I Love The Internet!

The Internet - Just like going to the library, only cheaper!

For the past few months, I’ve been doing some internet research on the Fort Wayne Police Department. Basically, I began by searching the names of officers I know, or know of. As I check each name individually, whatever stories I find usually lead me to many other officers. I believe I now have the names of just about every current officer, as well as many former ones. Not being from Fort Wayne, I suppose that it should come as no surprise to find that I am discovering a lot of information that is new to me. I suppose some of this is old news to Fort Wayne/Allen County natives though.

For example, I did not know that the 911 consolidation idea has been going on for so long. In 1986, Fort Wayne Police Chief David Rieman proposed merging the city and county call centers. And earlier that same year, Allen County Sheriff Dan Figel actually called for a commission to study merging the city and county police departments entirely. Well, I guess these things take time, so it will probably be another twenty years or so before we get this accomplished.

I also found another interesting story that made me think back to when my home was fire-bombed by drug dealers in 2006. After FWPD Deputy Chief Nancy (Becher) Chamberlin laughed at me about this, refusing to allow me to deliver information about the attack to her department, and telling me I should quit causing trouble, I felt that my home and my property were in imminent danger. My situation became even more desperate after the Allen County Sheriff’s Department made it clear to me that they preferred to respect the jurisdictional boundaries of FWPD, which meant they did not intend to enforce the law in this part of their county.

After my complaint against her was summarily dismissed by the department’s office of non-professional standards (Internal Affairs,) I really felt my back was against the wall. So, in addition to sending my appeal of the dismissal to the Board of Public Safety, I also sent it to several other agencies as well. One of these was the Indiana State Police. I still have the letter that was sent as a reply. The person writing the letter complimented me for doing “all the right things” a person should do in my circumstances. He then went on to say that he knows Chief York and that he has confidence that FWPD can and will properly address the problems I was facing.

That letter was written by Paul Whitesell, superintendent of the Indiana State Police. I had always assumed that his knowledge of Chief York was only scant. It seems logical that the head of the state police would at least have some familiarity with the heads of the largest city police departments within his state. But after reading the article, it appears that there may be a much closer connection than I had assumed. Although the article does not say exactly what years Mr. Whitesell worked for FWPD, or in what capacity, a casual examination of both his and Chief York’s dossiers leads me to conclude that they probably did actually know each other pretty well.

So now I’m laughing, imaging what Mr. Whitesell was thinking when he read my letter. There’s a possibility that he knew exactly where my corner was, and that he knew I was not exaggerating about the problems here. He probably called Rusty up and shared a few laughs with him over the whole incident. Oh well, although the substance of his response was really not that much different than the others, at least he had the decency to write me a formal letter and to not laugh in my face about it.

And finally, the third article really amused me. No matter how hard I try, I just can’t picture Officer Russell York, out of uniform, and buying drugs on the streets. I always gave him just a small amount of consideration based upon the fact that someone as high up as him, and in an organization as complex as FWPD, probably can’t really know what is going on down on the ground. But the fact that he used to be an undercover narcotics officer changes all that. I’m sure things have changed a bit in the past couple of decades, but he probably knows enough from his past experiences to understand what I was dealing with here. And the lousy shit didn’t even have the decency to return my phone call or reply to my letter? - What a lousy bastard!

Well, that’s all for today. I’ll share more FWPD stories with you some other day, but for now, I have a lot of searching left to do.

Thank You Chief York!

Several days ago, a neighbor of mine told me her car had been stolen. She stated that she had filed a police report and was hoping they would not find the car so her insurance would pay her out. In the last two days, I have seen her drive past my house three times in her “stolen” car.

Now, there are several reasons why I find it to be likely that she lied to me about the car being stolen and about filing a report on it. On the other hand, there are several things that make me wonder if she actually did report it stolen. I think it is highly improbable that the car was stolen and recovered in just a few days, so this would mean that she filed a false report with the intent of collecting on a fraudulent insurance claim.

If my city had a functional police department, I would call them to report this information. It would only take a few minutes for them to identify her and find out if she had in fact filed a stolen vehicle report. If not, there really would be nothing lost for checking.

But my police department is extremely dysfunctional. If I did call, I would first probably have to endure the “Who the fuck are you and why the fuck are you bothering us?” routine before I actually got a chance to tell them what was on my mind. Then, they would send a uniformed officer to my house to ask me the same questions that the civilian operator had just asked me. I would offer to show this officer my security tapes documenting the dates and times that my neighbor drove past in her stolen car. He would decline this offer, but take my number so he can contact me later. I would tell him that my tapes have a short record-over period, and that I will not save anything unless I am instructed to do so by his department.

About a week later, another officer would call me back to tell me he heard that I wanted to report a stolen car. After explaining that what I was actually trying to report was the possibility that someone else had filed a false report of a stolen car, he would then tell me he will call me back later about this because he needs time to analyze this new information. I would remind him that my tapes of the incidents are very close to being recorded over. He will give no response to this.

Next (about a month later this time) another officer will knock on my door. He will explain that he is here to investigate my stolen car incident. After we straighten this out again, he will then chastise me for giving his department a contact number that is no longer in service (which is his excuse for having taken so long to get a hold of me.) When I ask what number he has, I will realize that somehow the idiots have pulled an old number of mine out of their system, and managed to replace it for the current number which I had recently just given to three different people within their department. He will get very upset at me when I inform him that my video tapes have long since recorded over the incident I reported on.

Finally, about a month later, a detective will call me. He will first ask if my car has been recovered yet. After I explain that my car was never stolen, he will then ask if I have received compensation from my insurance company for the stolen car. After I again explain that my car was never stolen, he will tell me that this type of crime is usually a low priority for the prosecutor’s office, and he really doesn’t want to put forth the effort to investigate something that will not be prosecuted. He will recommend that if I am able to get compensation from my insurance company for the stolen car that it would be best to just let it drop.

