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Neighbors want police to end violence
By THOMAS MICHALSKI
| Article published on Thursday, Sept. 4, 2008 |
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| This quiet neighborhood between Park Boulevard and 78th Avenue has become the target of criminal violence. |
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PINELLAS PARK – Residents in the Davis Field Neighborhood asked the City Council on Aug. 28 for help in resolving alleged drug-related violence that has escalated into drive-by shootings, street muggings and daring daylight burglaries.
So fearful are people to walk the streets of their once-quiet neighborhood that some have armed themselves with baseball bats and even guns when they walk their dogs at night, one resident said.
In last week’s drive-by shooting, police said, shots were fired into a home in which adults and young children were present. No one was injured and the assailants escaped.
A meeting the morning after the council parley between Detective J. Tippett and concerned neighbors seems to have soothed anxieties of residents who live on 62nd Street between 78th Avenue and Park Boulevard where most of the violence is centered.
Police Chief Dorene Thomas said police have in the past made arrests in the area. She said the drive-by shooting on Aug. 26 is still under investigation.
“We need to make those people feel safe again,” Thomas said. “We will do everything within our power to help them take back their neighborhood.”
Thomas said police have been actively investigating complaints of violence in that area. She could not go into detail as to what steps are being taken for fear of tipping off the criminal element.
“People should not have to live in fear,” Thomas said.
Edward Kosinski, a team leader of the Davis Field Neighborhood Association, told the council that crime in the neighborhood has been escalating during the past eight months. He said people are arming themselves with baseball bats and guns because “they are that afraid.
“The drive-by shooting on Aug. 26 was not the first shooting in the area,” he said. “There have been others. Some criminals are so blatant that they are kicking in the doors of homes in their quest for cash and property.”
One neighbor, who asked not to be identified, said there are several crack houses ... places inhabited by cocaine dealers and users ... that have become a bane to the neighborhood.
“We are afraid,” she said. “We are all afraid. People are arming themselves out of fear.”
Kosinski said the meeting between police and citizens on Aug. 29 made him “confident that the situation will be resolved.”
At least one other meeting has been scheduled.
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Article published on Thursday, Sept. 4, 2008
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