Friday
Aug312007
Dunbar Village Two Months Later...Janjaweed in America.. A Matter of "Homeland Security"- Newark Update
Friday, August 31, 2007 at 2:16AM Gina, The Blogmother If a Dunbar Village-esq crime happened in your neighborhood, how would that change the way you live your life?
How would that change the way you allowed your children to live their lives?
The latest from West Palm Beach ( It is official, these people are a tad bit off!)How would that change the way you allowed your children to live their lives?
Magnolia Park Rape Update ("Hurry Up! Me Next!")
Remember that second rape involving a group of Black teens less than a mile and less than a month after the Dunbar Village gang rape? The one where the rapist's friends stood by yelling "Hurry Up! Me next!" Well they arrested a second suspect....a 15 year old seventh grader. Now I know I went to school a long time ago, but at fifteen, I was beginning either ninth or tenth grade, but that is another story. Earth to West Palm Beach... "Y'all got a problem"
Back to Dunbar Village
First, the editorial writers have been busy, doing absolutely nothing but offering general words of advice, but nothing so rash as to actually demand specific action like say... install the donated air conditioners and fix the dayum street lights so the residents can see what is lurking in the shadows at night. Mayor Lois Frankel has had her "eyes on Dunbar Village since 2003," well hell if this is the results of attentiveness, I hate to see the parts of the city that were off of her RADAR.
Officials Tour Dunbar Village ( What took so long... it's only been over TWO MONTHS?). See Video here. I think they are trying to make a point, but they end up making another. You be the judge. Speak on it.
Some people apparently are planning to fight any plans to demolish Dunbar Village. Apparently unairconditioned 50 year-old barracks-style living is too difficult to part with. I don't have a problem with nostalgia and historic architecture, but WTH?
[L]ongtime residents from the 1960s and '70s, as well as County Commissioner Addie Greene, promised to fight any demolition plans, saying a chapter of local history would be wiped out.
"Why couldn't this become a model project and other people could come and see what could be done with older buildings?" said Bettye Dawson, who lived in Dunbar Village from 1957 to 1962. She noted that the housing authority offices in the community, and the landscaping around those offices, look very nice....Security cameras are more than a month from being installed. (SOURCE)
The West Palm Beach Police Chief is till engendering confidence in her law enforcement abilities... you know the one that had 15 murders in one year in Dunbar Village, rampant property crime and assaults and 717 police calls in a single year from a housing project with only 334 residents? yeah that police chief:
Police Chief Delsa Bush says they've been extremely fortunate to make any arrest, let alone four, in a case of this nature where the arrests must be based on evidence not eyewitnesses or statements. (SOURCE)Seriously, when is the FBI going to get involved( I explain possible reasons the feds could get involved if they wanted to later in this post.) Did I mention that chief Delsa sees no need to have more than a $1,000 reward in this case? Did I also mention that she is going to solve a rape case based on DNA alone? Hmm, um what law enforcement manual is that police technique from? What if some of the attackers didn't leave recoverable DNA? What if they wore a condom as described in earlier news articles? What is the DNA was too degraded or was corrupted by the cleaning solvent the attackers threw on the victims? If you don't recover DNA does that mean the crime did not occur? Well apparently so because doing actual police work and investigation instead of convictions via mail order are too much work for Delsa:
"I'm not even sure 10 people were involved," Chief Bush said Tuesday in an interview with members of The Post Editorial Board. Nor, Chief Bush said, is a reward beyond the $1,000 offered by CrimeStoppers necessary: "We're going to solve this case solely on the DNA evidence, and we have a lot of that." SOURCEI don't think Delsa could solve 2+2 based on her public comments. BTW Delsa, the answer is not 5.
Apparently their US Representative is saying the US Congress might be increasing funding to public housing although with West Palm Beach's track record at this point I don't know if all the funding in the world could right everything that is so very wrong.U.S. REP. RON KLEIN,
What Bloggers Are Saying
This story has legs, it might be slow moving, but it is still moving and spreading and everyday more people learn about this horror.
Mother Talkers finally heard about the story and she states why she is thankful not to be poor and points out the ridiculousness of building high rise condo towers while a portion of your town rots.
Soul Preaching asks that in the wake of the reaction to Dunbar Village, Can God Count on the Black Preacher? Um that would be NO based on results.
So in light of everything that is "happening" in West Palm Beach, I would like to offer some "observations" perhaps even a critique or two as I am prone to do. If you live in West Palm Beach, now would be the time that you stopped reading this post if you are "tender hearted" and have a heaping pile of civic pride.
