This is what's wrong in St. Pete

[Gladiator]

A good alternative to arrests
A Times Editorial
Published September 1, 2006

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One of the St. Petersburg Police Department's standard operating procedures in black neighborhoods has been to slap the cuffs on young people suspected of having committed crimes.

This summer, however, Chief Chuck Harmon and a team of officers tried a different way of dealing with youth-related crime: Instead of automatically arresting every suspect, the police referred many youngsters to social service organizations for treatment and other help.

"We thought it would be a good opportunity for us to engage with the youth," Harmon told the St. Petersburg Times, pointing out that the new Operation Summer Safe initiative made 226 referrals in which arrests would have been made in the past.

Such referrals are good news because many of the cases involved substance abuse problems, some of them minor, that professionals can help with if not solve. Pinellas County Urban League head Herman Lessard, who deals with troubled teenagers each day, said that many run-ins with the police do not need to result in arrests, as Operation Summer Safe demonstrated.

With this kind of first-time success, Harmon and his team should find a way to make this effort permanent and year-round.



And there you have it. A perfect example of what is wrong in St. Petersburg. I'm sorry but I don't by off on the THERE POOR LITTLE MISGUIDED YOUTH theory. If they're out there selling or using drugs then they need to be arrested. Put in handcuffs and taken to JDC. That's right JDC not the piss poor excuse that they call JAC. I was scared to death to go to JDC and in turn didn't commit crimes. If they truly do need some treatment or rehabilitation, then they can get it there.

The give em a break and not hold them in excess of 21 days kinder gentler approach is the primary reason we have so much juvenile crime. If Little Johnny wants to steal a car.....handcuffs, if Little Johnny wants to burglarize your house...handcuffs, if Little Johnny wants to smoke and sell dope....handcuffsm, and if Little Johnny wants to throw rocks and bottles at the police....handcuffs. Any other way is reinforcing that there is no punishment for your actions and further reenforces that crime does pay.

did they even have contact with that many juveniles? I thought all they were doing was working drugs.

[Lawman]

The problem with social service referrals is, in order to be effective, the person referred must want the service. You can't force someone to reform, the must want it. I am all for social service referrals for children before the commit a crime. Once the crime has been committed....handcuff time. It's the only way they will really learn...not that the trip to JDC scares them. Besdes, they will get all the coddling and hand holding they need from the State Attorney's Office.

But if little Johnny wants to throw rocks and bottles at the police, JDC is not the place he needs to be going...he needs to be taken to Bayfront's ICU...

Funny but I thought one of the St Pete Police Department's standard operating procedures was to slap cuffs on anyone suspected of committing a crime. Now I find out fromone of your own that it is only the standard operating procedure in black neighborhoods. And you wonder why the citizens of those neighborhoods can't stand you?

[Moral Majority]

You, and whoever told you that, are completely ignorant to the facts! But its ok, you are not alone

Guest 747, ah, another rocket scientist.

If we have to be so narrow as to color code our communities as the Guest 747 is I will play along (aqnd use small words so Guest 747 won't become confused).

The greatest level of racism - excuse me, reverse discrimination - in the city comes from "black" neigborhoods and aims at "whites". As Bill Maxwell has pointed out time and again, we have a lot of people with a victim mentality and no sense of community. If they spent as much time applying for student aid, enrolling in classes, painting their house or mowing their lawn as they do lamenting the wrongs done them by "the man" they would be much happier. A feeling held by many of my neighbors, black, brown, white . . .

Frankly, some folks just can't stand anybody - me, cops, other neighbors (regardless of color), their family, themselves. . .

Not all in my area fit this mold - but many do.