Block Patrol in the news =)

I am re-posting an article here from the Southwest Journal ( which I have been in before ) because I volunteer with the SSCO Block Patrol. The article is specifically about this program. The article can articulate in a way I don't usually - in a professional journalistic manner. ;)

Photo to the left is Dave Delvoye ( FT employee of SSCO as its safety director) and my neighbor Judy Austin ( who I used to live right across from).

Hope you enjoy it:
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Solvitur Ambulando: “It is solved by walking”

By Kari VanDerVeen

Kingfield, CARAG follow the lead of other Southwest neighborhoods and form walking groups to combat rising crime

Scott Engel knows several residents who have been victims of the recent rash of robberies and burglaries in his neighborhood.

“That's when it really starts to hit home,” said Engel, community coordinator for the Calhoun Area Residents Action Group (CARAG). “Everybody's talking about it.”

And residents have decided they've had enough. After the number of crimes spiked in recent months in typically quiet Southwest neighborhoods like CARAG and Kingfield, residents are forming block patrol groups that will hit the streets.

The organized effort will send small groups of two or more neighbors out several times each week to walk the neighborhood and report suspicious behavior and problematic properties. Walkers will wear some sort of identification - like hats or vests - and carry cell phones to alert police. The goal is to create a presence in the neighborhood that will deter would-be criminals.

“We're not like a vigilante, crime-fighting group,” Engel said. “We're more of a presence group.”

Kingfield is taking the same approach.

“We just want to create a positive presence in the neighborhood,” said Kingfield Neighborhood Association (KFNA) Project Organizer Joanna Hallstrom. “We're not going to be enforcers of anything.”

In October, November and December 2005 - the last reporting period for which there is data - there were 97 Part One crimes in the Kingfield neighborhood. Part One crimes include homicide, rape, aggravated assault, robbery, burglary, theft, motor vehicle theft and arson. There were 70 such crimes during the same period in 2004 and 71 in 2003.

CARAG experienced an even more dramatic increase, with 127 Part One crimes during the fourth quarter of 2005 compared to 77 during the same period in 2004 and 66 in 2003.

Much of the increase comes from various forms of stealing.

“In our precinct, the increase is in robberies, burglaries and thefts from motor vehicles,” said 5th Precinct Crime Prevention Specialist Jennifer Waisanen.

In January, Kingfield held a meeting to address the increase of crime in the area. The neighborhood association formed the Crime and Safety Task Force, which will meet the third Wednesday of each month and will focus on connecting neighbors and devising hands-on crime-prevention strategies like the block patrols.

CARAG also is encouraging people to attend its crime committee meetings, Engel said. Engel stressed that CARAG “remains a relatively safe neighborhood” but added that many residents are concerned about the increase in robberies and burglaries. He's hoping residents embrace the block patrol groups as one way to fight crime.

“I think residents have felt sort of helpless with the rising crime, and it's a way to take a positive step,” he said.

Following in the footsteps of experience

Creating block patrols isn't a new idea. A number of Southwest neighborhoods - including Stevens Square, Lyndale and Whittier - have successfully used walking groups for years to deter crime.

The Stevens Square Community Organization (SSCO) arguably has the most well-organized walking crime-watch group in the city, largely due to dedicated walkers like Dee Tvedt. With the Latin phrase “Solvitur Ambulando” - “It is solved by walking” - as her motto, Tvedt is a solid supporter of the year-round block patrol formed in 1991. She signs up for several walking shifts each month and said the patrol definitely has been successful in deterring crime.

“Criminals usually don't want to be observed, so they leave when they spot us,” Tvedt said, adding that most of the problems the walking group sees are nuisance crimes like panhandling, drug dealing, public urination and prostitution. “We do what we call ‘counter-loitering' - stationing ourselves at a corner where people are loitering. It doesn't take long until we need to find a more interesting place to be. Chronic offenders have come to realize that we know them, and that we're bad for their business.”

Members of Lyndale's block patrol - dubbed the Lyndale Walkers - also are well-recognized in the neighborhood. The walkers wear neon yellow hats and have badges so residents know they are with the association.