At this point, I will fake like I am putting him on hold to take another call. I will then come back and tell him that my insurance company has just called to tell me that they are cutting me a check for my stolen car. I will thank him for his time, apologize for not having saved the video that his department never asked me to save, and apologize for his department having switched my phone numbers (because, for some reason, he is really pissed at me over this) then hang up. I will then wonder why in the hell I even called in the first place.

And the next day I will read in the paper that Chief York is concerned about the increase in vehicle thefts. He will mention one particular case which sounds very similar to my neighbor’s “stolen” car. The Chief will be quoted in this article as saying that the reason his department can’t get this problem under control is because citizens refuse to cooperate with his department. He will then state that some people act this way because they don’t care, while others do so because they are scared. And just after admitting that there are groups of criminals who are strong enough to intimidate people and keep them from talking with the police, he will reiterate that Fort Wayne does not have a gang problem.

But I don’t have to go through this type of ordeal now, because I’ve already been through it several times in the past. I already know that whoever answers the phone will probably not have a clue about much of anything. And I know that either I will be quickly dismissed or several officers will ask me the same questions, yet still manage to lose or confuse the answers I give them. And ultimately, I know that however they may word it, their final message to me will be “Please don’t bother us. We’re cops, which means we really don’t want to hear anything at all from you fucking moron civilians anyway. Please just leave us alone and let us do our job - whatever the hell that might be.”

Anyway, I suppose the basic point of this post is to thank Chief York. After all, being an upstanding citizen who pays attention to his surroundings and reports suspicious behavior to the police takes a bit of time. And in neighborhoods like mine, it can be downright exhausting. But Chief York’s mismanagement of the police department lets me know that any such efforts on my part will probably be wasted. With this department, there really is no compelling reason to try and cooperate.

So thank you, Rusty. Thank you for telling me that it is okay for me to ignore felony crimes taking place around me. Thank you for telling me it is all right to not put forth the effort of being a good citizen. I get a lot more yard work done by not having to waste my time calling your department to report crimes that you really don’t want to investigate. Thank you Rusty!

A Matter of Perception

Last night, I attended my neighborhood association meeting. We were presented with a series of questions and asked for our opinions on them. The first question was “What do you like about the La Rez Neighborhood?” My first response was the sense of community here. While I have said many times that this is the worst neighborhood I have ever lived in (because of the uncontrolled crime), it is also the best because of the genuine neighborliness of many people here. Several others at the meeting echoed my sentiments on this. One man said that the neighborhood was very quiet, and I had to control my laughter.

The next question was “What do people outside of this neighborhood think of La Rez, and where do they get those perceptions?” All of the answers given here were negative and included dangerous, poor, and the people who live there don’t care about it. The reasons given for these perceptions included rumors, the news media, and reality. All of these answers came from people other than myself. There seemed to be a schism of sorts between those who think this neighborhood is really a dangerous place and those who simply think it is being unfairly maligned. I fall squarely in the first camp, while the man who earlier commented that it was quiet seemed to fall in the second.

When the moderator pushed us to give some positive perceptions, not a single person in the group had anything to say. That is to say, we all felt that outsiders all thought this was a bad neighborhood. The “quiet” man went on to talk about how the newspaper had published a story about someone who said they will not travel through this part of the city without carrying their gun with them. He pointed to this as an example of how the media unfairly biases people’s opinions.

The third question was “What will it take to make people from outside of this neighborhood want to live here?” Again, the issue of crime vs. just the perception of crime came up, and it was beginning to appear that the “quiet” man and I were living in two completely different neighborhoods. After the formal business was concluded, I introduced myself to the quiet man and we talked for a few minutes. I told him some of the reasons for my comments, including having my home fire-bombed by drug dealers. He just smiled and said “I’m from Baltimore.”

Okay, I know when I’ve been beat, and my stories probably pale in comparison to his own. So I suppose that if we are to use Baltimore, Detroit or Gary as the standard, then Fort Wayne really doesn’t have a problem with crime. Of course, the question about how outsiders perceive this neighborhood was, I believe, referring to people who live in other parts of this city and surrounding areas. And compared to most other neighborhoods in this city, mine has a very serious problem with crime.

When drug dealers openly sell and smoke their crack cocaine on the streets here, we have a problem. And when a drug dispute causes a man to have gasoline thrown in his face, to be lit on fire, and then have a screwdriver plunged into his head, we have a problem. And when a man walking through this neighborhood declines to buy drugs from the gang on the corner, is then told “Then get your punk ass off their block”, and is then shot and nearly killed for his transgression, we have a problem. And when these drug dealers tell the police to their faces “We ain’t afraid of you, when were out on the corner we’re ready to die, we’re soldiers.”, we have a problem. And when a law-abiding citizen has Molotov cocktails thrown at his house for asking the drug dealers to stay off his property, and then the police department laughs about this and tells the citizen he should just calm down and quit making noise, we have an extremely serious problem.

But of course, that’s just my own perception of the matter. It’s not like people are firing shots into the police parking lot (anymore). And the number of people being shot while standing right across the street from the police department is extremely low in the past couple of months. I actually know of several houses on my block which have never had a problem with drug dealers trespassing there (usually because those houses are owned/rented by dug dealers who choose to sell away from their house.)

A prominent member of the local news media was in attendance as a trustee of the church where the neighborhood association meeting was held last night. The church was located only a block away from my house. He did not take part in the discussions, other than giving a brief introduction, but I couldn’t help but wonder what his perceptions of this neighborhood were. He doesn’t live here, and most of his time here is probably spent among large groups of other church-goers or safely tucked inside his fortress rather than standing alone on the street. He didn’t offer his opinion on this, but something tells me that as a member of the established media he would be inclined to tow the City’s official line of propaganda by saying the reality is far better than the perception. Of course, the fact that his own church and parking lot lies protected behind a six foot steel barricade leaves me inclined to think that he really knows the truth about this neighborhood.

This meeting brought up another difference of opinion between certain groups of people - those who participate in the system and those who don’t. The neighborhood association represents the most basic level of governance. All of the constituents are within walking distance of each other, and even the official leaders are far more likely to be accessible than any one else in government. And, we are told by the associations themselves, “The best way for the City to hear you is for you to channel your message through the associations.” So, what possible reason could a citizen have for not belonging to such an association?

