I overheard this same guy talking on the phone. He was making arrangements for someone to drive by and deliver a gun to him. I immediately called the Vice and Narcotics Department of FWPD and was told that no police officers were presently available to come to the phone. I told this civilian what was going on and she said she would pass this information on to the ATF.

A few minutes later, the gun runner came by but was spooked by my presence. After circling the block a few times, this truck drove down a side street, and the guy buying the gun walked that way also. I called Vice again, and this time actually got to speak with a real live Detective. I told him what was going on including the name of the person buying the gun, the location where they were most likely conducting the transaction, and a description of the driver and vehicle. I also told him the names of several other guys who were still standing on the corner in front of my house. I never saw a patrol car come by after this call was made and I never heard back from FWPD regarding my calls.

So that’s what you need to know about the person who was arrested. Now, let’s look at the location where this all went down. There is one house on that particular block where a convicted murder lives. This is the same block where at least one arson and two shootings took place in the past couple of years. This is also the location where the person I saw running from the scene of a recent shooting fled to. This is also the area where FWPD recently found an unattended shotgun lying out in a yard. And this is also the location where that guy went to buy the gun a few months ago.

If you recall, back in April I watched as a man here tried desperately to by drugs from several guys but was repeatedly rebuffed. Finally, a couple young guys walked with him down the block and around the corner. He was in the same area then as what happened this past Tuesday night. As he turned the corner, I said to my neighbor “I sure hope he has a gun”, because I knew what that area was like. A few minutes later he came hobbling around the corner carrying his shoes in his hands.

I very rarely walk or drive through this area, even when I have my gun(s) on me. It just seems reckless to go through an area which is obviously OWNED by the drug dealers, when I can easily bypass it. This particular block has always been very active, second only to my own corner, and there is a simple reason they would rather walk down to sell in front of my house. The newspaper article stated that Tuesday night’s event occurred within a thousand feet of a park, thus making the drug charges more serious. I do not believe that my home falls within that radius. So that location is better for these guys because I think they have more friendly houses there. But it is worse because of its proximity to the park. Since I installed my cameras three weeks ago, almost all of the drug activity has moved to that area.

So now you know quite a bit about both the person arrested and the location, so let’s examine the matter further. Without ever knowing any of the details, it should be realized that undercover officers must at times place themselves in danger in order to be effective. If they have another officer within sight, it probably will be noticed by someone, even if they are very far away. So the officer has to first step into the lion’s den alone. But he is dressed as a lion himself, so he should be okay - right?

This, of course, leads to the next problem. It is impossible for an officer to ever know for certain that his identity is unknown. Even if the police bring in someone from out of state, this only reduces the possibility of having his cover blown, because drug dealers do migrate, and if they end up in this city, they have a good chance of winding up in this neighborhood. So you have a situation where the undercover officer has to place himself in danger in order for the criminals to feel at ease, then there is the risk that he may still be identified by someone recognizing him.

Then there is the problem that arises with the logistics of the arrest itself. There is some point where the dealer will realize he is being set up. And in a neighborhood such as this, with a very extensive communications network among the criminals, it is highly unlikely that the secret will be kept until the point that the other officers actually arrive on the scene. Apparently that is what occurred here last Tuesday night.

If this guy was able to punch the undercover officer in the face, then that pretty much proves that this officer was in an precarious position. And at the time that he apparantly needed assistance, it was not there. All this leads one to speculate further. Obviously from the drug dealer's treatment of both myself and that undercover officer, his violent insinuations are not mere threats. And given the fact that I know for certain that this guy was recently attempting to purchase a gun here it seems like this situation could easily have been much worse.

I just wonder, if that cop had been shot instead of punched the other night, would anybody at FWPD even connect the dots. Would they realize that the gun used was probably the same one that I called them about - the same one that I desperately tried to help them to keep out of the hands of this young drug dealer? Probably not, and if they did they certainly would not admit to it. I expect Chief York would just issue another misleading statement about how this type of activity occurs because people won’t speak to the police.

What I wonder even more than this though is if the officers who are out on the streets and placing themselves in jeopardy realize how poorly they are being served by their own superiors who refuse to interact with the citizens who do want to help. This dereliction of duty not only jeopardizes the safety of citizens, but of their own officers as well.

One final note about what occurred here Tuesday night. I spoke with one of the guys here today and he said he in fact did recognize the undercover officer from a previous encounter. He also said the newspaper story was inaccurate in one regard. He claims the guy who punched the cop in the face never fell on a patrol car. He actually had the crap kicked out of him by the police after they apprehended him. The story was just a cover to protect them.

As far as I’m concerned, he deserved what he got, so I’m not complaining about their tactics in this matter. But it would be interesting to know if the camera on that car was running at the time. And if not, had it just recently been turned off? Not to worry though, as I’m sure this guy’s lawyer will file a complaint about this. And of course I know from personal experience that FWPD and the Board of Public Safety handles internal investigations with great integrity (I’m joking of course.)

So go ahead and keep reading the local newspapers for the briefs. Then come here to find out the rest of the story.

http://www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080828/LOCAL07/808280366/1002/LOCAL

Lights Out

A couple of weeks ago City Council member and FWPD Deputy Chief Marty Bender introduced a resolution to expand the city’s noise control ordinance. He proposed to change it to include limits on spotlights and other directional outdoor lighting. The motion was tabled indefinitely for further consideration. I felt this ordinance was too broad and extremely vague. I also think City Council has a habit of passing bad laws and doing so without allowing citizens enough time to make an informed statement about them.

Citizens are only allowed to speak publicly at City Council meetings twice per month. This is not an invitation to a conversation though. Citizens speak, then the Council members get to reply, and that’s the end of it. Citizens do not get a chance to make a rebuttal statement until two weeks later. Also, it is not uncommon for the citizen's chance to speak to come up only after a decision has already been made. So I took the opportunity to speak at this past Tuesday’s City Council Meeting, before this ordinance is passed into law. What I said follows.

I wish to speak tonight regarding the outdoor light ordinance which is currently being considered. I realize that there might be a few individuals who purposely install these lights just to irritate a neighbor who they don’t get along with. But I think it is obvious that the vast majority of these lights are used as a deterrence against criminal activity.

The way the ordinance is currently worded, it seems to say that you may have lights on your property, but you can’t force them upon me and my property. This sounds good, in theory, and it can work in areas where there are twenty to thirty feet between houses. But in areas where houses are sometimes five to ten feet apart, this will not work. If you tell these people that they must keep their lighting confined to their own property, then you have effectively told them they can not have outdoor lights.

I think it is ironic that the inner-city neighborhoods where the houses are more likely to be close together is also the area where these lights are sometimes needed the most. I realize the fact that this ordinance was introduced by Officer Bender means the criminal aspect of this has probably been considered, but I still think it does not sound like a good idea.

I would suggest that some of you drive through the areas of town where these lights are in abundance. Drive at night, and drive through the alleys, so you will see who feels it is necessary to have these obnoxious lights. Then stop by during the daytime and talk to those people and their neighbors about the situation. If not that, then at least publicize this and allow enough time so that concerned citizens can come here and speak about this before it passes.

This issue is not a problem for me. I’ve put in security cameras, with night vision, and the problem is taken care of now. But a lot of people can’t afford to spend a thousand dollars for cameras. An outdoor light is a cheep alternative that a lot of people count on to protect their property. I hope you’ll consider this before you pass the ordinance.

I am not a good public speaker. I tend to not make a lot of eye contact when speaking to people, and this habit is even more pronounced when I am speaking publicly. But I did try to make eye contact with various members of the Council when I spoke that night. When I mentioned the homes that are close together, and the fact that they are in the inner city, Councilman Hines seemed to nod in agreement. And when I suggested that Council members take a night-time drive to investigate the matter for themselves, Councilman Didier seemed to nod in agreement.

When I first started speaking, Councilman Bender was looking down. I don’t think this was necessarily a reflection of his reaction to my comments though. When I mentioned him by name, I made sure and looked at him. At that time he was looking at me, but his expressionless face really gave no indication of how he felt about what I was saying. When I finished speaking, Councilman Shoaff started to reply, but waited then as there was another person in the audience who wanted to speak.

After all two of us citizens (John Kalb and myself) were finished speaking, several Council members added their own comments. None were addressed towards what I had said. I intended to approach Councilman Shoaff to see if I had missed something, but I was caught in conversation by another person. During this time, Councilman Shoaff walked over to speak with me. He said that I had misunderstood the proposed ordinance. He emphasized that this only covered directional lighting, not all outdoor lights.

I will give Councilman Shoaff a lot of credit here. First of all, I think he is one of the more genuine members of this Council, and I think it speaks well of him that he took a minute to try to better explain the situation to me. I still have some serious misgivings about this ordinance though because I think it is dangerously vague. How exactly do you define “directional?” Does my neighbor’s window necessarily have to be the main focus of my light for it to be considered offensive, or would merely being able to see my light through their window qualify?

To me, the bottom line is this. If the debate is over the comfort of one person and the safety of another, then safety should definitely be the trump card. It very well may be that Councilman Shoaff was correct and I misunderstood the proposal. I don’t know why the Council decided to table this proposal, but I certainly hope they will consider this perspective before they pass it into law though.

