Publication Date: Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Our Town: 'My friends are dying'
Our Town: 'My friends are dying'
(September 14, 2005) by Don Kazak
A room filled to capacity with angry, concerned residents greeted Ron Davis, East Palo Alto's new police chief, last Thursday.
But Davis, seated casually behind a small table, was cool and to the point as he launched into a 20-minute outline of a sweeping array of steps he is taking to curb shootings, homicides, crime and gangs in the community.
He spoke without notes and the tension in the room seemed to ease -- although the anger was still there -- when he talked about trying to restore calm to the city's streets in the wake of a triple homicide Aug. 31, and earlier shootings and deaths.
The triple killing brought the city's homicide count to 13 this year, 11 of which Davis said were gang-related. There were seven killings in all of 2004.
Davis heard the frustration and seemed unflappable. He's worked in Oakland -- enough said.
His police department faces a daunting task of reining in a gang war that is out of control. Davis won't name the gangs, but the last six homicide victims have all been members of a well-known Latino street gang. The suspects are all African-American, possibly members of an equally well-known African-American street gang.
But the killings apparently are not about race, Davis said, just about gaining turf.
Davis is calling in every federal, state and local resource possible to help quell the damage and heal the hurt.
The arrest of 44 medium-level drug dealers last week was triggered by former interim Police Chief Steve Belcher, who requested the help of the federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). The arrests followed a six-month investigation.
"That was phase one," Davis said, adding that he plans to continue that relationship.
But community confidence in the police effort isn't strong.
"I was once in a war and I feel I am in an war again," Marjorie Karenga, 37, told Davis last Thursday night. Karenga, recently arrived in East Palo Alto, is from Nicaragua. She said she lived through the Sandinistas/Contras war there in the 1980s. She slept on her floor to dodge bullets -- she is doing the same now.
Another recent arrival to East Palo Alto was a young Latino man who spoke through a translator Thursday night. He said he has been tired of drug dealers blocking his driveway with their cars.
He said he complained to the police seven times in the last three weeks but the police never once responded. His car has been vandalized three times.
"I'm not afraid of them," he said of the drug dealers, although he is afraid they might retaliate against his family.
Many other frustrations were expressed from a community of good people who have put up with too much violence for far too long.
Doug Fort, a 27-year-old former drug dealer now working with young men in Juvenile Hall and on probation through the For Youth By Youth program, riveted the crowd with his bluntness -- and humor.
"We also have therapy, because if you've seen what I've seen in this community you need therapy," he said of his program, bringing laughter to an otherwise somber night.
But Fort grew serious.
"If the community does not say no, people will continue to die," he said. "My friends are dying. Until the community says no, my friends will continue to die."
Waiting for last Thursday night's meeting to begin, I took some air on the City Hall steps and was surrounded by a bunch of Latino kids who asked me everything possible about myself. I was smiling and they were having fun, so I played along.
They were relentless in their questions and I caught on and started answering with questions about why. They laughed. I had gotten their joke.
They were smiling and full of mischievous innocence, as children are, laughing for any reason.
There would be a serious discussion behind the doors we were standing in front of, but the kids -- years away from that -- just wanted to laugh.
Senior Staff Writer Don Kazak can be e-mailed at dkazak@paweekly.com.
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