That very question is one that is asked frequently by the leaders of these groups as well as those higher up in the chain. I am not an insider, and those who are usually are too clever to reveal their true thoughts on the matter, but I get the impression that those who don’t participate in their associations are largely written off by the city. Their impression seems to be that those who don’t participate really don’t care and therefore do not matter. And I am sure that with some that is the case.

Of course, there is another perspective. It comes from the person who does attend and is asked such ridiculous questions as “If you had an endless pot of money, what would you do for this neighborhood?” And when people don’t give the “correct” answers to the questions, they are then prompted by those running the meeting to give better answers, just after those very people stated that they do not want to prompt the group in any specific direction. And this perception comes from the person who at the end of the meeting asks “When will all these ideas we gave you be implemented?”, and is given a reply of a pause, followed by a muted laugh, followed by the vague suggestion of “You’ll have to come to the future meetings to find that out.”

This perspective sees these meetings as largely a waste of time - not in theory, but in practice. The idea of neighbors associating to decide what they need from their government, followed by that government then listening and implementing these ideas, or at least giving a reasonable response as to why they can’t be implemented, is a good one. The City sees the large number of people who do not attend as evidence that the people just don’t care. And the people who do attend often come to the realization that the City usually does not hold up it’s end of the bargain by truly listening and honestly engaging them. About the only time a citizen’s input really is listened to is when it supports the predetermined plans of the City.

I think it’s really nice that the City has installed antique lights and brick paved sidewalk ramps in my neighborhood, and I think the neighborhood associations are very effective at getting these kinds of things (the minor details) implemented. But when it comes to things that really matter, like dealing with criminally controlled streets and an incompetent police department, they really don’t have much usefulness. I think those who run these associations realize that issues this big are decided at a level far above their heads, and any input from a few individual citizen’s will probably have very little impact upon them. But hey, that’s just my perception.

Totally Unbelievable News

This is one of those stories that you’d swear was made up as a joke, but apparently it’s real.

The city of Wellford, South Carolina has a police department. The officers of this department sometimes chase after criminals. During these chases, the officers have sustained some minor injuries. These injuries have resulted in the city having to pay the astounding cost of over $20,000 annually for worker’s compensation claims resulting from such injuries. Obviously, something had to be done to address this problem.

The solution?

The mayor of Wellford, Sallie Peake, has instituted a new policy which prohibits the police from chasing suspects.

I just watched the video of the interview with Mayor Peake. I don't think SNL could have put together a better comedy skit than this one.

Back In The Saddle Again

I have mentioned previously that the criminal activities in my neighborhood have declined substantially this year. Here we are nearly three quarters into 2009 and, as of today, the police activity for my neighborhood is down 28% from the same period last year. I also believe that Rico has left the neighborhood, which helps to explain the sudden drop in shots fired.

I had commented before about the four biggest problem individuals here last year. Ike is dead, Jesse is in prison, Rico turned on a friend for the police and now finally seams to have come to grips with the fact that he can no longer do business here without someone killing him, and Fred was inexplicably absent since last August when I saw a man who looked a bit like him running from the scene of a shooting that nearly killed a man.

Well, they pinned that shooting on another man. The victim positively identified him in court and even threw in a lot of details that really made him sound like a credible witness. So, based on that alone, I would tend to believe that the police got the right shooter. Of course, there is the fact that I overheard this witness speaking with two others at the trial. He was speaking with the woman who’s porch he laid on as he bled, and with the man who was the first on the scene and called the police. I heard him tell both these people “I didn’t even recognize you today. I don’t remember anything from that night.”

So, was the right guy charged and found guilty of the crime, or did the police and prosecutor feed the witness with enough information to make their case? I’ll leave that question for another post that I plan to do soon on the Allen County Prosecutor’s Office. For now, though, I just want to comment about Fred, the guy who looked a bit like the person I saw running from the scene of the shooting that night.

After being absent (or just lying low) from the neighborhood for the past year, Fred was back out on the sidewalk yesterday. I walked around to the front of my house and saw him with three other guys. It looked like one of them handed the other something (probably just marbles) and they were all in their work uniforms, and they all hushed up and tuned their backs towards me (I guess I can’t see them if they can’t see me - right?) when I appeared. But I didn’t really pay them much attention. They were standing two doors down from my house, and they weren’t being obnoxious, so I didn’t get too concerned about it.

Later in the afternoon, I saw this same gang of four guys walking around the neighborhood for a while. I’m sure they were just heading to the park to play ball, not selling drugs. Then, this morning I checked the police activity log in my neighborhood and saw this:
09F135497.…..20:53:49.…..48 SUSPICIOUS……25XX CAROLINE ST

That is the location where the main action has moved to during the past year. It has always been a very active area, and where I believe much of the problem emanates from, but because of the high traffic on my corner they have always chosen to work in front of my house. I would bet money that the suspicious activity report from last night involved Fred and his friends.

I saw something else interesting yesterday. I was working in the back yard when a uniformed officer drove past in an unmarked car. She was heading north, so I watched to see if anything was going on that way. She drove on past my house, but I wonder if she took notice of the two guys on the northwest corner at that time. Jake (another businessman who has been absent for a long time) was standing there with a man on a bicycle. Almost immediately after the cop passed by, the man on the bike handed some “marbles” to Jake, who then went over and handed the marbles to a person who had been parked along the side of the road.

So, it looks like business is back in operation now, and marble sales are good! It’s a bit late in the season, so I expect they're anxious to make up for lost profits. I just hope they keep it quiet and keep it away from my home this time.

Joke of the Day Hotline: 427-1222

I suppose the place to begin here would be to try to explain why I seldom call the police any more. Even when I here gunshots, it seems more prudent to simply walk outside and observe the situation before determining whether I should make a call or not. I won’t try to list all of the circumstances which have brought me to this point, just a few events that will help to explain my point of view on the matter. Although some of the perceived problems I detail here are out of the control of the patrol officers, they have such a strong impact on officer/citizen relations that I think it would be important for us to hear each other’s point of view on them.