What’s A Guy To Do?: July 2006

By this point in time, most of the dealers here had figured out my habits pretty well. They knew what vehicles I drove, my work schedule, and that I lived in the house alone. As bad as the activities sometimes were when I was home, they paled in comparison to what some of my neighbors reported was happening in my absence. It was a regular occurrence to come home and find people vacating from the corner or even my own front yard. If there were times that I was away for extended periods, it became much worse. When I went on vacation, they worked extra hours selling their crack from my yard.

I had been out of town for a long weekend in early July of 2006. When I returned home there were four guys setting in the middle of my front yard. As I approached the house, they stood up and began walking around the corner to the side of my house. One of them reached over to the corner of my crumbling cement foundation and pulled something out. He was literally storing his crack INSIDE my house.

They were already walking away by the time I parked, and I was tired, so I just went inside the house without saying anything. A few minutes later I looked outside and saw that two of the guys, Darrell and Daniel, had returned. I checked periodically and watched as they shouted for passing cars to stop. Several times they went to one of the cars and appeared to sell them drugs. During this time they alternated between standing on the sidewalk or setting and standing in my front yard. After watching this for nearly an hour, I called FWPD.

As the police approached, Daniel was intercepted by officer Rice. Darrell headed south and was a half block away when he was stopped by another officer. Up to this point, when confronting the problems here I had either dealt with it myself or called the police and stayed out of sight. Somehow, openly identifying myself as being someone who was calling the police just didn’t seem like a good idea. But this approach obviously wasn’t working.

In neighborhoods like this, where very few people are willing to identify themselves as the person who called the cops (for good reasons sometimes) it is probably a bit frustrating for the officers. They are forced to question or search people based upon something that was said by an unnamed accuser. Whether the suspect is guilty or not, they are angry over being stopped, and this anger is then directed towards the police because they are the only ones present.

This time I stepped out to the porch and just listened as Officer Rice spoke with Daniel. I wasn’t planning on saying anything, but I thought that my presence there might be good for both Officer Rice and Daniel to see. As I listened, Daniel vehemently denied doing anything wrong, and he hadn’t even been in my yard (according to him). There’s only so much the police can do, given legal restrictions, and it appeared that Officer Rice was about to cut Daniel loose. At that point, I made a decision to speak up.

There was a leather CD case setting in my front yard, and I assumed that it belonged to either Daniel or Darrell. I also figured there was a good chance they had stashed their drugs in it. I approached Officer Rice (whom I had not yet met) and said “Excuse me officer, but that CD case is not mine. You might want to check it out.” Daniel, apparently still not realizing that I was the one who called the police, looked around Officer Rice and said “Oh, that’s mine, Phil” He even had a nice pleasant smile on his face as if he thought that explanation straightened everything out.

I looked directly at Daniel and said “You are not understanding me. I’ve asked you several times not to be on my property. Now I’m telling you, with this officer as a witness, don’t be on my property – ever, or for any reason.” I then turned to Officer Rice and said “I’ve been telling these guys to stay of my property, and they keep coming back. You know who he is now (pointing to Daniel). The next time you see him here, I want you to arrest him for trespassing.” I think Officer Rice and Daniel were both equally surprised at my response. Daniel was probably thinking “How dare he?” while Officer Rice was probably just wondering if I was trying to get myself killed.

After that, I stepped back onto the porch and listened as Officer Rice instructed Daniel that he needed to stay off my property. Officer Rice finish his conversation with Daniel then began walking over to where the other officer was still questioning Darrell. As Daniel was walking away he turned to me and said “You done the wrong thing – called the cops. We’re gonna take care of you.” To this I replied “Hey, if you’ve got a problem with me, don’t walk away. Come back and we’ll take care of it now.” He just flipped me off as he continued walking.

I immediately thought of how Officer Byrnes had chastised me for not reporting the time that Thomas had threatened me. I saw calling the police then as pointless, because there was probably nothing they could do about it. The situation was the same this time, as Officer Rice had not witnessed our verbal exchange. Not wanting to be accused by the police of being a part of the problem though, I called out to Officer Rice.

Officer Rice came back to the corner and I explained what had just occurred, telling him that I took this as an implied threat. I simply requested that Officer Rice question Daniel about this and include our two versions (which would most likely contradict each other) in his report. Of course I knew that my word alone would not be enough to prove that Daniel had threatened me. But I wanted him to be notified that I had reported this. I also wanted Officer Rice to know what was said so he would pay closer attention when he saw Daniel around my house again.

By this time though, Daniel was already out of sight. Officer Rice just gave me an exasperated look as I pointed to the weedy lot that Daniel had disappeared through. He actually didn’t say anything, but the implication was clearly that he saw chasing after Daniel as not being worth the effort. I didn’t want to antagonize Officer Rice, so I simply replied “That’s okay, just forget it.”

The truth is, I don’t think that chasing after Daniel would have accomplished much either. Even though it would have been easy to do so because he lived less than two blocks away, it would have been pointless without a witness. With my request, I ran the danger of Officer Rice thinking that I was just wasting his time. I certainly don’t want to get a reputation as the person who makes frivolous calls to the police. And yet, Officer Byrnes had recently chastised me for not doing that very thing.

Although the perspectives of both Officer Byrnes and Officer Rice in this matter seem reasonable when considered individually, together they point to a big part of the problem here. How is a citizen supposed to know what to do when different officers contradict each other? Should I call FWPD every time something happens here? If so, then they’ll need to hire more operators. If not, then what criteria should I use for determining when I do call?

And what about those anonymous calls? Some officers seem to appreciate when the caller or other concerned citizens come out to speak with them. They know this gives them credibility because it shows that they are helping someone, rather than just harassing people. Other officers, however, seem to view this as more of a nuisance because it might take more time to clear the scene and might add to their paperwork.

Some variation in preference on matters such as these should be expected among any group of four hundred individuals. But the department as a whole should have some suggested guidelines established. This would probably make things better for both the police and the residents here. As it is, though, there appears to be no guidance at all on this. What you hear from or what is implied by one officer may be very different than what you get from another.

There is one matter where most patrol officers seem to concur though. If a person really wants to get results, they should speak with a higher ranking officer. Of course the problem with this suggestion is that it seems to be the policy of many of those folks to deceive, stonewall, or just ignore the person who is asking for help. And all the while the highest ranking officer, Chief York, tells the media that the problem lies with the citizens because they won’t communicate with FWPD. Well, I’ve got some news for Russell P. - Actions speak louder than words!

It helps a lot that I now know and am known by several FWPD officers. When something occurs here, I try to base my actions upon which officers are present and other circumstances at the time. But it’s not always easy to know what is the right thing to do. When I call FWPD to report suspicious activity, they always ask if I want to speak with the responding officer. Lately I just give a standard response of “It’s not necessary, but if the officer feels that speaking with me would be helpful than I would be glad to.” I always wonder if this simple message gets transmitted correctly to the officers.

I know that when the guy was shot here a couple weeks ago, I stayed outside for several hours - and it wasn’t just to gawk. It was because one officer said he would be coming back to ask me more about what I witnessed and because a couple of other officers engaged me in conversation. At the end of the night, after I had already went inside, I thought of something else that I should have mentioned earlier to the police. The area had cleared out except for two police vehicles that were half a block away from my house. I got dressed again and walked over to speak to these officers.

I know I’m doing my part, but I’m not so sure about Chief York. He repeatedly claims that the problem is that citizens won’t communicate with his department. The truth is, at least from my perspective, it appears that he might not be listening when they do.

Regarding Daniel’s threat against me, that turned out to have been neutralized in an interesting manner. I had only recently encountered Daniel earlier that summer, and I really didn’t know much about him yet. Late that evening, I was setting on Arlen’s porch talking with him. It was only then that I learned that Daniel was Arlen’s nephew. Arlen made it clear where he stood on the matter. He is always against the drug dealers, even if they are family.

As Arlen and I were talking, Edith came walking over. Edith is a friend of mine, and I just learned that the guy I had called the cops on and gotten in an argument with was her son. I wasn’t sure how she would react to this. She didn’t bring up the topic, so I did. I wasn’t trying to apologize, I just wanted to explain my actions. I started to say “I suppose you heard from Daniel what happened here today. You know I just did what I had to do…” At that point, Edith interrupted me and just said rather nonchalantly “He knows he did wrong. He shouldn‘t be in your yard” And that was the end of the discussion.

The next day when I saw Daniel, he smiled and said hello as if nothing had happened. Given the fact that Daniel walked away threatening me, I am fairly certain that when he went home he was still saying the same thing that he had told me - “We’re gonna’ get you.” And given his changed disposition and his mother's own comments towards me, I am certain that the change in his attitude was prompted by her respinse to him at that time. I will write more about Daniel and his mother later on, but suffice it to say that this was one of the experiences that deepened my understanding of things here.

My HUD House: Past, Present and Future

The Past

I began this blog in February of this year with three simple goals in mind. First, I just wanted to vent my frustrations; second, I wanted to better organize my thoughts; and third, I wanted to share the story with others. I have to say that, to a large degree, I feel that all three goals have met with some success. I have also learned that these three goals are intricately connected to each other.

