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Mary Lou Montes Zijderveld
Officer C S
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03/08/04 Dallas is Out of Control and
the Bad Guys know it!
CBS 11 reported on
3/08/04 10 pm newscast City Atty is seeking TRO against Planet Venus regarding
their illicit marquee and illegal uses planned for property. About time.
Last week, I wrote about Planet Venus about to open
up shop on NW Highway near Bachman Lake, precisely right next door to the old
whorehouse known as Baby Dolls. Friday night, Roxan Staff and I were
interviewed by CBS 11 and Ch 8 standing across the parking lot from that awful
sign posted in DallasArena.com's "Did
City Attorney do in NW Dallas?".
If you saw the interviews, you saw three squad cars at Planet Venus.
Do
you know why they were there?
The reporters went up to the doors and asked
to speak to whoever was in charge. The guy they talked with told
them to get off his property or he would call the police. He called
the police and said there was a public disturbance. The Police dispatcher sent two squad
cars because those type of calls must be answered by two officers. When they
saw the media, they called their supervisor.
In a city rated the Nation's No. 1 crime city, in the No. 1 crime area of that
distinguished city, three Dallas police
officers responded to a false report rather than being available for calls from
decent citizens.
Why wasn't that guy at least issued a citation if not
arrested?
Do you know why the owners of Planet Venus are opening up a sex club where the
City Attorney promised us no more sex clubs could operate? Well, for one
thing because they know our City Attorney won't do anything about it for a long
time. By the time she gets around to taking some action -- if she does,
they will already have made bucket loads of money. They will keep
operating during all the legal wrangling and keep making bucket loads of money.
When they lose, they will appeal and keep operating and keep making bucket loads
of money.
So, why are we bothering to speak out? Well, because we must!
There's so much lawlessness in this city. Police Officers caught the Greenville Ave.
Mugger. They might have caught him sooner if our ONLY DAILY NEWSPAPER
wasn't consumed with being politically correct. |
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Kirk Launius:
Sharon, you are correct. The situation around Bachman Lake is appalling. Our
glass-tower-skyline-enchanted Laura Miller should agree that it is an
embarrassment for friends and family from out of town to be "greeted" with
that kind of garbage when they fly in to either D/FW or Love Field and drive
down NW Hwy. Similarly
sad is the view with which visitors from Houston on northbound IH-45 are
"welcomed" to South Dallas by a splendid view of a recently-smoldering
salvage yard and Penthouse "ladies" billboard.
It appeared to me that progress was
being made in the Bachman Lake area for a while. I guess I was wrong.
Perhaps the City of Dallas should be firing and hiring in
Code Compliance and the
City Atty's office
and not just in the Police Dept.
Surely we can do better... and must if we are to build a strong, prosperous,
tax-base-building business environment here in Dallas. Elected officials who
have "forgotten" their pledges to repair basic services must be replaced by
those whose livelihoods depend upon it.
As the first and only graduate
of the citizens police academy to graduate from the Dallas Police Academy, I
specifically requested that my field training take place in the southeast
patrol division where I would have no shortage of drunks, pimps, whores,
crack heads, child molesters, murderers, etc. to
remove from our streets. After almost two years in patrol, I have seen, done
and smelled just about everything imaginable. I have provided cover for
numerous code, fire, building, TABC inspectors, et al, on relatively
pleasant club inspections in South Dallas... but thank God I have not had to
put up with arrogant knuckleheads like those you describe in NW
Dallas. If that had occurred in SE, you can rest
assured we would have launched them off to Planet Sterrett in one of our
infamous, flaming Crown Victoria "spacecraft". I
hope the supervisor(s) who was called to your location at least warned the
club owner/operator about judicious use of 911 and police resources and
documented this action in a miscellaneous incident report (MIR) for future
tracking.
My heart goes out to Randy and Roxan
Staff. As an entrepreneur who has recently transferred from the full-time
DPD patrol ranks to the Dallas Police Reserve Battalion in order to invest
in a profitable business, I am unfortunately familiar with all the players
-- elected, appointed, hired, "paid" (legally or under the table),
immigrant, "volunteer", homeless, you name it -- in this sad saga.
South Dallas may be a different part of town, but it
has similar stories. As a lifelong Dallas resident, I realize that in few
areas of town do all the players butt heads like they do in NW
Dallas and especially the Bachman Lake area.
It is an affront to legitimate
business owners like the Staff's that our
supposedly business-friendly city government hamstrings its professional
enforcement officers through ineffective policies and thus takes little or
no action to prevent such brazen lawlessness, much less to repair such
blight.
Citizens and business owners need to
stay up-to-date on the laws --
state:
www.capitol.state.tx.us/statutes/statutes.html and
city:
www.dallascityhall.com/dallas/eng/html/codes.html -- and question
so-called legal opinions when they seem to be influenced by anything other
than what we the taxpayers determine reasonable community standards to be.
