Oh, I understand now, niggers found their way there.
-Ryan
"Millhaven" <millhaven@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:1193599018.240604.297010@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
to Utah crackheads - article includes a map:
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_7200152?source=rss
Neighborhood Watch launched
Pioneer Park: Neighbors decry rising tide of drugs, violent crime
By Derek P. Jensen
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 10/17/2007 06:59:59 AM MDT
Click photo to enlargeSalt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank,
second from... (Steve Griffin/The Salt Lake Tribune )«12» A tight-knit
band of drug dealers, who primarily peddle crack cocaine, are
expanding their criminal reach from Pioneer Park to the surrounding
streets, now lined with lofts, eateries, artists' studios and young
families' condos.
The pushers - who residents say use an elaborate system of
whistles, runners and stash points - often elude police but are
terrorizing a neighborhood caught in the nexus between homeless
hangout and rapid gentrification.
Last week's fatal stabbing at the park brought emotions to a boil
and, now, the neighbors are battling back.
On Tuesday night, more than 75 loft dwellers and other downtown
regulars crammed a nearby coffee shop to both vent to police and
launch a new Neighborhood Watch.
"People are scared," explained Shawn Nottingham, a 13-year
Artspace resident who gets approached by drug peddlers "every day"
near Pierpont Avenue. "They've never dealt with anything like this."
Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank emphasizes the drug
problem is not caused by the homeless, rather the dealers who blend
in. But he concedes an "alarming" surge in crack cocaine over the past
six months.
"More than we ever have had in the history of Salt Lake City," he
told the crowd. "Most of it coming out of Pioneer Park."
Burbank, whose officers instructed downtown dwellers how to
operate a mobile
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watch, insists cops are cracking down on the coke. He is doubling
patrols in and around the park. And the chief points to "astronomical"
arrests already - 500 in the past six months - in the area bordering
Pioneer.
But it is the new urban residents, Burbank says, who will be the
real key in helping police change the culture of the drug-riddled
district.
Said Burbank: "We are not going to arrest our way out of this
problem."
'Frankly, we're terrified'
From outside the tony condos, to the tattered units along
Pierpont, to the stylish new Artspace on 500 West, residents say drug
traffic has become a daily scourge.
And it is not limited to Pioneer Park.
Bohemians and young professionals alike say it is impossible to
walk to a restaurant, or take their kids to the bus stop, without
being approached by drug dealers.
"Frankly, we're terrified," said Brett Bryant, whose wife was once
accosted in their vegetable garden, where "crack wrappers" are now the
norm.
Bryant says dealers are remarkably well-organized, running
interference with binoculars and cell phones, and increasingly bold.
"We live there, but we don't own that turf," Bryant said. "And
it's because of one thing: our naiveté."
After dark, residents say the 200 South corridor between The
Gateway and 200 West morphs into crack alley.
John Fitzen, who lives with his wife and daughter in the Pierpont
Artspace, says the downtown daytime crowd would be shocked to see the
scene after midnight.
"The drugs are getting just outrageous," he said. "And it's
supposed to be cleaning up."
Fitzen likes the mobile-watch plan, but worries about
retaliation.
"These guys are more ganglike," he said. "People have got to make
a stand, but I'm worried about how far we can push this before getting
someone hurt."
John Evans, whose apartment was staked out one recent morning by
thugs from Pioneer Park, agrees.
"No matter how you look at it," he said, "you're going to lose."
The fear was crystallized last week when a man from the Dakota
Lofts was stabbed to death a block away in the park. Police shot and
killed the attacker soon after in Pioneer Park.
"That could have been me or my husband or anyone else I know,"
said Jennifer Lavrentyev, whose Dakota unit is next door to the
stabbing victim's.
For the past four months, Lavrentyev has tried, unsuccessfully,
to unload the downtown condo.
"I can't even sell it," she said. "People are really afraid."
A vortex of crime
The corridor around Pioneer Park has been ripe for criminal
activity for decades. The city concentrated shelters, social services
and a soup kitchen in the area. A nearby liquor store arrived and a
criminal haven was born.
But, in recent years, a neighborhood has sprouted around the park
- bringing parents, pets and professionals - who also want to use
Pioneer.
"Because there are transients in the area, the drug dealers can
blend in," said Jackie Skibine, director of development for Artspace
who argues residents of the Road Home shelter should not be blamed for
the criminal element.
Instead, residents and social workers say, the homeless often are
targeted by dealers as "mules" to deliver drugs and make a quick
buck.
Salt Lake City police dispatch records show officers responded to
at least 190 high-priority emergency calls in the Pioneer Park
neighborhood between the start of 2004 and end of March 2007.
All those were so-called "priority one" calls - involving physical
injury or imminent danger to life or property - spread over an area
framed by 200 South and 400 South, between 200 West and 500 West.
Calls from the neighborhood included 63 re****ts of someone toting
a gun or a knife, at least six stabbings and two shootings, 11 re****ts
of indecent exposure and eight robberies, along with an assortment of
vandalism, fights, burglaries and other re****ted crimes.
By definition, Skibine notes, Artspace brings people into "edgier
neighborhoods." She is under no illusion crime will be completely
stamped out, but says the extra eyes and ears should help.
'Empty promises
are not acceptable'
So, what can be done?
Pioneer's neighbors want around-the-clock patrol, more undercover
work, and stricter enforcement of the park's curfew.
Burbank says he already has doubled the downtown police presence,
boosted the bicycle patrol at the park and will send more cops to the
problem spots during early-morning hours. Cops, he said, will go door
to door downtown to discuss the drug breakout and warn residents about
vigilante justice. The chief also told residents not to count on the
Guardian Angels, since he said the group is not coming.
Mayoral hopefuls Ralph Becker and Dave Buhler both pledge to scrub
the area at all costs if elected. And both sup****t putting crime
cameras in Pioneer Park.
Lavrentyev remains skeptical.
"Empty promises are not acceptable," she said.
For Artspace resident Kate Skelton, who has re****ted everything
from prostitution to public urination, the solutions also ring hollow.
She says the latest drug traffic is "literally a cartel."
"I'm not optimistic, because it all boils down to resources,"
Skelton said. "We need cops, we don't need rhetoric."
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