“The beauty of a crime-watch group is that it affects the very crimes that most residents experience and are those that they are indirect victims of,” Lyndale block patrol member and Minneapolis Crime Prevention Specialist Luther Krueger said. “You're not a direct victim of a drug deal, but when you see it day in and day out, it's demoralizing. Š People are far less likely to try to pull that when the law-abiding are afoot and watchful.”

Lyndale Community Organizer Kristine Danzinger said the Lyndale Walkers was formed in 1993 after a spike in crime culminated in the shooting of a cab driver and an attack on an elderly woman.

“That was the final straw for neighbors,” Danzinger said.

The group started hitting the streets in full force - large groups of 20 to 40 people walked around crime-ridden areas in shifts for 20 hours a day. Their efforts “literally drove the drug dealers out,” Danzinger said.

The efforts of the walking group have helped create a neighborhood that developers want to invest in, she said.

“It's just dramatic what's happened there,” Engel said.

And the cost of the program is minimal - the expenses of the hats and occasional flyers need to be covered, but neighborhood pride and the work of volunteers is what really drives the program.

Both Danzinger and Tvedt said their block patrols have gladly shared information with other neighborhoods starting the program.

“We encourage them to walk along with us as guests; occasionally, we'll do joint shifts or rendezvous with patrols in adjacent neighborhoods,” Tvedt said.

Old groups put renewed emphasis on walking

Many longstanding block patrols also are focused on renewing their own efforts. As crime slowly decreased in some neighborhoods, so did the number of block-patrol volunteers. Whittier had a block patrol in the late 1990s but let the program lapse after crime subsided. In August, however, neighborhood organizers re-started the walking group following a crime-ridden summer.

“Coming out of the summer it was pretty bad, so people were really mobilized,” Whittier Community Organizer Josie Shardlow said.

Part One crimes in Stevens Square had dropped to 243 in 2004 after steadily decreasing from 442 in 1999, but in 2005 that number was up again to 309. The numbers have given the well-organized block patrol even more incentive to hit the streets.

“We like to stay on top of things, and when we're out on patrol, we tend to be the first to hear about new businesses about to open and the first to meet a new puppy,” Tvedt said. “People will often tell us they appreciate our presence, and that they feel safer when we're around.”

Danzinger said as Lyndale residents have noticed an increase in drug dealing, gang graffiti and robberies in the past few years, they've also renewed their emphasis on walking groups.

“We can't quantify all the crimes we've prevented, but we can demonstrate that the outreach while walking gets people involved and increases our visibility all the more,” Krueger said.

And there are other benefits to walking groups than just deterring crime.

“Our members often form friendships that extend beyond patrol activities. It's a great way to meet neighbors and discover common interests,” Tvedt said.

It also prompts residents to become familiar with the neighborhood they live in.

“People who had a very negative view of the neighborhood found that it wasn't nearly as bad as it had been painted in the news, and what few problems they encountered appeared to be easier to solve once they were right in front of them,” Krueger said.

And of course, Shardlow points out that it just gives neighbors a satisfying feeling.

“It's empowering to take back the streets,” she said.

Day 2 with Siah

Today we went to Target and Seward Coop.

But we also went to Minnehaha Park and the nearby Dairy Queen. Matt and Anne took many photos of the beautiful frozen waterfall - in front , above, behind, and below. It is amazing how blue frozen water can look like. I thoroughly enjoyed just seeing the outside - yet the photos they took are amazing. I plan to post some here once I get them from their camera. ;)

From 7 to 9 PM I also volunteered with the SSCO Block Patrol. I plan to at least spend 2 hours a month while Brandy is gone with them. I would like to spend even more this summer - but have no idea whether this will happen or not. I truly do not even know if I will continue living here or not. I would think that a wise thing to do until something better comes up - but we will see.

I did find it rather interesting those who wait for buses that come - and go and still are at the stop. Yet that is the only bus that goes by that stop. They see us then scatter. Drug dealers obviously. Other areas we just sit and watch for a while and they just scatter after a bit. I mean - we do not have to do a whole lot. The neighborhood knows who we are. They know we write down what we see , carry cell-phones, and work with the Minneapolis Police Department.