While the venting part might seem petty to some, I’d wager that those who feel this way have never had Molotov cocktails thrown at their home. For quite some time after this happened, my anger was actually at a dangerous level, and it’s really a wonder that I didn’t end up hurting myself or someone else because of it. I know that the blogosphere is well known for telling people to “get over it”, when they go on about an issue that occurred in the past. But in this case, the offense was too great to allow that to easily happen. But by publicly calling people such as Rusty York and Frank Gray assholes, I have actually calmed down quite a bit by now.

The second goal of organizing my thoughts was intricately tied to the first goal. I have a lot of information in my journal, and it takes some focus to be able to look at my hundreds of little notes and start to discern some type of pattern. I might pick one particular person and start perusing my notes for any time his name is mentioned. In this manner, I am able to put together a profile for that individual. But my anger, for a while, was a problem. By re-reading the notes, I relived the events, and this was not always conducive to allowing for a dispassionate mindset. But when I blog, I pull the anger out and throw it at the computer, and then I can focus more on the task of organizing my thoughts.

Regarding the third goal of telling my story to others, I have to say that I have been a bit surprised at how this has turned out so far. I resisted doing this for quite some time for two reasons. First, as I discussed above, my anger made it difficult to focus. If I had started my blog back in 2006, I am quite certain that anything I said would have been quite incomprehensible. But I also thought that hardly anybody would want to hear it. I am pleased to see that I was wrong on that account.

Don’t get me wrong, I get less than forty hits a day on average, so this is not bragging. But I do see something interesting when I look at the people who read and comment. Of course people like Bobby G. (who lives about a miles from me) and Credo (who lives two blocks from me) might be expected to have some interest in my story, because it is so similar to what they themselves face at times. But it is the comments from others that have most surprised me.

I expected the comments from people who haven’t faced the same situation I have here (or at least not on a regular basis) to respond in one of two ways. The most common response I expected was one of disbelief - regarding both the drug activities as well as the response of FWPD to them. The other response I expected was one of indifference. I was wrong on both accounts.

Although some have suggested that I move, it is usually with a concerned tone. A few times I have heard “Get out now, before you end up getting hurt.” I have not heard “Tough shit, life is rough everywhere, deal with it.” While the sympathy expressed by many readers is certainly comforting on a personal level, it goes beyond that. Regardless of the fact that it is my own predicament being talked about here, it is very nice to see that so many people can truly be concerned for the problems of another, even when it is likely that those people will never face the same problem themselves. So, the first surprise of my blog was to learn that a lot of people truly do give a damn.

The second surprise came from reading the comments of people who actually feel a connection to my circumstances. Whether it is the family who lives on Crescent Avenue (not exactly the ‘hood) who had a Molotov cocktail tossed in their front lawn (as a likely retribution for talking to the police about drug activities in their neighborhood), or the commenters who tell their own stories of corruption by police and other public officials, I have come to realize why my own story is really not that unbelievable to many people.

Overall, I’d say the best result of this blog so far is that there are now a few more people who will look at the quotes of FWPD Chief Rusty York with more skepticism, and a few more people who will question why so many members of our local media accept such drivel without any critical evaluation of it’s merits. Thank you all who’ve read and commented so far for helping me make progress towards my goals.

The Present

By now, most readers have a general idea of what is going on. It is safe to say that the illegal activities here could never have achieved the level they have without either corruption or major incompetence on the part of FWPD. But there really is a lot that hasn’t been told yet. There are also a lot of really big questions that deserve discussion, but I am not ready for that yet.

For the time being, I will just continue to tell my stories of events that occurred here in a chronological order (save the occasional interruption of current events). I have about six more stories to post leading up to the night my home was fire-bombed in October of 2006. After that, I estimate about ten to fifteen more stories to bring things up to the point when I started this blog in February of 2008. At that point, it will be time for something different.

The Future

My stories might seem to contradict this statement, but there really is not enough here to make blogging about it a regular event. I have been able to keep the storyline supplied so far, because I am drawing upon twelve years of past experiences. When my blog catches up with the present, the timing of my posts would become even more unreliable than they currently are.

I have seen blogs that go a month or more between posts sometimes, but that is not the style I want to emulate. I expect that within the next couple of months, the point will come where I will officially close this blog to new entries. I will plan to leave it open for viewing indefinitely, and I will leave contact information on the last post so that anyone who encounters it might reach me if they wish.

Although my experiences here are not enough to supply a blog in perpetuity, I am certain there will be the occasional post-worthy event in the future. I suppose if I decide I have something to say along these lines I could count on some of my blogger connections, to get that story out. Who knows, maybe I’ll talk to Bobby G. and see if he’d let me do an occasional guest post on his blog just to add to the mix.

As much as I have enjoyed writing this blog, it does take effort, and that is energy which could be put into other ventures. I have a couple ideas for what I want to do next. While one of these might be seen as slightly related to my current situation, it is much broader than that and I think it would entertain the interests of a much larger group of people than just those who read my current blog. The other project is totally unrelated to my story here. Both of these projects will require a lot of attention on my behalf, and that is just one further reason to eventually discontinue this particular blog.

When I am at the end of my story, I will announce it so no one wonders if I just fell asleep at the wheel again. And at that time, I will give information about whatever new blogging activities I have decided to focus upon. Until then, please continue reading My HUD House.

Phillip Marx

A Modern Day Rasputin: June 2006

Have you ever heard the story of Grigori Rasputin, the Russian monk and confident to Tsar Nicholas II? Now a lot of this is just legend, and some of it appears to be heavily contested, but it still makes a damn interesting story. In 1914, Rasputin was stabbed in the abdomen resulting in what appeared to be a fatal wound, but he lived through it. That in itself is not so crazy. Maybe the wound wasn’t as bad as it appeared (his entrails were hanging out of his abdomen) or maybe he just had good surgeons. Regardless of why, there is no doubt that he did survive the attack. But the story gets really bizarre about two and a half years later.

On December 16, 1916, a group of Russian nobles had decided they could no longer tolerate Rasputin’s meddling in their political affairs. They came up with the ingenious idea of serving him wine and cakes that were heavily laced with cyanide. After realizing Rasputin was unaffected by the poison, one of the assassins shot him in the back with a revolver. The man left the room, but returned a short while later. Upon this man's return, Rasputin opened his eyes and the two began struggling with each other. During the fight, several others entered the room and Rasputin was shot by them another three times, including once in the forehead.

As the men approached the fallen body of Rasputin, he began to get up once more. At this point he was beaten, wrapped in a curtain, and thrown into the icy waters of the Neva River. Three days later, the mutilated body of Rasputin was pulled from the river. The body was no longer wrapped in the curtain and it appeared as though Rasputin had attempted to claw his way through the ice. An autopsy determined that the cause of death was hypothermia. And if all this isn't enough, it was also reported that as the body of Rasputin was being cremated (a full two months after he had been killed) he sat upright in the fire.

Poor Grigori, it only took about six attempts before he finally expired. I guess that compared to this, the story I’m going to tell here isn’t really that strange. Although the victim did survive, his attackers only tried to kill him twice. I was first alerted to what was going on that night around 11:00 in the evening, when several police and fire vehicles began descending upon Carl’s drug house just down the street from me. As the night turned into morning, there were police and fire officials still coming and going.

From my position, it was difficult to see exactly what was going on. The guys at Carl’s house would sometimes use a small portable grill to cook on when they were setting outside and the police seemed to be paying a lot of attention to the grill this night. Although I never did see any flames, and there did not appear to be any damage to the exterior of the house, I just assumed that the grill had started a small fire. But as the number of emergency vehicles in the area rapidly grew larger, it began to appear that something big was going on there. FWPD Chief Rusty York was at the scene, and I also think that I spotted FWFD Chief Tim Davies.

A while later, I spotted another noteworthy person. An older gentleman arrived and met with some of the police officers there. He was wearing a suit, and he did not appear to me to be a police officer. After talking with the police for a moment, he seated himself on a neighbor’s steps and was handed a stack of papers by one of the officers. He quickly flipped through them, adding his signature several times. I’m assuming he was a judge, and that he was authorizing the police to enter Carl’s house.

Although I don’t think it was necessary, the police were smart to take this step. I doubt that anyone could reasonably argue that they didn’t have cause for entering the house. There had been a fire and the front door was standing open. I think that they would probably be opening themselves up to charges of neglect if they didn’t investigate.
But the police knew what went on at Carl’s house. Although their cause for entering was not to search for drugs, I am certain that they had high expectations of finding that inside. So they covered their asses by getting a judge to authorize the entry. That way anything they happened to accidentally stumble across while performing a necessary safety check would most likely be admissible in court.

I watched through the windows as the police and fire officials made their way through the house. The crime scene vans were there, and I am sure that the police anticipated finding a lot of interesting substances inside that would be worthy of analyzing. Over the next few hours though, I watched as an untold number of police officers entered the house, and all seemed to emerge empty handed.

I have said before that it took me a long time to realize this house was just a front for drug activities as nobody actually lived there. But, on the other hand, they kept the house in good shape. The lawn was always cared for, and only a couple years prior they had re-sided it. With as much activity that sometimes went on there, and as good shape as they kept he house in, I really expected that it had something significant going on inside. But apparently they did not store their wares inside, as the house was very quickly back in operation. I guess that Officer Monroe’s “Summer Project” wasn’t working out so well.

