Screw the formalities and all the stats. We've got some battle brewing in CAPS beat 2424. More specifically, the 2000 block of West Birchwood.
And if something isn't resolved soon all hell's going to break loose. That's if it hasn't happened already.
Last night I witnessed a family that's had enough of the constant harassment from a neighbor who calls 911 every-time the family decides to sit out on the front steps of their property. They are tired of being told they can't enjoy the outside of their property.
The family in question was furious. They feel, that because they're black, they get hassled extra, extra. At this point, I'm not taking any sides. From listening to the family that's getting hassled, they're a decent family. Even the Chicago Police at the meeting extended this acknowledgment.
But a couple white neighbors see it different.
I was shocked because one of these neighbors I know well. She's a community activist. She once, maybe twice ran for Alderman. The other was a older gentleman who lives across the street. His complaint was different, but had the same tone.
Here's the two separate complaints on this black family. The first one was lodged by the family themselves, which prompted this story. They allege the community activist calls 911 every-time the family sits on their own porch stoop. When the police arrive, the family is told to get off their porch and go inside. Admitted, the elder statesman of the family says he does have a drink or two on his own front porch, but isn't involved in any gang-banging, drug dealing or wild shoot-outs. Nor is his children. His major complaint in the matter is the officers always side with the community activist, white neighbor. He claims she's racist.
Complaint two was not some much subject to the family itself, but the building and the traffic this older gentleman across the street. He sees foot traffic come in and out of the building at all hours of the day and night. The family spokesperson who attended the CAPS meeting denied this accusation. This is when the meeting got into a heated shouting match. The beat facilitator and the CAPS Sergeant intervened, calming the matter.
Clearly, for the family to come to the meeting to lodge a complaint against a neighbor who was present at the open CAPS meeting and in front of the police took quite a lot of courage. I hope they continue to go to the CAPS meetings and continue to work with their neighbors. That's what's CAPS is all about.
I kept thinking though, something was missing. Maybe the CAPS program should end each meeting with a big group circle hug.
22 comments:
It was nice to meet a couple of loyal readers last night. Thanks for introducing yourselves. It's great to put a face to the on-line screen name.
If Dane, RP Newbie, I live here too or anyone else wants to send me their meeting minutes for 2424, I'll be glad to post them.
One more comment before I turn it over to the commenters.
Superman without the cape - Joe 'Drop the Purse' Moore and his 49th ward crusaders at the 49th ward service office were a no-show.
I feel like we don't have the whole story here. Are these people disturbing the peace at all- i.e. making excessive noise? What time of day or night? Is music playing loudly while they are out?
Of course people's sensibilities about noise differ (being a landlord living in the first floor of our 2-flat I am well aware of this). But there is an ordinance governing noise I believe that covers this. If I have time, I wil try and look it up and post it later.
It does seem like sometimes cultural differences can cause a clash. Some people want things peaceful and quiet. Others do not care about this. This is bound to cause conflict. I find it hard to believe these "white people" are complaining just because the neighbors are black, but stranger things have occurred. It seems more likely there must be something they are doing that is disturbing the neighbors to prompt them to call the police. I certainly hope this is the case.
It's a really fine line sometimes of how much one should tolerate what goes on around them and when one should complain. I feel this way about calling the police on public drinking. On the one hand I don't want to be unfair and pick on anyone, but then these people tend to swear loudly enough I can hear it in my home and leave litter everywhere.
The disharmony that can occur with black/white saddens me, but I don't know what to do about it. I try to maintain my compassion andnot get hardened- that is one thing I do.
p.s. Craig-I decided I am going to start attending 2341 beat meetings again and will be taking notes.
Since when is "porch sitting" a problem? Doing that is as old a Chicago. I thought we all wanted people outdoors and on their porch, to at least help keep neighborly eyes on the kids AND the 'hood.
Now, I've dialed 911 about tenants in my 2-flat who were regularly too loud, having drunken fights, and/or causing a ruckus on our porch. Trying to talk to those wackos, inasmuch as I was their landlord, got me no where.
Unless that is what's going on in this story, I'd say that it is the pesky/nosy neighbor AND the police who were disturbing the peace of a family minding their own business on their own porch!
Just the other day I was saying how no one sits out on their stairs anymore just like we used to. Craig you don't state what the complaining family complaints were you just state: "His complaint was different, but had the same tone." Is there more to the 1st complaint? And aye yi yi, the word community activitst soemtimes that is a euphanism for someone who complaines alot and does nothning in the comunity.
It's going to take more than a hug to straighten this situation out.
