Tuesday night’s fatal shooting of a 22-year-old man in his South Henderson home produced calls from the Vance County Coalition Against Violence for law enforcement to do anything and everything to boost its presence on the streets of Flint Hill.
At the same time, the coalition Thursday night confronted an apparent effort to intimidate Flint Hill residents and police officers.
At the coalition’s weekly meeting at the Gateway Center, Marolyn Rasheed, whose son’s murder almost a year ago remains unsolved, passed around copies of a mysterious image that Police Chief Glen Allen e-mailed this week to several people in an effort to track down its source.
The graphic, supposedly being used on T-shirts, has various slogans and images, the name of Big Katt Tapes and CDs, and a central visual: a stop sign with graffiti to form the message “Henderson Flint Hill stop snitchin’.”
“This is absolute intimidation, and that’s another reason why they can’t solve any crimes,” Rasheed said.
That’s a theme several coalition members repeated.
“If people on the Hill see that, it’s going to scare them,” Andrea Harris said.
“This here is intimidation for the citizens and especially for law enforcement,” said Peter White, who is retired from the Highway Patrol. “And it’s not going to be the only one.”
City Manager Eric Williams said there might be a bright side to the graphic: If the coalition weren’t getting attention and putting pressure on the criminal element in Vance County, no one would have bothered to design a shirt that mocked the coalition’s stop-sign logo.
Board of Education member Margaret Ellis found it alarming that the graphic mentions the same neighborhood where Lajuan Wilkins was gunned down inside his Maple Street home Tuesday night. It was the first homicide of the year in Henderson and the third in Vance County.
The problems in Flint Hill all stem from drugs, several coalition members said, and people and law officers inside the neighborhood have to step up to make a difference despite the intimidation.
“If you’re outside, you can’t affect what’s going on inside,” Deryl Von Williams said.
Harris said it’s time to face the reality that Henderson, like the big cities in North Carolina, has gangs. And in an area suffering deep economic problems, the rise of gangs makes a certain amount of business sense, she said. “Any time you sit down and put in the paper that you have X number of police and it’s a small force, if I was a criminal, I’d come to Henderson too. … When you lack jobs, the underground economy flourishes.”
Harris called for direct, dramatic action to attack the crime now, in addition to long-term approaches such as the small-business forum set for Saturday and the effort to establish a Boys’ and Girls’ Club, for which a meeting is taking place at 6:30 p.m. Monday at Henderson Middle School.
As she did a month ago before the City Council, Harris said Henderson has a war on its streets, and that justifies calling in the National Guard.
White didn’t go that far but said that if Allen and Vance Sheriff R. Thomas Breedlove consent, the Highway Patrol could repeat something it did a few years ago and send troopers into Flint Hill.
He also said that while local law enforcement can always use more officers and more money, the existing resources could be deployed more effectively. “The key is using what you’ve got.”
Rasheed backed White’s suggestion. She endorsed “whatever we need to do to get the Highway Patrol and the National Guard and whoever we need to solve these crimes here.”
A coalition committee is due to meet with the police chief next Thursday afternoon to discuss the creation of a citizen advisory board to work with the Police Department. Rasheed urged using that meeting to press the chief to increase the police presence on the streets. “Things tend not to happen when there is a greater presence.”
Harris said the greater presence shouldn’t be limited to police officers and sheriff’s deputies. She cited the massive response by state and federal officials to the plight of Cabarrus County after Pillowtex shut down in 2003 and eliminated 6,000 jobs. She said Vance has lost just as many jobs this decade and is plagued by unemployment, substance abuse, school dropouts and crime, and it’s time to use that crisis to demand attention from Gov. Mike Easley and others.
On a motion from the Rev. Todd Hester, seconded by Von Williams, the coalition unanimously voted to invite legislators, the governor, the secretary of crime control and public safety, the commerce secretary and the rest of the political leadership of this state to visit Henderson on a specific day.
Harris, Green and Cathy Ringley agreed to work on the letters inviting those officials.
It’s important for those letters not only to note all of the problems, but to cite all of the things people in Vance County are doing in response. “Six months ago, we were not collectively doing anything,” he said. “We are now.”
Von Williams said local elected officials won’t back the coalition’s effort. “Their priorities aren’t our priorities.”
But Harris promised to get the local officials on board, and when the city manager arrived a few minutes later, he pledged that the municipal government strongly supports the coalition.
“We hope you keep pushing us,” Williams said.
“Oh, we’ll push you,” Harris said.