Mission Accomplished - Part I

For nearly two years now, I have been using this blog to make two main points. The first point is that my neighborhood is saturated with violent, criminal activity, largely centered upon the sale of illegal narcotics. The second point is that this type of activity would not have progressed to such an extreme situation had it not been for the complacency and/or complicity of the Fort Wayne Police Department. This particular post addresses the first of these concerns.

When I began writing this blog in February of 2008, I knew it was a gamble. Although I was hoping that the publicity from it would help me more than it would hurt me, I really didn’t have much to base this upon. But I was desperate. It had only been a little over a year since the drug dealers tried to burn me out of my home, and there was no sign that their activities would be abating any time soon.

What I had been through in the decade prior to this attack had already left me frazzled to the point that I was close to breaking. Either things in my neighborhood would have to change for the better, or I would have to leave. The actions I took during the next three years, including publicizing my plight through this blog, were a last ditch effort. If I was to be forced from my home, I intended to make them work for it. I knew full well that I was taking a great risk by choosing to stay, and I took many steps to prepare for what might occur.

I have put more time and money into my house during the past three years than I did during the first ten. Much of this effort was simply meant to show my determination to stay. For this purpose, it really didn’t matter exactly what I did or how I did it. All that mattered was that it sent the message that the person who lived in this house gave a damn and would work hard to protect it. Although I certainly wanted the house to look nice, I am a firm believer that form should follow function, and all of my modifications were therefore made with practical reasons in mind also.

Just prior to initiating this blog I had resided my house with thin steel panels. I did this with the intent of making it somewhat less vulnerable to attacks from flying bottles of gasoline. Later, I made modifications to the interior of the house to make it bullet resistant. While raising the level of the front yard and fencing in the back at first did little to hinder people from trespassing, this provided a much clearer demarcation between my personal property and the public sphere - something that would turn out to be surprisingly helpful as time progressed. And of course I did not ignore the strategic value of holding the upper ground, which initiated the addition of balconies on the second level of my house.

Despite my still precarious position last summer, my relations with most of the dealers had improved significantly during the previous two years. I knew that adding surveillance cameras would be viewed by many as an extremely hostile act, and there was no way to predict how this might upset the balance of things. But when a man was shot and nearly killed right across the street from my house in August of 2008, it provided the perfect pretext for installing them. This allowed the introduction of the cameras to be viewed by many as a defensive, rather than offensive, move. And that can make a great deal of difference when one is involved in delicate negotiations.

I never had the intention of covering up my windows. But after unforeseen circumstances forced me to do this, the metamorphoses was complete. The once vulnerable kitten had now opened it’s eyes (with night vision!), sharpened it’s claws, and grew a thick and protective hide. This animal was no longer viewed as easy prey, and was perhaps even now seen as the predator. I am certain this was partly responsible for the changes many of the dealers made in the way they did business here. Through this blog, word got out to the police (and through them to the dealers) that many people outside of this neighborhood were paying attention to what was going on here, and that had a strong impact as well.

During this time, communications between myself and many of the individual dealers improved. I think the vast majority of them eventually came to realize that I was not telling them to stop selling drugs, just to leave me and my house out of it. I’ll go into more detail on another post about how my relationship with the dealers evolved over time, but suffice it to say here that a certain degree of understanding eventually developed for the other. This, as much as any other factor, I feel is responsible for the calmer atmosphere in my neighborhood today.

Let there be no misunderstanding on this point, regardless of what Chief York might tell you, what goes on here is not the work of some small ‘clique’ of teenagers. This neighborhood is controlled by the Vice Lords, a nationally syndicated gang. My cameras, fence and Glock notwithstanding, I am quite certain that if these guys decided they wanted me dead it would have already happened by now. But it hasn’t. In fact, the neighborhood today is quieter than anytime during the past fourteen years, and it has been that way for long enough now that I am beginning to think that a lasting change has been affected.

Don’t get me wrong. There’s still plenty of drug dealing going on here. And the occasional sound of gun fire still rings out. But the activities are usually subdued to the point where there really is little point in complaining loudly about it anymore. People no longer trespass on my property, and they do not gather in large and noisy groups for hours at a time on the sidewalk in front of my home. And the fact that even people who I have never met before call me by my first name here suggests to me that the decision to give me a little respect was a corporate, rather than an individual one. Being known by the local mafia can be good or bad. In this case it appears to be good.

My original mission; to not walk out of my house and be greeted by a group of intimidating stares; to not drive home and see people running off of my property; to not find weapons, clothing, drugs and paraphernalia scattered about my lawn; to not be awoken in the middle of the night to the sound of a man getting his body slammed against my house…

My mission to not have drug dealers using my property as a staging ground for their activities has been accomplished. I never wanted to be the one getting in other people’s business, I just wanted them out of mine. And now, to a large degree, this goal seems to have been achieved.

While I undoubtedly owe a great deal of gratitude for the extraordinary efforts put forth by many members of the Fort Wayne Police Department in order to get this neighborhood under control, my fourteen years of experiences dealing with the department has opened my eyes and truly caused me to rethink some of my basic assumptions about many things. There are some very serious problems which still exist within the FWPD, and they go far beyond this neighborhood. That subject will be the focus of tomorrow‘s post - “A Declaration Of War..”