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.