Parental authority... Or is it parental abuse?
18/12/06 13:43
A drug dealer who was sitting in his car was approached by a woman who I think was his mother. She screamed and yelled at him. She practically kicked him out of his car. (She did kick the car.) I don't remember what she was saying but it was something that completely lacked common since. She seemed to come out just to horrass the drug dealer, which by the way didn't stop his business, and just as quickly as she showed up, she was gone.

Maybe I'm not privy to the entire story in these situations but I was brought up to know why I was getting into trouble. I knew what my punishment was going to be and when it was going to be administered. If these people are dowling out punishment, I doubt the receiver has any idea about what is going on. Is it typical for people to be abusive for no reason at all? Is this how some people live their lives on a daily basis?
Cops may stop black people in my hood, but they don't stop whites in their hood
13/07/06 21:02
A common complaint I hear from black people is that cops stop and harass them when they are in white neighborhoods. Although I can't really attest to this, I have seen cop mess with homeless on Lower Greenville for what seems like no reason at all. I think the cops encourage the homeless to move on. This may be at the request of the bunisesses but they could be stopping the homeless for a specific reason. (By the way, the cops only bother the homeless during the week; on weekends, they never pay attention to the homeless.)

To get back to the point of my post here, I've seen a couple of cops while on this Serena ride. I know one cop actually saw me in the back of the car, but he didn't seem to pay attention to me. If I saw a person, white, black or otherwise, sitting in the back of a SUV in my neighboorhood, I'm question it or at least trying to figure out what is going on. I'd also expect that a cop would approach a white guy in the back of a SUV in a predominately black neighborhood to see what's going on. But I get ignored and they move on; maybe the cops are too lazy, or too scared, to get out of their car.
There are no cops patrolling these neighborhoods!
22/06/06 20:38
I live right off Lower Greenville where all the bars are located. We have cops driving around our 15 townhome complex ALL THE TIME. It's middle of the night, and there's a cop car driving down Lower Greenville. It's 7 am, and a whole stack of cop cars are at CharBar. It's 4 pm on a Sunday, and there's a cop car at the local 7-Eleven. I've heard that the Lower Greenville bars pay/hire cops to be noticeable especially on Friday and Saturday night and I think it really helps as we have only had one fight breakout in the parking lot next door this entire year. Anyway, my point is, wait anywhere on Greenville or the M-streets and you'll see a cop passing by within 15 minutes.

Wait anywhere in South Dallas and it is not the same experience. In 2 1/2 months of driving Serena, I have seen TWO cop cars in the 75215 zip code. The other two zip codes that she works, 75210 and 75241, I have not seen any cop cars patrolling. The two cops I saw were obviously on a mission because they were driving fast through the neighborhood streets (by the way, without their light on,) gunning their engines, and disappearing around the corner. I have not seen a cop on patrol; by that, I mean a cop who is casually driving down the street making himself available to be approached by a neighborhood resident.
It looks like people fight for no reason at all
16/06/06 21:14
Today this woman finds me in the back of the car and decides to have a conversation with me. She is very nice and corgule to me. After about 3 minutes, she asks me for money, I refuse as normal, and she spots a guy across the street and takes off for him. She becomes VERY violent and verbally abusive towards him. She's talking about him touching her stuff! She's going to "kill him if he touches her stuff!" She's in his face; she's hitting him; she's trying to kick him but she can't easily walk much less raise a leg.

I don't know if this guy is her husband, brother, neighbor, or what. The two are dressed totally different. They don't match as a pair. And their personalities are completely opposite. He just stands there and takes all the abuse she dishes out. He makes no agressive moves towards her and barely bothers to protect himself. It takes about 10 minutes for her to finish and they walk away in different directions.

She comes by my car and talks to me again real briefly, in a very nice tone of voice, and then she wanders off. Both of them are now aimlessly wandering when their paths cross again. And she digs into him again! Same topics; same violence. "I'm going to kill you! Don't touch my stuff! Something of mine is gone!" And then, they just walk away.

They seemed to fight over nothing!@#$!
Black people don't hesitate to ask what you are doing in their part of town
01/06/06 21:04
South Dallas neighborhood residents will approach me when they see me sitting in my car. They all ask me what I'm doing there and many say they thought I was a lookout for thieves. (I find that funny... A white guy, sitting in a car in a black neighborhood, and they think I'm a thief; "I" would have first assumed me to be a cop.) Their intention is to run me off if I were a thief; it takes very little time for a small group of neighborhood supporters gather around my car. These people deal with situations themselves head-on.

Had a stranger been sitting on our street, we FIRST would have ignored him for an initial period of time and hoped he would go away. If we felt action was required, we'd call 911; rarely would we approach a strange situation. My neighbors are even too scared to every go out and collect a license plate!

We rely on the cops a lot because they are around. South Dallas residents rely on themselves.
Do you know someone who will steal a laptop?
22/05/06 21:03
I hate this apartment complex at the corner of Simpson Stuart and Bonnieview. This place has no less than 5 cops in it at all times. (Most of the cops are black and they stand on the parking lot. The only white cop I've seen did not seem interested in getting out of the car.) Serena says she feels safe with all the cops; by the way, it was the apartment complex across the street where she got mugged in January 2006.

