The Police Crack Down In Crack-Town: October 30 - November 4, 2006

On Monday, October 30, I arrived home around nine in the evening. There was an unmarked police car parked nearby, so I sat on the porch to watch the show. The car remained there for five to ten minutes, then another unmarked car began patrolling the area. A few minutes later, this second car came east on Suttenfield (the wrong way) and stopped in front of a nearby house. There was a large group (perhaps twelve people) standing in the driveway there and it appeared to be a bunch of teenagers having a little party.

The officers got out of the car and approached the group. It appeared they were checking IDs and it sounded like one officer accused them of smelling like alcohol. Within a few minutes, four squad cars and another unmarked car arrived on the scene. The last car to arrive was a K-9 unit and they got the dog out. It did not appear that there were any arrests, but the police and the group of people all cleared out by ten o’clock.

Honestly, from what I could see, it did not appear that the group was doing anything wrong, but I think this was simply FWPD’s way of announcing that they would be cranking up their presence here for a while. While the police were with this group, Darrell, Daniel and another of their drug-buddies walked past my house. As they walked by Darrell’s house, his mother, Dolley, stepped out front and said “Boy, I wish they’d get you.” Darrell just laughed as he replied with a laugh “They’ll never get me.”

The next morning, Officer Marshall called and left a message. He said he just wanted to check on things. He said he had sent some vice units to the area the previous night to quiet things down. So now, it seemed that Officer Marshall wanted to just bury the hatchet by showing me that he was finally working for me. A part of me wanted to accept this, but another part resisted.

I guess maybe I’m a little old-fashioned, but I think that when someone is wronged, there should be an apology or at least an explanation given. And this is not just about wounded pride. Dwelling on our mistakes and the past can certainly lead to problems, but the same can be said for the opposite as well. That is to say, a lack of reflection is just as dangerous as too much reflection. While the later might allow our anger to rule, the former allows our ignorance to rule.

Apparently, Officer Marshall (and FWPD) thought that we should just forget about him callously disregarding my safety. I strongly disagreed. Without an explanation of how things got so out of hand, I could not be assured that it would not eventually happen again. This was the reason that I began working on my appeal to the Board of Public Safety over my complaint.

A few nights after this episode (Thursday, November 2), I left my house around eleven o’clock in the evening. As I traveled down the road, a squad car came up from the rear and began to follow me. He tailed me for three blocks, followed my turn, then stayed with me for another block. At that point I had come to an intersection where my traffic light had just turned red. There was another squad car in the cross street, but he failed to move forward as his light turned green.

So there I was at Creighton & Calhoun , in the middle of the night. I was alone, except for the police who it now appeared were targeting me. The fact that this was occurring just a week after I had filed my complaint did not make me feel very comfortable at that moment. As the light turned and I progressed through the intersection, the car behind turned on his lights and pulled me over. I really did not have a good feeling about this.

One officer came to my door while another remained in the car. The second car remained parked behind them. When the officer read my ID, he quickly remarked “Oh, you’re that guy.” He then waved for the other car to leave the area. He said I had blown through a stop sign back by my house. I really have no idea whether this was accurate or not, but I didn’t plan on arguing. We talked long enough for him to realize I wasn’t drunk or high, then he told me that they (FWPD) were really stepping up their patrols here after what had recently happened to my house.

I told him I appreciated this and added that I would try to drive more carefully in the future. The officer then asked me about one of the guys who hangs out in front of my house. He described the guy and he was looking for a name to attach to him. I don’t know whether he was really trying to figure out this guys name, or if he was just testing me to see how knowledgeable I was and my willingness to share information with them. I knew the guy he was talking about, but at the time I did not know Orrin’s name.

These two events marked the beginning of a major campaign here by FWPD to show a very forceful presence. There is no way I could even begin to tell you everything that I witnessed as a result of this, and there are many things that I never witnessed myself. All I will say is that, unless you live here, you simply would not believe it. In my opinion, the results were mixed.

There were times where certain events could be described as nothing more than mere harassment by the police, and at the same time, there were still people who managed to get away with selling drugs here. But overall, it had a large and positive impact (from my perspective.) The guys still sold drugs, but they were far less obnoxious about it - at least for a while.

UPCOMING POST
Friday: Please Arrest Me