March 30 2011 19WCA Public Safety Minutes

19^th Ward Public Safety Meeting March 30^th, 2011

John Boutet, Marci Klein, Lisa Elam, Tom Ellis, Lt. Ray Dearcop, Bill Nichthauser, John Demott, Joanne DeMott, John Borek, Bill Nichthauser, Lisa Elim, Ted Forsyth, Reric Parkinson, Richard Schaeffer,

Marcella Klein, Joan Van Ness, Paul Van Ness

Officer Runyon: Hoping to be cleared for light duty next week, not necessarily at the NSC office. Write a letter to Chief Sheppard, Chief Maerkert to have her reassigned to the SouthWest.

401 Arnett is closed down house parties. Problem rectified.

Shots fired: 300 block Genesee Street, Somerset Street) dispute, first block of Arnett and on Jefferson

Drug unit : 35 Sherwood problem location, 688 Frost, 440 Thurston apartments

Car Chase Vehicle Pursuit: Menacing, starting at Chili and Westfield.

IDed several men who were armed and were encouraged to shoot a police officer

A request was made to refer to crime victim locations as ex. 200 block, 300 block, etc to afford some anonymity to the crime victims. When there are specific addresses that perpetuate community problems, those can be identified by specific addresses.

Burglaries on 400 block

Rugby and 300 block Melrose. Discussion about setting up a block club.

Councilman McFadden’s Thurston Road Street Watch

There were several members from The Social Welfare Action Alliance present.

Crime Mapping will happen: Chief Commitment to the program

PAL: Officers become coaches; put money into Pop Warner Football Leagues: Established a Board.

Deputy Chief Mike Wood was introduced and delivered remarks.

9 Ravenwood eviction: There were vocal objections to the intensive RPD presence during the eviction process. There were also lengthy comments made explicating the mortgage crisis, the Countrywide legal ramifications and the lack of appropriate oversight regarding law firms that ran eviction mills.

Chief Sheppard offered to meet with community and special interest groups to define an approach to eviction proceedings. He also stated that the City Marshall issued the order and ultimately the police must obey an order that is issued by the courts. He stated that It is not the RPD’s call to determine if it is a defective eviction process.

Congresswoman Slaughter and Senator Gillibrand’s office are trying to remedy this particular situation.

Adam will speak with Judge Castro who issued the order.

Adam is in talks with Fannie Mae (regional vice president) regarding the eviction.

The City Marshall’s office was responsible for the eviction not the RPD. The RPD was called in at the Marshall’s request.

Committee Chair John Borek made the following points before adjourning the meeting:

1) Public Safety meetings are run in an organized manner with respect shown to all parties.

2) If necessary, he, as Chair, will limit individual comments to 2 minutes and will invoke “out of order” rules when necessary

3) Groups such as Social Action Alliance are welcome to community meetings. He adivised that they should approach community groups such as the SouthWest Common Council and the 19^th Ward and work in concert with them in a way that the community groups can endorse.

4) The Nineteenth Ward has a long history of social engagement in fair housing practices, beginning with its 1964 legislation which New York State adopted to prevent blockbusting home sales practices.

5) Several people at this meeting had never attended any 19^th Ward meeting before.

6) Residents should make every effort to come out to 19^th Ward meetings on at least an occasional basis rather than only when an issue that is important to them comes up on the agenda.

7) It is inappropriate and inflammatory to use terms such as “war crimes” and “Nuremberg trials” when discussing neighborhood issues. If there cannot be civil discourse, there will never be a solution.

Submitted by Public Safety Chair John Borek March 30^th, 2011

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Marian Boutet on April 2, 2011 at 3:33pm

Thanks for posting this information, John.

It's a sad situation with the eviction of the family on Ravenwood. However, no one in the room was at fault, and no one in the room could have fixed it. I hope the Social Action Alliance coalesces into an effective group that helps put a stop to the predatory lending practices that did precipitate it.

Permalink Reply by Mark Sweetland on April 3, 2011 at 2:07am

I agree with Marian's comment, and just want to reiterate what was pointed out in newspaper reports, RPD did not initiate this, they were responding to US Marshall requirements that certain papers be served with actions carried out. I also am in agreement with John's comments, to an extent. Some of us because of work schedules are not able to make 19th Ward meetings. For example, I worked until 11 PM tonight. Some days, like the one before, I had to get up at 4 AM to be at work at 6. Please be aware there are people who care, but jobs do not allow attendance at meetings. My work times are different every day.

