This letter uses one among dozens of neighborhood incidents to explain
why the Graffiti Ordinance, and others like it creating new categories of
criminality, accomplish exactly the opposite of what's intended.
Instead of making our city a better place to live by discouraging
destructive behavior they encourage the exodus of citizen home owners who
had been improving conditions in their neighborhoods.
SUMMARY: These laws don't affect those already
flagrantly ignoring them because they're seldom actually enforced.
Juveniles quickly learn to ignore them and almost all other laws. A
condition evidenced by the surprise some teens display when, after
shooting someone, so much sudden attention is paid to this 'one' illegal
activity. They've been getting away with similar violence their
entire lives. What's the big deal about this one?! "The dude
did me wrong! He deserved to get shot!" (Fights and beatings occur
almost daily in this neighborhood. The police, like everyone else, seldom get involved.
Why should a child growing in this atmosphere think that violence is
wrong?!)
Instead, these laws make the lives of honest, law abiding, taxpaying
home owners even more intolerable - primarily because the same
responsibility that makes that individual an asset to the neighborhood
and community also makes them voluntarily comply with the law. So,
while they witness transient renters move in and out of their
neighborhood, some flagrantly getting away with violating every minor law
on the books, and the neighborhood deteriorate, they also suffer the
extra cost of repairing damages done by others to their shrinking island
of decency called a home. Unlike the renters, who can just pick-up
and move any time they want, these home owners are stuck in homes nobody
but slumlords are willing to buy.
While their sense of responsibility forces them to voluntarily comply
with these unfair laws, their sense of fairness helps motivate them to
leave the community - oftentimes, as is evidenced throughout my
neighborhood, without being able to sell their homes. (It's not a
small amount of motivation for someone to become a reluctant landlord
suddenly responsible for two separate pieces of real estate. The
condition of housing in the Inner City proves the abundance of reluctant
landlords. Now, we've got a law encouraging even more of them!)
GARAGE BURGLARY, GANG & GRAFFITI CRIME
INCIDENT: On Wednesday, July 27th, 1995, my garage was
burglarized by an adult and 3 children. The adult sprayed the "GD"
Gangster Disciple symbol above the half-raised garage door and gave the
can of glue to his three 10-12 year old accomplices to spray the bottom
panel. One of the names sprayed on the door is "Phony", the name of
the 15 year old living directly across the alley. The individual
doing the spraying must have known that - attempting to point the blame
at him - especially if he already knew that Phony already did most of the
other graffiti extant on the door before the burglary. My
garage door (bottom right in the picture) is the target for
every angry kid in the neighborhood. We have 300 children on our 3
blocks. I am the only adult in the neighborhood who actively
praises and admonishes children. Some don't like being admonished
and retaliate with rocks, paint or whatever thrown against my garage
door. I live with it and consider
around #2005 in the list of problems needing attention around here -
especially since that garage door has been painted a half-dozen
times. Seldom has it remained that way for longer than 30 - 60
days.
Six of the dozen kids playing in the alley at the time, having been
treated by me as if they were among my other 24 nieces and nephews these
past seven years, cooperated fully during the entire process. The 3
girls described everything that happened. The 3 boys informed me
and confronted one of the juvenile burglars to retrieve a stolen
flashlight and bicycle pump.
POLICE
RESPONSE: From the earliest, the two officers tried to discourage
me from doing anything about the incident, even though it involved both GANG
and GRAFFITI. After wasting at least 20 minutes attempting to get me
to drop the incident, one of the officers at least gave the appearance of
being concerned and continued an investigation. The other officer
never let up from his show of contempt and visible impression that I was
wasting their valuable time with something as inconsequential as a gang
related garage burglary by known residents of the neighborhood against an
ex-Block Captain and attendant graffiti advertisements of same. I'm
not sure whether the contempt was just for me, for Block Captains or for
White people who don't follow their peers into more White neighborhoods, but
it was highly evident.
One of the burglars, 10 year old "Buster", lives across the
street. He's also burned to the ground both of my nicely "address"
painted and clean garbage carts; thrown at least one rock through the
window of the lower flat two doors away; pounded holes in the front
cement railings of that same house; and, in general, been quickly on his
way to ever increasing criminality since moving into our neighborhood
last year. Though both his mother and step-father have jobs, and
his older siblings seem to be more well behaved, they have killed the
grass by making a pathway across the upper front lawn of the house next
to theirs. They use the sidewalk when I'm 'seen' to be around but
otherwise show a complete lack of respect for that front lawn.
Needless to say, police response in the
past has been to ignore it all as unimportant.
1998 update: Buster was shot to death by a female his
own age almost exactly three years after this incident.
2000 update: Eventually, it was discovered that the witnessing
youth were really the two others who had burglarized the garage - with
the help of the adult who lived in the "pseudo-gang" house associated
with the garage where the goods were staged during the burglary.
