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City of Flint Dot Net |
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After reading this article in the Flint Journal I couldn't help but scream. To think that the Flint Police dept doesn't understand why people would refuse to testify. I heard a trucker on the C.B. once complain. "The company gives you an attitude, they they are upset that you give it back" I believe this fits perfectly as to the situation here in Flint. Not that the Flint Police dept is remotely concerned with correcting the problem, or, ever really fighting crime (reference Flint's crime rate). They still haven't figured out why Crime is so high. I will attempt to outline it here for them. I learned years ago, that when there is a problem, if you don't have a solution, there isn't a problem. I have the solution. The problem is it involves just plain doing their job. Nothing more, Nothing less. Unfortunately now it will take many years for the Flint Police to ever gain the respect of the Community, enough to be trusted. Situation after situation, while living in Flint, the Flint Police Department has let people down. I'm not going to get into hearsay. I'm only going to reference my own personal experiences with our illustrious Police Dept. I'm not writing this to "run them down." Only to point out their many failings. There is a big problem downtown. I personally blame the leadership. From the Mayor (former Mayor included) on down. Since when is pointing out the truth running someone down. Going back to as far as I can remember. I was 7 years old (1975). We lived at the corner of Cecil dr. and Jewell. Now, I do not remember the two times our house had been broken into, I was too young. Only the event that caused my family to finally, move out of the city of flint. We had a drug dealer that had moved in to our neighborhood only four houses from the corner. He had put in kennels for his dogs. He used to go out on a regular basis and beat his dogs. I was out playing in the yard. We heard a gunshot. One of the drug dealers dogs had bit him and he went in his house. Grabbed a gun and shot it. I saw the neighbor Mr. Ford come out of his house hollering at the guy about shooting off a gun in the city limits. The two of them stood out along their fences with a yard in between them arguing and cussing. What I didn't see at the time was that the dealer still had a gun on him. I was out in front of the next door neighbors house watching. A few minutes later a police car pulled up. (Now race is going to become a factor here only because the officers made it one.) Mr. Ford was White, and the dealer was Black. Both officers that arrived where black also. Once they arrived the dealer came out of his yard and so did Mr. Ford to talk to the Police. They seemingly ignored Mr. Ford and starting talking to the dealer like they had been best buddies. Now they are all out at the Police car, I was about 20 feet from them by the driveway of Hubert's next door. As the discussion started to get heated, as to the Dealer being able to stand there, in front of the officers, with a gun, and point it right at Mr. Ford, and the Officers did not do a thing about it. Mr. Ford then threatened to go back in his house and get his gun, If they were not going to do anything about him standing there waving the gun around and pointing it at him. That's when one of the officers told him "No your not, we've got this under control" Mr. Ford replied Something about 'it not being blank blankety blank control.' Then Neighbor across the street Mrs. Bach poked her head out the front door and hollered over the officers "hey that guy just shot his dog" The officers replied, "lady get your ass in the house all you whities stick together" Mrs. Bach who saw me out there then called my mother and told her I was out there. Needless to say, Mom called me back in. I truly have no idea what the final outcome was. And I don't remember. Only that if you call the police in Flint. That racism swings both ways. It's wrong no matter which side of the fence your on. Racism is only one, of the many reasons the community doesn't respect, confide, or trust the police, or the judicial system. Oh yes, and White flight did happen in this neighborhood, real quick to. All the names mentioned above, plus four other families not mentioned, moved within one year. Well out of the city limits. My family moved out of Flint. I moved back after a six year hitch in the Marine Corps. I was able to purchase a home within my budget. (it's almost not in my budget anymore as my insurance rates have skyrocketed because of the crime in this area) Within the first year. I had a run in with the one time infamous cobras. Ended up getting my forehead smashed with some brass knuckles. It happened over by the park at Broadway and Vernon. When police arrived at my house on Levern, I wanted to go with them, and point the guy out, and press charges. They insisted they didn't need me to identify him, as they knew who it was. They then told me it was in MY BEST interest to let it go. Now, I was hot. They refused to do anything. When you have a citizen willing to press charges. You don't tell them it's in their best interest to let it go. Still, police can do only so much by themselves, Leyton said. "Until the community steps up to its responsibility to