Hmm,
Lots of movement, if not progress, seems to be occurring in West Palm Beach. I fear, however, that all this "movement" is all style and no substance. So perhaps we should clarify some things for the good folks in WPB, especially the political class because I become more and more distressed with each passing day of idiocy being generated from WPB. Pure unadulterated FOOLISHNESS!
1. Dunbar Village was a crime against humanity, not some petty theft of a bicycle. So what does that mean? It means that although the crime happened in West Palm Beach in a place called Dunbar Village, all of civil society has a vested interest in making sure that the conditions that facilitated this crime are stamped out and dealt with NOW, not when you get around to it. In other words this crime doesn't just belong to you and your city and its apparently petty psychotic politics. Whether you realize it or not, the eyes of the world of on you...AND y'all are looking ridiculously bad right about now. We can't afford to let you screw this up, despite your best efforts.
2. Clearly intervention from the State of Florida is required. Local government has broken down. Civil society is at risk for us all. You can't have roving militaristic gangs running around committing crimes against humanity as a matter of course. You had two rapes with one month and one mile of each other involving an attack on middle aged Black women by a group of teens. Around these parts we called that a PATTERN. One that has to be stamped out. This mentality of lawlessness and a disregard for human life and the laws of nature must be met swiftly and forcefully. The perpetrators must be dealt with unmercifully so as to attempt to dissuade potential future perpetrators.
3. The Federal government needs to get involved if the State of Florida will not. Now if reports are true that this was in retaliation for the victim reporting crime, I think a case can be made that this whole series of events qualifies as an organized criminal enterprise. Second, the victim was clearly targeted based on her gender- HATE CRIME and possibly her national origin- HATE CRIME! The United States government has a extremely vested interest in making sure that militaristic sexual violence is an aberration, not a standard intimidation tactic used by the criminal underworld on United States. The danger that this kind of attack poses to "HOMELAND SECURITY" is greater or equal to any threat posed by foreign terrorists. This gang rape was a terrorist act. You have civilians targeted for the purpose of intimidation and/or Retaliation. You got an entire neighborhood paralyzed in fear. Folks scared to leave their homes. Law enforcement out gunned and apparently outwitted(That would be YOU Delsa!).
4. What kind of civil society will we have if the freedom of movement for women and girls is restricted because little Dunbar Villages start popping up all over the country? Not possible? Well the conditions that lead to Dunbar Village exist all over the place. You think West Palm beach is the only place in America where they have piled all the poor people in one enclave and then turned their backs on them and left them to fend for themselves while the City of West Palm Beach built a 164 MILLION DOLLAR office building and recently approved 40 MILLION DOLLAR tourist promenade while the people of Dunbar Village were left to live without any working street lamps, no AC, and no security patrol. Despite the fact that it was a hotbed of crime? If a Dunbar Village-esq crime happened in your neighborhood, how would that change the way you live your life? How would that change the way you allowed your children to live their lives? Folks, that is what is at stake here; OUR VERY WAY OF LIFE! This didn't just happen to two people, it happened to us all so we have every right to maintain a vested interest in how we as a civilized society deal with this madness.
5. If ever there was something to be POLITICAL, how local and state leaders deal with this disaster should be POLITICAL. What the hell is government for if it is not shared defense? The primary function of local and state government are public safety and keeping the peace. What is more unsafe or warlike than something like Dunbar Village. So what does that mean? That means that before you build another promonade, or approve building permits, or send the mayor to some fancy conference in San Francisco, you have to handle civil order in your town. If you are not taking care of the minimal responsibilities of government, then we really don't need any politicians do we? SO hell yeah make Dunbar Village political. I mean making it non political is what got these people stuck in hell on earth in the first place. DUnbar Village should be SO POLITICAL that any politician not addressing this issue head on ought to be drummed out of office
6. We ain't going anywhere. Sorry, Mayor Frankel and West Palm Beach, you won't be able to run out the clock and hope that we forget about the horrors of Dunbar Village so you can print out some new tourism brochures. IF necessary, the city of West Palm Beach can become synonymous with Dunbar Village. Keep ignoring the public outcry by doing absolutely nothing and you might as well plant a sign right outside the city limits that reads "Welcome to West Palm Beach Florida- Home of the Dunbar Village Gang Rape." We really are not playing with y'all. Everyday, we become more sophisticated advocates and we are prepared to unleash a multimedia can of whoop @$$ if necessary. Unrelenting. Imagine every week waking up to wonder what multimedia send up we have prepared to alert the world about the foolishness in your city?
