Dangerous drug den is a complex issue

[peejay 327]

Dangerous drug den is a complex issue

Harris County officials plan to clean up the Haverstock Hills Apartments

By BRIAN ROGERS

HOUSTON CHRONICLE

Oct. 4, 2010, 11:50PM

Houston drug traffickers and gang members call it "Da Stock," as in, "Let's go to Da Stock and get some rock."

Police and prosecutors have another name for Haverstock Hills Apartments — they say the 700-unit hub for drugs, including crack cocaine, or "rock," is one of the most dangerous apartment complexes in Harris County.

"It's too dangerous, even, to go in and buy drugs," said Harris County sheriff's Lt. Jesse Incencio. "You'll get robbed."

Incencio and other deputies soon may have a front seat to the action as county planners mull putting a part-time storefront on the main driveway, near the only entrance and the only exit.

Rimmed with barbed wire, the massive complex in the northwest corner of Aldine Bender and the Eastex Freeway has been targeted for cleanup by Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos and other county department heads in a sprawling plan that has been kept under wraps since it was conceived 18 months ago.

The plan, still being developed and implemented in phases, is an interconnection of public, private and nonprofit entities that the district attorney hopes will become the template for cleaning up other notorious crime dens.

Beyond law enforcement, the players include the owners of the complex, area businesses, nearby schools, churches and federal social services.

"We're calling on everybody," Lykos said. "And we're involving the people who live there."

Lykos said she wanted to target Houston's worst apartment complex after reading several essays from disadvantaged youth talking about their fears and anxieties. She also said she wanted to respond to a brag from gangs that they "own the night."

Wide range of offenses

Lawmen responded to more than 3,000 calls at the property last year, from drug violations to shootings, robberies and prostitution, Incencio said.

The problems at Haverstock Hills include tentacles stretching to nearby convenience stores and strip centers that have become staging areas for drug sales, in which dealers employ runners to meet customers, get the narcotics and dash back for the exchange.

On a recent Wednesday, the complex came to life about 11 a.m. as octogenarians, young men and mothers barely out of their teens gathered to play and drink beer around a portable table, worn from endless rounds of dominos.

"There was some gunshots last night," said Hendrick Durham, 22 and fresh out of jail to visit his son and the boy's mother. "I don't like my kids around all of this."

He said he moved from Haverstock Hills in 2008, and he worries that his son could be killed by a stray bullet.

As he spoke, he gestured toward several tattooed men in white T-shirts perched on the steps of the three-story complex, watching the courtyard.

"All these people right here are selling drugs," Durham said. "Most of the main things they're selling are crack and PCP. That's the main things everybody gets caught for."

Thomas Wilkerson, a 35-year-old warehouse worker who has been unemployed for a year and a half, has lived at the complex since 2002. He said the resources authorities are focusing on the apartments are unnecessary and could be better used somewhere else.

"It's not how many police there is, it's how good the police is," he said. "If they get good police officers, they wouldn't need a (storefront). They already got good officers around here."

The complex is home to more than 2,400 people, a third of them children. The number of people in and out of the complex can swell to nearly 4,000 on a busy night, deputies say.

Storefront for lawmen

The county cleanup effort coincided with a $400,000 gift from an anonymous donor to help build a 4,400-square-foot community center with computers and room for after-school and adult classes.

The old community center soon may become a part-time storefront for deputies, a place to sip coffee and keep an eye on the action.

Already, local and federal lawmen - including Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms agents, Houston police narcotics officers, even U.S. Housing and Urban Development inspectors - have ramped up patrols and special operations at the complex.

After suspects are arrested, assistant district attorneys are expected to "pay special attention" to the cases coming from Haverstock, especially any possible gang involvement, in any plea negotiations.

The district attorney's call for "special attention" has some defense lawyers questioning the legality of what they view as a policy of selective prosecution.

"All of these people deserve the same protections under the Constitution," said Nicole Deborde, president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association. "You shouldn't get a worse sentence than a guy who lives three apartment complexes down just because of where you are."

Lykos defended the policy, saying prosecutors want to identify gang members because civil cases may be filed against defendants later. She also said the directive means prosecutors will consider making gang member-appropriate restrictions, such as no-contact orders, during plea bargains.

A violation of rights?

Legal scholars said singling out a location for a closer look is not a violation of constitutional rights.

"It may seem inappropriate, because it is the same statute and the theory is that people who commit the same offense should be treated the same, but that's not the way it works in the real world," said Adam Gershowitz, a law professor at the University of Houston. "The Supreme Court has never mandated that every case be treated exactly the same, because every case is different."

As part of the cleanup campaign, some Haverstock Hills residents will be getting eviction notices for violating nuisance laws, falsifying documents to qualify for subsidized apartments or other crimes, said Kim Ogg, a former prosecutor hired by the district attorney's office to coordinate the effort.

The effort follows a $5.2 million renovation of the complex, including new doors, windows and air conditioners, paid for by a federal weatherization grant.

The remodel came on the heels of a $2.6 million cleanup that included new roofing after Hurricane Ike in 2008, said Flynann Janisse, executive director of Equality Community Housing Corporation, which owns the property.

Results can't come too soon for Angel Thomas.

"You can't leave your children out here. You want your children to get shot?" she said. "It's just wild gunfire."

Thomas, a 42-year-old grandmother who lost her airport security job in May, lamented the reality of where she has ended up after losing her house.

"It's a giant day care with no adult supervision," she said. "If you're staying here and you want your children to turn out right, you basically have to keep them in the house."

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7231932.html

[TBoneTX 48,187]

I read this, too, si man. It sounds as though the police could go in there at almost any time of day or night, spin in a circle while indiscriminately firing an automatic machine gun, and have a 99.44% chance of nailing only perps.

[luckytxn 2,265]

I loved the part where the authorities are getting heat for singling out this place as being unfair because it is like profiling.

[TBoneTX 48,187]

I loved the part where the authorities are getting heat for singling out this place as being unfair because it is like profiling.

As Ann Coulter so ringingly said about a larger matter, it's not so much profiling as it is a "description of the suspects," si man.

[luckytxn 2,265]

As Ann Coulter so ringingly said about a larger matter, it's not so much profiling as it is a "description of the suspects," si man.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

So section 8 welfare losers are partying it up on our dime?

F#CK THEM!!

[luckytxn 2,265]

So section 8 welfare losers are partying it up on our dime?

F#CK THEM!!

Well at least when they get fvcked they at least have the party favors.

The chron.com where the article came from usually has a lot of brutal comments on their articles but this one has the worst and most brutal comment section I have ever seen.