First of all, you have to understand that I live in a neighborhood where the sound of gunshots is a routine occurrence. Last year, there were 35 reported incidents of shots fired, shooting, or party armed within two blocks of my house. Far more than this occurred which never got called in. I used to think it was idiotic to hear gunshots around your house and to not call the police, but now I understand.

Often, this attempt to help out by giving information to the police is met with either disregard or open hostility. For example, I was once verbally accosted by an officer for not being able to tell him definitively whether it was four or five shots that I heard, even though I explained to him that it was the sound of the gunshots which had awakened me. There was also the time that I witnessed a man running from the scene of an arson. I gave a description of him, what I thought his last name was, and which direction he headed to the first officer on the scene. The officer simply stared at me for a moment as if I was speaking a foreign language, then walked away without saying a word. I remained on scene until the fire was controlled and all the officers had left. Not a single one approached me to get a statement.

There is also the fact that when a certain individual calls frequently, particularly when no one else is calling and when the area is calm by the time the police arrive, then the police seem to begin viewing that person with suspicion, as if they are making superfluous calls.

The situation is often further confused by trying to communicate with the operators who answer the telephones. I realize that these people have a difficult job, as the callers are sometimes in a frenzied state and not speaking coherently. But I also think they respond to this poorly at times. Hearing gunshots or seeing someone being shot near ones house is a disturbing situation for most people. I think the operators should realize that these civilians are not trained or always experienced at keeping cool while under duress. I think that if the caller is only able to give a partial plate number, a fuzzy description of the perp, or otherwise less than perfect information, the operator would be wise to accept this for what it is rather than harangue the caller for not giving a completely accurate account of what transpired.

I once called something in and described the car (along with the plate prefix) as well as the address where the car was parked at. Even after I explained that the car was too far away to read the plate, the operator repeatedly pressed me for the full plate number. Only when I said “Look, I’ll just grab a notepad, run down there and jot down the plate number for you. If you hear gunshots, don’t worry, that’s just the drug dealers shooting at me” did the operator finally accept that I could not give a full plate number.

One of the strangest things that ever occurred here was the day that I overheard a group of drug dealers talking on the phone and ordering a gun to be delivered to them. I knew the guys in this group, particularly the one making the call, well enough to consider this to be a legitimate threat. I called the vice & narcotics department directly to explain what was going on. The civilian who answered the phone said that there were no officers available to speak at that time.

After I described the situation, she asked if I wanted her to send a patrol car through the area. I told her that this would probably just make everybody leave and put off the gun purchase for another day. I told her I was calling vice directly in hopes that they might be able to notify an unmarked unit in the area who could check on the situation. Thinking that (as a civilian) she may not have understood the type of neighborhood I was calling from, I briefly stated that gang-related narcotics activity and shootings were a common occurrence here and I really thought that this call should go to someone above the level of the patrol officers. After she stated that she would pass my information on to the ATF, I hung up and went back outside to observe.

The person attempting to deliver the gun made three attempts, but appeared to have gotten spooked each time by my appearance. After the third time of driving away from the group, one of the drug dealers called and told her where to meet him at. As the group walked in that direction, I called vice again and this time was able to speak with a detective. I explained the situation (including giving the name of the guy buying the gun) and stated that since the buy was about to go down, a marked car would be better than nothing at all. He thanked me for my call and I went back outside. I did not see any police activity in the area any time during the day and no one contacted me later for clarification as to what I had witnessed.

Ironically, that same drug dealer was arrested a short time later for selling drugs to an undercover officer. As he realized he was being set up, but before the uniforms were on him, he punched the plainclothes officer in the face and ran. I suppose it’s just lucky that he didn’t happen to have a gun on him at the time or things might have turned out far worse. And for making the call that tried to stop this drug dealer from arming himself, I get labeled by some members of the department as a trouble-maker.

Many of them seem to be of the opinion that I am trying to play like I am a cop, with my calls to vice and other departments. Yet the calls to the front desk just don’t get the job done. Even though people in vice have sometimes told me to call the front desk rather than them, the people at the front desk actually direct me to vice at times.

I was communicating for a while with the second-in command for my district (FW uses the quadrant system). Things were going pretty good for a while until one day I described a situation which he said I should call vice to talk about. I explained that I already had and that they had brushed me off. I told him that I was hoping he could use his position to find the right person in that department for me to get in touch with. He said he’d get back with me, but that was the last I heard from him.

Years before this, I had spoken directly with the deputy chief who runs this area. I actually offered (in writing) to let her department use my house to place cameras and officers if it would help to straighten things out here. She made no reply to this. Years later, I discovered that she had not even circulated among her subordinate officers the fact that a there was a police-friendly civilian living in the heart of the worst neighborhood in the city.

I’ll be honest and say that I think the people who run the department realize that they do not have the resources to do everything that is required of them. In my opinion, the only legitimate way of dealing with such a situation is to muster the courage to speak honestly about it. The people who run the department should be telling the politicians that they are simply inadequately funded to be able to do everything that is asked of them. Instead, they lie. They say “Yes sir, we’ll get the job done” knowing full well that they can’t.

And one of the ways they cover their tracks seems to be by creating a confusing and frustrating labyrinth of hurdles for a citizen to maneuver through. We are told that we are not allowed to liaison directly with the patrol officers in anything other than a most rudimentary fashion. We are told that for the big problems we must talk with the higher-ups, who will then integrate our information into their master plan and pass it down the line to the patrol officers who drive past our houses every day.

Yet when a citizen attempts to communicate with these higher ups, they are run in circles until they get so frustrated they just give up and stop trying to even communicate at all with the department. Then, as a final wound, the department constantly and publicly proclaims that the reason crime is so bad here is because the citizens won’t cooperate and communicate with the police. And this is what they lean on for their ultimate excuse.

They don’t have to challenge the duplicitous and lying politicians, by telling them that their funding is woefully inadequate for the mandates which they have issued. And this is a very good thing as it is those very same politicians whom the highest members of the department depend upon for an advancement in their careers. Instead, they can simply point to people like me - people who obviously just don’t give a damn because we won’t run through the endless maze of trying to communicate with a department that really doesn’t want to listen.

