story
Gone for a Burton
We live in the dispersal zone in Brixton. Well, just on the edge of it, which is part of the problem.
All the dealers and users who have been moved on from Windrush Square, Rushcroft Rd and Saltoun Road are now frequenting our street.
Every morning I find empty wraps on the doorstep. My front garden has been trashed, it smells of piss, old shreddies and lord knows what left lying about.
Since mid-August, we've been calling in every incident with the local cop shop. Just last week, they finally got round to sending over a PCSO. They listened politely, gave us a phone number to use, and left. The phone number has proven useless - if they answer at all, it's an ansaphone, and if a real person takes the call, no-one comes round. So we're back to reporting the incidents to the cop shop.
Once in a while, when someone is actively dealing or using, they send a squad car, but only if one is free. Then they scold the user, and that's it. They can only arrest if there are drugs to be found, but of course there never are - users are canny.
I realise this is not emergency stuff, and that the police are overstretched and so on. We've been really patient about this, we understand the picture, but it's really really starting to annoy. And we don't know what to do about the situation.
The police are not making any difference to the situation. If they patrol (they say that they do...), it has made no difference.
We had a confronatation on the doorstep with a very volatile young man last week. He was chopping out lines on the doorstep, and I asked him to have a bit of respect, so he called me a cunt. He almost went off on one, but I managed to calm him down and walked him off the premises. When I reported this to the cops, their response was "Why didn't you call 999?" I explained that for me to go back into the house to fetch the phone and call the cops, when he was on the doortep, already wound up, would not have been helpful, useful, clever, or sensible.
When I mentioned that (on another occaison) our doorstep pinta had been nicked, the cop said "Why didn't you report that? That's theft. Go down the station and report it". I confess I laughed in his face. "This is Brixton" I said, "not Trumpton".
Today, when I called in the fact that three empty drug wraps were on the step this morning, the chap who answered the call told me to erect a six foot fence with a padlocked gate. Great.
Exterior lights make no difference. They are there in broad daylight, and also frequent the doorsteps of neighbours with full-on lights. Cutting down the hedges makes no odds. They are to be seen on front steps where there are no hedges or walls.
They are as blatant and cheeky as urban foxes.
What's to be done?
All the dealers and users who have been moved on from Windrush Square, Rushcroft Rd and Saltoun Road are now frequenting our street.
Every morning I find empty wraps on the doorstep. My front garden has been trashed, it smells of piss, old shreddies and lord knows what left lying about.
Since mid-August, we've been calling in every incident with the local cop shop. Just last week, they finally got round to sending over a PCSO. They listened politely, gave us a phone number to use, and left. The phone number has proven useless - if they answer at all, it's an ansaphone, and if a real person takes the call, no-one comes round. So we're back to reporting the incidents to the cop shop.
Once in a while, when someone is actively dealing or using, they send a squad car, but only if one is free. Then they scold the user, and that's it. They can only arrest if there are drugs to be found, but of course there never are - users are canny.
I realise this is not emergency stuff, and that the police are overstretched and so on. We've been really patient about this, we understand the picture, but it's really really starting to annoy. And we don't know what to do about the situation.
The police are not making any difference to the situation. If they patrol (they say that they do...), it has made no difference.
We had a confronatation on the doorstep with a very volatile young man last week. He was chopping out lines on the doorstep, and I asked him to have a bit of respect, so he called me a cunt. He almost went off on one, but I managed to calm him down and walked him off the premises. When I reported this to the cops, their response was "Why didn't you call 999?" I explained that for me to go back into the house to fetch the phone and call the cops, when he was on the doortep, already wound up, would not have been helpful, useful, clever, or sensible.
When I mentioned that (on another occaison) our doorstep pinta had been nicked, the cop said "Why didn't you report that? That's theft. Go down the station and report it". I confess I laughed in his face. "This is Brixton" I said, "not Trumpton".
Today, when I called in the fact that three empty drug wraps were on the step this morning, the chap who answered the call told me to erect a six foot fence with a padlocked gate. Great.
Exterior lights make no difference. They are there in broad daylight, and also frequent the doorsteps of neighbours with full-on lights. Cutting down the hedges makes no odds. They are to be seen on front steps where there are no hedges or walls.
They are as blatant and cheeky as urban foxes.
What's to be done?
... if they rack up and sniff when WD40 has been sprayed, they'll find their nose pissing with blood pretty quick.
chasing a deadline.