This day, I got situated as usual in the back of the SUV. I pulled out my computer and began to get work done. It was almost dusk so I figured it would be hard for people to see me. WRONG! Within 5 minutes this 20's guy with a long overcoat on (it's May by the way) is knocking on my window wondering what I'm doing. This was one of the few times I did not get out and meet the guy face-to-face. Remember, I'm scared of this complex! He asked if I was a cop; he made comments about me being in the car; he insuated about my fate; he finally left. I see him walking around the complex with intend but no destination going into this house, then to another, then meeting people on the street, into house, and now back to ME! (Remember, he's got a long coat on and I don't know what's under it.) This time he asks me, "Do you know where I can get a stolen laptop?" I politely answered "no" and he walked off.

It's time for me to pick up the phone, call Serena, and tell her to hurry up or I'm going for a drive. She didn't pickup... but she is walking out of the apartment. Shooo. I'm ready to get out of here!
The people in these neighborhoods know everyone on their block
18/05/06 20:23
Hanging out in a car waiting for my wife to return from a patient visit can look awfully suspecious to the people in the neighborhood. Of those who notice me, about 80% of them will inquire about why I'm there. I only need to mention the first or last name of the patient, my wife's occupation, and the inquiring person's face will light up and welcome me to the neighborhood. Some people invite me in to their conversation; some people suggest better locations for me to park the car; some people tell me they thought I was a "look-out" for someone stealing their valuables; but all seem to know the patient by name. (I know it's hard to tell, but the last sentence is was the topic of the paragraph.) They go to the effort to make me feel better/safe about waiting for my wife in the car.

To contrast neighborhoods... I live in a small gated 15 townhome community in the Lower Greenville area. We are made up of white, black, and asian origins. However, we don't know everyone in our own comminity unlike the people in the less affluent areas of Dallas.

Growing up in The Grove (Pleasant Grove, a suburb of Dallas,) I knew only 3 of my closest neighbors. I didn't actually talk to the next door neighbor family; I was too scared of them. I wouldn't have been able to tell you the names of the neighbors 3 houses down.

When I lived in the Gaston Yard Apartments in Deep Ellum, I made a point to meet the guy living across from me but no one else seemed interested in a neighborly friendship.

Most of Gaston Yard Apartments were made up of white residents as was my street in Plesant Grove back in the 70's.

I guess what surprises me is that the black neighborhoods know just about all the people living in the area. If they don't know Serena's patient, then the patient is not living in the neighborhood any more. We are taught that a neighborhood who's residents knows all the people has lessor crime, but these areas of town are wrought with crime. We have never had a major crime issue in my part of town... I hope I don't jinx the track record by writing this.
The drug dealers have better business than me!
11/05/06 22:07
Serena says this next house she's going into is a crack house. It's on a street in far south Dallas. She knockes on the door but no one answers. She knocks on the window and sees [many] people sitting around. She begins to bang on the door and it opens. A guy walks out of the house and never even notices that Serena is standing there. She makes her way in and finds her patient.

I am on the street in the car and about two houses down is a guy sitting on his front porch. He notices me but doesn't bother to acknowledge me nor change his routine. About every 15 minutes, a car drives by and stops in the middle of the road in front of his house, he goes to the car, sticks his head inside for about 45 seconds, then returns to his porch to wait for his next customer.

Man... I wish my web business had this big of demand!
You're in my business zone
11/05/06 21:03
Today, I dropped Serena off at a patient's house. I then backedup and parked on the street in the shade beside an empty field. I didn't notice that there was a car parked in the empty field. Next thing I know, there is a man knocking at my window. He asks, "are you here for business?" I politely replied "no" and went into my song and dance about my wife being a Nurse and I gave the name of patient she was seeing. Immediately his eyes lit up and said "Dad's been waiting for you all day long! What took you so long?"

After a short conversation and him asking for some money, he informed me that I was in his "business zone." He asked that I move my car because he can't see down the street. (I assume he really meant he couldn't look out for cops down the street.) He offered up a nice spot in the field under some trees. Over the coarse of the next 20 minutes, he had two customers and some relative (I think it was his mother) who came out to the car to have a verbal fight.
People walk around without any destination or intent
01/05/06 21:02
The first day out... In fact, at the first patient's house, I was surprised to find people just walking around aimlessly. I live in the Lower Greenville area of Dallas where there are a lot of bars. We have quite a few homeless too. When people walk around our house from one location to another, it is usually with intent; they have a destination in mind. Even the homeless have an intent on getting from one place to another if not just to hit up the next person for money.

But down here in 75241, in what I would call a typical suburban neighborhood, people are just walking around aimlessly. In the 45 minutes we were at the first house, I think I saw one guy pass by 3 times. One person walked to the street corner, stood there for about 3 minutes and then headed off down a different direction. Another guy did walk by that seemed to have a destination but he had the "not there' look at his face; oh, he did come back a short time later.