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Chief Murray should apologize to senior residents of Village ParkTue, 04/11/2006 - 4:16pm
By: Letters to the ...
I was about to write a letter in answer to Police Chief James Murray’s casual dismissal of our problems in Village Park in John Munford’s article in the March 31 Citizen and before I could get started the April 5 Citizen arrived and there was this wonderful passionate letter from Stephen Allen who really summed things up far better than I could. I am an 8-year resident of Village Park, was on the board for four years and like most of my neighbors do not anticipate moving anymore and I think I speak for most of my neighbors. We are of a certain age, as the saying goes. With Chief Murray’s statement of “vandalism that comes and goes” and we being too “confrontational,” I now understand why our complaints were not acted upon. The interest was not there to do anything. It’s a good thing that the chief does not have an elective office. Fifty years ago I lived in suburban southwestern Miami and we didn’t have any police protection so I and my neighbors took care of things ourselves. We didn’t have repeat incidents like we do now. Physically and legally we cannot do this anymore so we have to depend on our police to protect us. I will now add to Mr. Allen’s list of incidents. The only confrontational person that I know of was a man who stopped a bicyclist and was pushed to the ground for his trouble. Another resident shouted at a group trespassing on his property and they came back later and did a number on his house with paint ball guns. Even after multiple house pressure washings you can see still stains. The fire that Mr. Allen referred to was on the first house on entering our subdivision. At midnight two young men in a golf cart threw a Molotov cocktail at the corner of the house and then made their getaway. We know this because a remarkable young lady, granddaughter of a resident, was just entering the subdivision and saw the whole thing. She called the fire department on her cell phone and then pounded on the front door until the resident, a woman, was roused out of a sound sleep and came to the door. The damage was extensive. I don’t know the repair cost but even if you have insurance, it could cost $500 depending on your deductible. It was almost a year before the repair was finished. At this point I would like to commend the Fire Department. Their quick action kept the damage down. Every time that they have been called to Village Park they come quickly and with lots of equipment and take care of the problem. It really sets a good example for other departments. Another resident was fire-bombed in his back yard while tending to his barbecue. Scared him out a year’s growth. At our ages we cannot afford to lose a year. Another resident had a big chunk of asphalt thrown through his back window so hard that it traveled 30 feet into the interior, barely missing his wife’s head. This pitch was good enough to do credit to a big league pitcher. Then we have the misguided artist who used the back wall of a house to paint a six-foot penis with matching gonads. The owner painted the artwork over so the artist repainted the masterpiece. I believe that he was caught. My next-door neighbor had windows in the rear of her house shattered twice by large rocks. Fearing for her safety, she had acrylic installed on all the windows and doors on the rear of her house. Cost: $2,000 to $3,000. My own introduction to larger scale vandalism happened about six years ago. My property is very close to the path and at 4 a.m. I was awakened by blazing lights in my bedroom window. A golf car full of people came crashing through the underbrush leveling small trees and heading straight for the window where I was standing. I was stunned and half asleep and was rooted to the spot. Luckily the cart veered to the side and went between the houses. This is the stuff that causes heart attacks. We don’t like the chief or anybody putting labels on us. All we want is protection and help in stopping the trespassers through our properties. An apology by the chief is in order for the remarks and for neglecting Village Park. We have been so focused on personal and property protection that for a number of years we pay to have an off-duty policeman to patrol Village Park on Halloween evening. This should not even be necessary. I read with much regret that the proposed path on Peachtree Parkway in front of Village Park and extending to Harmony Village was scrapped. We offered a proposal a couple of years ago and in it we suggested that a path should built along the parkway that would start at Braelinn Road, continue west to Crosstown Drive, go south to the tunnel and provide a better way to the shopping center. The people from Harmony Village and Balmoral Village could use this and would not have to trespass through Village Park. This new path would provide a solution to a good portion of our problems in Village Park and best of all would not be difficult to build. Mostly a straight shot, no trees to cut down, minimum root problems. How about it, Mayor Logsdon, Mr. Rast, Mr. McMullen and Mr. Corbett? Curtiss F. Ross 
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