Fighting crime requires everyone

JOHN MCCANN Columnist

Walltown resident Carolyn Smith can't figure out how come police let young men mill around doing much of nothing near her Berkeley Street home, while farther up the street in Trinity Heights that kind of loitering isn't found. Nearby Trinity Park residents don't have to put up with it, either, she said.

Is it race? Money?

"All of the above," said Yolanda Brewer, sitting on Smith's porch before a vigil to mourn a young man killed in a drive-by shooting.

The death reflected what's wrong in Walltown.

But the vigil exposed what's right. Like a white guy named Gene Cook.

On his way to the vigil, Cook persuaded some black girls in Walltown to join him.

"I don't see it as their community or my community," Cook said. "This is my city."

Black and white folks joined hands, swayed from side to side and sang "We Shall Overcome." But when the vigil ended, Smith still had no answer to why the two-minute walk from her Walltown porch to Trinity Heights tells a tale of two neighborhoods. And very different tax brackets.

The vigil didn't answer why Walltown resident Mary Cannonier has a bullet hole in the front of her house. Or why Smith caught a man climbing through her window one night.

Good news is the burglar politely left without a fuss.

"He told me, 'Excuse me.' "

Bad news: "The little forensic folks came," Smith said. "[But] I ain't seen a police [officer] or detective since."

Rich white folks in Trinity Park and Trinity Heights get better treatment, Smith claimed. They don't have these kinds of problems, she said.

So what's up with Walltown?

Anthony Scott lives there and used to handle residential development in the neighborhood for Durham's Self-Help Credit Union. He still works for Self-Help.

Scott understands the socioeconomics of the mixed-race Walltown area. And evening gunshots outside his door have hipped him to the economy in which debts are paid with bullets.

"It's real," he said. "Somebody wanting to be in Walltown is going to have to be aware of that."

Regarding Smith's concern about police, Durham's finest have their role, Scott said. But so do Walltown residents.

"Residents of a neighborhood have a responsibility to police their neighborhood," he said.

Some of that goes on through the Citizens Observer Patrol, which trains volunteers to keep an eye on neighborhood crime.

Walltown has two residents in the program. Two.

Trinity Park resident Frank Crigler told me about a woman who was attacked while riding her bicycle through the community of mostly high-priced homes. So no neighborhood is immune to crime. What helps Trinity Park is its high level of organization, he said.

"Clearly, Walltown has some issues," said community activist Newman Aguiar. "But they have made tremendous progress."

Help has come from money and time that Duke University, Self-Help and the private sector have pumped into Walltown to fix up houses and develop neighborhood programs. Like the funky little business venture I encountered near Smith's porch.

Instead of drugs, young people this summer have been selling hot dogs on Berkeley Street. The food isn't half-bad, either, Smith said.

Perhaps, in time, she'll be able to say the same about Walltown.

John McCann's column runs on Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Contact him at jmccann@heraldsun.com or 419-6601.

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