New Haven Independent

Posted by: Marina | June 29, 2006 11:43 AM

Reporting "suspicious activity" can be a slippery slope and can have unintended consequences. Let us make sure not to use a blockwatch as an excuse to racially profile. Let us not allow the neighborhood to become any more unwelcoming than it already is to those are neither graduate students nor young professionals.

Posted by: Peter Dobkin Hall | June 29, 2006 4:51 PM

As captain of the last surviving of what were once four block watches in the Ronan-Edgehill neighborhood (across Whitney Avenue from East Rock), I commend the efforts of my fellow Lawrence Street residents.

When we moved to upper Lawrence Street two decades ago, it was a high crime neighborhood. The standard introduction for new residents was to be burgled. If you were lucky, the yeggs only took your valuables. If you were careless and left keys in plain sight, they'd usually load your car with your posessions and drive off.

In response to deteriorating security and City Hall indifference, residents organized block watches, hired a security guard (an off-duty cop who patrols at odd hours), and -- perhaps most importantly -- took responsibility both for the security of their own households and of their neighbors. Folks installed and used burglar alarms, motion sensitive lighting, and care about how they parked their cars and what sorts of property they left unsecured.

A very important aspect of our efforts was a willingness to report suspicious persons. This was no slippery slope. If such a person had legitimate business in the neighborhood, police let them go their way. If they did not, they were warned or apprehended.

The result of these efforts was a dramatic drop in crimes against persons and crimes against property.

Particularly useful to our efforts has been timely information on where, when, and what kinds of crimes have been committed. This has enabled us to alert residents and to focus the surveillance of our security officer. We particularly commend the INDEPENDENT for the information it now makes available on crimes in the city!

Posted by: John Zengerite | June 30, 2006 2:03 AM

People in East Rock forget that they live in a city sometimes. The best neighborhood I ever lived in, (I lived there for 3 years without much trouble) but some people are in la-la land- the neighborhood LOOKS safe, but it isn't.

You're not going to stop muggings and burglaries with block watches and block parties.

If it makes you feel better, brings you a better sense of community, makes you feel more in control, great. The cop is absolutely right about crimes of opportunity- the only way to prevent crime from happening to you is to shift it to the guy next door.

Somebody might want to follow up someday on the Jovin murder, speaking of crime in that neighborhood.

Posted by: Sven Martson | June 30, 2006 12:32 PM

I've lived in the Dwight neighborhood some 25 years and I can say with certainty that things like keeping porch lights on at night, installing motion detecting lights and alarms, window guards, knowing your neighbors and curtailing the activities of some social services, has gone a very long way toward reducing criminal activities in my neighborhood. In the last 15 years this part of town has gone from being intolerably crime infested to being reasonably secure. Certainly community policing has been a main component of this change and continues to be essential.

Posted by: RobN | July 1, 2006 9:31 AM

Just an observation about Marinas comment, "Let us make sure not to use a blockwatch as an excuse to racially profile." I've reread the article and I've failed to find any mention of race. Marinas assumption of possible future malicious intent (on the part of block watchers) is in effect, racial profiling.

Posted by: Ned | July 2, 2006 8:58 AM

Marina must be working for the PC police. I've lived in East Rock, on the "wrong side" (as my partner and I jokingly refer to it) of Orange St., i.e. between Orange and State St., for six years and other than being threatened by a homophobic neighbor, who has since moved on, I haven't had any problems. Too many absentee slumlord wannabees and transient, insular Yale grad students seem to prevent the block I live on from developing any sense of community (the traffic and deafening car stereos don't help...). The residents are outnumbered by the transient, aloof, students, and the rundown properties impart a negative vibe. I've had at least 20 new "neighbors" in six years. As far as New Haven goes, East Rock is very safe, unless you're a clueless ex-suburbanite grad student expecting a gated community. Also with all of the poor people in New Haven, there are going to be more criminals than say in Darien... I am the block watch, as far as I know, calling the city to have abandoned cars towed, and calling the cops when I see someone who looks like they're in trouble or up to no good; however, people who are only going to be here for a year or two apparently don't even have time to learn when the streets get cleaned or when to put their garbage out, never mind figuring out who "belongs" on the block and who doesn't, or bothering to care about the person next door...