It was the next day before I finally heard what had happened. A man had gasoline poured on him and was set on fire. And if that wasn’t bad enough, he also had a screwdriver plunged into his head. I actually had the occasion to meet Evan several months after this occurred and he appeared to have healed pretty well. I wonder if they fed him cyanide also. It was rumored that Evan had been attacked by one of his own brothers. He has three brothers, that I know of, one of them being Carl. But this doesn’t seem like Carl’s style to me, although I could be wrong.

I’ve often wondered about the intentions of some of the guys here. For as many gunshots as I have heard through the years, there have been relatively few people actually shot. Either they have really bad aim, or perhaps their goal is to just send a message rather than actually kill most of the time. But I’d say that when you set someone ablaze, and stab them in the head, the intent to kill is pretty obvious. The fact that someone did this to their own brother is even more telling about what we're dealing with here.

As a final note about Grigori Rasputin, it is said that he had predicted his own death. In a letter written shortly before his December murder he wrote:

I write and leave behind me this letter at Saint Petersburg. I feel that I shall leave life before January 1. I wish to make known to the Russian people, to Papa, to the Russian Mother and to the Children, to the land of Russia, what they must understand. If I am killed by common assassins, and especially by my brothers the Russian peasants, you, Tsar of Russia, will have nothing to fear for your children, they will reign for hundreds of years in Russia. But if I am murdered by boyars, nobles, and if they shed my blood, their hands will remain soiled with my blood, for twenty-five years they will not wash their hands from my blood. They will leave Russia. Brothers will kill brothers, and they will kill each other and hate each other, and for twenty-five years there will be no nobles in the country. Tsar of the land of Russia, if you hear the sound of the bell which will tell you that Grigori has been killed, you must know this: if it was your relations who have wrought my death, then no one in the family, that is to say, none of your children or relations, will remain alive for more than two years. They will be killed by the Russian people. I go, and I feel in me the divine command to tell the Russian Tsar how he must live if I have disappeared. You must reflect and act prudently. Think of your safety and tell your relations that I have paid for them with my blood. I shall be killed. I am no longer among the living. Pray, pray, be strong, think of your blessed family. -Grigori

It is interesting to note that it was the nobles who ended up killing Rasputin. Could it be just a coincidence that only two months later the tumultuous revolution began? This revolution ultimately ended the life of the Tsar and his family.

As I said, it was rumored that Evan's was attacked here by one of his own brothers. Had they succeeded in killing him, I wonder if they would have shared the curse of the Russian nobles. I hate to wish harm on anyone, but had Evan died that night, and the Warsaw dynasty fell, perhaps my own home would never have been attacked by them later in that same year. But then again, revolutions can be pretty unpredictable, so this might have actually resulted in something worse happening.

FWPD Requests Citizen’s Help: June 2006

Chief York is always saying a big part of the problem is that not enough people are willing to cooperate with the police in fighting crime - and that is true, to a large degree. But what about the police themselves? They have to do some of the reaching out to folks to get them to overcome their shyness. I have given several examples already of various FWPD officers seemingly going to great lengths to ignore my repeated attempts to communicate with them about the problems here. Just to be fair, I thought I should tell about the time they actually did ask for my help. This particular event didn’t start out well, and it ended up pretty much like the rest, but for a brief moment at least, it actually did appear that FWPD had pulled their heads out of their asses.

Some background information will be useful to understand this story. There is a house about a half block away from my home that had always been the most active drug house since I moved here in 1995. Although the house is owned by a relative of his, Carl has always been the main proprietor of operations there. In the early years, I saw this house as a major problem. I had specifically mentioned it several times when speaking with different FWPD officers. It would not be uncommon to see as many as a dozen people sometimes standing in the yard or on the sidewalk in front of this house, and that fact alone made it appear intimidating.

Carl ran a smart operation. The key to it’s success was that he seldom allowed buyers inside the house. Someone out front would take the money, then a few minutes later another person would come walking out from the side of the house to make the delivery. Although FWPD and Karen Richards don’t seem to be able to agree on exactly what it takes to get a warrant for searching a house, Carl’s precautions certainly made this less likely to occur. I actually lived here for quite some time before I realized that no one actually lived in that house. It’s sole purpose was to serve as a shelter for their drug operations.

Over time, as I got to know Carl a bit, my opinion of him changed. The most obvious element of his operation was that it differed from the activities that were going on near my house. The guys on the corner here were usually much louder than the people at Carl’s house. The people here often didn’t even appear to be trying to hide the fact that they were selling drugs. It was very easy to look out my window at the right moment and actually see the pieces of crack that they had in their hands or had set somewhere near them. While the guys here would frequently drop trash in my yard or on the ground near it, Carl and his people kept their lawn manicured and the house in good order.

Although there was a lot of mixing between these two groups, as a general rule Carl and his people were far less bothersome to me. In fact, many times I heard Carl as he came over to talk with the guys standing by my home. “Don’t overplay it” he’d say. “Hold your spot for a few minutes, then walk around a bit.” Other times I heard him advise “Try to keep it quiet. If you make too much noise, these old folks are gonna get upset and call the police, and that’s bad for all of us.” A lot of the young guys seem to be doing this for the excitement sometimes, but Carl and his group was more focused - they were here for the money alone.

On this particular morning, I looked out my window to see four FWPD officers walking around Carl’s house. Out of curiosity, I stepped onto my back porch to watch them as they continued examining the outside of the house. I looked back to the corner and saw that my neighbor, Arlen, was standing there watching as well. As I walked over to speak with him, I thought nothing of the fact that I had left my wallet inside the house. I noticed Brian was setting on his friend's porch across the street from where the officers were at. A few minutes later, these officers walked over and appeared to be checking Brian’s I.D. for no apparent reason.

As I left the corner, I joked with Arlen that I’d better get inside because I didn’t have my I.D. on me. As I began climbing back onto my back porch, I realized that statement was no joke. I heard a voice shout “Hey”, and I was certain it was one of the police officers. As I turned to look, the group of four was now walking quickly down the middle of the street directly towards me. Officer Monroe was motioning for me to come to him, but I decided it would be best to remain on my own property at that time. When the group reached my back yard, Officer Monroe sternly demanded to know what I was doing here. He seemed disbelieving as I told him that I own this house and that I have lived here for ten years. He remained skeptical as he said “That’s funny, I’ve been patrolling here for three years and I’ve never seen you before today.”

I explained that I had only stepped outside to see what was going on, but when I realized that they were checking people for I.D. I was headed inside to grab my wallet. The officers just stared at me without saying a word, so I said “Look, I live here, this is my home. You can see my back door is open because I just stepped out to see what was going on” When I offered to get my wallet from inside the house to show them my I.D. they finally relaxed a bit and said that was not necessary. Although Officer Monroe introduced the other three officers to me at this point, the only one I recall was Officer Foster. I’m pretty sure he was the same officer who had resolved the argument over a bicycle here during the summer of 2004.

Officer Monroe and I began talking about the neighborhood and Carl’s house naturally came up. Officer Monroe asked me what I knew about it and I answered “I know what you know. These guys don’t take people inside the house and they usually have enough guys standing around outside to confuse anyone that is trying to figure them out.” Officer Monroe asked if I could tell whether the delivery guys were coming from the back or from the side of the house and I said I hadn’t seen enough to determine that.

I was really surprised at the next question, as Officer Monroe asked if I would consider allowing them (FWPD) to put cameras on my property. When I chuckled, officer Monroe quickly explained “The cameras won’t be aimed at your house, they’ll just be watching Carl’s house. I explained that I wasn’t laughing because I thought they wanted to spy on me. I was laughing because I had made that offer to FWPD myself three years ago. Officer Monroe truly seemed dumbfounded as I explained my prior interactions with one of his superiors, Officer Marshall.

Before I answered his request, I gave my opinion about Carl’s house. I told him that although there is a lot of activity there, it is not as bothersome as the guys who stand on the corner. I also said that I just don’t think FWPD has the resources to shut this neighborhood down entirely and I would prefer they focus on the guys who are selling from my property rather than from their own house. I closed, however, by stating that if they really thought it would be helpful, then I would consent to the cameras. Of course I realized that installing cameras might be asking for trouble, but I felt that it was a necessary risk. In fact, just being seen talking with the police might be dangerous around here, but it was a price I was willing to pay for finally getting to meet an Officer who truly seemed to want to address the problems here.

Officer Monroe pointed to Carl’s house and said “That’s my summer project, shutting this house down.” As the group left, Officer Monroe told me that he would be in touch with me about the cameras soon. Of course I never heard back from Officer Monroe or anyone else at FWPD about the cameras. I did see Officer Monroe at Carl’s house about a week after this though, and that will be the subject of the next post.

Fort Wayne to Replace Sidewalks with Silly Putty

Representatives from the City of Fort Wayne, Indiana, today announced their bold initiative to replace all city sidewalks with silly putty within the next two years. This is being touted as another huge step towards making Fort Wayne a truly unique city. One Democratic council member was quoted as saying “Although it is obviously the fault of President Bush and Governor Daniels, the fact is that we are heading into a bad recession. This sidewalk program is exactly what we need to help us bounce back.”

