So Sausage, Brooksy and Taxi were walking through the Norwalk shelter and Monteray village. The Hour reports:
With backgrounds in the military, the five men from the Angels’ New Haven chapter toured the area in the form of an Army patrol, walking in a line five meters apart, with a point man spotting what was ahead and the man in the rear looking back for any threats.
The men on each end communicated with two-way radios.
“Watch the windows, watch the windows,” point man Sausage called to Brooksy at the end of the line as the group walked through Monterey Village, a housing project off of Grove Street commonly known as Carlton Court.
All the man identified themselves by street names.
How fitting. Sausage is on patrol while Norwalk gets bacon bits as state funding. Ya know, I couldn’t even have predicted this breakfast story. And Taxi? Did these New Haven Guardian Angels pick street names to cover Norwalk in particular? What were the names of the other two, Waffle and Flood?
Taxi, 50, said he believes the community knows more about crime and the benefits of having a Guardian Angels chapter here than city officials because, “they’re not living here.”
“Why wouldn’t they want the Angels in South Norwalk to help out law enforcement at no cost to them?” asked Sausage, a member of the group for a year.
“Please come to South Norwalk,” said Bridget Williams, a Woodward Avenue resident who spotted the Angels on Monroe Street and approached them.
Williams said she welcomed the Angels and was ready to sign a petition if that would lead to lead a chapter here.
“Where they are, there’s hope,” said former Norwalk police officer Donnie Sellers about the Angels.
Referring to South Norwalk, Sellers, who is spearheading the effort for a local Angels chapter, said, “Here are the streets of hard knocks, and that’s
why we need the Angels.” Regarding Moccia and Rilling’s opposition, Sellers said, “There may be small pockets of resistance against doing the right thing.”Fifteen-year-old Jomar Addison, a resident of the King-Kennedy housing project on Chestnut Street, bounded up to the Guardian Angels, shouting, “Guardian Angels, I’ve seen you in Westport.”
Addison was more subdued in speaking to The Hour, but said he felt good about the Guardian Angels being in his neighborhood, “because they help people.”
Most of the response to the Angels was positive, with residents of King-Kennedy and young men
on the basketball courts behind Columbus Magnet School offering greetings and answering questions about crime — specifically drug sales — in the neighborhood.Residents of the shelter reacted with relief and enthusiasm to what they perceived as an added security presence in the area.
“I am very glad they’re here,” one said, “because finally now I know that somebody is going to be around for protection, because as a woman — specifically a white woman — in Norwalk, Connecticut — specifically South Norwalk, Connecticut — it is not safe.”
Another shelter resident was outspoken in his doubts about the effectiveness of an unarmed patrol organization.
“How much of an impact can they have?” Robert Ness asked. “They don’t even have guns. Cops are being shot at now, and (the Angels) don’t even have guns. What can they do?”
Meanwhile, earlier this week Police Chief Rilling and Mayor Moccia announced more police patrols, in guess where?
By re-assigning officers to focus on gang violence in South Norwalk, police have gotten some guns and knives off the streets.
Police Chief Harry Rilling announced the redeployment Monday and since then, police have arrested seven men, two with suspected ties to the local Bloods gang, and seized a 12-gauge sawed-off shotgun, a .45 semi-automatic handgun and some knives.
Rilling said it’s too early to judge any success at this point.
“Success is not measured by one definition,” Rilling said. “Success to me will be an increase in seized firearms and reduced violence.”
Rilling’s redeployment of officers comes after a spate of gang and youth violence in the past month in which two people were stabbed - one fatally - and at least two others were shot.
Early yesterday morning, three teenagers were arrested after they allegedly dumped a loaded 12-gauge sawed-off shotgun near Norwalk Hospital. The three, whose names were not released because they are all under 18 years old, also were charged with possession of five bags of crack cocaine, police said.
On Wednesday evening, an officer on patrol near the King Kennedy Apartments on Chestnut Street spotted Justin Story, 18, of 424 Rowayton Ave., and a 17-year-old trespassing on the property. During a search, the two men were found with a seven-inch steak knife, a box cutter, a razor and a small amount of marijuana.
Early Tuesday morning, police arrested two men believed to be Bloods gang members driving in a car with a loaded .45-caliber Colt semi-automatic handgun.”The patrol division is stepping up to the fight to keep Norwalk safe,” said Norwalk police Sgt. Ronald Pine.
Yipes a box cutter. Next thing you know, someone from the Democratic party in District B will be calling for all shoes to be x-rayed and the removal of any bottles of liquid over 3 ounces.
source: The Hour, New Haven Guardian unit tours Norwalk streets, By AMANDA NORRIS
and HAROLD F. COBIN, July 11, 2008
source: Advocate, Police step up with redeployment, By Jonathan Lucas, , July 11, 2008