Posted by: robn | July 3, 2006 8:18 PM

Another observation on this article. The "block party" occurred on Cottage Street. I live on Lawrence Street, where the first crime listed in this article occurred. I was completely unaware of this event. It would have been easy for the organizers to drop notes in mailboxes about the crime and the neighborhood gathering. Next time maybe the they should consider inviting people who live closest to the crime.

Posted by: regina | July 5, 2006 9:11 AM

ned said it best. we must get to know each other; get outside and talk to our neighbors, yale transients and homewoners alike. where i grew up we'd simply sit on the step in the evenings. it goes a long way in policing the neighborhood and building neighborliness. these are all things you do when you choose to live in a city. we cannot act like suburbanites and expect community.

Posted by: goompah | July 6, 2006 11:12 AM

At least it isn't a big city like Manhattan, where innocent people get gunned down right around the corner and none of the people in your building know about it because they're all busy taking taxis around the city, pretending they are on Sex and the City and convincing themselves they live in an urban paradise.

In this case, the only reason there is a feeling of insecurity is because everyone actually knows what is going on and cares about people, even if they live a mile or two away.

Posted by: Brennan | July 6, 2006 5:04 PM

I was somewhat surprised by the reaction to Marina's post, particularly since she didn't say that block watches shouldn’t be formed, only that, while forming and carrying them out, one ought to keep certain things in mind, lest one end up destroying the spirit of one’s neighborhood in an attempt to secure it.

Although I would join others in deploring any crime, particularly one involving a hand-gun, and applaud the formation of a block watch as a response (more a response than a solution, and one that I believe has value apart from its ability to prevent crime), I’m afraid that, having read several of the responses to Marina’s post, I’m more convinced than ever that the issues she raised need to be addressed.

Uppermost in my mind is the question of what exactly constitutes suspicious behavior (or perhaps more to the point, who constitutes suspicious behavior). If I’m walking down Orange Street to Nica’s to pick up some fava beans, am I behaving suspiciously? Should I turn myself in to the police? Just to be on the safe side maybe? If I buy my fava beans at Romeo & Cesare’s, am I behaving more suspiciously, or less, than if I had bought them at Nica’s? What if I’m listening to hip hop music while doing so? Do the fava beans cancel out the hip hop, thereby removing me from suspicion, or does hip hop trump fava beans? I’d hate to be stopped and questioned by the police, so please clarify.

In Mr. Hall’s response, he wrote that:

A very important aspect of our efforts was a willingness to report suspicious persons. This was no slippery slope. If such a person had legitimate business in the neighborhood, police let them go their way. If they did not, they were warned or apprehended.

This is curious for two reasons. First, because, while someone might require permission to enter your home, a person doesn’t need to be on legitimate business (itself left as vague as ‘suspicious behavior’) to walk through our neighborhood. That’s the difference between a mall and a neighborhood. Although the homes are private, the neighborhoods themselves and the side-walks are public space. If you want only people with legitimate business walking through your neighborhood, perhaps you should consider relocating your domicile to Foot-Locker or Pizza Hut.

Second, if Mr. Hall was calling the police on people without even knowing whether or not the people in question had legitimate business in the neighborhood, that would seem to me to represent precisely the slippery slope that Marina originally raised, since it is certainly within the realm of possibility that someone (not Mr. Hall, I’m sure) could call the police based solely on a person’s race, age, or gender, that to some these qualities alone would represent suspicious behavior in our neighborhood.