Although one would naturally expect this multi-billion dollar project to have to pass through the state’s newly enacted referendum law for public projects, that point has been ruled moot. The sidewalk replacement project is being broken up into 35,782,367 individual works, each costing only a little over $1,000. City attorneys say it is their understanding that this law was designed to break huge projects up into smaller pieces, rather than actually submitting such projects to the voters for approval. One Republican former council member, commenting on the fact that this project is opposed by approximately 99.9% of the adult population, said “Those people don’t count because they just don’t understand silly-putty. All the children that I have spoken to think it’s a great idea.”

The bills were introduced before Council last week and are expected to be approved tonight. At the end of this meeting, concerned residents will be allowed to speak as to whether or not they think this project should be approved. When asked to comment on the fact that the citizenry will be allowed to voice their opinion only after the issue has been decided, the City Clerk was quoted as saying “That’s not my job!”

Many local bloggers have opined that they do not expect a large turnout at tonight’s council meeting because most people are astute enough to realize that it would just be a waste of time. A member of the Council responded to this by saying “It is such a shame that so many people choose to disengage themselves from the process.”

In other business, the Fort Wayne light ordinance was recently amended to prohibit the use of police spot-lights. One local citizen (criminal) was quoted as saying “Hey, why should I have to be uncomfortable just to ensure their safety? It ain’t right. And props to you, Marty B. for making my neighbors (victims) turn off those obnoxious outdoor lights on their houses.”

FWPD is officially supporting the light ban as a public safety issue. According to a spokesperson for the department “Everyone knows that if a criminal is caught in the act, he is likely to employ violent methods against the person who confronts him. By turning out the lights, this ensures that the criminals will be able to work unimpeded. By banning outdoor lights, the residents here will soon realize that criminals can easily take everything they own. As a result, we expect that people will stop buying expensive items to store in their houses, which of course is the real cause of the crime in the first place. If people have something valuable that they need to protect, they can easily rent a storage shed where it will be safe.” The spokesperson went on to remind that obnoxious outdoor lighting will still be allowed by businesses.

FWPD estimates that it will take less than a year after the implementation of the ban for residents to either move their valuables to a storage facility or to have them stolen. At that point, according to the spokesperson, the department will no longer have to contend with investigating home burglaries, which is estimated to cut their operating expenses by at least twenty percent. One local officer was quoted as saying “It would be so much easier if people would just leave their front doors unlocked. I don’t understand why some people try to fight the inevitable.”

Note: The above blog post is intended as satire.

To Serve and to Protect: June 2006

I’m sure everyone has heard this saying before. A police officer’s basic duty is to serve and to protect. And what a noble sounding creed that is, at least until you realize who it is that they are really protecting and what interests are being served at times. Like much in my story, this particular event involves a fair amount of speculation, but it is my belief that here a FWPD officer purposely falsified a police report in order to benefit one of their confidential informants. So not only does FWPD refuse to give me a report over an incident that occurred on my own property, but now it appears that they’re printing out lies as well!

I had just laid down to go to sleep one evening when I heard a loud noise outside. I peeked out the window to see that a man had clipped my car with his truck as he turned the corner. I couldn’t see his face well enough to make an accurate identification. All I could see was that he was a black male, and he appeared to be the only occupant of the vehicle. I quickly threw on my jeans and ran out the front door, just in time to watch the guy drive away. I did not get the plate number, just a basic description of the vehicle.

Although I didn’t expect the perpetrator to be found, I still had to call FWPD out to get a report for my insurance. When the officer arrived, I described the vehicle as being a dark colored (black or blue?) utility vehicle (Suburban?). I’m not great at identifying vehicle models, and it was pretty dark out, so I gave the best account I could. The officer decided to drive the area for a few minutes to look for the vehicle. As I was standing out front waiting for the officer to return, Patrick came over to speak with me.

He told me that he had seen what happened and he thought he knew who did it. He described the vehicle as a Green Yukon, and even told me where the guy lived only a few blocks from my house. Patrick went on to say that this guy is a snitch for the cops. When the police officer returned a few minutes later I gave him the updated information about the driver, sans the claim of being a snitch. The officer stated that he would go ahead and fill out the report first, then go back to look where I had been told the guy lived at.

As the officer was filling out the report, a vehicle passed through the intersection a block away from my house. This looked like the vehicle that had hit my car, and it was heading in the direction of where Patrick had said he lived at, so I alerted the officer to this. He immediately put down his paperwork to pursue this vehicle. When I say pursue here, I am referring to a high speed chase with emergency lights on, and I think this fact is important to the story.

About ten minutes later, the green Yukon came pulling up to my house, followed by the patrol car, which was itself followed by an unmarked police vehicle. At this point, there were two occupants in the Yukon. A female was driving, and a male was in the passenger seat. The female got out of the truck and came towards me, yelling and with arms flailing about. She kept saying “Can you say for certain that I was the driver of the vehicle which allegedly hit your car, Sir?” At the same time, the guy was in my face saying “Look, I wasn’t driving. I’ve got too much trouble already, and I don’t need this.” Their obnoxious behavior was getting close to assault as I tried to step away from them several times.

After the third time that the lady got in my face, with no response from the police officers who were standing right there, I walked over to the Yukon. I pointed to the smashed front fender which had paint from my car smeared across it. I told her “This truck hit my car. Whoever owns this truck is responsible for paying for the damages. I’ll leave it to you two and the police to determine who was driving at the time.” At this point, one of the officers looked at me and asked me to settle down. - What a fucking asshole! It’s okay for this lady to scream at me and come an inch from slapping me in the face. But when I calmly speak up to straighten her out on the matter, the cop tells me to shut up. Like I said, there really are some cops that are pricks, and this was one of them.

I picked up a copy of the report a few days later and noticed something interesting about it. According to the report, the officer searched the neighborhood and found the vehicle parked at a nearby house. That is odd, because it’s a damn lie! The car couldn’t have been parked, because the officer was in pursuit of it. Yet there was no mention of this pursuit at all in the report. There was something else which was even more odd. The passenger in Yukon wasn’t even mentioned. I think this was especially odd because I had described the driver as being a male before they even brought the truck back around. You’d think that since he was probably the one actually driving at the time, that the police would have at least mentioned his name in the report. But according to their report, it’s almost as if he didn’t even exist. And I think I know why that is.

Of course, Patrick’s statement was the first indication that this guy was a police C.I., but I think the police corroborated this as well. First of all, the fact that it took ten minutes to chase this truck down and bring it back here, when it was only a block away, was a bit odd. Then there was the addition of the unmarked police car that came back with them. The officer in this car was most likely a vice & narcotics detective, who of course are the ones that liaison with the C.I.’s. I think what happened was that when this guy’s name came over the police radio, the vice cop heard it and decided he’d better go and cover for his snitch. I think the long delay in bringing this car back around was because the vice cop had to explain to the other cop what was going on and to instruct him on what kind of lie to tell me.

I’ve read a few police reports, and there is definitely something strange about this one. Compare what was reported here to a line from another report which stated “For officer safety, I removed a Glock model 17 handgun from Mr. Marx’s front waistband while I checked his gun permit.” Now that’s some damn good writing. Here he not only mentioned that I had a gun, but also what model it was, where I carried it, and that I had a permit. And he did it all in one smooth sentence.

Then there’s that other fuckheaded cop from the night of the accident. He just happened to forget to mention the fact that he had to pursue the vehicle and he accidentally left out the name of the person who most likely caused the accident. But other than that, he got it right. So either he was purposely falsifying that report, or he just has poor writing skills. It’s interesting to think that the information that I gave to the officer should have been enough to at least suspect that guy of being the driver, and that probably would have been enough to give him a breathalyzer test, but since he wasn’t (officially) there, then this wasn’t necessary. I guess being an FWPD snitch does have it’s advantages. I just wonder what some of these cops get in return.

There was something else noteworthy about this night. I got into a conversation with Officer Byrnes, who was driving the unmarked car. We were talking about all the commotion that goes on in this neighborhood and I mentioned the incident where Thomas had recently done a mock drive-by-shooting against me. Officer Byrnes asked if I had called FWPD to report this and I said that I hadn’t because I didn’t think there was anything they’d be able to do about it. None of the people who witnessed it would have spoken on my behalf, so it would just be hearsay. But according to Officer Byrnes, this was irrelevant.

He chastised me because by failing to report this “It’s as if it never occurred.” According to Officer Byrnes, the police want to hear from people like me about what is going on here. And by failing to report this information, I am part of the problem. Never mind the fact that so many officers before him had basically told me to shut up and quit bothering them. Never mind the fact that I had offered, in writing and to a member of FWPD Command Staff, to allow FWPD to place cameras on my property and even to station officers inside my home for surveillance and received absolutely no response to this offer. According to Officer Byrnes, I am the problem.

Before I go to the next stage in this story, let’s just summarize what my experience with FWPD so far has shown me. If you don’t live here, but come over to sell crack on the corner, that is okay. But if you’re a law-abiding home owner and resident here, it is okay for the police to accost you for simply coming to or going from your home. And when they detain you for such an offense, it is likely that they will imply that you are somehow to blame for the activities here.

