Now I'm the kinda man that wouldn't harm a mouse
But if I catch somebody breaking in my house
I've got a twelve gauge shotgun waiting on the other side

So don't try to push me against my will
I don't want to hurt you but I damn sure will
So if you don't want trouble then you'd better just pass me by

Fed up with crime

Frustrated residents forming watch groups, hiring security guards, arming themselves
George Hunter, Santiago Esparza and Doug Guthrie / The Detroit News

Detroit— Pamela Malone and Tigh Croff are symbolic of Detroiters' frustration with crime, although they had vastly different ways of dealing with the problem.

Malone, president of the Historic Boston-Edison Association, hired a private security firm to patrol her neighborhood, which has seen a rash of recent home invasions.

Croff, whose east side home was the frequent target of break-ins, chased down a burglar the night of Dec. 28 and shot him in the chest.

Whether they're organizing neighborhood watch groups, hiring security guards or arming themselves, Malone, Croff and other Detroiters said they are fed up with crime and are taking matters into their own hands.

"We're just trying to preserve our community, rather than just complaining about the crime problem," said Malone, whose association hired Dusing Security & Surveillance to watch the neighborhood two years ago. "We realize the city is strapped, so we're dealing with reality — if there aren't enough police officers, what can we do to protect our property and quality of life?"

Croff's attorney, Gerald Evelyn, said citizens often feel the need to take action because there aren't enough police to respond to emergencies quickly. The average response time for dangerous runs in Detroit is 24 minutes from the time a 911 call is received, according to statistics released in April.

Nationwide statistics are not available, but Atlanta, Ga., police have an 11-minute average response time and in Washington, D.C., police respond in an average of eight minutes, according to statistics released last year by those departments.

"Police are stretched to the limit and can't get to every run in time, so people are frustrated," said Evelyn, whose client was charged with manslaughter. The jury in the trial deliberated for four days in August without reaching a verdict. A retrial is scheduled for Jan. 10.

"People feel they have to fend for themselves," Evelyn said.

Raphael B. Johnson, a community activist who has organized patrols in several Detroit neighborhoods, said, "No one is going to come and save us, so we have to help ourselves."

Johnson, who made a recent unsuccessful attempt for a seat on the Detroit City Council, added: "Any time the community is made unsafe for women, children and the elderly, the men have to stand up and do something."

The frustration with crime isn't just a Detroit phenomenon, said David Benelli, a retired New Orleans police lieutenant and member of the victims rights organization Crimefighters.

"People feel like the perpetrators have more rights than victims," Benelli said. "If you have a person who commits a crime, and both the perp and victim are injured, the perp gets all his medical expenses taken care of, whereas the victims have to fend for themselves."

Overcrowded jails, which force officials to release prisoners early, and declining police budgets add to the problem, Benelli said. "Here in New Orleans, the city is in dire financial straits, and police have to take one unpaid furlough day every two weeks. So there are less officers patrolling."

Brenda Mixon said it's up to citizens to defend themselves. Mixon's husband, Omar Mixon, 36, fatally shot 20-year-old Kenyon Reese Jr. outside a west side gas station Oct. 19 after police say Reese tried to carjack Mixon's Cadillac Escalade with a 5-year-old girl in the back seat.

Mixon said her husband, who has a concealed weapon permit, was going to surrender his Escalade "and the guy shot him anyways."

"You work so hard to get what you want, and somebody just wants to take it from you," she said. "That's why people get CCW permits. It is to protect yourself and your family. You should be able to protect yourself."

Statistics suggest more people in Wayne County are feeling the need to protect themselves: Since 2001, when the county loosened the restrictions for concealed weapon permits, the number of permits issued has more than tripled, from 4,217 to 12,656 last year.

Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee has repeatedly stressed the need for citizens to help his manpower-strapped department, which numbers about 3,000 officers after years of layoffs — but he said citizens should never take the law into their own hands.

"I believe it is a dangerous and unwise practice for citizens to perform law enforcement responsibilities in making arrests," Godbee said. "The dangers inherent in doing so are too self-evident to require elaboration. The advice I would give today is the same advice that police departments have always given: Do not attempt to apprehend a criminal suspect yourself. Notify the police."

Dennis Sullins, who lives in southwest Detroit, said he doesn't care whether it's police or outraged neighbors who catch the two men who robbed and beat his 88-year-old mother, who is confined to a wheelchair.

"It doesn't matter to me how they get caught — I just want to know who did it, and I want them to pay," said Sullins, 49. His mother, Emma Jean Sullins, was hospitalized in August after being attacked inside her home on Lansing Street.

Dennis Sullins was among hundreds of people who searched his neighborhood for the two men responsible.

"Sometimes, you can get justice in the court system, but sometimes you can't," Sullins said. "To me, vigilante justice is still justice."

Johnson, who organized patrols searching for Emma Jean Sullins' attackers, is one of the founders of Detroit 300. The organization got its name after 300 people showed up in the neighborhood to help look for the men who allegedly raped a 90-year-old woman on the city's northwest side in August. Godbee credited the group's efforts with catching the suspects, Maurice Randall, 17, and Anthony Hardy, 18, who await trial in December.....

"When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives."
Winter is Coming

Now this is the Law of the Jungle—as old and as true as the sky; And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk, the Law runneth forward and back; For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.