Yes, this sounds like racial bigotry to me,as well as a cultural clash between "city" ways and "rural" ways.
It goes without saying that the members of the family ought to be able to sit on their own front porch and have a drink without being harrassed and BEING TOLD TO GO INSIDE!!
I'm very familiar with the kind of cultural bias the complaining woman is displaying. In my mother's suburb of St. Louis, nobody but NOBODY sits in front of the house, ever. You are considered wierd and "hoosier" for doing this. Same thing with our south city nabe where I spent my teen years, which was a very tightly run German blue collar nabe where people trimmed the grass edging the walk with scissors. Sitting on the front porch was very outre. People went to their front stoop only to scrub it.
And when Africans began to move in to some areas, the chief complaint was that "they sit on the front porch!!", like this was a terrible crime of some sort.
The complaining white neighbor really needs to get a grip and examine her own cultural biases. I know, I know, I have the same bias. But there is really nothing wrong. objectively speaking, with sitting on your front porch.
More than that, maybe we all NEED to be sitting on our porches or in our courtyards more. Get to know each other. Get more eyes on the street. Get to know who's on the street.
If people had been sitting on the front terrace of my bldg in St. Louis one hot night, instead of up on the 10th floor in front of a TV, I might have been spared being drug allover the street and nearly being murdered. I mean, why not sit there, on a beautiful terrace that had a fountain on it, and have a glass of tea or wine or something, and catch up with each other and watch the street a little?
What's sad is that the complainer has probably poisoned the well forever, and even if she comes to her senses, there will always be tension and distrust in her relationship with this family.
Neighbors discussing problems in a proctored forum.
MH on the HH.
Tom Tom club broke up.
JG went ZULAC.
NM on the HH
2007 has been a great year for RP.
Could Craig or someone else who was there clarify the story a little?
Is the issue that the white activist and "older gentleman" seem to believe that members of the black family may be some kind of look-out for alleged crime-related foot traffic happening in their building?
Trying to make sense of complaint number two and what it has to do with the family; it's a little hard to follow.
What? Now people can't sit in front of their property -- not causing any trouble -- in peace? Lord save us from neighbors who view every little petty thing as a major infraction!
You really have to keep yourself in hand once you decide to become an "activist", so you don't become a power-tripping control freak.
Commitment to and involvement in your community is healthy and necessary, but it very easily morphs into a desire to exercise ownership rights over everything around you. You have to remember that while you have the right to object to and control things that are proven to be a bonafide nuisance or threat to your life, health, and enjoyment of your own property, that other people own THIER properties and businesses, and they have rights, too.
We are mostly self-proclaimed liberals around here, so lets live and let live. That doesn't mean tolerating the intolerable, such as bad buildings, garbage strewn around, criminal activity, intolerable noise, slovenly yards and houses. It just means to respect someone else's right to be different than you.
Jocelyn said it. We don't have the whole story here. The key word on all sides is "allege". Maybe the other commenters were at the meeting. If not, what are you basing all these conclusions on?
Laura, don't you ever wait for the signal before you race off down the track? Some of us recognize the activist that Craig is talking about here. Whatever one might think of this story, many who know her will agree she deserves to be called an activist without the addition of your sarcastic quotation marks.
Okay, I'll fess up. I left the name out on purpose. I got a good chuckle on this one. My description was far better than Joe's purse snatcher. Everyone knew right away.
And onto this story. Here's what bothered me.
She didn't defend herself when the charges were raised or offer any reason why she calls 911 on the family all the time at the meeting. After all, she is a master debater. But hold on.
When the subject got heated, the officers asked that the matter be discussed by the parties involved after the meeting. Protocol asks that no one subject dominate a entire CAPS meeting.
The family who came to demand answers as to why they were being singled out, they stayed around, along with the activist and the 'across the street' neighbor. They all stayed for nearly an hour.
Progress seemed positive according to facilitator Dane. Time will tell. But this was a good start.
So, I gotta say, the CAPS program worked last night. Still, maybe next month they'll try the group hug thing?
I recognize the person, Rebecca, and I respect her for what she's done.
But this sounds like a law-abiding family who owns its property.
Like I said, I know the cultural bias, because I have it myself and know it is something I need to get over. I once really disliked people for sitting on their front porches.
And I notice that many activists do let their influence go to their heads a little.
It sounds hard to know exactly what was going on. Drinking on the porch? Lots of people going in and out? The neighbors may have grounds for complaint. If the people are being loud, disruptive, or engaged in illegal activities, their concerns are fair.
Unfortunately, a cultural gulf does exist around here. It's hard to find common ground on something as disruptive as noise ...
The northcoast has got a point.
