Mel, I may have inadvertently contributed to your street story with the police. I've gotten really pushy with the police about certain issues. You feel the police overreacted because you were just harassing city employees. Sure, we all understand city workers are just little people not far above us gangsters.
Most folks on the list think I just went to the Quality of Life Task force to assist the FOCP and SHCA leaders when they insisted on making idiots of themselves, but I actually pushed back. I pushed when the claims of killer dogs came up back then. For example, the police brought up the guy that was getting killed by dogs almost everyday. Of course, they knew who this bully was and I had also just made a formal complaint against the police about the harassment of the Clark Park drummers. What became apparent was that the police were as frustrated about the neighborhood cranks attempting to use them to bully neighbors and park users, as was I. Melanie, what I've pushed for was for the police to start arresting and prosecuting neighborhood cranks who make crank calls. Mel, the police may have had you on a watch list. I believe this may have prompted them to be more aggressive about your harassment of the workers. I want to credit and thank the police for arresting you that night. But you can see why my pushing may have contributed to your unpleasant experience. Melanie, it has nothing to do with you running around 46th St in a skimpy nightie at 1 AM. I don't care if you want to run the village streets naked all night until the "state of emergency" curfew is imposed, I won't call the police on you. But if you'r harassing anyone or making crank calls, even though I consider you a close friend, I will call the police on you. In 2004, I was looking forward to calling the police on Tony Siano and Brian West when they were planning to harass me and some rather hard working city workers performing their duties. But please Melanie, while you can be a bit bone-headed, I would take no pleasure seeing you put in cuffs when you're vulnerable and nearly naked. But if the taxpayers realized the money it costs to have the police try to weed through these calls, they would be up in arms too. How would we feel if a child were run over in Clark Park because the police think they are speeding to emergencies and they were just being called to arrest some drummers because of some bully? Back in the late 90's and early 21st century, I would estimate nearly 100% of police calls involving Clark Park were nothing more than crank calls. I myself had the police called on me many times and I can look out the window of my house and see it happen too. Please Mel, lighten up and have some fun when you're out there. If the police bother you because of your skimpy nightie when you're just singing "This land is Penn's Land", please know that Matt can call me as a character witness at your trial. Sometimes the police do bad things but I also want to credit them when they do the correct thing like when they arrested you. By the way, I've studied this "stop and frisk" policy more since I wrote to Karen. I had considered Nutter a reasonable choice, but I completely reject this policy and I now reject him and anyone else that supports this "state of emergency" policy. Stop and Frisk should be the name of a fun game we play on 46th St and Clark Park. I've always said, "make love not war." Your friend and neighbor, Glenn ----- Original Message ----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; [email protected] Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2007 12:02 PM Subject: Re: [UC] Vote for Nutter - another arrest story In a message dated 5/10/07 9:42:02 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Lew writes: "He [NUTTER] believes that a properly-trained and -supervised police force will be able to implement this policy to make the City safer without compromising the civil liberties of the citizens" Sali: Anyone who believes this is patently dumb! When has this EVER worked in the history of the world and why would anyone believe it would work in the United States or Philadelphia? There will be tons of mistakes, misrepresentations and law suits galore! And by the way, it won't be your son Lew down on the ground with his hands behind his back. Our police force is diverse these days; ANYBODY can be an arrest target! We have equal opportunity arresting! It could, indeed, be Lew's son (except, I don't think he has one....) As a middle-aged white lady, I was arrested 15 years ago - when I walked outside my house at 46th & Chester at 1 a.m. to find the source of loud, prolonged vehicle noise on the 4500 block of Chester, where I lived then at the Gables B&B. Sharrieff doesn't mention the race of the police who put him in their van, but I believe that the assumption in "racial profiling" is that the officers making the arrest are usually not of the same race as the person being arrested. This difference in races was true in my case. How would the officers legitimately have seen me as a threat? They saw a middle-aged woman opening her front door and walking down her steps at 1 a.m., astounded to find that many road construction vehicles had appeared on the block and were sitting there with back-up alarms beeping, workers milling around, and engines idling. Did I look threatening? It was a hot midsummer night, and I had pulled on shorts, a sleeveless t-shirt and flip flops to go outside. No possibility of me concealing