7. This whole situation from your neglect before the incident, to the apathy of your residents during and immediately after the crime to the current foolishness you political leaders are engaging in as they jockey to divert blame is RIDICULOUS and it is unacceptable. This circus might be acceptable to West Palm Beach residents, but not to the rest of the world.
You see, West Palm Beach, this is bigger than you so your typical petty myopic solutions are poorly unsuited to solve this problem so I suggest you try something new. Why not start with taking personal responsibility for you failures as political leaders to be good stewards for all of the residents of West Palm Beach. How about being man and/or woman enough to admit you could have done better but didn't. How about admitting that enough has not bee done. How about asking for the help that you so badly need. AND I AIN'T TALKING ABOUT A GRANT FROM HUD....I am talking about assistance from state and federal law enforcement. Because afterall, what happened in June in a place called Dunbar Village was a CRIME...A crime against all of humanity. One that we will NEVER FORGET!
View our Dunbar Village PSA in the sidebar. We will be unveiling an extra special multimedia treat next week. We've only just begun. As far as I am concerned, this is a battle for civilization and the only option is victory.
UPDATE: Speaking of militaristic rapes and killings, the lone survicor of the execution style killings in Newark, NJ has a victim's assistance fund:
Natasha Aeriel, shooting victim and sole survivor of the brutal Ivy Hill slaying, needs your help.
This week, Mayor Cory Booker announced an assistance fund has been established in her name:
"the fund that is seeking donations to support the recovery of Natasha Aeriel, the survivor of the August 4 shooting incident in Ivy Hill, which took the lives of three young Newark residents and left her badly wounded.
More info in the comments.
Don't just talk about it. Be about it!
Reader Comments (14)
I would think that the Federal government would be involved since Dunbar is a federal housing project - therefore I would argue that that fact alone would vest jurisdiction in the feds. and not the local police. The police chief's statement that she doesn't believe that more than a $1,000.00 reward is necessary to help solve this case really tells me alot about her thinking when it comes to the residents of Dunbar. She really thinks so little of them that she is taking it upon herself to suggest the amount of reward and name such a paltry figure.
Candace Makada
Gina,
I was going to email this to you, but I figured you probably get about 1,000 emails a day!
Anyway, I live in Newark, NJ and I just heard about this fund set up for Natasha Aeriel, the shooting victim and sole survivor in those brutal killings on August 4th.
Here is the link from Baristanet - a blog from neighboring Montclair, NJ.
http://www.baristanet.com/2007/08/help_natasha_aeriel.php
Natasha Aeriel, shooting victim and sole survivor of the brutal Ivy Hill slaying, needs your help.
This week, Mayor Cory Booker announced an assistance fund has been established in her name:
"the fund that is seeking donations to support the recovery of Natasha Aeriel, the survivor of the August 4 shooting incident in Ivy Hill, which took the lives of three young Newark residents and left her badly wounded.
Donations can be sent to:
The Natasha Aeriel Assistance Fund
c/o Beulah Baptist Church
580 South 12th Street
Newark, New Jersey 07103.
nichelle, I am finding conflicting info on the funds for Natasha. I need the original source where you saw the info for the fund. I want to make sure it isn't a scam so I need something other than a blog entry like a newspaper article, or something form Corey Booker's office. I am not finding it with my normal google searches, but I will keep looking.
While I'm not personally familiar with the Dunbar Projects, I can tell you that tearing them down will not neccesarily solve the problems of that community. There are a number of ways to address crime through physical design and there are very simple techiniques aside from camera installation that have worked throught the country.
One of the interesting things left out of the Newark story, was that the physical design ( a 1960's style super block) created a perfect place for criminals to lurk. This is pattern repeated in 1960's style housing developments over and over again.
If the city invested in actually having a true community planning effort, where the people of Dunbar could collectivly address physical problems of the homes, neighborhood and the design elements that are helping to enable crime, they would have a much longer lasting improvement. I've seen it done over and over in many different cities. And the real benefit is that when the community plans collectively and works with the police to address crime, a parterniship is created. And trust me that partneship is more valuable than any security gaurd or beat cop.
You're absolutely right Anon. Community involvement and caring about the community doesn't start with telling people to have it; its with the planning process. Thats why gentrification and urban revitalization always fails those who first lived in the area.
There is no consideration for what the people want and NEED in their newly designed community. Luckily, there are a couple of people in West Palm Beach who agree with that sentiment. Unfortunately neither is the mayor or the executive of the housing authority.