Most of the officers that you happen to meet on the street will tell you that they have a lot of limits on what they can do here. But they recommend that you call one of their supervisors who are all willing to listen and help tackle this problem in a serious manner. Yet when you call those high ranking officers they either give you a line of bull-shit, fail to return your calls, or simply refer you to another officer who also doesn’t give a damn. When a juvenile drug dealer hides a gun in your front yard, they won’t release the report. And when one of their C.I.’s smashes into your car, they issue a falsified report to protect him.

By this point, I had become convinced that there are many FWPD officers who are just as corrupt as the criminals that I am paying them to protect me from. It appears to me that they have sanctioned this neighborhood as an area to sell drugs and the only actions they take are designed to give the appearance that they are fighting this problem. And I have no illusion that most of these officers see me as nothing more than a pain in the ass, because I refuse to play their game.

So what happens when these corrupt cops finally determine that I’m a serious problem for them? It would not be difficult to set up a person in a neighborhood like this. It would be pretty easy to get one of their guys to drop a few rocks through my open truck window, and any of the law-abiding residents who might happen to see this are too afraid of the dealers and distrustful of the cops to say anything. At this point, I began to document things in my journal in a more detailed manner. I also decided that I would be less hesitant to call FWPD. It wasn’t that I expected them to really do anything about it, it was just another way to document things.

If I ever found myself in court because someone had tossed drugs into my truck, or because I had gotten drawn into a gun fight with one of the drug dealers in front of my house, I needed evidence to show what was going on here. I needed to document the fact that armed drug dealers were trying to take over my property, and that I was resisting them. This strategy culminated in my writing a letter to FWPD Chief Rusty York in early October 2006, which itself led to my home being fire-bombed shortly afterwards.

Now It’s On…

or rather, they are on - the cameras that is. Things were pretty quiet here for a couple days after the recent shooting. I did not once see any of the dealers loitering in front of my house. Then, a few days ago they decided to return to business as usual.

I first noticed a group of about five of them standing by the alley behind my house. This didn’t affect me much because they really just looked like they were standing around rather than selling drugs. Also, even though I’d prefer that the ones who do sell weren’t anywhere in this neighborhood, they were actually standing closer to one of their own houses than to mine. My goal is to keep people off my property and to keep from loitering around my home. If I were to worry about every guy that stands for a few minutes in the alley, I really would be taking on an impossible challenge.

So after watching them for about ten minutes, I saw they were joined by another of their friends, Ike. After a few minutes, Ike left the group and walked north, towards my house. When I looked out front, I noticed that he and another guy had decided to stop on the corner for a while. I immediately called FWPD. I reported that there was a suspicious person out front and requested they send a patrol car by to check on it. I gave Ike's legal name and his street name, as well as a description of how he was dressed. And although I was pleased that the operator did not waste time by asking the usual "are they armed?" type of questions, she did ask for a better explanation of why I considered Ike's presence here to be a problem.

My reply was “This person is a regular drug dealer here. I don’t know if he’s selling right now, and I’m not going to wait to find out. These guys are the ones responsible for all the shootings that are happening here and I am getting tired of it. I don’t want to come home and find a dead body on my porch one night. I am getting tired of this and it is going to stop. This guy does not even live in this neighborhood. You need to send a car by now to get this drug dealer away from my home.” I also added a request that they not broadcast this over the scanner, as the dealers are obviously listening to it.

The first patrol car arrived within a few minutes, but there was no one standing on the corner by then. A few minutes later, two patrol cars came down the wrong way on the street in front of my house and stopped a man who was there. He protested as they searched his pockets, but one of the officers responded that they were responding to a citizen’s call, so they were obliged to investigate the matter. The ironic thing is that the guy they were searching, Sherrod, does not appear to me to be a drug dealer. Two years ago he was, but he has was absent for a long time after that. He recently returned to the area, but from what I have observed he is not selling. He was actually just walking past my house when the police stopped him, so it is understandable why he might think he was being harassed.

A few minutes into this, Ike showed up on the corner and the police began searching him as well. Obviously, he would not approach two police officers who were in the process of searching someone if he had anything to hide. Needless to say, the police found nothing on him. Maybe Ike wasn’t actually selling that day, or maybe he hid it somewhere when he walked away, but the end result is that this is the type of thing that looks like a frivolous call to FWPD. After the police left, I noticed they stationed a patrol car a block away, facing my house, for almost a half hour. A couple hours later, they did the same thing again. During this time, there really wasn’t a lot going on, and that concerns me because it might be used by FWPD to incorrectly portray this neighborhood as being calmer than it really is.

Calling FWPD is pretty useless on things like this. Even when they actually find the dealers standing around when they arrive, nothing seems to happen. Even when they find a small bag of crack cocaine lying on the ground next to where they were standing, and even when they apprehend one of the guys who tries to flee immediately upon seeing the police, nothing seems to happen. I’m tired of having to peek out my windows every five minutes to see what is going on here. I’m tired of having to call a police department where quite a few people who work there just don’t seem to give a damn or have a clue. I’m tired of working so hard just to keep things from getting worse, rather than actually making them better. So I decided to change my approach.

I have been considering installing security cameras here for quite a while, but hesitated for two reasons. First of all, I am certain that many of the dealers will see this as a provocative act on my part. Two years ago when I communicated with Chief York and some of my neighbors about this matter, the drug dealers tried to burn my house down in response. I am quite certain that there are a lot of guys here who want these cameras taken down, and are probably considering their options. Since a lot of these options would likely result in my own demise, I have taken some appropriate precautions. I have made some modifications to the inside of my home which should fortify it to a large degree against being penetrated by bullets, and I remain very alert whenever I am outside.

The other reason that I hesitated was out of consideration for some of my good neighbors here. Nobody wants to be spied upon, even if they’re not doing anything illegal. And it is impossible to view everything that effects my property without viewing others properties in the process. Unless I want to put a forty foot high curtain around my house, my cameras here will necessarily seem intrusive to others to some degree. I did take the diplomatic step of telling a few of my neighbors what I was doing, and requesting their input on the matter. Every one that I spoke with has been understanding, although one neighbor did request that I tilt a camera slightly for her sake.

I had decided long ago that if I ever did install cameras here I would follow two rules. First, I would install them in obvious locations. While it is true that I am now observing things here with my cameras, it is inaccurate to portray this as spying. There is nothing sneaky about what I am doing and the only people who will be caught doing something illegal on camera probably need to be locked up for their own safety. The other rule is saturation. As I said above, I am sure that many people are considering how they might remove these cameras. The fact that I have installed twelve cameras (so far) probably makes most of them reluctant to take any action.

There has been absolutely no activity on this corner for the past three days, although they still loiter in other areas nearby. I have seriously upped the ante here with this action. It is unlikely that someone would shoot at or try to pull down one camera when they know that they are being watched by others. Basically, for this problem (from the drug dealer’s perspective) to be eliminated, my house will have to come down. So I’m just waiting to see what happens. I don’t know whether the currently calm state of affairs will hold, or if it’s just the quiet before the storm.

I would just ask one favor of my loyal readers. If you hear in the news that another man was found shot on a porch here in the Suttenfield Warsaw area, and FWPD Chief Rusty York publicly proclaims that this occurred because citizens won’t communicate with the police, please write a letter to the editor or put a post on your blog calling him a useless, lying sack of shit.

Update: News media coverage of last weeks shooting

In an earlier post, I had mentioned that I thought Even Goodenow’s (News-Sentinel) article had modified my quote to protect my identity. As I followed this story, I began to think that there must have actually been another witness to the event. Her description was more detailed in some respects (I did not mention the height of the suspect or the color of his arm sling), and there was another detail changed as well, so I really started to think it was from another person.

It has recently been brought to my attention by a credible source that Evan Goodenow was in fact quoting a second witness in his article. He agreed to quote her anonymously out of consideration for her safety. Although I think it was clear that I was only speculating about this, I want to apologize for any confusion that it might have caused.

No Anonymous Quotes! - Signed, Anonymous

My previous posts about the recent shooting here made reference to my being interviewed by two local newspaper reporters. My comments may have given the impression that Abby Slutsky of the Journal Gazette had offered to quote me anonymously for her article and I wish to clarify this point. When she first approached me she asked if I was Phil Marx. I think she has some familiarity with my situation here and because I was standing right in front of my house this seemed like an obvious assumption to her.

After I acknowledged her and we exchanged proper introductions, she did preface her questions by stating that she would not divulge my name, but that does not imply that she was going to quote me anonymously for her story. Just like in police work, anonymous tips can often be useful for directing one’s attention in the right direction, but because of their perceived lack of credibility they are not as strong for proving a case. For example, while the police may not use an anonymous tip of a house being used for drugs to kick in the door, they may use this as a reason for increasing surveillance on that house. This surveillance may in turn lead to credible cause for kicking in the door.

In the case of a newspaper reporter, the situation may be similar. They offer people, especially those who might reasonably fear reprisal, anonymity as a means to coax them to divulge information. And while this type of information might be very weak by itself, it can help the reporter to better understand the situation and perhaps know where to look then for more substantial sources of information.