a gun anywhere. I felt "lucky" to see a police car in front of my house, and I waved to the officers as I came down the steps. They looked my way, through the open window of their car. I asked them if they knew what was happening. They shrugged. I asked, isn't there a noise ordinance prohibiting this kind of work in the middle of the night? They shrugged. I gave up on them, and said I would go ask a worker I'd spotted, standing next to his truck, across the street. One of the officers said offhandedly, to my back, as I walked away from their car, "Lady, if you block the construction vehicles, we'll arrest you." WHAT?, I thought! I made a stupid, stupid mistake (probably the result of too many years of "white privilege") and responded over my shoulder as I crossed the street, "Well, maybe you'll have to arrest me" - somehow I foolishly thought we were speaking about FUTURE events that might or might not happen, since none of the vehicles were even moving at that point and I had no plan to block them if they started. I stepped up next to the worker, at the SIDE of a truck, and asked if they were going to work all night, and asked about the noise ordinance. Before he could reply, my arms were grabbed from behind me, and I was handcuffed and put in the back of the police car. I'd been outside my house for all of about two minutes! I'd spoken about four sentences, mostly questions, and never raised my voice! I was taken to 55th & Pine, then to the Roundhouse, and not released till the next evening, about 20 hours later. And by the way, forget about that Miranda rights thing. They didn't SAY they were arresting me. From the back of the police car, I asked, are you arresting me? and one of them replied, "What do you THINK?" In court several months later, one of the officers testified that I was blocking the path of a tar roller. My attorney - listserv participant Matt Wolfe - called a witness who testified that the street had not even been torn up yet; there was absolutely no tar being rolled that night. The judge said not guilty. An experience like that certainly changes one's attitude toward the police. And hearing the officer lie in court - about something so stupid, too - was pretty astounding. So I had a small taste of what makes Sharrieff and others wary about police officers. I no longer feel "lucky" to see them. When they speak, I am suspicious of what they say; I remember hearing "my" officer lie in court. And I was hugely moved, after that experience, by thoughts of the many who would be falsely arrested but would not have the resources I'd had to defend myself. I was able to choose my own lawyer. Fifty friends wrote letters on my behalf, which we submitted to the judge, testifying to my "good character." And a whole slew of people - about 35 of them, including four ministers wearing collars - took time off work to attend my hearing and introduce themselves, one by one, to the judge, who allowed them to do so. What if I had been a poor young African American man or woman without all of these advantages? The system is very heavy-handed and quite frightening. So I ABSOLUTELY see what you are saying, Sharrieff. But remember, the Police Advisory Board was Michael Nutter's idea, and he had to fight for it, since Mayor Street opposed him - and he did fight for it, and we have it now. Michael Nutter isn't suggesting that the police be given free reign! "Appropriate training" is what he said. He's suggesting that the "bad guys" wouldn't be able to carry their guns so self-assuredly if they knew that in some circumstances the cops could stop them and check. When Nutter spoke about this yesterday, as Lew mentioned, Nutter especially remembered the man who recently died in his bedroom around 50th & Pine Sts. when he was getting dressed for work and a stray bullet came through his window and killed him. It was early evening. He worked two jobs and was a fine citizen. His fiance came home later and found him shot to death. Nutter doesn't think he should have died that way. I don't, either. Sharrieff, I also realize, reading your posts, that seeing the police as our enemies contributes to the culture that enables the criminals to win far too often. When we see the police as the enemy and avoid them as much as possible, the criminals can feel pretty safe, pretty sure there will be no witnesses when they shoot their guns at 50th & Pine at 6 p.m. and somebody dies. Pretty sure that they can terrorize and dominate their decent neighbors. So I think we have two choices: see the cops as our enemies, and let the criminals take over more and more, let the murder rate go higher and higher, OR, try to partner with the cops so that they can catch the bad guys carrying illegal guns and make our city safer for the decent folks with two jobs and a fiancee, who should be able to expect to live peacefully. As should the children on their way to school. And the teenagers going to the corner store to pick up a carton of milk. I trust Michael Nutter to be able to find a good balance and take away some of the guns that are killing too many citizens and that could, one day, kill your son or mine. Vote for Nutter! Melani Lamond Melani Lamond, Associate Broker Urban & Bye, Realtor 3529 Lancaster Ave. Philadelphia, PA 19104 cell phone 215-356-7266 office phone 215-222-4800, ext. 113 office fax 215-222-1101 ************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.467 / Virus Database: 269.6.6/795 - Release Date: 5/9/2007 3:07 PM