Here is the problem. You can design what ever architecture you want to. I agree on the construction of physical structures that make it easier for criminals to lurk, but you still have to go back to the point about placing large clusters of a particular type of poor person ( they aren't monolithic) in one place.
In this case, 90% of the households were lead by singe women so you essentially have an entire community abandoned by adult males. So the stronger human beings in the area are teenage boys. recipe for disaster.
I guess I am trying to figure out why people are reluctant to construct something new. Have you seen some of the mixed income housing around the country?
New is not always better, but the same old same old isn't either. At this point, I am focussed on apprehending these assailants and making sure WPB doesnt screw up the criminal case.
There is something WRONG there beyond anything in the construction. Did you read about the outburst of the 14 year old when he was in police custody. You are dealing with dysfunction on a level many of us can't comprehend.
There are no easy answers.
You use vouchers instead of constructing concentrated areas. At least thats my thought but it must not work since those with authority don't want to implement it.
And the other is kicking out those who commit crimes. There isn't a fool alive who can say there are no criminals in public housing. And when we make parents have to pay for the sins of their children maybe they will take that little thing we call parenting seriously.
Feeding, clothing and a roof is not all their is to parenting.
What people don't want to accept is that there is no one way to solve these problems and they can't be fixed in a few months.
Its community, planning, parenting, policing, pride, determination, personal responsibility and a host of other things that ALL must be done.
I've had the "middle class blacks left poor blacks and now they want to come back and tell them to shape up" conversation.
Call it what you want. You can talk all you want about what the black middle class did and didn't do. And there may be some valid points in there but because A was wronged by B,C, and D we're supposed to never tell A to step up and make change for the better?
If only the perfect could dish out advice there would be nothing but silence.
I'm not for blasting poor people for being poor but I am for blasting fools for being fools and animals for being animals.
I do have to say that there are public housing complexes that are full of household headed by women and elderly women but its NOTHING like Dunbar Village.
While I would prefer there wasn't the concentration I do have to say I've seen two places (both in Winter Park, FL) that were no more violent and just as calm as any other neighborhood.
Its why people were sleeping outside overnight to get an appointment to live there.
Yeah I would agree, something else was going on at Dunbar Village and I suspect it was the neglect of local and state officials that contributed to that climate. That and this stop snitching foolishness.
Interestingly enough, some of the safest places in my community is subsidized housing. They're still concentrated in one area, but they're very aggressive about getting rid of criminals. In all the years I worked in social services, I rarely had a call to one of those communities. Just a decade prior according to some of the old-heads in the department, they practically had to live their.
Evicting criminals, harsh though it might be, WORKS, but it requires a strong will and determination that unfortunately, too many people lack.
I think folks don't want to use vouchers because of NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard), they don't want poor people living in their communities. This mindset is elitist, but in some cases I can understand why. I've seen this implemented successfully and I've seen it have disastrous results. Like most programs it's about implementation. You can't just drop these people in a middle income neighborhood and expect them to thrive. There have to be support networks in place to make that transition. All to often, however, these programs are trying to operate on a shoestring. It takes time, and money to change the way people think, and most of the time they have little of either.
That was one of the biggest complaints about HOPE VI...that people were put in better neighborhoods but the support system wasn't there. Unfortunately, too many people think support system is the same has hand out.
Most of us are just fortunate that a lot of our support system was family and good neighbors.
Sometimes support is nothing more than someone who shares the knowledge you need in order to do for yourself.
Hi Gina,
Sorry, I should have explained better. I certainly wouldn't take the time to post info that was a scam or that I didn't think was legit.
Baristanet is the place where I saw the information. It is a blog, but it is well-known in our area (NJ/NY), but of course, I realize that doesn't mean it's well known everywhere! It is considered pretty reliable because it was started by an ex-NY Times columnist Debbie Galant (http://www.debbiegalant.com/bio.htm).
The Natasha Aeriel Assistance Fund information was posted by Baristanet's Daily Editor Annette Batson (http://baristanet.typepad.com/barista/about.html)
I very seriously doubt that Baristanet would post bogus information, especially on this matter, but I do see your concern. After the holiday, I will email Annette to clarify the information.
Thanks.
I just saw at mediatakeout.com of another Dunbar Village-style rape in New York:
http://www.nypost.com/seven/08312007/news/regionalnews/bklyn_teen__ma_raped_by_bloods.htm
I hope that unlike Dunbar people in Brooklyn tell the cops everything they know about these monsters.
That is very crazy. I am definately praying for these people and those just like them all over the world.