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Can the police stop drug dealing in Union Hill?
03/26/2011 6:49 PM by John M
The Union Hill twitter lit up earlier today with frustration at drug activity at 24th and M Streets, and the 900 block of 24th Street.
The corner of 24th and M just flat out sucks a lot of the time. And don’t forget, we have prostitution, litter, unleashed dogs, noise/public disturbance and public drunkenness at this intersection, too. And the vacant lot surrounding The Family Market (not owned by the store) is a trash dump!
But one thing that’s making it easier for the bad guys/gals to “hang out” at that corner are the two new bus stops placed there when GRTC buses got annoyed with the roundabout at 25th Street. I love the roundabout, but would’ve withheld support had I known bus routes were going to change because of it.
Please don’t label public transit users as criminals. I use public transit, and consider it an essential service that helps prevent community isolation of the working poor and elderly, and also helps ease traffic congestion for transit and non-transit users alike. This intersection is a real concern with likely no simple solution. I’m in favor of keeping a friendly working relationship with the police, as I’m sure they’re just as frustrated as we are. As a small step, would it be possible to increase street lighting, and install more trash bins in the area? Unkempt, poorly lit areas tend to attract criminals. What else can we also do as neighbors to help this intersection clean up it’s act?
Rachel,
I’m sure “some” public transit users are not of a criminal nature (I know some folks who ride the bus that are, in fact, not), however, I’m also sure that some are.
I did notice, though, one evening there was a police cruiser parked at 24th and M and that really seemed to do the trick. There was no one hanging out there. Clearly, they can’t park a cruiser there all the time; however, very frequent drive-bys would be a deterrent.
@2 I take public transit too. My comments were not in any way meant to insult my fellow GRTC passengers.
This is a tricky intersection for neighbor’s to police because it is bounded by two vacant lots (NW and SE corners) and two vacant homes (SW and NE corners.)
Neighbors regularly “stick their necks out” long enough to get a good clothing and vehicle description for the calls to RPD. The bad guys know who most of the “narcs” are. They see one of us out on the street and temporarily flee. But as soon as we go inside our own homes, continue down the street or go back to work, they’re back.
The big vacant lot on the SE corner has needles in it and is privately owned by one of our neighbors in UH. I’m not going in there to clean up and I suggest others avoid it, too.
Neighbors vigilantly pick up trash, tend the tree wells, kill weeds on the sidewalk. We spend a lot of time on the street being visible. The dealers and users are simply brazen and RPD is slack on this corner.
Good point about the streetlight…we had one shot out a while back, I’ll check to see if it’s been re-lit or if we need another.
This effort is awesome. How many blocks is this Trail of Needles from the precinct station again? Two blocks maybe?
This has nothing to do with the bus stop other than the bus stop gives loitering dealers cover.
Congrats to the neighbors around this area for introducing a sense of urgency to a long ignored problem.
If you live in the Union Hill area and would like to use the Twitter account to help ANONYMOUSLY tweet about crime, either send a direct message to @UnionHillRVA or email UnionHillRVA@gmail.com for the login information. We’ve got a half dozen neighbors who have already joined this anti-crime Twitter campaign on day #3!
If the property owner of the overgrown lot won’t or can’t remove the vegetation including all but one tree then maybe:
1. Code Enforcement can have the work done and cost put against the property for future collection.
2. Local tree contractors/landscapers be asked to donate work as a Public Relations effort.
Criminal activity requires cover, removal of cover and a street light will not make it go away but it will lessen it.
3. A direct contact to the local Police Commander for ideas along this line may be the way to start.
I do not live in the community/Richmond or I would consider the project myself.
I just wanted to leave a word of caution. The conversation about bettering our neighborhood is good and health on; however it is beginning to smack of racism and class warfare. The sensitivity of the issue of gentrification effects all of us in negative and positive ways. We all have the right to desire safe and affordable urban living, but we should also keep in mind the people who are displaced and the cultures who are further alienated.
