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Crack User on Doorstep
Crack user on my doorstep
It is just after 2 p.m. and I went out to retrieve my mail. I spotted a young man sitting next to the building Dumpster. He said hello. I went inside, looked out the window and saw him smoking crack. This is next to the convenience store at Cypress and Camp (which ought to be closed because of the element it attracts).
I thought the cops had cleaned up the drug problem in our wonderful tony neighborhood.
Peter Cassels
Update:
After I wrote that blog entry, I then went around the corner to see if someone was in the police station. As I did so, I spotted the same guy doing a deal next to the entrance to the convenience store.
Luckily, the Lt. was in the district station, but no one else. I described the guy, who was white (green jacket and blue jeans, very very thin). The dealer was a young black guy. By the time he [Lt.] got off the phone, the guy and the dealer were gone. The Lt. did "take a walk" though, but came back empty-handed.
The thing that bothers me the most is that it happened next to the district station, in broad daylight (the smoker and the deal) at about the time school gets out and the intersection is filled with kids on their way home.
What can we do to shake up the cops to do more than they are doing?
For one thing, it seems to me that a concentration of undercover drug detectives could clean up the Crossroads in a matter of a few weeks. Undercover stings would send the message that drug dealing will not be tolerated in Mt. Hope.
Peter Cassels
Editors note: The above post reflects the feelings, experiences, or the opinion of the writer (Peter).
Blogs are a medium for people to express their indivdual viewpoints and these should not be construed as being the viewpoint of GCCC or of the Mt. Hope Community Website.
Posted at October 7, 2005 02:41 PM
Some people might not realize how different it is living near the "Crossroads", Camp & Cypress. Here, the impact of the open-air drug market in Mt. Hope is like a slap in your face every time you leave your home. It is a much different experience from living down on, say, Lancaster or Woodbine, off of Camp St.
I sympathize with Peter. I live a block and a half away from the"Crossroads" and I can't leave my house without seeing junkies, dealers dealing in the park or on the corner or cruising around in cars and parking on my street to conduct a sale.
When drugs are present and for sale around the Crossrads it is a palpable presence in the air. One can feel it in the energy on the street, and you can see it in the dealer's and drug user's faces as they ply their pathetic trade, poisoning their own neighborhood and their own people.
Pretend it doesn't exist at your own peril because if you live in denial and turn your back on it, it will expand and take over the entire neighborhood again, and it will go back to like it was when I first moved to Mt. Hope.
Drugs ruled the neighborhood then, now they are a nuisance, but a terrible, destructive nuisance that ruins the quality of life for many Mt. Hope residents.
Posted by: John at October 7, 2005 04:54 PM