Right when we were about to go into the Police Substation ( the Block Patrol HQ ) we run into my acquaintance "Delan" or "Dealin." ( whichever the case may be) He not only said 'Hi' but informed us of some yellow house on the corner of 5th Avenue that is a Meth hot-spot. Kinda scary, and we wrote it in our report.

He also stated that this one short black guy was dealing a lot of meth in the area. This guy is one who we ran into previously at 19th Street and 3rd Avenue - by the corner store. He even told us to "clean up the crap in the area." This all while he is walking away with 3 others after a discussion about some people being "no shows."

All I know is that whatever loopholes are still available to those making Meth must be shut. Minnesota can't be the only state preventing sale of useless cough medicine ( used to make Meth). I agree with Senator Steve Kelley who said this morning on MPR that we need to focus more on Meth than illegal immigrants.

First day alone with Siah

These aren't exactly the first days I have been alone with Josiah. Brandy has gone off and spent many hours with friends and I have been able to watch him. But this Tuesday and Wednesday - my days off - I have been able to watch him with no assistance at all.

Tuesday we went to the Franklin Library for storytime. Josiah very much enjoys it. Though the library is going through some transitions with the new Central Library opening very soon. The librarian who usually is in charge of storytime was working on IT problems and moving equipment into the new library. SO we watched a video and Josiah enjoyed it along with the story we read. But I plan to take him each week as it is a good experience for him.

I feel awful that he cannnot go to preschool. Brandy says that we are qualified to go - though I doubt this. America puts little value on pre-school. The only ones who care seem to be Minnesotan Democrats, Independents, and Greens. Unfortunately, the Republicans are in charge. But let's not get political. ;)

And it seems that Brandy misjudged having to register Josiah by January 15th as the advertisements stated. I discussed this with her and she dismissed it. It is unfortunate for Josiah as he wants to be in pre-school.

As far as the psychological issues with going to the storytime - I think it is crucial. He was wetting hit pants more often before we started going. He was told by Brandy that if he was potty-trained that he could go to pre-school. Then when he did - he wasn't able to go yet. He became disenchanted with potty-training and started wetting his pants again.

I suppose this is only my theory as no one else has confirmed what I think - but I think it to be true. Josiah will not come out and say what his problem is - but I think this is it. SO I have told him that Story time is practice for pre-school and that he has to be good. So far so good - except at night. I will do some more things to prepare him for pre-school as time goes on. I just hope to keep him interested in learning things. He is already very earger to learn and to have a teacher.

Brandy enroute to Costa Rica

Today at 4AM Brandy will leave for Costa Rica. She will be there as part of a student-exchange program. She will live with a family and go to class each day. It is an amazing Spanish Immersion course - since it is held in a Spanish speaking nation.

Brandy , Lori Yakle, Tony, and myself all met up at Lori's place after I got off the work bus around 1 AM. We then went to Hard Times Cafe and had a quasi-breakfast. It was nice chatting with everyone and seeing Brandy for one last time before she had to leave.

I will be watching Josiah by myself for around 9-10 weeks. I also have to find someone to watch Josiah from March 11-18th, as our babysitter has other plans that week. Other weekends and days our babysitter cannot help, I have had to find replacements. SO far so good - except for that week. Been contacting Glen to see if he can help - even if only for a few days.

I have been a rather surreal week. The more conscious I become, the more the world seems like a big dream - but still FEELS real.

[To the left is the Lake Street/Midtown Station along the Hiwatha Light-rail route]

1)

I just went to Rainbow with Josiah. Rainbow is right across the street from what we lovingly called "Ghetto Cub." I used to joke that I loved my Ghetoo Cub. Anyways, I have never been to Rainbow at that location - and Brandy telling me that it was WORSE than Cub scared me from doing so. But I checked the advertisments in the Star Tribune Sunday paper - and neither competing stores seemed to have good ads. So I figured it was a good time to check out what could have been called "Ghetto Rainbow" - except it doesn't have that ring to it like "Ghetto Cub" has. BOY was I wrong.

This Rainbow store had the exterior appearance of a newer store - and the interior of a possibly brand-new store - if not kept up very well! It was like Rainbow had tried to makeover their store to copy both The Wedge ( where I usually shop) and Wal-Mart ( where I NEVER shop). Upon entering the store there was a greeter - who was not very perky - but nonetheless gave the appearance that the store had a more helpful attitude. The store was clean, neat, well-stocked, and had quality food - apart from not being 100% organic. Before I left the store I had 4 employees ask if I needed help finding anything - obviously a new tactic by their management but still effective if used even occasionally per visit.

