Drug dealers generally aren't the sort of folks who concern themselves with community standards or the sensitivities of their neighbors. But perhaps there's some hope that the story of Portsmouth's Shawn M. Daniels will snag the attention of at least a few peddlers and kingpins in the Hampton Roads region.
By most standards, Daniels is not a big-time dealer, as The Pilot's Janie Bryant noted in a story Monday. On the night police stopped his car and received his consent to search his car, they found 3.2 grams of heroin, 2.6 grams of marijuana and less than a gram of cocaine.
Rather than enter a plea agreement, Daniels dismissed his attorney and asked to be tried by a jury. The strategy didn't serve him well.
Jurors quickly convicted Daniels and then recommended that a judge sentence him to a whopping 40 years behind bars - far beyond the typical penalty for the amount of drugs found in his possession.
"People are fed up with drugs," one juror told The Pilot, "and they are fed up with people dealing drugs."
At least three people on the jury live in the Cradock and Cavalier Manor communities, where residents have been organizing to fight crime.
Daniels is scheduled for sentencing in July. It's likely the judge, who follows state sentencing guidelines and has the discretion to reduce a jury's recommended term, will settle on a punishment less severe than 40 years. Draconian sentences aren't the answer to our nation's drug problem.
The most effective response must incorporate education and substance-abuse treatment, among other preventive measures, as well as aggressive law enforcement and judicious court sentences.
But there's another, often-missing part of the equation that seems to be taking on a new life in Portsmouth and other parts of the region - active involvement by the community.
The frustration evident in the jury's recommendation of a 40-year sentence for Daniels is understandable. Residents are weary of having their neighborhoods overrun by big-time dealers and two-bit players who cash in on the addictions of others.
The Daniels case offered a chance to send a loud message: People in Cavalier Manor, Cradock and other communities throughout our region are fighting back.
Drug dealers may not care what their neighbors think. But many of them are going to feel the power of what an organized, focused neighborhood can accomplish.
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I have to agree...but it's not just Section 8
Section 8 is but one of the ways that these no-accounts slip into our neighborhoods....low rent slumlords (People like Andy Fox and the "Red Door" so-called investors) let any person with a fist full of dollars rent their houses, regardless of the condition in which they are kept. What's worse, the city has to be pushed and prodded into doing anything about it!
Owner-occupied homes, strict enforcement of code and zero-tolerance for blighted/abandoned properties is what Cradock needs. DO YOUR JOB, CITY OFFICIALS!!! WE CANNOT DO EVERYTHING FOR YOU!!!
Yes, we're fighting back!
With all the closures of housing projects in Portsmouth, Cradock and other affordable housing neighborhoods received residents from those razed projects. Many of those residents were granted Section 8 rentals in Cradock. Although it's not PC to say so, it's no secret that housing projects have a huge problem with drug/gang activity. The residents of Cradock have been delivered a huge dose of renters who have set up "shop" with their nefarious lifestyle.
There needs to be a cap put on the number of Section 8 properties in a given neighborhood. With all the revitalization efforts underway in Cradock, it stands to reason that a new clause/law should be added to code enforcement in the neighborhood. "Any new property purchased must be lived in by the owner for no LESS than ten years." Anything less will insure a "less than" quality standard for the neighborhood.
Beware Drug Dealers
Kudos to the jury and especially to the two sitting jurist from Cradock that sent a very strong message. Bottom line: the community of Cradock will not stand for drug houses, sellers, or pushers any longer. Yes there are communities that are fed up with the drug problems. Yes communities are starting to take back their communities with the help of the police department and neighbors that have said enough is enough. It is obvious that Cradock has not seen the best part yet. I know the neighborhood watch in Cradock is doing an excellent job in taking back there community. If you are a drug dealer in Cradock, now is the time to move. Better yet quite selling. Thank you Ted for getting the block watch started in Cradock.
It's like this....
...when I was growing up and being schooled in the ways of proper housekeeping by my mother, she taught me the importance of keeping a clean kitchen. Don't let crumbs, dirt, grease or grime accumulate on things, by things, behind things, under things or you will get roaches, rodents and other (what she would call) livestock.
What does this have to do with drug dealers and other criminals? Well, if you keep a clean kitchen (i.e., enforce code, don't allow blight, refuse to allow the neighborhood to slip into decay and dirt) you tend not to have human roaches and human rodents running around. They don't like clean, or order, or the city banging on their doors....and neither to their customers.
We need the city to take a leaf from New York's book. Enforce code and remove blight from our neighborhoods, just like the NY subways dealt with grafitti and fare jumpers, and you will make our neighborhood