Meeting with Chief Harper

Today Fran Escalante, David Hance, Elaine Zelmanov and I met with Pittsburgh Police Chief Nathan Harper. Also attending was Zone 5 Commander Ross and John Warren, Executive Assistant to Chief Harper.

The meeting went very well and was productive. All of us presented our concerns and I feel we were heard.

Because I want to get this email out quickly here are some highlights in a nutshell:

Chief Harper feels that having a cohesive and active block watch will relieve some of our problems, he suggests initially we meet at least twice a month and as a group continue to call 911 at the first sign of ANY disturbance. Often he said a disturbance can lead to more trouble---so it is very important to call 911 early. The Chief also stressed everyone should call, right down the line---house to house and not too assume the neighbor who lives closer to the disturbance has already called. The number of recorded calls are important in establishing a nuisance or disruptive property. Also when calling 911 please be sure to specify the address of the property and not just say the corner of Jackson and Mellon (unless of course that is where it is). Be sure you say 830 Mellon, or 919 Mellon or wherever the incident may be.

The city is getting ready to implement the Disruptive Property Ordinance---there are many factors that can classify a property as disruptive some of those are: noise control, riot, failure to disperse, loitering, endangering children, underage drinking, etc. There are many more listed all having to do with quality of life issues. The city is looking at properties in our area to use as a test model.

Converting Mellon Street one way to Bunkerhill with St. Clair Street one way to East Liberty Avenue was discussed too. However changing a two way street to one way is a process involving planning and community involvement.

Remember starting July 1 the curfew ordinance will be in effect.
From the Post Gazette:

"During the new patrols, police will be stopping young people under 17 who are out past the city's curfew, Chief Harper said. In July and August, the city's curfew requires that youths younger than 17 be off public streets by 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and by midnight on weekends (the curfew starts an hour earlier in other months)."

I'll have more later but most importantly with the noise level getting higher in the past few days and fireworks exploding on our streets--- please everyone call 911--- Zone 5 is ready to serve us and are listening to us--- as neighbors we need to "observe and report" so that the police can "serve and protect."

To quote Commander Ross, everyone has to "stay on top of it."

A New Low

Here's what happened to one of our residents living in the 800 block of Mellon last week.

On Wednesday June 11th 2008, a hate crime as well as a breaking and entering was committed on the 800 block of Mellon Street. A young man coming home from work was called "F---ing F-ggot as he got out of his car to go into his apartment--later he went back out to his car to retrieve an item he had forgotten. That is when one of the seven African American males sitting on a porch across the street (at the Daria Apartment) yelled out to him "F---ing f-ggot." Upon hearing this he quickly went back inside into his secured building making sure the door was locked and made an urgent phone call to a friend. While on the phone he heard loud banging noises outside his apartment door---looked out through the peep hole he sees one of the males ramming his body into the front door, broke it open and placed a brick to prevent the door from closing.

Now frantic this young man calls 911 and waits for the police to arrive, while waiting he watched as the same male picks up a brick to throw it against his apartment door, yelling for him to come out because he was going to "f---ing kill him." At this point the victim makes another call to 911 to let them know the suspect was now in his building and trying to break down his door to get inside the apartment.

It took the cops 4-5 minutes to show after the first 911 call, they asked the victim questions, got descriptions then went out to find the suspects. Thirty minutes later the cops made four arrest but none were the direct guy who did the threatening. Two of the arrests were males the victim had seen earlier.