help solve crimes and help look out for their neighborhoods, we are not going to get this problem under control," he said. OK, Mr. Leyton, that sounds good in a sound bite. But, when the police refuse to do their jobs what good is it to have citizens willing to prosecute or even testify if the police won't take action. A few years back. One of the many tenants of the house next door got into a scuffle with his girl friend. Since, I video tape everything that happens along side my house, were my car is parked, when I'm in bed sleeping (due to the fact that my car has been broken into 3 different times) I caught the whole thing on Video. When the police arrived. They were out talking to the neighbor 5 houses down the street about what he had seen. Hmmm good investigation work. Talk to the guy FIVE houses down, but when the guy next door to the incident comes out tell them the information I HAVE. Here's what I did. I came out and stood at the gate of my yard and asked, "would you like to know what actually happened? I've got it on tape." The police respond sternly." Is there a problem." Like I'm interfering with their investigation. So, I just stood there a minute to listen to what was going on. Well the officers were telling this neighbor all about the things they could do or can do if they want to. Again. When you spend more time talking about doing your job instead of doing it. The community responds in kind. Witnesses are more fearful of retaliation. And in many cases, the victims' families don't want to involve police in matters they'd rather handle themselves, police said. When my neighbors house was broken into and his assault rifle and all his hunting guns and equipment was stolen. It took police over FIVE hours to respond. But, when just weeks earlier that same Crackhead that broke into his house and stole his guns called police because my dogs barked at him and he threatened me. They responded within TEN MINUTES. Yes folks it only took them 10 minutes to appear. I didn't call police when he threatened me. I personally didn't' feel threatened. I would have beat his Crackhead's Ass back into stone age. Yes, I would have handled it myself. Just as we should have handled the break in ourselves when Police told us where bouts the Guns were being kept after my neighbors house was broken into. Yes, Police knew and two years later still haven't done a damn thing. Why do people not get involved? Why do they take matters into their own hands? The attitude of unwillingness, coupled with a lack of resources, are making things tough for police all over, said Genesee County Prosecutor David S. Leyton. This may have been a fair statement if "the attitude of unwillingness" was in reference to the way the Flint police dept goes about fighting crime. I almost get the feeling that when the officer on the scene makes out a report. His job is done. It's almost as if he has filled out a report and it goes to some unknown higher power to be prioritized and disseminated to the detective that is to do the actual investigation. Hey that's a whole another world, I did my job. It's out of my hands. I believe this is where the phrase "well what do you want me to do about it?" comes into play. Here is another one. A few years back, My house jumped up off it's foundation ran out in the street and was hit by a drunk driver. Oh and my car parked in my drive way went out there with it. I had plans to go to DC and see Les Miserables at the National Theatre, The next morning. Needless to say I never got to go. I spent the next couple of days searching for the truck that ran into my house and car. I did find it. Only a few streets over. I phoned in the information to the Flint Police dept. I even went down because all's I was allowed to do was leave a message for the detective. I wanted to talk to the detective that was working on my case. Make sure he received the information. I never did ever get to talk to the detective. He did mail out the ticket to the hit and run driver and my insurance did cover all the repairs. But here is the difference. A few years back I ran into a situation while I was working out of state. My Phone had been shut off because I didn't want to pay a bill I wasn't using. During the time my phone was disconnected. Someone who had that number for obviously a short time. Had called one of those psychic friends numbers. I called the post office, phone company, FBI and Flint police. No one could offer any assistance. they all recommended contact local police http://www.cityofflint.com/Police/IDtheft.htm. I did. They were of absolutely NO HELP. If you go to their website. You will find that the City of Flint is not set up to deal with any type of Identity Theft. On a hunch. I went over to the Sheriffs office. Took my bills and the collection notices from this company in Florida trying to collect. The lady at the Sheriffs office looked at everything. Said she would write a letter from the sheriffs office explaining the same thing I've explained to these idiots. And to let her know if I received anymore notices. The notices stopped coming and the whole thing went away. Well not exactly. The sheriffs dept called me three times in the following months to make sure everything was still ok. WOW. I wasn't used to that. I thank her profusely. After years of dealing with the Flint police dept and