Permalink Reply by Margy Meath on April 2, 2011 at 3:45pm

I would like to add some comments to the minutes for the Thurston Street watch meeting as well as some general observations.

First, it is unclear as to whether the Street Watch meeting is actually different than the 19WCA safety meeting. Having attended this meeting several times, I know that there is overlap in terms of agenda and people who attend. This can make it quite confusing for someone who is coming for just the “street watch” meeting – and I think that this confusion was apparent in this most recent meeting. For example, the minutes above reflect that John, as “chair”, will monitor the comments, instill order as needed, etc. I’ve not been to all of these meetings, but I have been to most and my impression in the past is that this role was Adam’s. Likewise, I’ve never before experienced such forceful ‘out of order’ comments directed toward a participant. Clearly, there were very STRONG feelings in the room and inflammatory language was used. I’ve heard inflammatory language used during other meetings (i.e. about the police, about DSS to name a few of the ‘targets’) but don’t ever recall anyone intervening. I do think that there are ways of addressing this without shutting down discussion or fueling greater divides among people. I’d like to suggest that if there are “rules” for a particular meeting that they be established at the beginning of the meeting- Perhaps each meeting can begin with asking the group to agree on some basic ground rules. This may help cut down on inflammatory comments and/or diminish the need for people to step in and manage the group process.

I am concerned with the message that some of the ‘new people’ attending this meeting received. One of those individuals was there at my invitation as he had a strong interest in the eviction issue and was also attempting to connect some of the work he was doing with the greater 19^th ward. Although he doesn’t live here, he has worked to get other 19^th ward residents, including MSW students, involved in a variety of issues relevant to the 19th ward. The message sent to this group of ‘new comers’ is that they only showed up because there was something on the agenda that they care about. What else is new?? This is true for almost all meetings and it is not unusual or bad nor is it a message about whether people care! Rather than welcoming people with an interest in the neighborhood, some of the people were told they should go through proper ‘channels’ to discuss their concerns or receive support for their agenda…. At least 3 of the ‘new’ people who showed up are 19^th ward residents. The reason that they showed up is because they heard that the eviction was on the agenda for this meeting. They showed up because they care about SOMETHING – but I fear that the message that they received was less than welcoming, less than appreciative for their care/concern and energy.

Having been to many 19^th ward meetings, there is a pattern that I have observed and find somewhat disturbing. It goes something like this:

Certain people who attend meetings are viewed as ‘regulars’ and are viewed as caring more than others.
“new” people who attend meetings are sometimes viewed with suspicion regarding their motives and intent. There seems to be some unwritten rule in place that your presence in a meeting doesn’t really count until you have shown up for a lot of meetings and/or know the ‘right’ people - as an example, our new Mayor - Tom Richards came to one meeting 2 months ago and he has not been back since (nor had he attended previous meeting, but his presence at that meeting was highlighted. The fact that he 'showed up' was viewed as an indication that he cared about the 19th ward but 'regular' citizens are sometimes accused of not caring if they only show up once or twice to something.
dissenting views are viewed as being disruptive rather than something for a group to consider
residents who only show up every now and then are accused of being less caring or only showing up when it’s convenient to them
‘community meetings’ are sometimes highly structured and there seems to be a fear that it will get out of control. It appeared to me that this past week’s meeting was structured in a way to tightly control the discussion.

The 19WCA and other SW groups regularly discuss their need for more volunteers, more people to be involved, etc. Given that concern, I think that every single opportunity to engage people needs to be seized upon and that we need to be very careful about the messages sent (real or unintended) about people who do or do not attend meetings! Community’s change when concerned citizens act together on things that they care about – let’s not miss any opportunity to engage the people in our community who care!!

Permalink Reply by John Boutet on April 2, 2011 at 5:40pm

Here are some pictures from the March 30th meeting. Chief Sheppard arrived in time for Adam McFadden's Thurston Road Street Watch meeting:

He was latter joined by Deputy Chief Mike Wood:

They reviewed the events at the eviction of the lady and her children from 9 Ravenwood.
There was a lot of energy at this meeting and heated discussion.