The Johnny Law Chronicles

My HUD House was recently mentioned on another blog called The Johnny Law Chronicles. I discovered that blog several months ago through a link on Bobby G’s blog. Johnny Law is a pseudonym used by a current police officer in an undisclosed location.

I enjoy hearing JL's perspective as he writes about the frustration that comes from the often conflicting demands placed upon him by the public. I also like that he doesn’t seem to deal in ultimatums. A lot of police officers appear to be saying that the public should just shut up and quit complaining about the police. Many of them seem to think that people outside of their profession have no business at all in telling them what to do, even though they are the paid agents of those very people.

But what JL seems to be saying is that the public should either quit complaining about the fact that he uses physical force to subdue the crazy man, or the public must accept that the crazy man is going to hurt someone. In other words, he’s saying “Either change the requirements of my job, or shut the f**k up and let me do the job you’ve told me to do.” I think that’s a fair reaction to the damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation that many cops feel they are in.

JL doesn’t hedge about his thoughts on the drunk who pisses in an alley, then calls him a pig before he even has a chance to just tell the guy to move along rather than arrest him. And let’s face it, some people’s degree of idiocy is just too great to even warrant debating the issue. I think it was very fitting that he told that particular guy he was going to jail for being an asshole, rather than for public indecency.

I like his post about the girly-man for several reasons. On the one hand, he opines that citizens should be more willing to handle some issues themselves, rather than always calling the cops. I agree with this sentiment to some degree, but his commenters brought up a few very good points. First of all the official police spokespeople frequently suggest calling the police rather than handling an issue yourself. Also, there is too little context here to adequately appraise the situation. I know that I once walked out to ask a couple of drug dealers to get off my property. One of them responded rather vociferously and threatened to “take my house down”. There was also that night that I followed one of them out of my back yard only to run into about ten of his buddies standing in my front yard.

This post points out the irony of the man not wanting the girl to be arrested. So, he wants the police to enforce the law, but only to a limited degree? Yes, Johnny Law, some of us do get it. There is a house in my neighborhood which has a reported disturbance about once or twice a month. No one ever seems to get arrested from it though. I am guessing here, but I expect this is one of those cases where the man beats his wife/girlfriend until she calls the cops for help. Then as soon as they get there she proclaims that everything is fine. I think the person making the call to the police in cases like this should get one or perhaps two recants at best. After that, I think that if they are not willing to press charges then they should be charged with false reporting. I shouldn’t have to pay my police to baby sit!

This particular post also exemplifies something else I like about Johnny. Most of the comments here were not in direct agreement with his stated view, but he allowed them through anyway. True, JL does hold his comments until he has had a chance to review them, but from the comments of mine and others which he has allowed through I’d say he is a pretty fair blogger. Although he is definitely of strong opinion on most matters, he seems to grasp the concept that there actually might be some degree of legitimacy to points of view which are different than his own.

Overall, I’d say Johnny Law’s treatment of me and my blog was pretty fair based only upon what he has read here. I certainly don’t agree with all of his opinions about me, but I can see how he could get them from reading my blog. My story is far too complex to believe that I could have told it completely and accurately, and JL also does not have the benefit of being from this area and understanding the greater context in which my story takes place. But Johnny seems to be an introspective and inquisitive person who invites discussion and is willing to listen. And I’m not sure what else could be asked of a person.

JL has a sense of humor, which he displays in The Great Escape Attempt. Even a die hard cop-hater would have to laugh at that drunken fool. He also shows he can laugh at himself, which I take to be a sign of a functional personality.

Finally, he displays the one thing that might be most useful for someone who is not a cop to understand someone who is. The fact that the media and the public seem to be far more concerned about an arrest which may or may not have been appropriate, but which definitely resulted in little to no lasting damage, than they are with the deaths of people who fight to protect them is truly worth considering.

A Simple Solution

You know, as a chronic speeder, I probably will regret making this suggestion, but I am going to offer my opinion anyway. The Fort Wayne Police Department currently has two problems on it’s hands. First of all, the cops are pissed that Chief Dumbfuck is now making them pay for their take home cars. This is negatively affecting officer morale. The other problem is that the cops aren’t writing enough speeding tickets now. Evidently, the second problem is a direct result of the first one, as the officers seem to be purposely relaxing their ticketing as a protest against the new take home car policy.

What I propose in order to rectify the situation is that every time an officer issues a speeding ticket, they be given a one dollar credit towards the cost of their take home vehicle. Only three tickets per work day and they’ve got the entire cost covered. And all the revenue generated from those tickets should more than cover the cost of the cars.

If the program succeeds, perhaps it could be used as a model for other types of problems. Arrest a drug dealer, get a credit towards a new vest. Arrest a child molester, get a free day off with pay. The possibilities for truly incentivizing police activity in this town are endless.

I would also suggest we revisit the idea of putting advertising logos on the police cars to generate revenue. Previously I had argued against this because I thought it was demeaning to the professional image of the officers. However, now realizing that some of them actually don’t mind looking like clowns, I propose that we make the logos optional per each officer’s preference.

Those who want to drive a billboard around town could be allowed to keep a small percentage of the revenue themselves, while the rest of the money would go to pay for their new clubhouse.

Remember, it’s all about the incentive. If you want law enforcement, you’ve got to show them the money!

Random Thoughts

I'm going to depart from convention here and, rather than write a long and drawn out commentary I am simply going to list several thoughts that are currently running through my mind. Many of them are related to the topic of my blog, and some aren't. Some are merely a statement of information which I am aware of but which the general public may not be. Others are just my opinion on matters which I am sure is probably very far from accurate on many accounts. I will number the comments to facilitate discussion for anyone who cares to respond.

1. Rico Parish (real name) is a neighbor of mine and a drug dealer. For the past several years, Rico has been the single greatest instigator of the violent activities here. Last summer, Rico helped his friend (Anthony Parrish) shoot another man, but was given a free pass on this in exchange for his testimony against his friend.