Curt, where are you seeing signs of racism in the comments above? The class warfare piece I can see in some of the comments but accusing others of racism when they are guilty only of snobbery at worst? If there is any racism above, it would be your post for making some leaps about what your fellow posters are saying. Making disparaging comments about poor folks, some of whom may be minorities, does not equal racism.
Curt,
I just reread the posts and I didn’t see anything about race there. I don’t care what color the folks on the corner are who are openly selling drugs but it would do wonders for the neighborhood if it were to stop. Perhaps there is a “class” of persons who don’t mind open drug dealing on the corner (probably the same “class” that are there buying the drugs) but the “class” that lives here doesn’t want it. They need to leave a go to an area that will tolerate that sort of behavior.
Also, why is it that anytime neighbors want to clean up an area and make it better does someone always call them racists? It’s making the neighborhood better for those that live there no matter what color they are.
@8 LOL! You know NUTHIN’ about 24th and M and the folks who live in the surrounding area. Just so you know, I’ve seen plenty of white folks hang-n-buy up on that corner.
But the fact remains that the law abiding black people and the law abiding white people who live near 24th and M want this shit to GO!
Economics? This has nothing to do with how much money you got in our pocket or how fancy your house is. I have two neighbors who live quite modestly and don’t own a car. They rely on the small local markets for groceries. Every day, they walk 4 blocks out of their way to the store at 24th and Jefferson, just to avoid the drug corner at 24th and M. A lot of poor people hate criminals, too.
And the senior citizens in Church Hill House? They’re sick of walking (or rolling) thru the gauntlet at 24th and M.
And my friend who lives up the block from the corner won’t let her kids play on the sidewalk in front of their own house for fear of what they might see/hear/get caught up in. (Did I mention she’s black?)
Most of the men who hang on that corner are young and able-bodied. They CHOOSE this lifestyle.
If a black man from a single-mom household can be President of the United States, then these lazy mo-fo’s hangin at 24th and M can get their sorry asses off the corner and do something worthwhile with their lives and stop draggin down our community.
I have to agree w/Curt & SEW, there is nothing racist about wanting drugs, & trash and bad behaving people to be off the streets. These are the very things that create fear for others visiting the area -if they dare to enter! Having community pride works; but we must get those in every economic level to participate in keeping our street free of litter from the markets as they walk home & dangerous activity, like drug dealing.
To be clear, these are the directions we’ve given to the many people who’ve volunteered to help:
“Thank you for agreeing to anonymously join our campaign for Union Hill. Below is the log in for the Twitter account. Feel free to share it with others you know are interested in helping clean up the neighborhood. All we ask is that you report only what you see, refrain from racial, derogatory, or personal remarks, and remain respectful of RPD. Include a reference to @richmondpolice as often as you can. This is day #__ and we will continue until we are one year clear of drug activity I think we are already making a difference!”
Curt and Jose,
The crime in the targeted area knows no racial boundaries. The community has been working with the authorities on the target area for over 10 years and numerous neighbors have reached out on an individual basis to the usual suspects who host the activity in the area as well. The sense of urgency is in response to an increase in new faces, foot traffic, litter, possible prostitution and brazen dealing.
When neighbors call 911 or non-emergency, the person on duty usually says “there is no law against being outside” even when the caller can describe a specific suspicious car or person. No one answers the precinct line at night. Enough is enough.
I just think that this is awesome. It gives a whole new meaning to the phrase “neighborhood watch.” And seeing it last night on the news was awesome too. I found it comical that the police said something along the lines of “taking steps” to rectify the situation. Well played @UnionHill!!! Keep up the good work! I hope this movement helps!
Please keep in mind that I wasn’t accusing anyone of direct racism. I only caution that it can be easy to attach a consistent face or race or stereotype to the perpetrators. What CHPN is doing is well within it’s rights and I commend their efforts. I only urge everyone to keep a level head rather than make assumptions about suspicious characters on street corners. Remember: we all have a right to clean up this neighborhood and a right to live here, but we also have an obligation to be sensitive to the fact that we are gentrifying occupiers of an old cultural land.
