Mayor Zach Patterson on Wednesday challenged residents in Community Parks Apartments to take charge of their community, pointing to card-playing, dice-throwing and other activities in public areas in the complex as an invitation to negative elements.
Patterson, saying he and police both agree that many problems in the housing complex are caused by visitors rather than residents, said pinpointing blame fails to explain why troublesome visitors would consider the complex a welcoming environment.
He called on residents to report those hanging out instead of letting them be role models for their children.
“Kids only emulate and mimic what they see,” Patterson said. “Fess up. Own up and say, ‘Call it like it is.’ A lot of this is going on. I will not allow us to walk out of here today and say, ‘It’s all about those outsiders.’ We have to be willing to stand up.
“I’m going to take responsibility for what the city can do better,” Patterson added. “But you have to take responsibility, too.”
The strong words came during a forum on public safety in Community Parks spurred by a shooting incident there earlier this month. It also followed a political storm earlier this year when Patterson accused state representative, former selectman and former complex manager David Myers of running “slum” apartments and ignoring residents’ quality of life.
The forum included some residents’ concerns about living conditions there, too.
“First of all, most of the shooting is by people that don’t even live in Community Parks,” said resident Stephanie Williams. “Then you got the drug dealers that don’t even stay in Community Parks. … Security is not the real police. If you want security, get the real police down there. If you can get a real police officer to be security, you might not have all that activity.”
And Williams dismissed the suggestion that one way of improving conditions for children would be to take them to parks around the city.
“You got to pay your rent,” Williams said. “You got to get back and forth to work. … There are days where, ‘The kids can’t go to the park today because you ain’t got no gas money.’ ”
Barbara Nunnery called for more recreation facilities.
“There’s too many children down there doing nothing,” she said.
Julia Martin said she’d seen visitors pull up to throw a party from the back of their trucks, and said even if scattered by police, most returned as soon as authorities left.
“We’re in desperate need for some help out there,” she said. “I’ve never seen it like this before. … This is all night long. … It’s not on the weekend like it used to be, this is every day, every night, all night.”
Janice Felder, meanwhile, challenged residents to get to know each other and help each other out.
“We have to allow our neighbors to help us raise our children,” Felder said. “Where if Miss Somebody saw you doing something wrong, they can correct you. They are so afraid to say anything to somebody else’s child. … You need to put the fear of God in those children and tell them when you see security coming you better act like it’s me coming.”
Lucious Martin forcefully emphasized the same point, challenging local pastors to take an active role in influencing local youth.
“My cry is to the preachers,” he said. “We’ve been having meetings, and we don’t have enough preachers. … Some of the things we plan to do is we’re going to walk through Community Parks and White Acres. We haven’t dropped the ball as preachers, but we haven’t picked it up enough.”
And Martin blasted a lack of cooperation with police and others trying to help.
“This thing is not about someone else,” he said. “It’s at our doorstep. It’s us, and we need to get on board. I used to kind of bash the police, but I appreciate the police. They can patrol down my street, because when the police are around, you’re not going to have any problems.
“We say we can’t call the police on our kids or our grandkids then when the police come to arrest them we cuss the police out,” Martin continued. “We can’t do this. We got to let the police maybe take them to jail a time or two. Maybe it will wake them up. I’d rather see my son locked up and grow up than have to go to the graveyard and put flowers
“We got this thing twisted,” Martin concluded. “We got it wrong. We can’t be our kids’ buddies like we try to be. … My dad beat me like a runaway slave but it helped me. … You can’t chastise your kid when you’re sitting there smoking dope and passing the joint to the kid. … Punishment to a kid is, ‘Go to your room?’ He has everything he needs in the room! Punishment is not punishing you from Monday to Thursday and then letting you go to the McComb-South Pike game. That’s not punishment, that’s a joke. We’ve got to start doing whatever’s necessary for our kids because we’ve lost them.”
Bennie Joseph of Summit Street said he felt security concerns echoed a broader lack of planning for the black community.
“It hurts me to see city officials in office that do very little for the black community,” Joseph said. “I have never seen a plan for the black community and I am 74. … Why can’t we have in our town some of the luxuries, some of the beautiful things cross-town?”
Joseph also praised a mention by Patterson of a possible police substation in the area.
“I’m glad you said today that you’re willing to have that station there,” Joseph said. “I want all of you here. … Call each other on the phone and work with the mayor, but you make sure that the mayor’s doing his job for you.”
And a resident who only identified herself as “Lola” said that she was concerned about police harassment.
“Some people are getting up here exaggerating about some things that’s going on in Community Parks,” she said. “I’m not going to give the police my name. I’m not going to give the police department the reason to harass me. … All black people are not bad people.”
She brought up a situation in which she said a white police officer had asked her if she had been drinking, and when she responded that she couldn’t because she was diabetic, the officer allegedly responded sarcastically, “Diabetics drink, too.”
“The next time that I’m talked to that way by a white police officer, I’m going to do something about it, because it’s not necessary.”
And Lonnie Ross said he would be working with a group of preachers aiming to walk through the apartment complex to meet with and help residents.
Patterson maintained his call for a self-determined community, saying he hoped residents would work with police and city officials, even if authorities conduct required review at times, too.
“These non-residents are visiting someone,” the mayor said. “They are being entertained from my observation. They are being entertained on the front step. The buck stops with the residents. The residents have to be responsible and stand up and say no to these non-residents of beautiful Community Parks.”
He also touched on subjects from police harassment to economic difficulties.
“I can’t help you with the price of gasoline, nor can I help you with the minimum wage,” Patterson said. “I am turning to the community folks and I’m turning to the churches and I’m going to ask them to help us with that transportation problem. … If you feel as if you’ve been treated wrong, harassed by any member of the McComb Police Department, I’d like to have the first shot at it. Even if half true, some of these things cannot be tolerated.”
But, Patterson repeated, residents need to do their part.
“We have a curfew here in the city of McComb, Mississippi, of 12 a.m. for all those 17 and under,” he said. “I wonder why I see so many 14-year-olds and 13-year-olds. There’s no amount of police force that can do anything about that. This gets into parental responsibility.”
And he said he wanted the community’s self-determination to include police help, appointing a mayoral advisory committee to help address needs.
“You have to call McComb’s finest,” he said. “There is no such thing as a harmless amount of drugs.”
Apartment complex manager Bo Harris was on hand and nodded agreement with some points, but was not asked to speak.