There are three rumors currently circulating in my neighborhood about Rico. The first is that he actually helped the same friend mentiond above kill another man earlier in 2008. That man was actually a distant relative of his and according to the police, they currently have no suspects in his murder. The second rumor is that Rico will be dead within a year. It is being said that if he does not kill himself (through an overdose or by driving that damn moped into a tree), and if he is not killed by a friend or relative of the person he snitched on, then a Fort Wayne police officer will make sure the job is taken care of.

The third rumor is that Rico has been a confidential informant for the Fort Wayne Police for the past couple of years. I have seen much evidence myself which tends to support this and in fact, I came to this conclusion alone, before realizing that the entire neighborhood was saying the same thing. This third point is what adds credence to the second. Rico has created a lot of problems for this neighborhood and for the city. And he has done so while under the quasi-protection of the police. He is a liability that must be removed now.

I think I'll stop there on this topic and give responsible parties a chance to convince me that I should be talking to them instead of the public. If not, that's okay because I have plenty more to say.

2. I think most cops are very agressive, but I don't really fault them for this. I think the vast majority of people in our society want a police "force", not a bunch of social counselors protecting us from crime. While we certainly don't like it when the police tell us what to do, we would be far more upset if they didn't issue orders to anyone at all.

This Leviathan is of our own creation. Most people don't have the ability, the means, or the motivation to do what it takes to protect themselves from agression. Therefore we have authorized and paid others to act on our behalf. In this sense, the police are no different than soldiers. It just doesn't make sense to think you can train someone to kill, then put them in situations where their own lives are sometimes on the line, and then to expect everything to go smoothly.

Violence, by it's very nature, is uncontrollable, and the police and military are a minifestation of our own violent tendancies. Although I don't think this means they should be given a free pass to do whatever they wish, I do think that this should be taken into account to some degree whenever evaluating their behavior.

3. I think that most police officers are arrogant. I think this is similar to what occurs in many other specialized professions such as medical or legal. These people receive so much training that they are in most cases better informed and better equipped to deal with a situation that the average citizen. But I think they neglect to consider two very important points here. First of all, there is a huge difference between ignorance and stupidity. While most citizens are indeed ignorant of detailed police procedures, this does not mean they don't have anything important to add.

Most police officers, as well as other professionals, seem to assume that since the general public does not understand their special language and procedures that they therefore have very little constructive advice to offer them. This point is most pronounced when you see it played out between members of the same profession who work for different agencies. It is well known that the different units of our military force often look down on one another with a disparaging view. The same is often true in law enforcement as I have personally observed the schism between city police and county officers or between local and federal authorities.

There is no excuse for this type of arrogant behavior. It is a diservice to the public which pays these people's salaries and it is actually harmful to the arrogant ones themselves in many cases.

4. I think any person who carries an exposed weapon to a political rally is an idiot. And no, it doesn't really matter what the point of the protest is. By taking this action, they are intimating that they are prepared to use physical violence if their political agenda is not accepted.

5. I have sunflowers growing on the edge of my property that are now over ten feet tall! The fact that just a few months ago they were nothing but a tiny seed is something that I am astounded by.

6. Last month I dropped a board on my leg. Actually, I dropped a 16' board from eight feet up in the air, and caught it with my knee. In addition to the swelling from the impact, it got infected. At one point, my entire right leg from ankle to thigh was one and one half times as big as normal. I walked with a cane for a short time and for a while I began to worry that I might not fully recover from the injury. I was wrong, and I am once again amazed at the resilience of the human body.

7. I have a garden that is now producing corn, peppers (hot and mild), beans, squash and canteloupe. If you are a reader of this blog, and you like fresh produce, contact me and I'll hook you up.

8. I think many of the people in my neighborood or areas similar to it are absolutely terrorized of what goes on around them. While I suspect that Chief York's intentions in downplaying the reality of our criminal problems here is designed to not further encourage the criminals themselves, I think he completely fails to consider the kind of message this sends to law abiding citizens who are constantly living in fear of the problem which he says does not even exist.

9. I find it incredibly ridiculous when people who support their favored politician or party in usurping power of some sort get incredibly bent out of shape when the successor to that office (who is not favored by them) exercises the very authority which was handed to them as part of the expanded powers of that office.

10. I think Rusty York, Nancy becher, Kevin Corey, and Lynne Wetmore (all current or former members of the FWPD Command Staff) are completely worthless as police officers. Either through stupidity, ignorance, cowardice or sheer malice, they cause harm to every law abiding citizen and every decent officer who works for the department.

11. I think $14 million is far too much to pay for Renaissance Square. Mayor Henry's unwillingness to negotiate for a fair price on behalf of the citizen's he purports to represent makes one wonder what type of cronyism is at play with this deal.

12. I think that allowing the City of Fort Wayne, which has proven to be very inadequate at managing nearly every enterprise it undertakes, to assume responsibility for the supply of electricity to our homes would be sheer lunacy.

13. I wonder why Rico Parrish's photo shows up in the "Mugshots" magazine, but not in the Allen County on-line warrants.

14. I wonder why, when I leave a voicemail with a FWPD officer saying that I overheard a drug dealer threatening to kill three other drug dealers, moments after one of them fired shots at him, I don't receive a reply. And when one of those drug dealers specifically mentioned in the death threat wids up being shot to death a few months later, and I still receive no call, I wonder a bit more.

15. I wonder why, when I witness a drug dealer purchasing an illegal gun here, and I call the police to report it, they don't send an officer out to check on it and they don't call me to ask any further questions. And when the same person who bought the gun later assualts a FWPD officer, wonder if anyone in that department is smart enough to make the connection and realize that I really am trying to help them.

16. When the police publicly claim a big part of the problem is that citizens wont get involved and engage them, I wonder why when a person actually does this they are then viewed as the enemy by the police.

17. I think it is ridiculous to state that although the City is paying out a third of a million dollars to settle a wrongful death suite, the officer who fired the shots actually did nothing wrong. And I think it is even more ridiculous to conceal the evidence from the very people who have to pay for it.

