Pubdate: Sun, 2 Mar 2008
Source: Plain Dealer, The (Cleveland, OH)
Copyright: 2008 The Plain Dealer
Contact:  http://www.cleveland.com/plaindealer/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/342
Note: priority given to local letter writers
Authors: Gabriel Baird and Stan Donaldson

CLEVELAND NEIGHBORHOOD WHERE OFFICER WAS SHOT KNOWN AS DANGEROUS AREA

The neighborhood where Patrolman Derek Owens was fatally shot Friday 
was among the first that police targeted after Mayor Frank Jackson 
directed them to aggressively crack down on crime.

Owens and his partner were doing routine patrol work and were not 
part of the teams targeting gun and drug crime announced by Jackson 
this year. Still, the blocks around East 102nd Street and Parkview 
Avenue -- where the shooting occurred -- are among the worst in the 
area, said 4th District Commander Roy Rich and Councilman Kenneth Johnson.

This part of the Woodland Hills neighborhood is a rampant drug 
market, where the dope dealers protect their turf with violence and 
the sound of gunfire is common, neighbors and police said.

There are 25 percent more drug offenses per capita in the area than 
in other residential areas and 10 percent more felonious assaults, 
according to a Plain Dealer analysis of 2006 crime data, the most 
recent available.

Officers familiar with the area say boys and young men frequently 
defy police, taunt them and throw rocks at their patrol cars.

"It wasn't always like this," Johnson said.

The area was once home to the largest Hungarian population in the 
nation, according to a Web site describing the Woodland Hills neighborhood.

The quality of life there began to deteriorate about 15 years ago, 
Johnson said.

The population has fallen by nearly 10 percent in the last decade. 
The decline in population and the poverty rate are twice as high 
there as in the city as a whole, according to U.S. census data.

Many residents fled to escape the crime. Others have been forced out 
by the foreclosure crisis, Johnson said.

The 7,000 residents who remain are surrounded by abandoned houses and 
victimized by a generation of hardened criminals, the councilman said.

Owens, 36, was shot after he and his partner approached men drinking 
beer in the garage of a vacant house.  There are at least seven 
abandoned houses on Parkview Avenue, some of them covered with 
graffiti from neighborhood gangs.

Kevin Boswell, 54, has lived on the street since 2002.  He blames the 
neighborhood's problems on absentee parents, since much of the 
trouble is caused by teens, he said.

The teens who cause problems often hang out in and around the 
abandoned homes, Boswell said.

"This end of the street is pretty quiet, but once you go past the 
stop sign, it's like the O.K. Corral," Boswell said, gesturing to the 
end of the street where Owens was shot. "Right now, everybody is 
locked down because the cops are here, but when they leave, they'll 
be right back doing what they do." 
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