I think CAPS facilitators should promote sitting on one's front porch during the early evening hours.
It'd help stop some of the "goonings" as people walk home, jog, etc.
Craig, the disappointment is mutual. I am disappointed that you did not bother to ask me what was going on. I’ll identify myself, thank you. I would have identified myself as the "racist" next door, if my two or three attempts to be given the floor had been acknowledged. I am also disappointed that you did not bother to stay for the entire "group hug", an allusion I find to be patronizing. I am disappointed that you did not notice the Sergeant asked the gentleman that got so out of control what time the calls were made and the question went unanswered. I am disappointed you walked in on a problem that has been going on for months and jumped to conclusions.
If you had bothered to do more investigating, you would have learned that the people there came because the beat car had invited them. You would have learned that there were three families represented there. You would have learned that I have no problem with the second floor, who now go to the backyard after 10 o’clock, if they want to continue to party. You would have learned that all the phone calls I made were after 10 o’clock at night and after asking them to quiet down. You would have learned that they are not sitting benignly on the front porch, but are sitting on the strip of grass in front on the building and on the sidewalk. You would also have learned that the final straw was one night at midnight there were over 20 people out there, drinking and playing loud music.
If you had done more investigating,you would have learned that the gentleman who was out of control is frequently intoxicated. When the noise ordinance is in effect and he is asked to turn the music down and talk quietly, his response is "Fuck you, bitch. You do what you gotta do." You would also have found out that the wife of the gentleman who got out of control calls the police on him herself. You would have also heard about the screaming matches that go on in the middle of the night between the wife of the man next-door and the wife of the man across the street.
I didn’t feel a need to "debate" the man who was out of control. I can only think that you wanted a debate for your own amusement. I live next-door to him and already know that it would have escalated the meeting even more. If you lived next-door to him, you would already know that trying to reason with the man is futile.
If you had bothered to br more attentive at the "after meeting", you would have learned that daughter of the woman who complained that a neighbor told her that her 12 year old daughter is "running the streets" now knows that the daughter is indeed indulging in high-risk behavior. She apologized for her remarks and has now given that neighbor her telephone number so that the neighbor can call her when she sees the daughter out when she is not supposed to be. (The last thing I was going to do was tell that woman what her daughter was doing in front of all those people. She is a good woman, concerned parent and works hard. She did not deserve to be embarrassed in public.) You would have heard the woman on the second floor next-door come up to me to apologize for the racist remarks and to assure me that that was not her sentiments.
My neighbors who came to the beat meeting are all concerned parents. Being a concerned parent and being loud late at night are not mutually exclusive. They have lots of children and are very noisy. I look at it like moving next to O’Hare airport. However, even the planes have to stop flying in the middle of the night. In Chicago, the noise has to stop at 10 o’clock.
In all the years I have known you and heard criticisms of you, I have asked for your side before I drew a conclusion. You came into my neighborhood for one hour and think you have a handle on it? (I won’t count the time you were so frightened by a group of black males standing in front of Safe Haven, you said you were never coming back again.) It is this kind of irresponsible reporting and the ignorant responses to irresponsible reporting that keeps me from reading blogs more often.
Whether or not you believe someone is a racist is like trusting someone. It cannot be dictated. The race card is an easy, cheap and cowardly card to play when you want to divert attention away from one's own behavior. The fear of being called a racist, too frequently stops people from doing what they think is right. I would be calling the police under the same circumstances if my neighbors were purple. I do not feel a need to defend myself against an accusation of being a racist - I know who I am.
Karen Hoover
Karen said.....> "If you had bothered to br more attentive at the "after meeting", you would have learned that daughter of the woman who complained that a neighbor told her that her 12 year old daughter is "running the streets" now knows that the daughter is indeed indulging in high-risk behavior.
High risk behavior? Please explain high risk Karen.
To the best of my knowledge, she's not slinging dope on the corners, not shooting up the neighborhood with a gun.
She's making out with the boys.
When is making out with boys illegal?
12 year old girl kisses boy, neighbor calls 911.
>"12 year old girl kissing boy call 911"
hmmmmm, I suppose it would depend upon how old the boy is and who he is. Do you have all the facts Craig or are you just making it up as you go?
Do you know how old the boy is? Is the girl out after curfew? Is the boy involved in gangs?
Sounds like you only know half the story.
Karen is the last person I'd call a racist. If you had loud crowds of drunken and/or rowdy people on the lawn next door to you on a regular basis, you'd probably be calling 911, too. As late as these folks hang out, I don't consider it a cultural thing. I consider it a lack-of-courtesy thing.
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