INC NEWS - Gap seen in reaction to crime (N&O)

[Caleb Southern]

Gap seen in reaction to crime

Nikole Hannah-Jones and Michael Biesecker, Staff Writers: News & Observer

 

Just days after four men were gunned down in a South Durham townhouse,
police moved to comfort shaken residents nearby, blanketing the subdivision
with fliers and pledging that violence would not be tolerated there.

Across town in East Durham, where several shootings have taken place,
residents say police have not offered door-to-door assurances to them --
even after a double homicide in August.

The communities are but a few miles apart. Yet many East Durham residents
say the difference in the response to the homicides Saturday night in
affluent South Durham and that to killings in the dilapidated neighborhoods
of the inner city illuminates the gulf between Durham's haves and have-nots.

City officials say they treat every homicide the same and canvass
neighborhoods whenever it's warranted. 

But residents of Breckenridge in South Durham and those on Maple Street in
East Durham, where two men were killed in August, tell contrasting tales.

Though no suspects have been arrested, police have calmed the Breckenridge
neighborhood by saying the killings of Jonathan Skinner, Lennis Harris Jr.,
Lajuan Coleman and Jamel Holloway were drug-related. It has become the
mantra of city officials in recent days that law-abiding residents don't
have to worry about their safety.

"It's not rocket science that when you participate in a high-risk culture of
gangs and drugs that only two things generally come out of that -- death and
jail," City Manager Patrick Baker said. "These shootings were not a random
event."

Police went door to door Monday in Breckenridge, passing out fliers and
offering words of comfort.

"The Durham Police Department is here because an act of violence occurred in
your community," the fliers read. "Violence will not be tolerated. This ...
is an isolated incident and not indicative of your neighborhood."

Police met with the Breckenridge homeowners association Monday night and
pledged to work with residents to revive their neighborhood watch program
and consult with them about where to add lights to brighten the street.

"The Police Department has been phenomenal," said Josette Chmiel, who has
lived in Breckenridge for seven years. "They've been out here 24 hours a day
since the shootings, making us feel safe. I can't say enough about them."

Residents said the police efforts have worked.

"I'm real comfortable," Clinton Rogers said. "Especially since they say it
wasn't random."

Sitting in a Maple Street home watching the TV show "Cops" with friends,
Michael Douglas shook his head and laughed ruefully when asked whether he
had seen similar efforts after the slayings of two men less than two blocks
away in August.

"I've never gotten any fliers like that, period," Douglas said. "Everything
is about money; since we don't live in the more affluent neighborhoods, they
don't care about us."

Several people who live on Maple Street said the same thing: Though the
sounds of gunshots are part of the rhythm of their lives, they have never
gotten fliers from the police promising that violence in their crime-ridden
neighborhoods would not be tolerated.

"There's no response over here in this neighborhood at all," David Moore
said. "We pay taxes, too, and it makes you feel like crap."

Residents on Bacon Street, where an 18-year-old was shot to death Nov. 5,
said police never knocked on their doors, either.

"Police don't come to our neighborhood with things like this," said Danny
Jones, standing in his driveway with a clear view of the spot where the
shooting took place.

Further, residents bristle at what they see as the message from Baker and
other city officials that only people who are doing something wrong need to
worry about being killed.

"It just makes me downright mad," Jackie Kersey said. "I'm not involved in
crime, and they should protect my neighborhood."

Just a few weeks ago, Kersey had to snatch her children off the front porch
as a group of teens started shooting near the Maple Street home she rents.
She said she hears gun blasts "all the time" and is afraid to let her
daughters walk the few blocks to the school bus stop. Not once have police
stopped by to talk to her about crime, she said.

Police Chief Steve Chalmers said each step police have taken in the
Breckenridge case is routine, including the posting of officers there around
the clock. That is done to secure the crime scene, Chalmers said, as is the
practice with every major crime.

"We would do this in any case; we canvass neighborhoods," Chalmers said.
"Any time there are descriptions [of suspects], we hand out fliers. If there
is a reason for the community to be alarmed, we let them know."

Ron Hodge, deputy police chief, said the canvass in Breckenridge was
intended to seek leads and as a show of force to make residents feel safe.
Yet the flier did not ask for assistance in apprehending the suspects and
gave no description of them. It did ask residents to call police if they had
questions about crime in their neighborhood.

Asked why there was no description of the gunmen in the flier, Hodge said,
"It's kind of difficult to get all that on there and keep it on one page."

Douglas, who said friends of his have been robbed just walking the streets
of their neighborhood, said police are sending the wrong message to people
with little means for whom crime is a daily worry.

"Police should act more concerned," he said. "Just to at least make us think
we're safe."

(Staff writer Samiha Khanna contributed to this report.)

Staff writer Nikole Hannah-Jones can be reached at 956-2433 or
nikole.hannahjones at newsobserver.com.

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.deltaforce.net/mailman/private/inc-list/attachments/20051123/b21a0d86/attachment.htm