As Officer CS makes clear, in most cases it is we citizens, taxpayers and
business owners who must complain -- as unpleasant as that may be -- in
order for arrests / citations to become convictions.
Stepping down from my soapbox, please
allow me to put in a plug that the Reserve Battalion is recruiting --
please refer to me one or two good, moral, trustworthy prospects (with clean
records and a sense of adventure) from your area whom we can train to help
us bring some law and order back to Dallas. For example, we reserve
officers were able to concentrate our efforts in the Greenville Ave. and
Deep Ellum areas during the past few weekends and
augment the overworked patrol elements. As stakeholders in this city like
you, reserve officers recognize the rewards of genuine public service which
extend well beyond the margins of a paycheck.
Kirk Launius, Dallas Police Reserve Officer, 214.515.0740 |
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In my neighborhood, several homeowners find new bullet holes in their roofs
after holidays. Mike Perry actually found a bullet (not just the hole), which he has sent to
City Councilman Steve Salazar.
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Mr. Salazar,
Attached is the bullet removed from my roof. As you will recall
from my prior email, this incident occurred January 1, 2004. Shooting
guns is common practice New Year's Eve and July 4 in our neighborhood. My
roof is only one year old and now I have a hole in it from these
irresponsible people. I am asking that you require extra patrol in our
neighborhood on both these dates each year. We are tired of having our
rights violated as a result of these thugs thinking it is O.K. to shoot
guns because they know law enforcement is a joke in the City of Dallas.
Thank you in advance for any assistance you can give us in this
matter.
Regards,
Mike Perry
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Randy Staff has his own horror stories from trying to operate a bank on NW
Highway:
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I understand
Mike Perry's problems. But I can assure you, it is only going to
get worse.
For
the area around Webb Chapel Extension and NW Hwy. (especially around the
European Crossroads), random
and not so random gunfire is an every
night event. The problems are expanding North to Mike
Perry's neighborhood.
I have had the windows of my bank shot
out. We are currently putting a new roof
on our bank building at a cost of over $30,000, in large part because of
leaks caused by random gunfire.
I have spoken with the police,
but unless we have the name of the shooter, his social security number,
Texas drivers license number, a photo and two eye witnesses, the police
don't do anything. This type of activity is becoming more commonplace in
NW Dallas and apparently the police are unable or unwilling to stop the
perpetuators.
The problem along NW Hwy. is so severe
that the bank has a full time security guard during the hours the bank is
open to keep the homeless/beggars/street people and general derelicts out
of our lobby as well as off the parking lot. The bank's non-interest
expense is approximately $125,000 per month and almost $6,000 is
for security guard, that is 5% of our operating cost!
Good luck - but as
Mike said in an earlier e-mail, the Bachman neighborhood is lost!
I hope his
neighborhood does not suffer the same fate!
Let me know if I can do anything. Based
upon my lack of success around the bank, I don't have a very good
record, but I will try to help.
J. Randy Staff
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It's not just flying bullets. It's just outright, open defiance of city
ordinances by bad guys, and outright, open refusal to enforce city
ordinances by public officials. It's not just happening in NW Dallas, but
here are several instances of the brazenness of the violators in a e-mail
prepared by Randy Staff:
Lt. King -
You well may be taking my and others
peoples concerns seriously. Unfortunately,
no one at the City of Dallas is taking the necessary actions
to stop the illegal activities.
1. Alcoholic Beverage
Establishments (ABE) and Dance Halls operate
without proper Certificates of Occupancy (CO) and/or
Dance Hall licenses. Code
Compliance refuses to do anything. The businesses are as follows:
El Volcan, Gitaneo Bar,
Los Compass, La Guira,
Taqueria Lupita (recently started operating as a Dance Hall) and
Planet Venus (at best an ABE and Dance Hall, but probably a SOB).
2. Illegally parked cars all
over the neighborhood (especially around Overlake
Park). Police will not patrol the area and tow the cars,
rather they require a citizen to call 911 for each parking violation.
3. I personally
observed a drug dealer/pimp and his
stable of prostitutes were working Friday night (3/5/04)
outside Champion Billiards. The police and you specifically, Lt.
King, have been made aware of this
situation for at least several months and yet the
drug dealer/pimp and his stable of prostitutes continues to
operate.
4. Single family residence
(SFR) on the West side of Community just
North of Overlake Park has at least 20 people residing there.
I personally counted 11 vehicles parked there on the street as
well as on the lawn. Code
Compliance refuses to do anything.
5. Auto repair business operating from a SFR on
the SW corner of Storey and Timberline.
Their two wreckers are
always parked on Storey making it almost impossible for some residents
on the street to get in and out of their
driveways. Code has been aware of this
situation for over a year and refuses to do
anything.
