Dear Members of the City Council, the Media, and fellow concerned citizens,
I am writing to you today as a concerned citizen of Asheville and a resident of West Asheville. I write to you to express my deep displeasure, worry, and anger at the way in which the local police, media, and government have handled the recent spate of violent home invasions in West Asheville. I will attempt to keep this letter brief, but I wish to make several points, so please bear with me.
To date, I have still been unable to track down the details of the recent attacks. As far as I can tell, at least one of the attacks occurred in late June, and no news outlet appears to have covered the incidents until just last week. This is nearly a month of lag between at least one of the incidents and any report.
From what I have heard through news reports, mixed with unsubstantiated stories from friends and neighbors, there have been at least three, and possibly up to six, invasions of West Asheville homes by three armed men. I have heard tales of beatings, rapes, and hospital visits. Apparently the attacks occurred on Logan Street, Burton Street, and Fairfax Street, though I may be missing some. Details are fuzzy.
I have seen no mention of these incidents on the APD’s twitter feed, though I have had the chance to read that tax-exempt bingo games cannot exceed five hours. This last bit of trivia, while interesting and cute to read, seems to me somewhat less important than knowing that people in my neighborhood are being violently attacked and robbed.
My complaints can be summed up rather succinctly, I believe. I, as a citizen of this state, city, and neighborhood, want to know if my fellow citizens are being beaten, raped, and robbed. I want to know (as I discovered last week on WLOS, finally) that the intruders entered into the homes of these people through unlocked doors. Knowing this information will change the way in which I live my life, and will hopefully make me safer. I want to know what suspects in these attacks look like before a month passes. I want to know when they generally attack, where they attack, and how they attack. I want to know if any suspects have been caught. I want to be informed, aware, and able to act in ways that I believe will keep me and my family safe.
Recently, a friend of mine was speaking about these attacks with an APD police officer, who expressed thoughts that I have heard verbalized before from members of the APD. This officer explained that the APD, so as not to frighten off tourists (and their money) often tries to keep the proverbial lid on situations like this, so to speak. As the officer explained, the department, through activity and inactivity, has attempted to keep the recent violent crimes in West Asheville from becoming general knowledge of the public. While this is obvious to any citizen, given the complete lack of information in the news (until very recently) and on Twitter about these incidents, it is shocking to hear of APD officers clearly stating these methods of police conduct.
None of this is to say that the local media is not somehow responsible or complicit in the lack of public knowledge about these issues. I understand that budget cuts and such have made newsroom life a difficult one, but it seems to me that if random people on the street are able to connect the dots of crime, then a seasoned and professional news organization should be able to do so as well.
And so, I say to you, members of the City Council, the APD, the news — Not telling the public about this sort of thing has two effects. First, it actively makes people less safe. Ignorance about the true situation of crime in one’s neighborhood allows one to continue living in a pipe dream in which crime does not exist. It allows people to leave their doors unlocked without thinking twice (as they should be able to do, of course, and as I, until recently, often did). It makes them less safe. Secondly, a lack of reporting by the APD and the media provides energy to the rumor mill that operates in any town or city, thereby panicking people more than they would if they had true information upon which to base their behavior.
or APD to ignore problems and not respond to inquiries is more business as usual. This is NOT a responsive, uniformed presence integrated into the community and working with the public; this is a cover-your-ass, protect-your-colleagues-no-matter what, we'll tell-you-what-we-want-you-to-know-when-we want-you-to-know-it organization. There is a strong sense of "us" against "them" amongst many officers, and the "them" is US. There are many good, dedicated officers in the Department, but the many who are not are protected from outside scrutiny and examination. They believe they know who's good or bad, who is worthy of their respect and who is not- and most of all that they are what keeps the city from collapse. That this continues is the responsibility of the Mayor and Council who have allowed APD to run with minimal oversight. Council- APD may be the professionals at law enforcement, but they serve under YOUR direction and examination. When they go out of line YOU need to step up with civilian review and not leave problems to be resolved internally.