Anyways, this is no advertisement - it just astounded me the contrast between my expectations and reality. I have no qualms shopping at a poorly run store - as most products overall are still decent - though I would question buying fresh/unprocessed products there - which is why I go the Wedge. ( and supporting local organizations versus multinational)
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2)

But this is not the end of my trip. Here I was going back home with Josiah and 4 bags full of groceries. It was tough enough getting to the light-rail station - controlling Siah and managing the bags. But when I got there an African American came up to me with a blind woman who was a little older than myself. She looked like she had been weeping and was obviously upset. I was asked to help her got on the train - which I accepted being uncontested by others willing to ( including the man leaving her).

I never got her name - but she said she had not used the light-rail ever. She just needed to get to a place on Nicollet Avenue a block from the Hiawatha stop. Anyways, I had a hard time getting her on the train as it was a "short one" - being only a couple cars. We had a little walk once it arrived - and Josiah just runs ahead and gets onboard. And here I am trying to lead this lady on - though she is using her walking stick - she underestimates the distance a bit. I then drop my bags by the door and assist her up the steps. Speaking to a few of the other passengers I found someone who could help her once the train arrived at Nicollet as I had to leave with Siah at the next stop.

I have to admit we Minnesotans will try to help others as mush as we can. I would have helped her entirely had I had not had 4 bags of groceries and Josiah. I also needed to make Siah's lunch and get ready for work - leave at around 1 PM. So....time was short but not impossible. It WOULD have been impossible to do with Siah - so I am glad I found others to help.
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The other odd events of the week have been:

- helping a girl (Rachel or Ra-Ra) coming down from a crack high retrieve a car she "thought" was stopped in an intersection and out of gas. I didn't find out the story until I got her a cigerette from a neighbor and some food leftovers from our fridge ( not bad ones either - as they would have been my work-lunch). Turns out the car was parked and that refilling a vehicle with gas isn't always easy. I wouldn't have helped her but the car wasn't hers - it was a friend's and I am crazy in helping others.

I didn't know initially she was on crack - or some other drug. She didn't twitch or have a weird personality. She just seemed stressed and tired - and was WAY too trusting of me to go into my apartment even when I said she didn't have to. But when she drove me home and started smoking out of a glass pipe - yeah - kinda gives it away. I asked to be promptly dropped off at my place - which I was after a drive that seemed a bit out of whack. She started getting paranoid just as we pulled up to my place - glad I left as quick as I could. I hate drug users and did mention that they weren't going to help her - drugs OR alcohol ( which she wanted from me initially also).

- I also witnessed 2 individuals in my building having sex in our basement. Yeah, at first I was scared it was rape - you can't really tell a moan from a cry sometimes. But I guess they were neighbors who had just met at a party and decided they would just go for it - oddly enough - on the concrete floor of the lower level. Weird how alcohol can inhibit the cognitive abilities of the human brain when consumed in large quantities?

Anyways, I have no doubts that reality will become only more surreal each coming year. Just with everything odd thus far that I have run into - I hope I am not involved in anything too serious. ( gun shootings are not my forte)

Are parents as important as peers?

I just finished "The Nurture Assumption: Why Children turn out the way they do" By Judith Rich Harris. I have to say that our society puts a LOT of blame upon parents when their children turn out less-than satisfactory. She never state parents have NO influence - except to make a point that her socialization theory trumps the Nurture Assumption.

Obviously the WORST parents - ( like those who let their child cry in their crib and ignore them their entire first year and a half) - will have detrimental effects on their children. But after reading this novel it is apparent that children are less a product of their parents than adapting the society they are in. Basically children are just other people - unique and their own person. On Earth they have physical and emotional traits of their parents - but who they truly are can re-shape how they use these tools to their liking.

The following is a short essay on whether there is no parental influence by the same author:

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The idea of zero parental influence

Is it dangerous to claim that parents have no power at all (other than genetic) to shape their child's personality, intelligence, or the way he or she behaves outside the family home? More to the point, is this claim false? Was I wrong when I proposed that parents' power to do these things by environmental means is zero, nada, zilch?

