No homicides in city in more than a month
Joe Nelson & Melissa Pinion-Whitt, SB Sun Staff Writers
But she has a few guesses. She thinks stepped-up law enforcement and more involvement in neighborhoods are a couple of the key ingredients leading to a quiet spell in San Bernardino following a spate of ugly killings that included four teenage boys.
It's been more than a month since someone in this city died at the hands of another.
"I think it's a combination of things ... the patrolling and the community. People are just getting fed up," said Mitchell, grandmother of Jarred Mitchell, who was shot to death while dancing in a driveway on West Home Avenue with a group of friends May 22. "Maybe it's because the gang members are lying low. I have no idea why all of a sudden they calmed down, but I'm sure it's because there's more law enforcement out there," Mitchell said.
A spate of homicides in May and June included four teenage boys, reigniting a community outcry that started with the Nov. 13 slaying of 11-year-old Mynisha Crenshaw in what authorities said was a gang-related shooting. Seven of the city's 34 homicide victims this year have been minors.
Like Mynisha, the May and June slayings of the four boys all under the age of 18 saddened citizens and prompted police to partner with sheriff's deputies and California Highway Patrol officers to launch aggressive patrols in the most crime-ridden pockets of the city. Since the efforts began in late June, not one homicide has been logged.
Police believe Jarred's death was gang-related, spurred by a power struggle between two neighborhood gangs.
Although just about everyone agrees that increased police presence is a strong deterrent in violent crime, the same people concur that what's been happening in San Bernardino might go beyond the scope of just officers on the streets. An aggressive crime-fighting plan by Mayor Pat Morris launched in June and increased community awareness to the crime problem may all factor in to why homicides in the city have come to a standstill.
"Some violence is deterred by high-profile policing, and some violent crime is not impacted by it. So there's a lot of variable factors," Police Chief Michael Billdt said. "But I do think the increased community awareness and the collaborative efforts with local officials and citizens have had an impact on the drops in crime."
In December, police joined forces with sheriff's deputies and CHP officers in citywide patrols following Mynisha's death, which galvanized the community to demand a stop to the gang violence that had been plaguing city streets continually.
Mynisha was killed during an attack by about a dozen gang members at an apartment complex in the Del Rosa area of San Bernardino. Authorities said the shooting was retaliation for the killing of another gang member at a neighboring complex days before.
But even with the increased patrols, three people were slain in December in San Bernardino.
"I'm not sure we can say just having extra guys out stops violent crime, because I don't think it's true," police Lt. Mark Garcia said. "I think there's probably numerous examples of situations you can anecdotally refer to where there have been extra patrols in an area and there were people who decided to break the law without fear of the legal repercussions."
Such was the case on June 21, when 11-year-old Anthony Michael Ramirez was fatally shot in the back about 8:30 p.m. on a basketball court at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School. Police said they had been aggressively patrolling the neighborhood that night, and a patrol car had passed by the school seconds before the shooting.
Unlike in December, other factors have come into play in recent months that might have, when combined with the stepped-up police patrols, hindered violent crime.
Morris' Operation Phoenix anti-crime plan took flight June 10 and has already taken strides to improve residents' lives. The plan calls for a collaboration among city and county agencies to provide youth programs in the city, clean up blighted and shoddy apartment buildings and other rental properties, and ensure the city has adequate police staffing to secure its 200,000-plus population.
The first phase of Morris' plan called for a city-led effort to clean up a 20-block area northeast of downtown. The second phase, launched on June 29, called for the creation of, among other things, a "Safe Summer for Youth" program and the addition of an office of community safety and violence prevention at City Hall.
The Safe Summer for Youth program includes expanding the hours of city swimming pools and providing free admission to children, expanding after-school recreation programs, opening city community centers on weekends, and creating a "Camp San Bernardino" to send at-risk youths on weekend camping trips to the mountains.
Such prevention and intervention strategies are important for long-term results, said Jim Morris, the mayor's son and chief of staff.
