Chapter 2
The Problem With Westchester
Somehow over time we have come to accept that there is crime in poor neighborhoods. The deplorable living conditions of the underprivileged and minorities have been largely ignored for decades. Not only do we ignore it, we put the blame for urban blight on the people who suffer it. "Let them help themselves. Let them get off welfare and get a job," is the usual refrain. We are all adept at shifting the burden to someone else. It's the guiltless way to view social problems. From the perspective of an inner-city teenager, the message is clear: "You're on your own buddy. I want nothing to do with you." It's fundamentally rude, and there is a fundamental rudeness in how we handle crime and juvenile delinquency. The elite of society would never think of actually associating with city kids, but woe be unto those children if they should break society's rules. The authorities would be more than happy, thank you, to apply the requisite punishment to those unfortunates who stray outside the boundaries.
It all comes back to courtesy. Our society is seriously deficient in this regard. Yet it's not a deliberate thing. We simply don't assign much importance to the finer aspects of human interaction. Civility and decency are on the decline, and you see evidence of it everywhere. From the magazines in the check-out line, to the films at the local theater, to the patter on talk radio, discretion, restraint and modesty have all but disappeared from our culture. The most highly regarded individuals are those who behave the worst. If you're gross and outrageous, you're cool. But the grossest violation of decency by far is the manner in which people are allowed to exist in poor neighborhoods. The shear ugliness is disgraceful, and the extent of the crime is absurd.
The problems of the inner city are so daunting it's impossible to focus on them directly. One is overwhelmed by the magnitude of the task. In the suburbs, however, we have some breathing room. A person can step back and see both sides of the picturethe sunny, hopeful view of America, as well as the dark and seamy side. So rather than examining the problems of, say, the housing projects of Anacostia, I'm going to instead put a microscope on my immediate neighborhood of Westchester Estates. We are five miles from Anacostia geographically, but five hundred miles on the socio-economic scale.
Over the past several years there has been a steady increase in crime in our area. What is disturbing about this trend is that serious crimes such as armed robbery have been taking place within residential neighborhoods. In Camp Springs and the original Temple Hills, where the subdivisions were designed for middle to upper-middle class families, and the median household income touches on $69,000 per year,[1] there is a sharp contrast between the affluent suburban setting and the level of crime we're seeing. No, Camp Springs does not have open air drug markets, at least not the kind you associate with the ghetto, and crimes where someone is physically hurt are still rare, but we have seen carjackings in my neighborhood. We've seen front doors kicked in by armed robbers. We've seen people mugged taking a walk to the park. And we know for certain there are teenagers living among us who carry guns and do business with drug dealers. The incidence of crime has progressed beyond the point where you can dismiss these as isolated events. Many residents have sold their homes and fled rather than put up with it. For them, even one carjacking, one armed robbery or one shooting is one too many.
Meaningful crime statistics are difficult to come by in this county. The Prince George's police are not very forthcoming with information. You can't just dial up a police computer or make a phone call and have a report sent to you, at least not the kind a resident really needs. You might put your hands on a yearly summary totaling the number of robberies, break-ins and so forth county-wide for the entire population of 800,000, but the crimes that most interest me are the ones taking place in my own backyard. Since a neighborhood by neighborhood report is impossible to obtain, I started keeping my own database of incidents. They were compiled mainly from the word-of-mouth accounts of my neighbors. In Figure 2.1 I've cited several examples that illustrate the severity of the crimes occurring in Westchester in recent years. What these events have in common is they all took place either within the neighborhood or very near to it; in other words, right where people live, right at our homes. I submit that any one of these incidents is serious enough to make an intelligent person think about leaving. In this respect, it doesn't really matter what the statistics say about crime in other parts of the county or even other parts of Camp Springs. If nothing ever happens on your street or in your neighborhood, you can overlook a lot of bad news from elsewhere. Even the robberies and what-have-you that go down at nearby shopping plazas have nowhere near the impact of a crime that takes place at your home or on your block. When crime hits that close, you realize how outrageous this stuff really is. It simply should not be happening. No one, regardless of where they live, should have to deal with this kind of thing ... ever.
Serious Crime in the Westchester Area, 1994-2000
- April 18, 1994. Home Invasion/Robbery. Monday 6:00 a.m. A lady on Franklin Road is awakened in bed by a masked intruder. He makes her lie on the floor, takes jewelry and other valuables, then cuts the phone line and escapes.
- June 29, 1994. Robbery. Wednesday, 10:00 p.m. A young couple out for a walk is accosted on Sussex Drive by two men with guns. They are forced to lie on the ground and robbed of jewelry, keys and wallets.
- May 10, 1995. Home Invasion/Robbery. Wednesday, 11:30 p.m. Lancaster Drive. The R. family, which includes two young girls, is getting ready for bed when they hear a loud crash. Two men armed with a pistol and a rifle have broken through the front door and are proceeding to search the house. They shout obscenities, make the family lie on the floor and demand to be told where the safe is. The men make a hasty search, apparently decide they have come to the wrong house, and leave.
- June 14, 1995. Carjacking. Wednesday. A 79-year-old man visiting a relative on Glenwood Drive is getting out of his car when he is approached by four teens. One pulls out a gun and demands his keys. This takes place at 11:00 a.m. on the last day of school.
- November 1995. Rape. A woman who accepts a ride from strangers in D.C. is taken against her will to an unfinished home on Oakridge Court and assaulted. The assailants must live in the area in order to know about this empty house.