Personally, I have only been here for a little over 7 years. From what I know over the past 7 years, things have improved dramatically. From what I’ve been told, however, this “old cultural land” 10+ years and more ago was a crime ridden wasteland. Prostitution, murder, drugs, gunfire, and a host of other unsavory activities were everywhere all the time in the Church/Union Hill area. It seems it takes gentrification to clean up the mess. It seems the occupiers of the old cultural land did little to nothing to clean it up themselves. Those up here who are not involved in the crime, etc. should be thankful that the “new blood” in the neighborhood cares enough about where we live and our neighbors to attempt to clean up the mess and move it out of the neighborhood.
I’m sorry, “old cultural land”? This area may have been an “old cultural land” at one point, but that has LONG since disappeared. And when it did, the thugs and drug dealers moved in. Sure, they may have a culture, but it’s not a culture that works (or frankly, is acceptable) in any city, anywhere!
@17 You’re right, We should respect everyone in this neighborhood. That’s why if someone is breaking the law, we don’t shoot em on sight. They go thru well established legal procedures.
But i digress…back to his issue of “old cultural land”.
In the 1930’s/’40’s and ’50’s when Union Hill’s population was at it’s peak, there weren’t any drug dealers and hookers hanging out on the corners. It was a safe, working-class neighborhood.
There are folks still alive who remember those days (they were youngsters at the time, and used to play and walk our streets in safety–their parents never had to worry about them running all over the neighborhood.)
THAT is “old cultural land” of this community: populated by hard-working folks who cared about their neighborhood.
In the 60’s & 70’s the city’s (and Union/Church Hill’s) populations plummeted. Vacant houses became flop houses and criminals took over the streets. The old-timers who stayed and the law-abiding citizens who lived here were feared the thugs ruling their streets. Thank goodness some good folks stayed, preserving the homes, churches and commercial buildings that date from the early part of the 1800’s.
In the 80’s and 90’s more law-abiding folks started to move back to the area: to fix up and live in the abandoned homes. When my family moved here in the mid 80’s, the elderly and low-income neighbors welcomed us with open arms. They were sick of living in fear of the thugs, and were glad we moved to their neighborhood to join the fight to push them out.
The real fight against crime has been going on up here since the 1980’s when folks started moving back to Union/Church Hill. Suddenly, the low-income residents and the senior citizens who were beaten down by the presence of an oppressive level of violent/drug-related crime had allies: new neighbors who were willing to protect the values of the “old cultural land”.
So that’s it. The criminals plying their trades at 24th and M (and other well known blocks/corners in Church Hill) have NO cultural claim to this neighborhood. They’re simply opportunists.
Ask one of the elders of this community (yes, one of the older church ladies will do) if the guys on the corner have a “rightful claim” to be here. See what she says and then see how you feel about all this.
I agree with capitalgal regarding “old cultural land’ – that term is way too profound for what is happening. The old timers I’ve talked to echo the statement that drugs didn’t get bad around the neighborhood until the 80s, even though the vacancies started in the 60s, and it was pretty safe and nice, even if poor, before the end of the 60s. Then in the 80s, when the lowest number of actual prople living in the neighborhood corresponded with the rise in cheap forms of cocaine, many residents of nearby public housing would use all the vacant houses for parties since they weren’t allowed to party in the public housing. These parties occured in vacant houses and on porches up through the 2000s; I remember seeing them. That’s why you see no trespassing signs on a lot of porches.
Anyway, corner drug dealing doesn’t have deep cultural roots here. I don’t think this has anything to do with gentrification. It has to do with living with dignity, which did have deep cultural roots here.
@Curt, We need to call terrible things out for what they are and conversely give honor where it’s due. Applying the label “culture” to the anti-social behavior of criminals that harm our neighborhood is misplaced paternalism, a mockery of “culture,” or both. Thugging on the corner is not a culture, but if it is, it’s not one worth preserving.
“We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and then bid the geldings to be fruitful.” – The Abolition of Man, C.S. Lewis
So I get a tweet today: “Party at 24th and M. You bring the crack and I’ll bring the malt liquor.”
How is that not racist?