18. The more I observe and hear from others of the behavior of FWPD, I am increasingly inclined to think they should change their motto from "To Serve and to Protect" to "To Abuse and to Neglect." And I am getting very close to making up a large banner that says this, along with the official FWPD shield with a big "X" through it, and exercise my First Amendment rights by affixing it to the side of my house.

19. I am equally close to printing up a large sign that says "Rusty York is a Coward, Liar and a Fool." and standing outside the FWPD headquarters and in front of the City County building to display it.

20. Sometimes I think the police are just plain stupid. As a case in point, I will relay a conversation I recently had with one FWPD officer. This conversation occurred as the beginning of the attempted mureder trial for Anthony Parrish. This was for the shooting which occurred near my house last summer. Both Rico Parish (mentioned in #1 above) were witnesses to in this trial. I showed up early, Rico didn't show up at all. As the court began to scramble, wondering how they would proceed if Rico wasn't present, I said to one of the officers I knew " Looks like Rico decided to sleep in today. Maybe I should have knocked on his door and offered him a ride.

The officer responded by telling me that Rico no loger lived here. I, in turn, responded that whatever Rico lists as his leagl address, he is in fact still living here with his grandmother. Although I didn't mention this fact to the officer, I have witnessed Rico shooting his gun several times in the past few months from his (granmother's) house here. What i did tell the officer was that just the day before I had witnessed Rico walking down the alley from his granma's to the drug house he currently likes to hang out at.

The officer just looked at me stunned and said "Really?" After I convinced him that Rico was in fact still living here, they sent a posse out to get him. A short while later they returned to the Courthouse with Rico in cuffs and the officer confirmed that he was found at grandma's. So, what I wonder is are the police really stupid enough to just take a drug dealing, gun shooting (possibly) murderous man at his word when he tells them where to find him. Well, sadly, I have plenty of other examples which indicate that they really just might be that stupid.

21. They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results. Well, I have been blogging for quite while now. One of my main goals was to convince FWPD that private dialogue with me would be better for them than my public diatribes. But they have repeatedly proven to me that they will not accepot any criticism at all of their own actions and that they refuse to engage in honost dialogue. Continuing along my current path will not affect change no matter how long I travel, so I have a choice to make. Either I give up my campaign to make FWPD honest, and acceot their bullshit, or I step up the campaign a bit.

22. Clausewitz explained how war and politics are intimately connected as part of the same continuum. When two people or groups of people have issues of disagreement, they can either talk about them (politics) or fight over them (warfare). It is important to note here that warfare takes many forms besides actual physical assault. Espionage is warfare, and so to is propaganda, as they both lie outside the realm of honest dialogue.

And it is the propagand element which FWPD so excells at. They have created their own perfect paradigm where the citizens, and not themselves, can always be blamed for any dysfunction. If we don't talk to them, we are part of the problem. And when we do talk to them they often complain that we are now expecting too much from them. Either that or they simply ignore us to the point where we naturally revert to no longer talking to them, then they can once again blame us for being a part of the problem.

23. Last Tuesday, I attended the City Council meeting with the sole intent of publicly delivering to them what would have effectively been my declaration of war against the Fort Wayne Police Department. As the meeting progressed though I realized that I was being a bit rash. Although the police department has made it clear that nothing short of a lawsuit will get their attention, and although I know that several members of Council are aware of my situation, the fact is that to publicly rebuke them without first laying out my caes to them in a concise and private manner would be neither fair nor supportive of my goals.

So, seeking to take the high road, I will make my case to them in private first, and give them a chance to show where they stand. Hopefully, at least one of them will have the intelligence to realize that engaging me in dialoge would be the right thing to do. And hopefully someone among them will have the courage to do what is necessary to help straighten out the serious problems which exist at FWPD. If not, then I'll return to public my campaign against FWPD, but this time in a far more pernicious manner.

24. I will not have access to my computer for the next several days. Feel free to leave your comments, but please don't be offended if I don't respond to them for a while.

Addendum:

Regarding points number 18 and 19 above, I want to make it clear that my negative disposition towards FWPD is not a reflection of my experiences with the average patrol officer. But it does fairly summarize my experiences with the higher ranking members that I have interacted with, as well as the deceitful propaganda they regularly foist upon the public.

And the fact is, if a low ranking officer follows the line of B.S. put out by their Command, even when they know it is harmful to the citizens who they have sworn to serve and to protect, then they are guilty as well. "Just doing my job" is not an adequate excuse for being silent as the people who are responsible for ensuring public safetey actually make a mockery of their duties!

I will expose the corruption within FWPD. Although my targets are those at the top, they have designed a system where I must tread upon their lower ranking members first in order to get to them. So be it - War is hell. Although I regret that very soon I will probably be causing a lot of discomfort to people who really have little power to affect the situation, I also realize that I have little other choice than to do this.

So, if you're a Fort Wayne police officer reading this, don't get mad at me. All I want is honest dialogue with your leaders. If they are unwilling or unable to deliver that, then you can either accept the fact that you work for a bunch of lying and cowardly dogs, or you can find a respectable organization to work for.

The End Of Dialogue

If you look at my post of June 10, you’ll see that it elicited a strong response from Sergeant Ritchie. I am still a bit perplexed by this, as I do not believe that post was extremely critical of FWPD. All I did was to sort through the raw data and analyze how my neighborhood compares to the rest of the city. The results are more of a testament to the nature of my neighbors rather than of the behavior of the police. By my calculations it appears that, during the one year time period that I studied, there was about nine times as much reported police activity in my neighborhood as compared to the average Fort Wayne neighborhood.

Granted, that is not exactly the way I stated it though. What I actually said was that there was more crime (rather than just reported police activity) in my neighborhood. And to Sergeant Ritchie, it appears that my “misrepresenting” the facts was seen as a purposeful action on my part, intended to slander the hard work that FWPD is doing in my neighborhood. The only response I can make to that is that, logically, one would think these two activities (crime and police activity) would be very strongly correlated.

