New Haven Independent

Such questions emerged in a heated “Conversation on Neighborhood Crime Meeting” Tuesday night sponsored by the West River Neighborhood Services Corporation, which drew 50 people to the community room at Berger Apartments on Derby Avenue. It was sparked by a recent spate of shootings, including a homicide in which police believe the victim was killed by a stray bullet from an exchange of gunfire between youth gangs that operate in the area.

Troy Lee (pictured) said when he was a teenager he had a government-funded summer job. “If you got nothing for these young kids to do, and they live in the neighborhood, what do you expect from them? They got no swimming pools, they got no rec halls, they got no job training programs for the summer.” He said once his two teenaged sons brought 18 of their friends to a field for a proposed touch football game between them and a group of men that Lee had tried to round up. “But I couldn’t get even six men to come out,” he said in exasperation, so the game never happened. He said his kids are still asking him when they can play that game.

“I have a van. Give me some money for gas and I’ll take a group of kids on trips,” he offered.

Aaron Darden countered, “Bottom line, some of these kids have never been taught to respect other people. I don’t want to do nothing for kids in my neighborhood, because they have no respect. They deliberately vandalize people’s property and am I supposed to want to go out and spend my money on somebody that tears up my property? No.”

A woman in the back of the room chimed in, “Did you ever think that these kids may have a problem internally where you, as an adult male, can try to encourage them? They may need someone to embrace them, to talk to them.” She said adults should never give up on kids. Click here to hear more of this heated interchange.

Rob Smuts (pictured), the city’s chief administrative officer, said most of the violence in the city can be traced to two groups: a small number of young people, and recent parolees from prison. He said the city has secured 1,200 jobs for youth this summer. While “it’s not enough,” he added that it’s more than in the previous two years. He said the only two city departments that escaped budget cuts this year were public safety and youth programming.

Smuts pitched a youth mentoring program proposed by the administration of Mayor John DeStefano two years ago (after two 13-year-olds were killed in the city by other teens) that has yet to get off the ground. He mentioned that recreation programs are available in sites throughout the city, but acknowledged that perhaps that information hasn’t reached all who could benefit from them.

Acting Police Chief Stephanie Redding announced that 53 new cops will join the force in December, but said, “We can’t arrest or police our way out of these problems. It will take all of us together to change things.”

Jim Rawlings of the NAACP said it is important for the community to have buy-in and not depend on the police for everything. “I would like to discuss with the chief administrative officer the idea of having the communities be more a part of the solution — having them assume some risk around police security and prevention programs. Then they own a piece of it. I think they’d be more pro-active if they were a part of it.”

Lt. Ray Hassett (pictured), who’s in charge of the police district that includes West River, said, “I think we can all agree this is not a bad neighborhood. We have just had a hiccup [of violence] here — a serious hiccup.” Those at the meeting seemed to appreciate the efforts of the police; several residents said police had responded quickly to calls for assistance with problems on their street.

Hassett drew applause when he admonished homeowners to “screen your tenants” to minimize problems in the area.

There were the usual calls for parents to step up and be role models for their kids, and stories from many of the adults in the room about how they had been kept in line as children not only by parents, but by other neighborhood adults.

Linda Ouellet (pictured on left at top of story) said she loves working with teens. “Where do we volunteer to help with kids?” she asked. She brought a teenager into the meeting who had been outside the room to express her wish for a youth center.

Eli Greer (pictured) lives in the nearby Edgewood neighborhood, and organized an armed citizens patrol last year after getting fed up with the violence there and accusing the police of failing to respond to it. He said ultimately the success in reducing crime there was due to efforts of both the police and the citizens’ patrol, “but the biggest part of that success was each individual in the Edgewood area realizing the game was over.” In other words, they could take back their streets from the criminals if they came out and worked together. West River Aldermen Yusuf Shah has been speaking with Greer about helping to organize and train an unarmed citizens patrol in the neighborhood; read about that here.

Kevin Ewing, head of the West River Neighborhood Services Corporation and the evening’s facilitator, urged everyone to come to another meeting July 22 as part of the Community Foundation-funded “Neighborhoods of Choice” program to plan to improve life in the district.

After the meeting broke up, residents gathered in twos and threes to continue the “conversation.” Troy Lee could be seen signing up another man to help him form an adult team to take on the youth in that long-delayed touch football game.

Greg Morehead, an alderman from the Dixwell area, attended in his capacity as vice-chair of the board’s Public Safety Committee.