not being able to get the time of day from any of them. The sheriffs dept not only takes care of the problem but follows up on the victim. What a novel idea. First take care of the problem. Then they follow up to make sure it has been completely taken care of. I just wish 911 went directly to the Sheriff's dept. Although, I don't know if I could get used to crime actually being solved and criminals being arrested. It just wouldn't be Flint anymore. I've become too accustomed to when I hear someone screaming or Gun shots that are too close for comfort. Coming out of my own house with the shot gun and pit bulls to see what's going on. The last time I almost shot me two dogs that had attacked a neighbor and had her pinned to the fence with the baby in the stroller. (BTW, if you've read any of my other pages) It was my own Pit bulls that had alerted me to the problem. I didn't have the camera on yet, so I didn't hear what was going on. As soon as I got close to them and had the lady behind me, the dogs ran away. Now what is interesting about that last little bit about the dog attack. When a Crack head calls about a dog barking at him. It takes police 10 minutes to show up. But when she called the police they told her to come down to the station and fill out a report. LOL. The lady was bleeding from the Dog Bite. Well they did offer to send an ambulance. Now, Here I am going to use a little bit of hearsay. She wanted to press charges against the owner. Police claim they could not contact the owner. Funny, I see him all the time. The lady has since moved, but he is still here. Oh and when some kids came by and stole one of his pups right out of his yard. He called Police and when they showed up and talked to him about it. I guess they couldn't find him then either. But, they talked to him. I saw them talking to him. I still can't figure out why they can't find him. Well never mind. Well this is my page and I can write as many things as I want to. Yes I'm a bit long winded on this subject but I have so many more examples. Let's take the first time my house was broken into. I was out of state. Someone had pried open my bedroom window and stolen some things from my house. Finger prints all over the window sills. Embedded into the paint! Oh and they are still there! I don't clean very well. We had to BEG yes Beg to get an officer to come out. When he finally did. We asked him if they would at least take fingerprints. their response; "why would we do that, who would we match them up to?" We looked dumbfounded at him and asked are you going to do anything? His response, "Well what do you want me to do about it?" Again why does the public not want to testify. If this is the amount of investigation the Police do. What makes us trust the the police are going to do anything to protect us if we testify. Oh and if we do get killed for testifying. They won't take finger prints. Oh and on the subject of break-ins. While I was working out of state, someone broke into my shed and stole a automobile tow bar. I never called Police. I was really tired of hearing their infamous phrase. "well what do you want me to do about it?" Well, in the spring when the snow had melted. I was in the back yard cleaning up. And low and behold guess what was in my neighbors back yard? If your bright enough to read this page to this point. Your smart enough to figure it out. Yes, it was parts of my tow bar that used to be in my (LOCKED) shed. I then called police, hoping that they would come by and retrieve the pieces and possibly recover my property. Mostly it was so as I do not loose my temper and do something stupid, say beat the crap out of them, or evict them from my neighborhood. Their response on the phone was:" is it yours? Does it have a serial number?" I responded, "Not the pieces that connected the bumper to the frame." Them " Well then we can't do anything." Hmm, do you think that maybe they were the ones that broke into my house also???? I DON'T KNOW?? DUHH!! I went over and gave them fair warning about coming into my yard for anything. They moved shortly after that. However, I'm surprised I didn't get arrested for communicating a threat. As giving someone a conditional threat say if they brake into my house again you'll shoot them is illegal. However, breaking into your house and stealing the things you've worked to own, isn't in the city of flint. "The violence will continue ... until the community stands up and says, "'Enough is enough,'" McAra said. We the people, call the police when there is a problem of crime or a law being broken. We have officers that go around and take down Rummage sale signs and hand out tickets for not wearing your seat belt. The police will respond to Dog's barking. But, don't bother to call them if you've been attacked, or your house was broken into, or a dog attacks you, or your car has been broken into. Now they want people to testify in a real crime like a murder. What a joke. They spend years slapping the public in the face, then want us to help them solve only certain crimes. It's all or nothing. Oh, and I have no fear of retaliation from anybody. If I know something. I'm sure not wasting my time calling the police or testifying. You've created this attitude, the "Conspiracy of Silence" Now live with it, or change your tune!
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