Pubdate: Tue, 19 Dec 2006
Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA)
Copyright: 2006 Richmond Newspapers Inc.
Contact:  http://www.timesdispatch.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/365
Author: Mark Holmberg, Times-Dispatch Staff Writer

GINTER PARK RESIDENTS WEIGH ANTI-CRIME STEPS

Last week's gunbattle in a North Richmond alley may  have resulted in 
only a leg wound, but residents in the  Ginter Park neighborhood felt 
it in their hearts.

More than 50 of them wedged into a stuffy room made for  25 people in 
the Ginter Park Library last night to  brainstorm about what to do 
about neighborhood drug  dealing, prostitution and landlords who turn 
a blind  eye to lawless renters and loiterers.

"I haven't looked down so many [gun] barrels since I  was in 
Vietnam," said Larry Mier, resident and block  captain of the 4800 
block of East Seminary Road. "At  least there, I got to shoot back."

Mier, a former IRS agent who said he served in an Army  field 
artillery unit in Vietnam in the early 1970s,  told of twice being 
the victim of attempted armed  robberies.

Another neighborhood resident in attendance reportedly  straps on a 
pistol just to take out the trash.

"It's just a matter of time before there's a  carjacking," one woman 
said as her neighbors nodded in  agreement.

Along with rising property values, the Chamberlayne  Avenue and Brook 
Road corridor just inside the city  limits has seen a surge in the 
kind of lawless defiance  that plagued sister neighborhoods closer to 
downtown,  such as Battery Park.

"These guys are thugs," Mier said, referring to the  brazen invaders 
discussed during the meeting. "They've  got the organization out there."

A member of the Battery Park Civic Association offered  some pointers 
on how that residential organization got  the lawless element moving 
out by taking photographs,  walking the streets and confronting trespassers.

Much of the meeting focused on how to pressure owners  of apartment 
buildings and subdivided homes to be more  responsible and sensitive 
to neighborhood concerns.

Specific addresses and management firms were mentioned.

"We've got to go after these guys," Mier said.

They talked of getting cameras on the worst corners,  such as 
Chamberlayne Avenue and Watkins Street. Better  lighting and 
no-parking zones were also discussed.

Richmond police Lt. Tim Morley told them it's a job the  police can't 
handle alone.

"We try to be as creative as we can . . . as aggressive  as we can," 
Morley said. "We depend on every one of you  here -- and more."
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MAP posted-by: Elaine