Neighbors unite against criminals

Photos by john larson

STANDING WATCH. Fern Hill residents Pat Lloyd, left, and Tabitha Gamboa were at the corner of South 96th Street and Pacific Avenue during the anti-crime rally.

More than 150 individuals hit street corners in the South End and East Side to send a message to criminals that they are not welcome during Safe Streets’ third annual March Against Crime on June 26.

The event began with several short speeches in the parking lot of the Union 76 gas station at the intersection of Pacific Avenue and South 64th Street.

State Representative Steve Conway told the crowd that neighbors getting organized has helped contain crime problems where he lives in Fern Hill.

“Our message is we are watching,” Conway said. “We are keeping South Tacoma a healthy place for families. We are going to keep working on this.”

“We cannot just arrest our way out of the problems, or prosecute our way out,” said Mark Lindquist, chief criminal deputy prosecutor with Pierce County. “The community needs to be part of the solution. This helps us in our job. Our job is easier when we have this type of support.”

“I am thrilled to see citizens come out and take responsibility to make your community safe,” said Captain Mark Langford of Tacoma Police Department. He expressed gratitude to the officers who patrol this part of the city. “They are the boots on the ground that will solve your problems.”

Jim and Claudia Dove live near the intersection of South 59th and South ‘I’ streets. This marked their first involvement with the event. The Doves want to form a Safe Streets group because of increased drug activity in rental housing units in their neighborhood.

“It is all around us,” Claudia Dove said. “This is our way of getting started. This is one way to help the neighborhood.”

Jane Dudley said vandalism of vacant houses is a growing problem. The number of such homes is on the increase in this section of the city being hit hard by the foreclosure crisis. “We would like to see real estate agents and bankers take more responsibility for these properties,” said Dudley, a coordinator with Tacoma East Side Action Membership. She observes less prostitution and public intoxication in her neighborhood than in the past.

Several members of the Fern Hill Alliance chapter of Safe Streets were at the corner of South 96th Street and Pacific Avenue, the southern boundary of Tacoma.

Pat Lloyd affirmed that courts are giving more sections of Pacific the stay out of areas of prostitution designation, a tactic used to keep people with a history of arrests for prostitution away from problems areas. She said the result is prostitutes are now plying their trade on side streets away from the busy thoroughfare.

Recently a neighbor’s children observed a prostitute and customer in a car next to the playground. “It is an ongoing challenge,” Lloyd said. “Our police force is really challenged.”

Events like the anti-crime rally help by raising awareness. “It lets people know what the concerns are and points out what we can do,” Lloyd said.

As pressure mounts from organized groups in the city, it pushes some criminal activity across the city limits into unincorporated Pierce County. Lloyd said to counter this Safe Streets is organizing neighborhoods outside the city limits.

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