6. Five SFR homes on the
East side of Webb Chapel Ext. are zoned
"Community Retail" and are used for commercial
activities. However, these SFR homes are
also being used as primary residences, as well
as for commercial activities for which they
do not have the proper CO's.
Code Compliance refuses to do anything.
7. Auto repair shop on
North side of NW Hwy. just East of
closed Western Chicken has numerous signs illegally placed in
the right of way, uses side street to store vehicles and
illegally parks vehicles on City owned
approach to Love Field that is clearly marked "No
Parking". Code
Compliance refuses to do anything.
8. Many traffic control signs all
over the area are damaged and/or destroyed.
Despite numerous calls to 311 and
direct appeals to ICP officers,
damaged and destroyed signs are not repaired or
replaced. Especially dangerous are
missing "Stop" signs at
SE corner of NW Hwy. and Starlight as well as the traffic control signs
(No U Turn & Do Not Enter) for the
left hand turn lanes from NW Hwy. onto the various
side streets.
9. El Bom Boom Room continues to
cause numerous problems for its neighbors.
I forwarded a separate e-mail from a
young woman who lives in
the area regarding El Bom Boom Room that pretty well says it
all.
10. In Oct. 2003, Assist City
Attorney Paul Fletcher was assigned to pursue
legal action against various illegally operating ABEs and Dance
Halls. To my
knowledge, not one of the
aforementioned illegally operating business has
been prosecuted. All illegally
operating businesses identified in Oct. 2003
still operate and are now joined by Taqueria Lupita and soon
to open Planet Venus.
Paul Fletcher
resigned from the City of Dallas, and no
one is assigned to pursue legal action against the
illegally operating businesses.
11. Stratos Bar & Grill has a
restaurant CO, which requires food service during all hours the business is
opened. However, the kitchen closes early in the evening,
and Stratos then operates as a bar and dance
hall until closing. Code Compliance refuses
to do anything.
Owners of Taqueria Lupita and
Planet Venus see that code regulations will not be
enforced in Bachman. That's why those two
businesses have decided to operate illegally. From
observing other illegally operating businesses in Bachman,
they know Code
Compliance will not do anything.
No kitchen at a restaurant, no problem!
In summary Lt. King, these are
numerous issues that individually are simple to
resolve. The problem is that no one at the City of Dallas is addressing
the individual issues, one by one.
Thanks for you time and
efforts. However, now we need results.
J. Randy Staff |
Granted, this is just one area, but I guarantee you have similar
horror stories in your part of Dallas. I know you get the same run around
from City Hall that Randy Staff mentions. It just goes on and on.
Still, we Our Mayor and Council Members and City Staff wasting hours trying
to find a way to accommodate Grandpa Jerry Jones. Our Mayor and Council
Members and City Staff continue to ignore the day-to-day devastation to this
city while they keep their eyes on the "big picture" which translates to big
ticket/resume builder projects.
It's no fun for
Our Mayor to deal with Code Compliance when she can be out begging for
dollars for her String Thing Bridges.
Police officers can't get illegally parked cars off the street, but three squad
cars get sent to a phony public disturbance call.
We don't have to accept this situation. That doesn't mean we should all
throw in the towel and move to the 'burbs -- as tempting as it may be.
Each of us needs to do a little of what Randy Staff and Mike Perry are doing.
Write those people at City Hall who can get something done about this! Of
course, the trick is to find someone at City Hall who can get something done
about this.Otherwise, let's just do away
with all city laws and regulations. If the bad guys are going to shoot up
roofs on various holidays, we will be free to shoot back at them. If the
bad guys are going to operate whorehouses where they are prohibited, we will be
free to take whatever action we think necessary to get rid of those places.
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Casie
Pierce:
Code enforcement is broken. We don't
even know who our officers are anymore, much less
get adequate response. We don't have an
ICP Officer- we have a crime prevention officer for our V.I.P. who is
very responsive- but it's always our non-ICP officer at the monthly
SE Division Crime Watch meetings. I don't get
it.
Anyway, we're so tired of tilting at
windmills in our very own little
wonderful pocket of southeast Dallas, so we're just going to have a
meeting, invite everyone in the world, and present our Top 10 Wish
List.
Every neighborhood in Dallas should do the
same. I printed our wish list in our neighborhood
newsletter. We invited our City Council Rep.,
all the top people at Code Enforcement,
Building Inspection
and DPD.
We will present a Top 10 Repeat
Offenders list (which did not go into our
newsletter), for the 10 worst homes in the
neighborhood. We have ~ 30,
but the board of directors had to agree on only the 10 worst.
We did this a few years ago and it
worked. Every
neighborhood association and crime watch group should do the same,
too. It's time to reach a critical mass. |
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If the only people who are bound by laws and regulations are law abiding
citizens, then we need to join up with the bad guys.
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