The very next day, I posted the other half of this story, which was to show that my neighborhood has settled down quite a bit in the past year. I do see that as a testament to the hard work of FWPD, and I thought I had indicated this on a previous post, but there too, Sergeant Ritchie took issue. In fact, this particular post is what my direct communications with Sergeant Ritchie had been moving me towards for quite some time.

Eventually, I will bring this blog to an end. But not before my goals have either been met or until I have pushed them to the point where I am forced to admit that they can’t be met, and not without giving some closing explanation. The dialoge which had existed between Sergeant Ritchie was actually compelling me to consider to stand down. I was getting very close to making a final statement saying something to the effect of “Although problems still exist, the dramatically improved situation now is even better than I hoped for when I first started this blog.”

And then, Chief Dumbfuck had to open his big mouth. There is certainly much cause for FWPD to receive recognition for the work they have been doing lately. I see the results not just here but in other areas of town where there is a lot of criminal activity. And I believe the police deserve a lot of credit for this. But to claim that the problem no longer exists, as Chief York’s idiotic statement did. Or to even imply that the problem never did exist, as some officers seem to do, is something that I find to be entirely unacceptable.

To understand why this bothers me so much, you only have to read a single newspaper story. A man walks past the corner of Suttenfield and Caroline (one block from my house), encounters a large group of people standing around, is offered and declines to buy drugs from them, gets told “Then get your punk ass off the block”, then is shot and nearly killed. And why did this happen? Only because he wandered into gangland, and offended one of the gang members. This single story epitomizes the conditions under which my neighborhood suffers much of the time, and it should make it clear that Chief York’s comments are patently false.

This is the way things have been for the entire time I have lived here. Granted, it has it’s quiet moments, but there is no better way to describe my neighborhood than to say that it is gang-controlled. Personally, this used to intimidate me quite a bit. There was a time when I was reluctant to wander on foot more than a couple houses away from my own, for fear that I would be seen as interfering with someone’s turf. But that wall came down the night they fire-bombed my house. It’s not that I now feel any safer it the neighborhood at large, it’s just that the illusion that remaining close to home would somehow protect me came to an end.

I’ve learned to take care of myself in this neighborhood. I walk to the store several blocks away and don’t worry when I pass by a group of drug dealers. This is because I am alert, and I am prepared for action (meaning that I am armed). But can you blame some of my older neighbors for not acting as nonchalant as I do? When they see these guys on the streets in front of their homes, selling drugs, often standing in large menacing looking groups, and on many occasions shooting at each other or setting people’s houses on fire. I think this alone would be enough to cause great concern for most people.

Then, when these old folks look out their windows and see the police at various times either ignoring these guys or palling around with them, it becomes alarming. And to further compound the problem, many of the police officers fail to properly differentiate between the criminals and the law abiding citizens here. The police sometime hold no reservations against meting out their aggressive tactics towards that same old lady who only the day before saw that officer standing on the corner, laughing and joking with the very same drug dealers who only the day before that were shooting at each other right beside her house.

So, the old lady gets stopped for driving through the alley on the way to her house, while the drug dealers often seem to get a free pass. What would you think? Although I have clearly stated that I no longer believe this is the case, and that is only because I have studied the situation intensely for the past three years, the observations that are gleaned from my neighborhood could easily lead one to speculate that the police are either afraid of these gangs, or are themselves actually the ones running the drugs here. And that is why Chief York’s idiotic comments are so insulting. We have a very serious gang problem in Fort Wayne, and the police department is a part of that problem.

But Sergeant Ritchie misconstrued my comments entirely. All I was doing in that post was pointing to the fact that crime is still very high in my neighborhood, while at the same time being sure to acknowledge the police for their role in greatly reducing it lately. Yet Sergeant Ritchie seemed to view this a s a baseless assault upon him and his officers. My response to Sergeant Ritchie on the blog tried to make a couple things clear. First of all, I blame the drug dealers, not the police, for instigating the problems here. And second, although I do take much issue with the improper way FWPD has dealt with the problem at times, I was clearly directing my current assault only at the top, to those people who would make such thoughtless statements as to claim that Fort Wayne does not have a gang problem.

So, I patiently awaited Sergeant Ritchie’s reply to this. I waited two weeks, and he made no reply. But my response was pretty harsh, so I decided to add another filler post to keep the blog active, while I continued waiting to allow him a fair chance to reply. Then, after waiting for two more weeks, I sent him a private e-mail. I just wanted to check and see if the channels of communication were still open, or if perhaps there was a reasonable explanation for a lack of response.

Sergeant Ritchie quickly responded to that e-mail, beginning with an explanation which in itself would have served to fully justify his apparent disconnect from the dialogue we had engaged in. But then, he went on to reply to something else I had said in my last e-mail, and that is what seemed to have finally pushed him over the edge. In that e-mail, I did nothing more than to try to make Sergeant Ritchie aware of a very serious problem in this neighborhood. This problem is one that his department is intimately connected to, and in fact has helped to create (although probably inadvertently.)

I told Sergeant Ritchie that I realized (for legal reasons) that he could probably not acknowledge that what I was saying actually was true, but I simply requested that he pass the information along to the appropriate persons within his department before the problem progressed further. I think I was doing the responsible thing by trying to communicate this information in private, but Sergeant Ritchie’s response made it clear that any comments which even slightly criticized his department would not be listened to by him.

Fair enough. I don’t have any right to demand that sergeant Ritchie listen to or talk with me. He wasn’t getting paid for the time he devoted to our dialogue, and he felt that it was no longer productive, so he was certainly within his rights to discontinue it. But the problem is, the department as a whole has already shown that they do not engage in real dialogue with citizens. Sure, they make public statements, but this is a one way dialogue, and it is often very far from honest.

So, per the actions of Sergeant Ritchie and of the people who run FWPD, I really have no choice now than to begin a full public assault against what I consider to be the real reason for the violent gang problems we are experiencing in Fort Wayne, which is ineffective leadership at FWPD. In my next post, I will try to briefly summarize the most salient points of my cause, and state what my goals are. And then, let the battle begin!