Blogger Jeff Pruitt of Fort Wayne Politics has recently pointed to what he sees as a conflicting account between JG writer Ben Lanka and County Commissioner Nelson Peters regarding a quote that the former had attributed to the latter. Well, if Pruitt’s understanding of the situation is correct, then either Lanka or Peters is not being forthright with their explanation. Most people in this area have at least a casual knowledge of these two public figures. We can make inferences about the current situation based upon our understanding of these two people’s character. But if these types of quotes are made anonymously, then there really is no way to check them, and they lose a lot of their credibility.

Although there is a strong and respected tradition of reporters having the right to quote anonymously, many choose not to avail themselves of this opportunity for fear that the often perceived lack of credibility associated with such quotes may be transferred to the writer him or herself. It has recently been brought to my attention that it is neither the general policy of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette nor of their writer Abby Slutsky to use unnamed sources for quotes in their articles. Although I am exercising my own journalistic (blogaristic?) prerogative in choosing not to identify the individual who brought this information to my attention, I assure you that it is a credible source.

Signed, Anonymous

More on Yesterday's Shooting

This is a continuation of my last blog about a shooting that occurred here last night.
http://myhudhouse.blogspot.com/2008/08/shots-fired-man-down-august-6-2008.html
See map at end of this post for reference.

When I stepped out front, almost immediately I spotted a man in the empty lot. I can not say exactly where he was coming from, as it might have taken a few seconds for me to spot him. I think it is important to note though that this individual was more than halfway into the lot (from the front) when I first spotted him. He ran to the southwest, down Caroline Street, and out of sight. I noticed one of my neighbors had turned on his exterior lights, and was outside talking on the phone. He was moving about a bit frantically, so I assumed that the shooting had occurred close to his house and that he was calling the police.

Although I was armed, I had neglected to grab my wallet (with I.D. and gun permit) on the way out. Since the police would probably soon be arriving I stepped inside the house for just a few seconds to retrieve my wallet. When I came back out, three individuals were getting into a car that was parked on Suttenfield Street, just east of Caroline Street. One of these people appeared to be the same one who I had just seen fleeing on foot. The car turned south on Caroline Street and sped away.

As I was standing out in front of my house, Jesse and Max approached from the south and asked me what was going on. I really don’t think they had anything to do with it as they would have had to run hard and fast to have circled around and came back from the other direction. Although both these guys are young and fast, they gave no appearance of having been out for a jog lately. They started talking on their cell phones and headed back to the south.

I would estimate it took less than five minutes from the time I heard the shots fired until the police began arriving. I flagged down the first officer that passed my house and gave him the basic information. He quickly drove to Caroline Street, then returned to speak with me more after other police vehicles began patrolling the area. Although the streets in front of my house were covered with police vehicles, for about ten minutes or so they all where either where the victim was found, searching the empty lot across the street, or looking for or at something around the corner on Caroline Street.

I looked a little to the south of my house and saw a large group of people (seven or eight?) standing on the sidewalk. They did not seem any different than the other people who were standing outside watching, and in fact, I thought that they were just a group of kids. Suddenly, a group of three or four officers came from Caroline Street and started walking very quickly towards my corner. I looked to the south and saw that an unmarked police car had stopped in the middle of the road just a few yards south of where the group of kids were standing.

As the three officers rushed past me and headed south towards the group on the sidewalk, a uniformed officer stepped out of the parked vehicle and drew his weapon on them. The other three officers quickly descended upon the group, who were all now lying face-down on the ground, and began handcuffing them. When I first witnessed this, it disturbed me a bit because I couldn’t understand why the police would be so interested in a group of people who were so young and who were so far away from the area. However, as I looked closer I realized that both Jesse and Max were in this group. Although they have both been extremely low-key lately, they are well known to the police. A couple of the girls who were standing with them did appear to be very young, but I guess that when you hang with the players you mark yourself as one also.

I had actually mentioned to one officer the fact that I had seen Jesse and Max here just a few minutes after the shooting. It is very likely that my mentioning there names in this regard was what prompted the police to attend to them. Ironically, I had only mentioned this so that the police wouldn’t waste their time with them, as it did not appear that they had anything to do with the shooting. But when somebody is shot, I guess it’s best to lock things down at first then sort out the details later.

The police began taping off the area, including the house where the victim was found, the empty lot where the person was fleeing through, and south on Caroline Street past the alley. Although they had a large area to cover, they did it quickly and seemed to be trying hard not to unnecessarily block any vehicles or access to people’s homes. Just out of curiosity, I wonder how much that stuff costs. They used a few hundred yards here last night, and seeing as how Fort Wayne has had so many murders and other shootings this year it has to add up. I sure hope we’re buying generic instead of name brand.

Anyway, I looked over and saw Jim, one of my neighbors who lives north of my house but south of where the victim was found. Jim said the shots sounded to have come from the side of his house, rather than from behind. This changed my perception of the situation a bit. At first, I had assumed that the shooting took place on or very near the porch where the victim was found. The position where I saw the person in the empty lot and the direction in which he ran combined to make me assume that he was the likely shooter. But now I’m not so sure.

Jim said the shots sounded to have come from the east of his house, which would be the empty lot. But the JG on-line story said that police believe he may have been shot on Suttenfield Street, then ran to the porch where he collapsed. If the man was shot in the middle or back end of the lot, and if the person who I saw fleeing was in fact the shooter, then what I observed makes sense. But if the shooting took place in the front part of the lot or actually on Suttenfield, then there is a problems with this scenario.

It doesn’t make a lot of sense that the shooter would start to run north, then change his mind and come back the other direction. Yet that is what would have happened if the shooting took place up front, and if the man I saw in the middle/back area of the lot was the shooter. Now perhaps the first shot(s) were fired near the front of the lot and the shooter began pursuing the victim as he ran to the north. But if he was doing this, then he probably would have still been firing at him, which means there would have been shell casings at the back of the lot.

I know that when I first saw this person in the empty lot, he was at least mid-way to the back of the lot. And I am pretty sure that if the victim had been on the lot at that time (especially the front part of it) I would have seen him as well. So if all of the bullet casings were found in the front of the lot, near Suttenfield Street, this might very well mean that the person I saw fleeing was not the shooter.

I know that running from the scene of a crime is almost seen by some as an indication of guilt, but that is not necessarily the case. There are a lot of people here who, for a variety of reasons, don’t want to be around when the police arrive. Perhaps that person has a warrant out for something, or maybe he just thought that being here when the police arrive might actually make him look guilty. I guess all that I’m saying is that a person fleeing from the scene does not necessarily make them guilty of that crime and maybe the guy that I saw running was just trying to avoid the police or getting shot himself.

Thoughts on the Media

I already mentioned that I spoke with two local newspaper reporters the night of the shooting. As many of you might have picked up on already, I hold a large amount of animosity towards Fort Wayne’s (lack of) local news media. I won’t go into detail on that subject now, but I just want to say that like all studies, the macroscopic view is not always completely accurate. As a general rule, I think there are a lot of very serious deficiencies among the various members of our local media. But of course this does not mean that all of them are bad or even that any one of them is completely bad.

My story was mentioned by Abby Slutsky (Journal Gazette) immediately after my house was Molotoved in October 2006. And Frank Grey (Journal Gazette) did a very well written and comprehensive (on one aspect of the situation) story about a week later. Most recently, Michael Summers (Fort Wayne Reader) did a story covering my neighborhood and my blog. All of this is great, and I think these articles have been very useful in helping others to understand what is going on here in the heart of their city. And our local media does do a lot of great reporting sometimes. But there is also a lot missing.

I will write in greater detail about this as my blog progresses, but at this time I will simply summarize by saying that I have learned from personal experience that there is a lot that our local media misses. Some of this is probably due to ignorance, and that is at least partially excusable as no one can be expected to know what is happening everywhere all of the time. But some of it has been by design. I know that I have brought specific details of what is going on here to several members of our local media, and they chose to dismiss it. I my opinion, this irresponsible behavior is in part to blame for an exacerbation of the situation.

That being said, I always look forward to meeting any members of the local media. The two who spoke with me last night (Abby Slutsky & Adam Goodenow) seemed very interested in talking to the residents here, including myself. Also, I mentioned on the previous post how impressed I was with one of these reporter’s attention to the details here. I realize that my block is not the only place where drugs are sold and people are shot, so maybe our local media really is failing to understand what is really happening here. There really is a big story here - right in this little two square blocks. Hopefully, my having met these two reporters might eventually lead to such a story coming out.

So far, I have read three stories on this event - both the J.G. and N.S. newspapers as well as the J.G. on-line article. From these articles I noticed that not only was I not alone in speaking with the police and media, but at least two other residents here gave their names for publication. The NS article confirmed my suspicions about who had called the police that night. The J.G. on-line story said that two men were being taken into custody at the police station. When I first read this, I assumed it was Max and Jesse, but Max’s mother said he was not taken in.

You might notice a slight discrepancy though between the N.S. and J.G. articles in one regard. While the J.G. listed my name as being the witness who saw the man fleeing, the N.S. gave a similar story but attributed it to an unnamed woman. Now it might be that there actually was another witness that spoke with Evan Goodenow, but I also gave him my story so I assume his quote was a transmutation of this. The explanation for that difference is as follows.