Even more confused was the response that, because race wasn’t mentioned in the Independent article, it couldn’t possibly play a role in determining what does and does not constitute suspicious behavior, and that Marina’s raising the issue itself constituted an act of racial profiling. This is breath-taking. To even raise the issue of racial profiling is now somehow to be guilty of racially profiling the block watch. Give me a break! Talking about race isn’t in and of itself racist, only being racist…is racist. Note the distinction. What’s more, not talking about race, or talking around it, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, or isn’t playing a role. It just means you’re not talking about it. Given the racial and class make-up of our neighborhood, there is sufficient reason to think that some people (certainly not most, but some) might equate suspicious behavior with the bodies of Black and Brown folk. Next you’re going to tell me ‘Urban Music’ has nothing to do with race either, right? “They didn’t say ‘Black’, they just said ‘urban’. You know, like Chaka Khan and Bobby Brown and Tupac and Mary J. Blige. People who live in cities. Urban. And any linking of ‘urban’ and ‘Black’ represents a fantastic, and wholly unwarranted, inductive leap on your part.� Please.

As for the charges of being PC, is it PC to talk about race, or is it PC to duck and dodge and avoid talking about race…all while talking about race all along? Let’s at least have an honest discussion. Otherwise, you’re just being PC.

Again, I think the mugging that occurred is horrible, and I believe the block watch is a great idea, but, given the make-up of our neighborhood, I don’t think it’s absurd to suggest that, while participating in the block watch, we remember to distinguish between suspicious behavior and a person’s age or race.

Brennan

Posted by: Judith | July 10, 2006 11:01 AM

I live on Bishop St., and I think a block watch would be a great idea. It's also premature--and, to my ears, more reflective of preconceptions than anything else--to automatically exclude grad students from participation. On my block, grad students have tried to organize a block party, know their neighbors, especially the dog-walkers, called the police at unusual activity in the wee hours of the morning, borrow things from people within the same house and in different houses, sit on porches, keep an eye on little kids running around, etc. All of these things keep "eyes on the street", create a community feeling, and can help reduce crime. It's true that we're more transient than folks living in the same house for 20 or more years, but we're often around for 2-3 years, at least (and often more), and a simple block party or introduction at the beginning of the year would do wonders help non-students feel less disconnected from the students on the block (and vice-versa). I find it odd that some seem to think grad students want to live isolated lives in the East Rock neighborhood--everyone I know lives up there precisely because it feels like an actual community, and students making a life for themselves in a new place for 6-odd years are looking for exactly that.

Posted by: Matt Uva | August 7, 2006 1:37 PM

There seems to be some confusion as to exactly what constitutes suspicious behavior.
I'm on Nicoll St. near the gas station (adoringly referred to as The YoMTV Shell). I get plenty of suspicious activity and it has nothing to do with fava beans.

For example...
One car pulls up and parks on the side of the road, engine running, 2 or 3 occupants. Five minutes pass, and a second car pulls up and parks. One occupant from the first car gets out and enters the second car. The second car drives around the block. The occupant from car one gets out and re-enters car one. Meanwhile, an occupant of car one has gone to the gas station and as he/she returns, is disposing of the contents of a cigar onto the sidewalk. Both cars leave.

or...
Five or six youths on 3 bicycles ride past my house. Three minutes later, the same five or six youths ride back with 6 bicycles.


The problem now is proving this suspicious behavior was actually a crime in progress. The police department is going to put your call lower on the totem pole because you have no proof of crime. Those kids could have baught those bikes. Those two cars could have been exchanging fava bean recipes.
I ran into this problem when I called about a car in front of my house. It was riddled with bullet holes and had a pool of blood on the driver's seat. The dispatcher kept asking me how I was sure they were bullet holes, and how I knew it was blood, since there didn't appear to be a bleeding corpse or smoking gun anywhere.

Kudos to the block watches. I hope this keeps up. If you folks need any help (or a list of suspicious license plates/car desciptions) let me know.

-Matt

p.s. most of your stolen bikes are ending up in the Poplar/Wolcott area, as I have followed plenty of bike thieves home.