For The Record: October 5-10, 2006

On Thursday, October 5, I sent my letter to FWPD Chief York. A copy of it is attached at the end of this post. The following Tuesday (October 10), I received the receipt acknowledging that the letter had been received. A few hours after that, I saw something that truly surprised me.
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I had noticed for a while that Officer Rice was becoming a regular fixture in this neighborhood. He not only responded to calls here, but would often park for five to ten minutes just to observe what was going on. The alley behind my house was one of his favorite spots. On this particular day, he had been parked there for a while. I looked away for a few minutes, then when I checked again he had pulled out of the alley a bit and was getting out and walking towards a car that was parked along the side of the street.
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As is common here, more officers quickly showed up. A second patrol car arrived on the scene from the south and parked on the opposite side of the street. A few minutes later another police vehicle arrived from the north. It had no markings, but I could see the FWPD emblem on the plate. An officer wearing blue jeans, a brown leather jacket, and glasses got out and conferred with the other officers. It was Chief York.
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I’m not sure exactly what was going on there, but it looked like Chief York was just observing as the officers pulled two men out of the car and began searching it. The police ended up arresting the passenger in this car, and they also had the car towed away. The driver, however, was released and immediately walked across the street to join a group standing in front of Carl’s drug house. It’s interesting to note that while the driver was a black male, the arrested passenger was a white male. This fact alone means it is more than likely that he was not a regular player here. And if the driver was setting someone up for the police, better a stranger than a friend.
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If there were drugs found in the car, it’s hard to understand how the police could arrest the passenger and not the driver. And it is most likely, because of were he went to after the police let him go, that he was connected to the drug activities here. Maybe the passenger had something on his person, or maybe he had an active warrant. Then again, it’s possible that the driver was working for the police. Maybe he picked that particular time and spot to sell drugs to the passenger just so the police could pick him up.
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This is just one of the many things I have witnessed here over the years that leave a lot of questions unanswered. And I’m sure a guy in my position, being just a lowly tax-paying citizen, will probably never have most of them answered. But I did feel like I got one answer to something important that day. I had only seen Chief York here one other time, and that was related to an arson/attempted homicide.
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His appearance here that day for something that appeared so trivial, and just after having received my letter, led me to believe that he was actually being responsive to my plea for help. I suspect, after reading my letter, he probably told certain officers in this area to call him when something was happening so he could come and see for himself just what exactly was going on here. I certainly don’t expect the Chief of Police to personally respond to every call here, but the fact that he came out himself that one time did make me feel good and boosted my confidence in the entire department. Unfortunately this feeling wouldn’t last long.
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By the way, to this day I have still never received a formal acknowledgement from FWPD that they even received this letter, let alone what they intended to do to support it. Even though I showed them what it should look like, this still allows FWPD to bury their head in the sand and claim that such a thing as a no-trespass order does not exist.