- February 13, 1996. Home Invasion/Robbery. 12:30 a.m. A man unloading groceries is accosted in front of his house on Round Hill Drive by two masked men. He is forced into the house where he and his wife are robbed.
- March 8, 1997. Carjacking. Sussex Drive. 1:00 a.m. Mr. M. parks his car at the curb and is walking toward the house when a masked man runs up, points a gun at him and orders him back into the car, saying, "We're going to the bank." Mr. M. manages to get away, but several weeks later the windows in his van are smashed and the contents torn apart.
- October 15, 1998. Murder/Robbery.Two employees of the Camp Springs Dunkin' Donuts are shot to death during a robbery. Three youths are charged in the slaying, including a 20-year-old who lives near to Westchester in a neighboring Camp Springs subdivision.
- December 13, 1998. Robbery/Assault. Glenwood Drive. A woman returning home after shopping at the Giant is confronted in her carport by a man with a gun who demands her pocketbook. It appeared the woman had been followed from the shopping plaza. A similar incident took place at Hope Fellowship Church on Prospect Road. An elderly woman was apparently followed there from Padgetts Corner by a robber. He accosted her in the parking lot, demanding her purse. The woman resisted and suffered serious injuries as the robber cut both of her wrists during the struggle.
- December 20, 1999. Police Chase/Two Killed. A 25-year-old driving a stolen Lincoln, fleeing police at high speed, collides head-on with a Toyota Land Cruiser near the Henson Valley Montessori School on Allentown Road. The youth is killed instantly. The other driver, age 56, a 20-year resident of Westchester, dies three days later, leaving a wife and daughter behind. A loaded gun and eleven grams of crack cocaine are found in the Lincoln.
- July 22, 2000. Home Invasion/Robbery. Saturday, 9:30 a.m. A man carrying a package and dressed in a FedEx uniform rings the doorbell of Mr. R. on Clifton Drive. When Mr. R. opens the door, the assailant produces a gun and tries to force him back into the house. Mr. R. resists and they wind up on the front lawn. A neighbor, seeing the struggle, dials 911. The robber flees in a waiting car.
Figure 2.1 Crime in the Westchester area
As measured by the rising crime ratein other words, by the safety factorthe quality of life in these parts has suffered in recent years. At the same time, the expression of courtesy has declined as well. I would like to relate a few examples that provide evidence of this decline. My intent is to demonstrate how lack of courtesy is manifested at the grass roots. I'm going to concentrate on incidents I, myself observed either in my own neighborhood or very close by. It might seem such a parochial focus would hurt my argument, but after you read through these narratives, I think you'll agree the phenomenon they illustrate can be found almost anywhere.
The contrast between the affluence of my community and the nature of the crimes being committed actually provides an advantage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .text truncated
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You might see this last incident as a black-white thing; the guy was dissing me like he'd been dissed in the past. For that matter, you could argue that all of these incidents were racially motivated. But what does that actually mean, "racially motivated"? Is there some deep philosophy contained in this? I think not. When two intelligent beings come into contact, there is a dynamic, fluid, moment-to-moment interplay of thoughts, emotions, speech and gestures. A myriad of factors come into play. In view of this complexity, it's not logical to cite such a gross characteristic as race.
If we discount the fact that the Home Depot guy and I were of opposite color, the encounter appears in a different light. It's still a minuscule event on the cosmic scale, but it gives evidence of a larger problem. What we discover is the guy lacked courtesy. The trouble is, we don't make a big deal about things like this. We don't care that teenagers are flipping obscene gestures or using the sidewalk as a toilet. It doesn't matter that ten-year-olds address their elders as faggots or that an adult can't offer advice to a neighborhood youngster without getting nasty back-talk or worse. It's not important that the youth of today have such animosity for authority that they carry out spontaneous executions with imaginary guns. I guess I should be more precise. It is important, but only to a scant few people, and those few do not include society's leaders. To the leaders of business, of science and to the political leadership courtesy matters little. If it did matter, these things wouldn't be happening. If the mission to Mars, or the Dow Jones average, or getting reelectedif any of these depended on turning uncultured adolescents into caring, considerate citizens, you can bet a lot more people would pay attention to how this all works. The fact is, our system doesn't just overlook ignorance, it encourages it. Business thrives on ignorance. The economy depends on it. In the face of such obstacles, it's easy to understand why there's no attempt to address the problem.
But hey ... things aren't that bad. Isn't the economy growing? Isn't unemployment down? And we're still a wealthy nation, aren't we? So what's to complain about?
The observant reader will
detect a moral tone creeping into our discussion. Evidently it wasn't
realistic to think we could stay completely clear of moral issues. Yet I
think the moral content appears to be greater when seen in the abstract
than it would be in actual practice. I'm searching for the boundary where
action in the light of morality leaves off and pure action by itself
begins. The problems we're examining manifest as moral questions, and we
must describe them as such, but their solution lies outside the moral
realm.
[1]. For the year 2000, according to U.S. Census Bureau data for the Camp Springs CDP. By 2010 this figure had risen to nearly $86,000, with a mere 3.5% living below the poverty level. (The number of Camp Springs households was 6200 and 6800 in 2000 and 2010 respectively.) In comparison, for all of Maryland, the 2010 income and poverty figures were $70,000 and 8.6%. What is the source of this affluence? Tax dollars. Having had close connections to the community, I can testify the majority of breadwinners took their sustenance from the government, either directly as civil servants and retirees, or indirectly as contractors, and in some cases both.
© 2015 Alexander Gabis