KCRag Forum

Cyclops wrote: I lived this advice for almost 20 years, a mere three blocks from the location that briantsmith25 is talking about. My business was in an alley between Broadway and Central on 40th Street. There was a convenient little hideaway outside my door for drug deals, drug consumption, drinking, tagging, sex, urinating and my personal favorite... crapping. (Beermo has taken a couple of nice pix of my old door).

Why didn't you paint over all that graffiti? It would have made your building look a lot better.

voltopt wrote: Yeah, let's get them!  What about a KCrag Posse (not officially sanctioned, of course)

We'd probably start fighting amongst ourselves. 

beautyfromashes wrote: Why didn't you paint over all that graffiti? It would have made your building look a lot better.

We painted it over and over again. It was a losing battle. It would be completely covered in tags in a matter of weeks. The rabbit was a Scribe piece that we liked. The taggers were a pain in the ass, but the least of the problems. Most of my clients thought the alley was a cool place, they liked all the graffiti that was in the alley. Scribe and Gear, two of KC's best graffiti writers and artists had their permission walls in that alley and they were pretty amazing. So we took the good with the bad.

The other element of that alley that got out of control was the XO Club and their dumpsters that would sit full for weeks because they wouldn't pay their trash bills. Nothing like the smell of 4 week old bar trash.

chrizow wrote: dude, seriously...i'm an idealist too, radical love and all that, but i really don't think benevolently looking the other way when crack dealers set up shop on your doorstep is the way to go.  (i'm just assuming you don't actually think tolerating crack dealing in public is even 1/10000000000^1000000 as important as universal health care)

I typed out like a 10 paragraph response, but I just deleted them. If we're going to have this conversation, it'd be much better to do it over a nice pint of beer.

mmmmm, beer.

i'll invite the 39th and Wyandotte crew (who i once again saw plying their trade last night) and get their perspective. 

Yeah, bring crack!

mean wrote: Yeah, bring crack!

(freebases, dies)

[me=mean]tips a forty (of crack)[/me]

briantsmith25 wrote: I need some advice on what to. There is quite the drug trade that goes on 39th and Wyandotte right by my apartment. It goes on right behind the Labor Ready on the sidewalk EVERYDAY!!! I can sit on my front porch and watch these fuckers and it seems to be getting worse as the summer goes along. I have called the cops numerous times and IF they show up they do very little and it obviously is not deterring these guys. Is there a different outlet that I can go through to get more results. I called the street narcotics unit and left a message but low and behold I received no call back. I don't want to give up and just say fuck it because this is my neighborhood and I'm not going to let it be taken over if I can do anything about it. These people don't live on my street and other that that the street is quite pleasant. I just don't know what else to do..

Do what I suggested in another thread. Ask your local police department if they have a program called CPC (Citizens Patroll Coalition) They will teach you the way that they fight crime. and teach you to be their eyes and ears. When you get your licence you will have two magnetic signs to place on your door. A large P to put on your roof for Helicopter identity, a spotlight, rotating light to place on your roof, a police scanner and walky talkys. You will be able to talk to others that are on patroll and call the incidents in to the police department. In the organization you carry more clout than any ordinary citizen because you actually wear an ID that is recognised by the police department. Talk to your version of Safe Streets for more information on this program.

anniewarbucks wrote: When you get your licence you will have two magnetic signs to place on your door. A large P to put on your roof for Helicopter identity, a spotlight, rotating light to place on your roof, a police scanner and walky talkys. In the organization you carry more clout than any ordinary citizen because you actually wear an ID that is recognised by the police department. Talk to your version of Safe Streets for more information on this program.

Was this a drunk post???  What the hell.

KCLover wrote: Was this a drunk post???  What the hell.

It sounds like the backdrop for some cheesy old Saturday Night Live skit. 

Any such program would attract a bunch of small-man-complex sufferers.  I'm picturing the episode of South Park where Eric Cartman becomes a deputy.

Was this a drunk post???    What the hell.

It sounds like the backdrop for some cheesy old Saturday Night Live skit. 

Any such program would attract a bunch of small-man-complex sufferers.  I'm picturing the episode of South Park where Eric Cartman becomes a deputy.

I think you owe Annie an apology. She's obviously referring to....
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093756/

No I was not drunk when I wrote this. There is a group here in Topeka that does this sort of thing.

Here is a website from another city that tells about this.
http://members.cox.net/watch79lake/patrol.htm

WSPanic wrote: I think you owe Annie an apology. She's obviously referring to....
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093756/

Proctor!!!!

anniewarbucks wrote: No I was not drunk when I wrote this. There is a group here in Topeka that does this sort of thing.

Here is a website from another city that tells about this.
http://members.cox.net/watch79lake/patrol.htm

I'm pretty aware that there are citizen patrols and civilian officers and the like. KCMO has 556 civilian officers according to the Swat TV show. However, Im pretty sure your overstretching your imagination when you say everybody gets a giant "P" to put on their roof so the ghetto bird can see, and police lights, etc. Never heard of such.

tompendergast wrote: For the most part, they just want to be left alone.

Except when they expect us taxpayers to fund their attempts to go clean, or help support their crack babies or pay for their treatment for AIDS and Hep.

From where I stand, it's not the dealers that are the big problem, its the buyers. And what they're prepared to do to get money to buy.
For me, it seems like the problem is this:
1. Dude wants some crack. So he comes over to my favorite dive bar's parking lot and steals the stickers off my license plate. That will get him a rock or two. Doesn't get caught, no big deal.
2. Does that for awhile but the money doesn't come fast enough. So a few weeks later, he breaks my window to steal a couple of CDs. Doesn't get caught for that either. Police are no help.
3. Meanwhile, he and his buddy sit on the wall in the back parking lot (which the bar has cameras on, so we can all watch) and smokes crack (paid for by my CDs and stuff). Bartender calls polices, but since it's a "victimless crime", they don't even bother showing up. This happens almost weekly.
4. Bar staff gets disgruntled with unresponsive police, quits calling.
5. Meanwhile, crackhead and buddy are out working the parking lot, chumping for change. Stealing stickers and breaking in to cars. Never gets caught, police don't even put on pressure. They never even show because they're too busy working a DUI checkpoint down the street to make 7 arrests on 660 stops.
------
The logical progression is:
6. Crackhead gets desperate for more, mugs bar patrons in lot
7. Crackhead and buddy get a gun, hold up the bar and an innocent bystander gets killed
8. Bar loses business because the neighborhood is so seedy and threatening. Bar goes out of business. City loses taxes. Neighborhood goes to shit.
9. 5 years later, DST or KC Life, or some other developer buys up the "blighted" property and redevelops into a taxpayer-subsidized "entertainment district".
10. Cops out in force to keep out the riff raff.
11. Everyone lives happily ever after

nice post alan!  i am with tom p and mean on the issue of drug legalization and a more compassionate rehabilitation-based legal system, but i do not share their David Hume-esque vision of causality.  "it's the property and violent crime that's bad, not the drug dealing!" as though these things bear no substantial causal relation.

Great post, Birch.  You're describing Chez Charlie's!