The primary reason for the burglary was to obtain a 12 speed bicycle that
had been placed in my care on behalf of the oldest, non-participating
brother of one of the three burglar-youths. It was placed in my
care by the donor so that it would last longer than were it just given
directly to the youth, instead. That youth had a well known history
of never having been able to keep a bicycle, new or used, in his
possession for longer than 10 days. He and his siblings had been
riding the bicycle out of my garage for a week before I made the mistake
of telling him that it was really his and was only in my garage for "safe
keeping" when not being ridden. (I never saw the bike, again.)
Whatever written report
exists within District #3 regarding this incident, along with the inaction
associated therewith, will prove that street officers in District #3 take
neither GANG nor GRAFFITI crimes seriously - EVEN WHEN THE PERPETRATORS ARE
KNOWN. The officers were also provided with the address of a gang
member who took a green beeper away from Buster. He still wears it
both as a badge of distinction and proof that District #3 does nothing about
routine thefts like this. (I had found the beeper on one of my
numerous aluminum can hunting and exercise bicycling jaunts and kept it on
the unstolen 3 speed bike because it had a digital clock. Buster took
it as part of the burglary but lost it to another more "fittest" fellow delinquent. It's also an indication that the
burglary was more "retaliation" than economic since, at $90.00 at Sam's
club, that beeper was the most valuable item stolen. Had the adult
been interested in selling stolen goods, he would have kept the beeper for
himself. The retaliation may be because of the highly visible way I, a
White person, interact with Black children around here. That drives
some gang bangers nuts - especially those moving here from violently
anti-White neighborhoods.)
Every time this 16-18 year old is witnessed in the neighborhood, by the
kids who care and count, with "...'s beeper", it sends the message strong
and clear that GANGS and their members have more power than the POLICE. I suppose if I formed my own
gang, we could confront this jerk, take it back and have a feud on our
hands until either of us moves away from the neighborhood. Even
though I'm not the kind of person to do something like that, that's
exactly what's happening throughout our country, AND policing policy is
what's primarily encouraging it! (I could confront this kid on my
own, but without any kind of "official" support, it would be a
bluff. The worst thing I can do in the neighborhood in which I live
is fail at an attempted bluff.)
The fact that Buster continues to go about his normal routine as if
nothing has happened, neither he nor his parents are going to repaint my
garage door to remedy the graffiti, sends these messages to the 9 to 12
year old cooperating witnesses:
- - that nothing will happen - except maybe that their cooperation will
be retaliated against unless they form their own gang to discourage
it. Surely, District #3 isn't going to do anything to reward or
encourage such cooperation in the future. (So all the effort I've
put into helping children grow up around here not needing to form gangs
these past 7 years is for naught. District #3 will make sure they
have to form a gang - merely to protect them from the retaliation from
gang members constantly moving in and out of our neighborhood. If
intimidation doesn't work, then retaliation most often does.
District #3 shouldn't complain about lack of cooperation from citizens it
doesn't care enough about to protect from the inevitable retaliation.)
- - as mentioned above, gangs have more power than police. Rely on the gang rather than the police for protection.
- - owning a home is a large burden. (Wait until they discover
that I could be sent to jail for 20 days for not correcting the vandalism
Buster helped do. You think finding willing home owners is tough,
now?!)
GANGS: Children, not having a lot
of sophistication garnered from experience, normally do develop a high
sense of fairness. They are always driving adults nuts testing the
boundaries of acceptable behavior - thereby establishing their sense of
fairness. When something unfair happens to a child, it's not
ignored. Children don't develop an apathetic outlook (unless
malnourished or brain damaged) until adulthood. They expect to be
treated fairly in any interaction. They retaliate with whatever
means at their disposal when the wrong isn't righted through other means.
So, when a local retribution network doesn't exist to set wrongs right,
children create their own - usually by associating with peers of like
mind and ability. The egress of "retribution networks" of local
adults supported by church or other 'long standing' organizations means
kids can't run to them with incidents of unfairness. The lack of
fathers in many households (some actually hide from public view),
combined with the increasingly violent nature of American society, mean
kids can't run to their fathers. So, they create affiliations which
in some circumstances evolve into full-fledged, crime and violence
oriented gangs. (This same phenomenon occurred after WWII and the
Korean War in the 1950's when many fathers were absent then, too.)
(I've witnessed a 10 year old from 3 blocks away intimidate an adult
man, early 20s, who had stolen his bike the day of the Baptist Church
hostage situation a couple years ago. Both a former Aldermanic
candidate, I and a motorcycle cop keeping the street closed at the
intersection witnessed what appeared to be a borrowing by an "uncle" from
his nephew but was actually a strong-arm robbery. Nobody should
underestimate the power of youth to form their own retribution networks
when none are created by us adults on their behalf.)