For APD to ignore problems and not respond to inquiries is more business as usual. This is NOT a responsive, uniformed presence integrated into the community and working with the public; this is a cover-your-ass, protect-your-colleagues-no-matter what, we'll tell-you-what-we-want-you-to-know-when-we want-you-to-know-it organization. There is a strong sense of "us" against "them" amongst many officers, and the "them" is US. There are many good, dedicated officer in the Department, but the many who are not are protected from outside scrutiny and examination. They believe they know who's good or bad, who is worthy of their respect and who is not- and most of all that they are what keeps the city from collapse. That this continues is the responsibility of the Mayor and Council who have allowed APD to run with minimal oversight. Council- APD may be the professionals at law enforcement, but they serve under YOUR direction and examination. When they go out of line YOU need to step up with civilian review and not leave problems to be resolved internally.
Ashvegas: In the old days, didn't the typical daily paper's crime blotter publish at least some mention of every crime? Seems to me the crime reporter would troop down to the police department and dutifully collect and report it. I think it's a VERY important question whether the Citizen-Times simply doesn't think it is warranted to devote space this… or whether the APD is not making this info available.
Several years ago when I witnessed a relatively minor violent crime outside my West Asheville home, the officer who arrived discouraged me from even filing a report. He said it would be a hassle and they would probably never be able to catch the perpetrators anyway. When I told him I had seen drug activity around and very politely asked if they could increase patrols, he said, "You moved into a rough neighborhood; What did you expect?" and left.
I actually wouldn't consider my neighborhood particularly rough, but even if it were, I hope this isn't indicative of the attitude of the authorities when it comes to West Asheville crime.
On July 14th, 2 Fridays ago my friends' house on Nebraska Ave in W Avl was invaded and robbed through an unlocked window while they were not home. Also just last week in N Avl near Woodfin there were a string of house robberies. Lock your windows and doors!!! Car doors too! Most car robberies are from unlocked cars. I wish that we lived in a town where we could keep our windows open and doors unlocked and feel safe, but that is not our reality. Let's look out for one another and remember to lock it up!
On July 14th, 2 Fridays ago my friends' house on Nebraska Ave in W Avl was invaded and robbed through an unlocked window while they were not home. Also just last week in N Avl near Woodfin there were a string of house robberies. Lock your windows and doors!!! Car doors too! Most car robberies are from unlocked cars. I wish that we lived in a town where we could keep our windows open and doors unlocked and feel safe, but that is not our reality. Let's look out for one another and remember to lock it up!
My sister I laugh about it. She lives in Greer, SC and gets Greenville news.
Watch WLOS one night, WSPA or WMYF and you will see clearly that WLOS is "happy news". Oh, they will rise for a sadly, a dead firefighter or other big news, but a 8 car pile up that woeful bridge on Patton/I-26/I-140 mashup… nothing.
Personally, dare I call it a conspiracy? It is as if the powers that be here do not want WNC to be like "the rest of the world" The thing is, it is very much like the rest of the world. We are all bad animals and when you combine poverty, lack of education, lust, greed and everything else into the mire, you get a mess.
Sometimes they report it, but most of the time they do not.
something tells me APD reads ashevegas
http://www.citizen-times.com/comments/article/20110728/NEWS/307280048/Asheville-police-seek-help-home-invasion-cases
This issue involves a couple of major West Asheville themes:
1) Non-gentrification. West Asheville prides itself in not having pushed the less desirable elements out of the neighborhood, in a neighborhood rising on its own. As such, there are still some dicey places full of sketchy characters around I-240 and west to the river. At times, sketchy people will do sketchy things. I used to live in Jamaica Plain, down the Orange Line from Boston. While the neighborhood was turning over, there was still a murder two blocks away from my house at the Stony Brook station. My buddy came over on a Saturday afternoon from 1-4pm to watch a game and had his car broken into. This is to be expected.
2) Neighborliness. The greatest source for prevention is not the cops or their Twitter feed, but things like this "West Asheville Watch" group that seems to be springing up, people talking to their neighbors. If six break-ins occurred and residents didn't hear about any of them, the fault would not lie exclusively with a top-down information system. You are responsible for befriending your neighbors and knowing what's going on with them. THAT'S America.