When Abby Slutsky first arrived, the shooting had just taken place. My adrenaline was still pumping hard and I was ready for anything that might happen. When she spoke with me, she actually offered to print my name anonymously, but I declined this offer. At that moment, I was all fired up and I didn’t care who knew I was talking or what I was saying. On the other hand, it was well into the morning before Evan Goodenow spoke with me. By this time my adrenaline had faded and I was becoming tired and fatigued.

Also by this time, several of the “bosses” (the older guys who help to coordinate activities here) had gathered just behind my house. They were of course trying to find out who got shot and which of their associates were being questioned or arrested, but I am also quite certain that they pay close attention to which residents are speaking with the media and police as well as what is being said. So it was probably the fatigue as well as knowing I was being watched that led me to accept Goodenow’s offer of anonymity. Of course this was pointless, as I had already spoken on the record, but it was more of a subconscious decision based on the factors going on at that time. If he hadn’t offered the anonymity, I probably wouldn’t have specifically requested it, but when offered, a quick “yes” was the natural response.

The next morning (Thursday Aug 7), New Center 15 showed up here for their noon telecast. It was really funny to see how quickly the area cleared out at that time. On of my neighbors came out on her porch, but quickly turned and went back inside when she saw the camera. Of course she was in a bathrobe and had her hair in curlers, so it might have just been that fact that caused her to be shy. Of course there was one guy I know here who ducked behind a tree about a half block from the camera. Somehow I don’t think his shyness was related to how he was dressed or what he was wearing. There did not appear to be anyone else outside (besides myself) until the news van left the area.

Thoughts on the Police

I was still outside around two in the morning, waiting for the officer who I had first spoken with to come back and get my personal information for his report. Although there were a lot of police still in the area, things had quieted down a bit. Two officers were standing in the road in front of my house and I overheard them talking about the work I had been doing here. I looked their way and one of them asked me a question about my siding. Officer Adams and I spoke for a few minutes about my house and a barn he plans to build, then we turned towards the more serious matters.

I think it started when he asked “how are things going here lately” or something like that. I paused and let out a sigh before answering because such a question is never easy to answer. First of all, events here are too sporadic to allow for easy summarization. As soon as I say it’s a good day, for this neighborhood, something bad seems to happen. But the fact that I was speaking with a police officer further complicates the matter. Suppose I take the optimistic approach, telling him that things have quieted down a bit since the previous shooting (about two weeks ago) and that I appreciate all that they (FWPD) have been doing to help out here.

Well that’s great, if this happens to be a good cop I am speaking with. He’ll probably be thinking that since things are getting better, they need to keep doing more of whatever it is they have been doing recently. In addition, if I talk respectfully to him and show at least some understanding for the difficulties that they face in trying to work in this neighborhood, he’ll probably be more appreciative of my comments. This is the kind of attitude from a citizen that will make a good cop glad that he is helping out and is probably likely to make him view talking with such a person as being beneficial to both parties.

But suppose that I happened to be speaking with a bad cop, one of those who either forgets or just doesn’t care that there are a lot of innocent victims here - people who he has sworn to serve and protect. If I tell him things are going good, then he’s likely to think “Thank God, now I can go home and just forget about this place.” Such an officer will use such optimistic comments to justify relaxing his patrols here, which of course is one of the very things that helps to make things bad again.

Then again, if I focus on the bad and give a more pessimistic account, that can cause problems also. The bad cop will just use this as an additional excuse to not give a damn about an area that he has already written off. The good cop will probably be confused. He knows that his department is doing a lot down here, and it doesn’t make sense that I wouldn’t be able to see the changes this has brought. So if all I do is complain, I will probably be classified as someone who is not being realistic about the situation here and is therefore not worth wasting much time trying to communicate with.

I suppose a completely accurate answer would be to first ask what day and what hour he was referring to, since activities here are so erratic. Then, if I wanted to give a comprehensive answer, one that tells both the good and the bad from all the various angles, I would simply tell him to read my blog. But no one has time for that, so Officer Adams and I just talked about a few select events that we both recalled here.

He mentioned the time one of the major players here was found with illegal drugs in his car, and expressed his frustration over not being able to obtain a conviction on that. I explained to him that I could recall that event in detail, including the arresting officer and what car the guy was driving) as I had witnessed it from my back porch. Officer Adams pointed out how many houses his department has shut down here over the years, then expressed frustration over the realization that the guys who were operating there just move to another house on the block.

While expressing my appreciation for their efforts in this regard, I pointed out the irony that by shutting down drug houses, this sometimes makes the activities on the streets flare up even more. Officer Adams summed things up well when he said that what they (drug dealers) want is chaos. They want a neighborhood where the residents are too confused to know what is going on or too scared to talk with the police about it. I think that this officer and I share the same basic goal, but the steps that must be taken to get there have very different affects upon us as residents or police officers.

I explained to Officer Adams my opinion that sometimes certain officers are too aggressive towards even the law abiding residents here. I mentioned myself as well as others here that have been frustrated on this account many times before. I also explained how after one elder gentleman here had been told by a friend that the dealers were using his car to hide their stash in he stayed up watching out the window with his shotgun in hand that evening., rather than calling FWPD I explained how that man had an encounter with an officer prior to this and that it was so mishandled that it caused him to completely lose confidence in FWPD’s desire or ability to enforce the law here. I tried to make the point that I have so many times before, which is that a lot of the lack of communication between police and residents is to be blamed on FWPD.

Surprisingly, rather than making excuses or trying to hedge his reply by saying “Well, I’d really have to be there to know what happened” he just said flat out “Well, that’s wrong, and nothing like that should ever happen.” He went on to say that he knows there are some officers in the department who really don’t care. This is just a job to them. Officer Adams then told me a bit about his service with FWPD, including some of the operations he has been involved in over the years. His enthusiasm for getting criminals off the street and helping to make the area better for residents such as myself quickly became apparent from listening to him for a short while. Obviously Officer Adams is one of the good cops and I think the time we spent getting to know each other will probably turn out to be beneficial to both of us.

As I said, Officer Adams didn’t even try to make any excuses over possible police misconduct. In fact, I actually made an attempt to defend some of these actions. I told him I understand how stressful this neighborhood is and I understood that this is bound to affect people’s attitude and behavior to some degree. I told him that I know that I have acted out of line before, and that it was caused by the stresses of this neighborhood. As an example, I mentioned the time a month or so back when I was standing on the sidewalk shouting obscenities at a passing patrol car. Officer Adams had a somewhat of a perplexed look on his face, asking why I had done that.

I gave him a brief explanation of what had occurred then summarized by saying that when I call FWPD to report information that might be related to the murder of a two year old child, and basically get ignored, it gets me pretty riled up. I told him that being constantly ignored by the department that is supposed to be ensuring public safety, the same department that constantly blames the citizens for not being more communicative with them, causes a lot of frustration. As I was recalling this event, the other officer who was in the area said “Yeah, that was me.” Officer Hull introduced himself and we talked for a minute about that event. Overall, I think that meeting with these officers was very productive.

First, that’s two more officers who know that mine is not a drug house. But also, I think it’s good that they see the different sides of me. If their only encounters with me are when I am shouting obscenities at them, they will probably see me as someone who just wants to cause trouble for them. And if they only see me when I am spray painting obscene messages towards the drug dealers on the side of my house, they will think that I am actually trying to provoke them. Depending on which specific actions of mine that someone observes, they could easily conclude that I am idiotic, brave, cowardly, stupid, ignorant, rational, or irrational. The reality is that I am probably all of these things, depending on what is happening here and other events going on in my own life.

By seeing me in these different modes, they may be able to get a better understanding of this neighborhood. I think that when an officer is first greeted by a person who seems hostile towards them, they go into defense mode. And when this happens, real communication is usually shut down. Perhaps the next time a man approaches them screaming and shouting they might think of me. They might realize that his behavior is more a product of the environment here, rather than meant as a personal attack. This might cause them to be just a little less defensive, and that might be enough to allow the person to calm down a bit. And as a result, better communication between them might result.

Overall, what still surprises me most is that it appears that most FWPD officers had no idea who I was until my house was attacked in October of 2006. I mentioned to Officers Adams and Hull that not only have I lived here since 1995, but that in the summer of 2003, I actually had a member of FWPD Command staff (Officer Marshall) spend over half an hour setting on my front porch to discuss the situation. I told him I find it troubling that this officer apparently never bothered to mention this to his fellow officers. It seems to me that long after I had tried to reach out to FWPD, they still had my home classified as either an abandoned house or a drug house, but not as the home of a concerned citizen.

When I mentioned this event, Officer Adams had a concerned look on his face and asked who this officer was. I started to say the name, but then paused for a moment. I told him that naming this officer would likely cause some concern, perhaps even dissent, within the ranks of FWPD and that is not my goal. My goal is to meet as many officers as possible, find out who the good ones are, and let them know that I am on their side. I feel confident that the time I spent talking with Officers Adams and Hull recently has worked towards this end.

Yellow line indicates area that was cordoned off by police.

Red box indicates house where victim was found on front porch.

Blue Circle indicates area where I first spotted the person who was running from the scene.

Blue arrows indicate direction this person was running.

Black box indicates location of car that this person got into.

Black arrows indicate direction this car traveled as it left the scene.

Orange circle indicates where large group of people were standing when detained by the police.

Purple box indicates unmarked police car parked in the street.

Green box indicates My HUD House.