And, why is all this happening? Because the old beat cop, who
oftentimes served as a pseudo-father to many children without one,
disappeared throughout America. At the same time, the local
religious school communication and "wrong righting" networks also
disappeared. Once bussing across town to those much greener
pastured schools in that "other" neighborhood became free, there was no
reason for the existence of the other 'greener' pastured and usually
costly neighborhood religious school. Add to that the lack of
communication between older and newer neighbors due to the racism
associated with neighborhood integration and we've pretty much done
everything possible to destroy whatever communication networks exist in a
neighborhood. (As a sidelight, it should be noted that some
communication networks do exist BUT are often associated with kids sent
to obtain or deliver drugs instead of scouting, neighborhood improvement
or other such societally beneficial undertakings. Many of these
households, but not all, are gang affiliated. In other words, the
gangs are communicating and 'controlling' their neighborhood for as long
as they can get away with it.)
BLOCK WATCHES/CLUBS: What with 100 new people on
our one block every single one of the past seven years, maintaining a
Block Club/Watch is a full time job. It's more important, often
from the very first day, to get to know the 50 or so new kids so they
don't begin evidencing the destructive and violent behavior brought with
them from their old neighborhood. Getting to know the adults in
those families is hopeless. Most of my time is spent responding to
crimes and misdemeanors occurring on an almost daily basis around
here. (It also takes a lot of time to write letters such as this
one.) I spend too much time locking and unlocking deadbolts while
going in and out of my house to investigate something else that's
happened or about to happen for lack of my presence at one of my two
properties. And, in seven years, there's no one else among the
residents on this block who want to even talk to some of the children
living on this block - let alone become a Block Captain. Many of
the other 'so-called' Block Captains I've talked to are in similar
situations. They are the sole force behind their Block
Club/Watch! (And, even though I've officially ceased being the
Block Captain, my still highly visible presence makes most newcomers,
especially those up to no good, regard me as a threat.)
But, regardless of excuses and the lack of networking, something must
be done to provide growing children with a way of maintaining a "fair"
environment, or we'll continue seeing more and more gang formation.
It does no good for government officials to TALK about how bad gangs are
and how dealing with GANG members is despicable when government policies
(or the lack thereof) are the primary reason such gangs are being formed!
RECOMMENDATIONS:
1. Give some real power and resources in the way of abandoned
buildings to Block Clubs to decide upon and supervise voluntary remedies
to local crimes and misdemeanors. (Blocks without abandoned
buildings probably don't need these recommendations, now, but will in the
future.)
2. Give those same Block Clubs the authority and resources to
supervise landlords voluntarily participating. This would
especially provide absentee landlords with someone in the neighborhood
watching their property on a daily basis. (Bad landlords would
self-identify themselves by lack of participation AND the slum status of
their property. Some major landlords are very active in the
wholesale drug business and attempt to establish local Avon Lady type
sales networks at whichever of their properties are conducive to
same. They especially don't like shutting down an operation where
the customers are long used to patronizing. These are also
self-identified by the frequency of murders, gunshots, violence and other
'police' response calls associated with
them.)
3. Give Block Clubs the authority to issue citations on their
own. With the new 'booting' law becoming a reality, and given my 7
years of experience that most flagrant scofflaws and problems in our
neighborhood always have cars which could be booted for non-payment of
fines, such citations could finally have some teeth.
4. Like the domestic violence law, force the police to issue a citation each and every time they
respond to an actual crime AND one or more of the perpetrators is
discovered. This'll at least leave a statistical trail for those
proposing such dumb laws as the Graffiti Ordinance; who'll discover that
the problem lies not in citizen but rather police and judicial response to crime.
5. Create another less costly policing entity to enforce these
'unimportant' (to the gun toting police)
but 'critical' (to the unarmed and law abiding citizenry) minor crimes
and misdemeanors.
6. Give us citizens the right to carry weapons in public and use
them in defense of our lives AND PROPERTY. (I think Colorado has
such a law.)
(7. I used to suggest local
recreational outlets for kids needing to get off the streets into
places where they can discover that what they're being brain washed into
believing are the White man's rules, are really societal rules common to
everyone. But, in a society that hates children, that's not a
realistic suggestion.)
Let's face it. If you're unwilling to do
any of the above, then passing more laws converting honest, law abiding,
taxpaying citizens into criminals isn't going to solve anything.
What are we going to do, let more rapists, burglars, armed robbers and
child molesters out of jail to make room for "residents" who haven't
repainted their garages fast enough?! Are we going to disempower
residents further by empowering some faceless bureaucrat with a chip on
his or her shoulder deciding to enforce this one among all the laws now
going unenforced?! (The $25 million in unpaid parking and other
traffic violations prove that ignoring the law saves money. The
lack of enforcement encourages these same people to ignore other laws -
an escalating spiral that's gradually converting our entire citizenry
into law breakers.)
The condition of the Inner City itself, proves the long tradition of
selective enforcement of the laws. Who do you think is going to
stay in our city to subject themselves to such treatment? The law
abiding, taxpaying, home owner with one or two properties or the slumlord
who's long used to GETTING AWAY WITH ignoring the law while becoming rich
in the process?
