Police and gangs anger south Phoenix residents
by Michael Ferraresi and Jahna Berry (The Arizona Republic)
April 16, 2010
Pam Jackson ignored the search-warrant details. She flipped through the pages of police paperwork stacked in a pile in her living room.
Police seized a handgun ammunition clip and photographs showing members of her family flashing gang signs as part of an investigation last year into south Phoenix street gangs, the records show.
Jackson, a 50-year-old mother of four men, recently moved five miles east of her family’s neighborhood near 13th Street and Hidalgo Avenue to get away from the gang violence and police crackdowns.
The city has poured millions of dollars into law enforcement and community development in south Phoenix to help fight gang crime.
The beefed-up police presence helped lower crime, but some of those aggressive programs are a sore spot for residents such as Jackson and others who have stayed put after hundreds of gang-related arrests in the past three years. Residents’ concerns grew louder and drew more political attention after a recent confrontation between a south Phoenix councilman and a police officer.
Jackson said police aggressively question residents sitting on their porches, walking down the street or during stops for minor traffic infractions. She said officers wrongfully labeled her and other members of her family as gang associates based solely on where they live.
Detectives said at least two members of Jackson’s family are documented gang members, a claim Jackson disputes. She blamed the Police Department for trying to connect her family to gangs by their relationships with neighbors.
“Right now, when these kids see police, they run,” said Jackson, who works as a medical assistant at a Tempe urology clinic. “It’s pretty sad that there’s a precinct over here, and you can’t talk to anyone.”
South Phoenix focus
The residents’ mixed feelings about how officers approach and detain residents in south Phoenix became clear in the wake of a March 19 confrontation between Councilman Michael Johnson and Officer Brian Authement.
Johnson said he was thrown to the ground and handcuffed by Authement, a two-year officer who was securing the scene of a house fire. Johnson, a former police officer, said he was trying to check on his neighbor. Authement, through a police spokesman, has accused the councilman of assault. Police and the FBI are investigating.
The officers who patrol the miles of neighborhoods between South Mountain and the Salt River said the results speak for themselves. They said the claims of harassment and intimidation are exaggerated.
“The important thing is we’re not looking for the average citizen living in that area,” said Phoenix police Lt. Charlie Consolian, who oversees the Gang Enforcement Unit.
“Our job is to protect citizens who are, unfortunately, living in gang-infested neighborhoods.”
Several major crime-suppression programs in the past three years have led to hundreds of arrests, including nearly 130 people in a February operation that targeted gang associates in areas south of Buckeye Road.
In December 2008, Phoenix gang detectives, the FBI and other agencies arrested 127 people connected to south Phoenix gangs. Violent crimes dropped 27 percent between 2007 and 2009 in South Mountain Precinct, according to police. The 29 murders reported last year marked a 57 percent drop since the area’s residents coped with 67 murders in 2007.
A web of law-enforcement agencies work in the area. South Mountain Precinct has 351 officers on patrol, more than any other city precinct. The Arizona Department of Public Safety, the FBI and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office sometimes work in the area.
City investment
In the past 10 years, Phoenix has invested more than $120 million in federal and local dollars in development projects, said Jerome Miller, acting deputy city manager.
That includes $105 million to demolish the Matthew Henson public-housing project and to build mixed-income housing. The city has improved parks, upgraded one of the local pools and spearheaded neighborhood cleanups, job fairs and other outreach.
Some residents themselves are stepping up as well. But even they have mixed feelings on the situation with police.
Clarence Harrington III and Anthony Harrington, 53-year-old brothers who are renovating a south Phoenix house, are split.
“We all want a place where we can feel at home,” said Clarence, who wants more uniformed officers on the street to deal with open drug sales and other problems. He added, “As a community, we need to address and deal with problems that perpetuate the problem, like substance abuse . . . and job training.”
But ongoing police crackdowns, Anthony said, mean that regular people are constantly pulled over or questioned by police when they aren’t doing anything wrong.
“The police know all the drug dealers, they know all of the hot spots,” said Anthony, during a break from yard work. “But instead, they make it hard on everyone. They could do it in a different way.”
For Jackson, the mistrust now means she’d rather avoid police altogether.
“Let me die,” Jackson said. “Don’t come to my house. That’s how bad it is. I don’t trust them at all.”