A confession: When I first made this proposal ten years ago, I didn't fully believe it myself. I took an extreme position, the null hypothesis of zero parental influence, for the sake of scientific clarity. Making myself an easy target, I invited the establishment — research psychologists in the academic world — to shoot me down. I didn't think it would be all that difficult for them to do so. It was clear by then that there weren't any big effects of parenting, but I thought there must be modest effects that I would ultimately have to acknowledge.

The establishment's failure to shoot me down has been nothing short of astonishing. One developmental psychologist even admitted, one year ago on this very website, that researchers hadn't yet found proof that "parents do shape their children," but she was still convinced that they will eventually find it, if they just keep searching long enough.

Her comrades in arms have been less forthright. "There are dozens of studies that show the influence of parents on children!" they kept saying, but then they'd somehow forget to name them — perhaps because these studies were among the ones I had already demolished (by showing that they lacked the necessary controls or the proper statistical analyses). Or they'd claim to have newer research that provided an airtight case for parental influence, but again there was a catch: the work had never been published in a peer-reviewed journal. When I investigated, I could find no evidence that the research in question had actually been done or, if done, that it had produced the results that were claimed for it. At most, it appeared to consist of preliminary work, with too little data to be meaningful (or publishable).

Vaporware, I call it. Some of the vaporware has achieved mythic status. You may have heard of Stephen Suomi's experiment with nervous baby monkeys, supposedly showing that those reared by "nurturant" adoptive monkey mothers turn into calm, socially confident adults. Or of Jerome Kagan's research with nervous baby humans, supposedly showing that those reared by "overprotective" (that is, nurturant) human mothers are more likely to remain fearful.

Researchers like these might well see my ideas as dangerous. But is the notion of zero parental influence dangerous in any other sense? So it is alleged. Here's what Frank Farley, former president of the American Psychological Association, told a journalist in 1998:

[Harris's] thesis is absurd on its face, but consider what might happen if parents believe this stuff! Will it free some to mistreat their kids, since "it doesn't matter"? Will it tell parents who are tired after a long day that they needn't bother even paying any attention to their kid since "it doesn't matter"?

Farley seems to be saying that the only reason parents are nice to their children is because they think it will make the children turn out better! And that if parents believed that they had no influence at all on how their kids turn out, they are likely to abuse or neglect them.

Which, it seems to me, is absurd on its face. Most chimpanzee mothers are nice to their babies and take good care of them. Do chimpanzees think they're going to influence how their offspring turn out? Doesn't Frank Farley know anything at all about evolutionary biology and evolutionary psychology?

My idea is viewed as dangerous by the powers that be, but I don't think it's dangerous at all. On the contrary: if people accepted it, it would be a breath of fresh air. Family life, for parents and children alike, would improve. Look what's happening now as a result of the faith, obligatory in our culture, in the power of parents to mold their children's fragile psyches. Parents are exhausting themselves in their efforts to meet their children's every demand, not realizing that evolution designed offspring — nonhuman animals as well as humans — to demand more than they really need. Family life has become phony, because parents are convinced that children need constant reassurances of their love, so if they don't happen to feel very loving at a particular time or towards a particular child, they fake it. Praise is delivered by the bushel, which devalues its worth. Children have become the masters of the home.

And what has all this sacrifice and effort on the part of parents bought them? Zilch. There are no indications that children today are happier, more self-confident, less aggressive, or in better mental health than they were sixty years ago, when I was a child — when homes were run by and for adults, when physical punishment was used routinely, when fathers were generally unavailable, when praise was a rare and precious commodity, and when explicit expressions of parental love were reserved for the deathbed.

Is my idea dangerous? I've never condoned child abuse or neglect; I've never believed that parents don't matter. The relationship between a parent and a child is an important one, but it's important in the same way as the relationship between married partners. A good relationship is one in which each party cares about the other and derives happiness from making the other happy. A good relationship is not one in which one party's central goal is to modify the other's personality.

I think what's really dangerous — perhaps a better word is tragic — is the establishment's idea of the all-powerful, and hence all-blamable, parent.