Saving Grays

The crime wave that has swept through Grays Ferry and surrounding neighborhoods this summer has left many residents feeling like prisoners in their own homes.

Some talk of being afraid to venture past their own street, while others miss the freedom of sitting on their steps at night.

One couple on the 2300 block of Dickinson Street went as far as to surround their home with a wrought-iron fence.

"It’s a horrible feeling. We shouldn’t have to live like this," the woman, who would only identify herself as Jennifer, said of the fence that divides her steps and awning.

Neighbors like Jennifer vented their anger and spoke of their fears during a community meeting last Thursday at Vare Recreation Center, 26th and Morris streets.

A Grays Ferry resident for more than 20 years, Jennifer placed the blame on neighbors who live in Section 8 housing. She said the newcomers broke a window and a coffee table in her house after she asked them to stop congregating on her steps every night.

Another problem is parents who "push kids out of their home and let them stay out on the street all night," she added.

Seeking solutions to those dilemmas and more serious ones — like multiple shootings — more than 100 people squeezed into Vare’s small auditorium. Neighbors’ suggestions included increasing the number of beat and bike cops in the community and sending out parole and probation officers with on-duty cops.

State Sen. Anthony Williams and state Rep. Babette Josephs sat on a panel of politicians and police officers at the meeting.

"I thought it was a good start," Williams said of the forum. "The history of this area says that outside mediation was needed."

The senator said he felt warmly received and added that the evening netted some positive results, including an immediate increase in the police presence in the area.

But the reaction was icier at the beginning of the meeting, when representatives for Mayor John Street and state Sen. Vince Fumo were asked to explain why neither politician was in attendance.

"This sounds like a damn campaign speech," one man groused when an aide said that the mayor was in Boston to help Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry solidify his urban agenda.

Isolated criticisms aside, Josephs said she felt that residents handled themselves well and that the meeting was productive.

"We showed that we’re here to help. And the residents showed they’re willing to contribute," she said.

The problems facing the Grays Ferry community "have been developing over decades and won’t be solved in a minute," Josephs said. "It’s essential that everyone works all together — politicians, adults, teens and even kids."

Josephs said that politicians can help by linking probation officers with police officers and by referring volunteer groups to the right agencies for support.

Many of the residents’ concerns were directed at the police department, but the issues were not all clear-cut, according to Capt. Jerrold Bates of the 17th District.

Neighbors voiced a request for officers to be more aggressive when they arrive at a crime scene and more proactive in their relationship with community groups.

There also were calls for Operation Safe Streets to return full-time, although Bates explained that the program is still active — just at a scaled-down rate due to the lack of overtime in the city budget.

"Unfortunately, there’s a large segment of the population with the mentality that police are the enemy," Bates said. "We can’t get too aggressive because they call everything police brutality. We try to respond by being in the neighborhoods more, but people start to resent our presence. We can’t win."

The captain said he has pleaded for community assistance and that the police department is willing to provide money and radios for townwatches.

"We have two townwatches for 50,000 people. We need more if we’re going to make a dent," he said. "People talk a good game, but we need to see some action."

Harriet Brown, who heads a group called the Philadelphia Alliance for Community Improvement, echoed Bates’ comments.

One of the more outspoken residents at the meeting, Brown said she lost her cool when she walked up to the microphone because of the indifference that pervades her neighborhood.

"People need to get off their behinds and do something. They can’t be apathetic. Apathy is killing our neighborhoods and communities," Brown said.

This summer’s violence climaxed with the July 1 shooting death of Malik Upchurch, 15. The teen was riding his bike on the 2800 block of Wharton Street when he was ambushed. Aleem Williams, 17, was arrested in the case, and police have issued a warrant for another 17-year-old, Jermaine King.

Women that police officials confirmed were relatives of Upchurch and Williams spoke at the meeting. Williams’ family members said they have been harassed and their home vandalized since the shooting.

As a community activist for more than 10 years, Brown views part of her job as stopping trouble before it starts. She said she walks around the neighborhood with her daughter and tries to get wandering youths to go back home.

Many neighbors are afraid to get involved with her efforts beyond verbal support, Brown said.

"Our neighbors need to be more civic-minded. They need to make phone calls and share their concerns, either with each other or with the police," she said.

While she said she was heartened by the turnout at the meeting and the promise of assistance from the city and state government, Brown noted there were major flaws in the calls for community action.

For starters, she said, no one in the community knows when another meeting will be held, or what their next step will be.

Brown had assumed that Sen. Williams would be the person in charge.

"We created the framework for the community to do something positive, but there’s still a lot to be done," the senator said, adding he is "not the person at the helm" of the effort to link up the community groups, police and city and state governments.

Another resident, who declined to give her name, said community members should be in charge of any initiative to improve the neighborhood.

"We’re the ones who live here and see what happens day to day," she said. "We know how bad it is."

But the members of the panel expressed that improvements were at hand.

"Many of the requests to the police department are already done or in place. The rest is being worked on," Williams said, offering a reminder that "this is a work in progress."