So, the cause of the problems is an admirable devotion to preserving the neighborhood despite its undesirable elements. The solution is for everyone in the neighborhood to know the people in their neighborhood and to know what's going on through the underground word-of-mouth. Nobody said doing the right thing was easy. Keep at it, West Asheville!
This begs the question…is this a crime/police problem, or is it that the media here (what's left of it, anyway) just doesn't cover hard news any more?
Randy: I agree 100%
As for sweeping things under the rug? Brevard has been doing this for years with a flasher as long as I can remember. Don't want to hurt the college or the music centers business. One day the urge for this guy to flash will wear off and he will do something worse.
Randy —
Just a quick thought. I don't expect the police and/or government to be watching and protecting me at all times. I do expect them to tell me when my neighbors are being attacked.
Regarding the locking of a door — I'm not talking about whilst sleeping here. I'm talking about having to lock and close one's door on a hot night while still awake. It seems that at least in some of the cases, the people attacked were still awake.
I have not looked at the crime maps. Thanks for pointing me to them.
Finally, I don't wear panties. I prefer boxer briefs.
Pancho
Seriously? You aren't smart enough to know to lock your door at night? You are relying on a twitter feed for your law enforcement news?
The police don't stop crime, usually they show up to write up the paperwork and try to find a perp. It's YOUR responsibility to protect yourself and your family. The government isn't your mom. Put on your big girl panties, educate yourself on self defense and security, buy a weapon and learn how to use it and quit complaining because the government isn't taking care of you.
Have you looked at the crime maps that are available on the APD website?
I would think that that APD would want to get descriptions of the suspected perps out to the public. If they are local wouldn't it be easy to find a black male with that tattoo?
not too much to ask… there is movement on this today stand by for answers/explanations/excuses
Thanks Poncho for the writing and thanks Ash for posting this here. I fully agree with the writers sentiments and have always felt the city has taken measures to keep these types of activities under wraps…disregarding the own potential safety implications to the citizens that pay their salaries.
Psst I heard something happen at the Woodfin police dept Saturday morning. . . any news on that. That is a good story involving some richard petty driving, thinking getting off at the exit where the police department is located and getting help, but no help was found . . and better still, no survllance camera's in their parking lot to record what I heard happened / Nothing in the news either
100% With this letter. Putting the lid on news and information because of how it MIGHT affect tourism is completely asinine. Would anyone stop visiting, say, New York or the French Quarter because of incidents of crime?
The answer is 'no' people. And information will not only keep locals safe, but visitors as well. I hope the people with the power–as disillusioned as we are with them–take a minute to seriously contemplate this letter.
Thanks for sharing it with us.
Please ask to join a new open group on Facebook called "West Asheville Watch"
to have open discussions about our community.
Description of the group: "West Asheville Watch is a group created for the citizens in our community. We thought it would be a good place to express thoughts and concerns about crime in our area. Feel free to post about things that have happened to you personally or people you know. We also ask that you share ideas with your neighbors on how to stay more safe. We hope that in doing this people will not only be made more aware of the happenings in the West Asheville Community but will become closer and more connected to their neighbors."
This is the norm, they will forgo public safety to protect its label as a tourist destination. Its always been like this, if you have a police scanner or ever listen to it in Asheville you know they cover ALOT up.
This is so well written and describes my feelings so well, there's nothing I can add to what is said. Thank you, and let's wait and see if our civic leaders and press will listen as well.
I completely agree with every word of this letter. I've lived here my entire life, however, and this is nothing new. The police, media, and City have kept news stories like this becoming public knowledge for as long as I can remember.
It's a despicable and appalling practice and I hope this letter helps initiate some change.
Pretty typical of small towns to act like this stuff does not happen here. When i first moved here about 5 years ago I heard gunshots every weekend and there would never be any report about it. In fact the cops wouldn't even come by. No one will call them because if you do they will show up at the callers house – alerting the whole neighborhood who called. The last time someone called about a barking dog here the cops showed up at the callers door first! So the dog owner told them if they called again he would kill their dog. That is why bad neighborhoods stay bad. If it was North Asheville a whole squad would show up.