By By GREG KATSKI
and JONATHAN CLAYBORNE
Daily News Staff
Residents, law-enforcement officers, community leaders and housing-authority officials agree that crime continues to be a problem in Washington’s Old Fort neighborhood.
Their ways of addressing that problem differ.
Since a group fight on Ninth Street in late March, the Washington Police Department has increased its presence in the neighborhood, according to Chief Mick Reed.
The fight started the night of March 24, and it carried over into the next night.
By March 26, Reed said, the fighting had stopped, but Washington police officers would be put in the area “as a preventative measure.”
That same day, Bill Booth, president of the Beaufort County branch of the NAACP, and community activists called a meeting to address concerns about the matter.
Booth shared two concerns that were to be discussed during the meeting.
Those concerns were: “The lack of recreational activities, nowhere to go and nothing to do other than hang out on the streets. Addressing the supposed gang problems that we’re having.”
Attendees crafted a six-pronged plan of attack that included:
• creating a community watch program in the affected areas;
• fostering better communications between law-enforcement officials and the community;
• lessening police harassment;
• initiating mediation to deal with personal issues between individuals in the community;
• providing assistance for people charged with crimes to better their lives through education;
• expanding recreational opportunities in the city.
Booth said several people at the meeting said they had the impression that Washington police officers were in the areas of concern to harass rather than protect them.
“The police would just roll up to a group of young people and, for no reason, ask them to take their hands out of their pockets,” Booth said.
He said there are “several officers within the police department that seem to be the ones that are creating more animosity than others.”
Booth also discussed the use of Tasers by law-enforcement officers.
“A number of people in the community have expressed concerns about law enforcement using Tasers to intimidate them,” he said. “One individual spoke about him being tased while he was in handcuffs.”
Another person claimed to have been tased at least four times before passing out, according to Booth.
“That doesn’t exactly create a great working relationship with the community and law enforcement,” he said.
Booth declined to provide the names or numbers of the people making such claims. The claims could not be independently verified by the Daily News.
Booth said some residents who voiced their complaints had opted not to have their names made public.
It was unclear whether the incidents Booth spoke about occurred when the fights were taking place.
Police perspective
Reed said the Washington Police Department has tried to be proactive to situations in the neighborhood, which encompasses the area bordered by West Sixth Street, West 12th Street, North Market Street and Van Norden Street.
“But we want to make sure we’re not overly aggressive,” he said.
Detective Isaac Barrett, a narcotics/gang investigator with the department, said the NAACP didn’t reach out to the department before holding the community meeting.
“Our philosophy is we’re willing to work with anyone,” Barrett said. “We’re all working for the same cause.”
Barrett and Project Next Step Coordinator April Corbett did meet with the Washington Housing Authority on March 31.
“We came up with a game plan; what we need to do to get the situation under control,” said Corbett, who added that her job has her focusing on the “disconnect” between the community and the department.
The plan includes:
• setting up police checkpoints going into and out of the Old Fort neighborhood;
• towing vehicles parked illegally on Washington Housing Authority property after 6 p.m.;
* increasing foot patrols in the area.
Barrett said those steps will help police deter criminals from coming into the Old Fort community to sell drugs, start fights and the like.
“We want to make it unpleasant enough for visitors not to come,” he said.
According to Barrett, who said he frequents the Old Fort community, the majority of problems in the neighborhood are caused by outsiders.
“Most of the time, people we’re dealing with in the area are not from public housing,” he said. “There are a lot of good people that live in public housing that want their community cleaned up, want to see how to get (criminals) out of the community, period.”
Such people include Josephine Royster, an Old Fort resident for 34 years and a member of the Washington Housing Authority’s board of commissioners. Royster tells her story in the second installment of this series.