It’s possible to be racist without using slurs and blatant insults.
@23, i know white people who drink malt liquor, i know black people who drink malt liquor, i know latino people who drink malt liquor. i know white people who do crack, i know black people who do crack (sorry, i don’t personally know any latinos who do crack.) i know white people who do/have done meth. drugs and alcohol don’t care about the color of your skin.
Curt, until you’ve lived here in the neighborhood of 24th&M, i don’t think you have an iotta of what this area is all about. we’re against crime in our neighborhood. and drinking on the sidewalk/street and selling drugs is illegal. ‘nuf said.
Several members of my family have been addicted to crack/cocaine, including my dad and my younger brother. We are white. How is crack itself racist unless you are putting your preconceived judgements to it?
Curt, the irony is, your efforts to keep this dialogue as PC as possible is the very thing bringing race into the equation. If the people selling drugs are black, then they are black. It is what it is.
PS- it should be noted that malt liquor is racist by its very nature.
Curt, are you saying you have to be a minority to do crack and dink malt liquor on the street? You are the racist one!
Curt,
People drink malt liquor and smoke crack on the corner of 24th and M and then they urinate on the sidewalk in front of everyone.
A few things:
@ #24 Capital Gal-I live on 23rd and eat Alamo once a week. Do I qualify as living close enough?
In regards to potentially racist comments, stereotypes do exist for a reason. And you aren’t fooling anyone when you say things like “you bring the crack, I’ll bring the malt liquor.” If someone had said, “…and I’ll bring the Teddy Pendergrass”, would white people come out of the woodwork claiming they love him too?
Look, Billy Dee Williams and Colt .45 know who their target market is. I’m not racist for saying that. What is potentially racist (and I stress potentially) is profiling people based on their likenesses and cultural similarities.
With that said, keep in mind, I DO NOT DISPUTE that their is crime in Church Hill. I don’t even dispute that there could be drug dealing and prostitution at 24th and M. My only caution is that we reserve judgment for people until we know their crime.
Remember: It’s easy to accuse anyone of anything. It’s much more difficult to learn to try to live in harmony with one another in a socio-economically diverse place such as ours.
So should being PC trump keeping the neighborhood safe? Should the cops adopt a policy similar to the granny-frisking TSA and pretend that everyone is equally likely to commit crime? I don’t claim to have a perfect answer, nor do I think anyone will.
It is racist to assume all black people deal drugs. I don’t think anyone will deny that.
My take is that safety should come first. I don’t claim to speak for the whole community but would guess most anyone, white or black, would rather live in a safe neighborhood even if it means the occasional mistaken stop as long as that stop is quickly resolved. Sure, we all want to have both. You can’t. Recognize that a push for PC is a tradeoff with less efficient enforcement for the sake of all people bearing the hassle equally.
If we have a finite amount of police manpower, should we spread it around equally everywhere or focus on neighborhoods where there are problems? If you want to catch fish, do you go to the river or do you spend time casting your line in the puddle in your backyard and the fountains at the park too. Like it or not, young black males are more likely to carry / sell drugs. That is a fact. If I say all young black males deal drugs I am racist (and wrong). If I have numbers that back it up, it is truth.
So should I devote my police resources where they will be most efficient or should I ignore this troublesome fact? My vote is for the former but I realize there are pretty good points to be made for both.
Curt, since you are so sensitive and can find racism in everything, here is a video for ya. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCdmiZyyGjQ
You should have a field day with that one.
Is it wrong that I really want to hit up Krispies chicken for lunch after watching that? Mmmmm best fried chicken in the East End.
Hey Curt, I must be a black man since I like fried chicken, right? Isn’t that the connection you will make?
“You bring the crack and I’ll bring the malt liquor.”
That’s funny don’t you think? One reason people don’t want to confront these problems publicly is they don’t want to be accused of racism. Well, plenty of black folks don’t drink at all and a lot of them are sick and tired of dealing with thugs and drugs. Who do you think the primary victims are drug violence are?
In the end everybody suffers.
This is an admirable, citizen let campaign. I hope we see more of it.