"The real payoff is a long-term sustainable reduction in crime as we're training our youths to avoid at-risk behavior that could lead to criminal activity," Morris said.
Adequate police staffing and how safe citizens feel living in the city that was ranked the 18th-most dangerous in the country are also high priorities.
The City Council this week will consider whether it wants to place a measure to increase the public-safety tax before voters in November. The tax, if approved, would help fund anti-crime initiatives, including a plan to hire 26 more police officers by December 2008.
A city-commissioned poll found that 92 percent of city residents were either "extremely" or "very" concerned about crime, and nearly two-thirds were willing to pay up with a quarter-cent sales-tax increase for more police officers and anti-crime programs.
"More officers on the street is a great benefit in deterring criminal activity. It's not the only thing, but it's an important piece of the puzzle," Morris said. "I think what that points to is that we have more officers so we can fully staff a beat system in our city."
Another tool police have added to their arsenal is a Robinson R44 helicopter, leased on a 90-day trial period at a cost of $97,500. It flies 40 hours a week, mostly between 5 p.m. and 3 a.m., and is equipped with geographic information systems mapping technology, a powerful searchlight and an infrared camera that can detect subjects hiding in bushes or elsewhere by their body heat.
But even more police and new tools aren't enough to deter the most hardened criminals. The city's religious leaders know that and have made efforts to establish a dialogue with local gang members in an attempt to broker a truce.
No meetings have been scheduled so far between religious leaders and gang members, but the word is out, and it appears to have had a calming effect, said the Rev. Reggie Beamon of Pastors on Premises.
"They're very much receptive. They're on a wait and see right now. Things are peaceful," said Beamon. He said he's been informed that members of several local street gangs including the California Gardens Crips, Magnolia Estates, the Macon Mafia, and the Delmann Heights Bloods are supposed to be meeting sometime this week to discuss a gang truce.
Experts say that gang truces are difficult to negotiate due to scattered gangs, dead and imprisoned leadership, migration from the Los Angeles area and a younger, more volatile generation of members.
"There's no clear-cut leaders anymore, and because there's no leaders you have to go to the people who you think have the most respect," Beamon said. "The younger ones are the ones acting up."
Although every homicide is a tragedy and all must be treated by police with the same amount of time, attention and diligence, some contend it was the slayings of the four teenage boys Traveil Williams, 16, Anthony Michael Ramirez, 11, Anthony Johnson, 17, and Jarred Mitchell, 14 in May and June and Mynisha's slaying that has fostered change in the city.
"It really got out of hand when kids started getting killed," Beamon said.
Residents along West Home Avenue, where Jarred was killed on May 22, tend to share the same views as to why violent crime may be on the decline. It could be more police driving through the neighborhood, community involvement or the natural ebb and flow of criminal activity. Or it could be a combination of all those factors, residents said.
Whatever the reason, they've definitely seen a difference.
"With no deaths, something's working somewhere," said Louis Earthman, who has lived in the neighborhood since 1969.
Cars sped down Medical Center Drive past King Middle School on a recent Friday afternoon, the site where 11-year-old-year-old Anthony Michael Ramirez was killed. Except for the occasional dog barking or a resident dousing their car with a hose on West Home, it was silent.
That's the way it has been the past couple weeks, said Janis Littlefield, who lives next to a church and around the corner from the school.
Before the shootings, she'd see a police car drive through every few days, but police patrols increased following the shootings. Officers had checkpoints along Medical Center Drive, looking for any clues they could find in the homicides.
The constant presence of the police has calmed down the neighborhood, she said.
"People don't hang out like they used to," she said. "(The police) just dissolved that."
She said she even sits on her porch at night, although she attributes that more to the heat than feeling safer.
But how long will it last? That's the question some residents have on their minds.
Earthman, who went to school at the site of King Middle School back when it was Franklin Elementary, said it's a concern his neighbors have, especially for their children.
"It's a nice neighborhood to raise some kids in, but you have no idea what's going to happen to them once they go up into the school area," he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment