12 People Charged in Central City incident…
The title is the headline of the Blade article, yet it’s one of those scenarios where after reading what was reported, I really started to wonder what happened.
Police saw the suspects loitering in the middle of Greene Street shortly before midnight. Several fled when officers approached and ignored orders to stop, police said.
Lula Barnes, 46, of 35 City Park Ave. was charged with assault and resisting arrest. She was being held in the Lucas County jail in lieu of $5,000 bond.
Ms. Barnes is accused of trying to pull police Sgt. Dan Raab away from a 14-year-old boy he was trying to arrest. The teen got free and ran into a house at 35 City Park.
Sergeant Raab and Officer Christopher Johnson found the suspect hiding in a closet and handcuffed him. When they tried to leave the house, several people blocked their way and began yelling obscenities at them, police said.Ms. Barnes punched Sergeant Raab in the shoulder and tried to bite him, a police report said.
Greene Street and City Park intersect, 35 City Park Avenue is a duplex and is fairly close to Greene Street, it appears quite a few residents in the neighborhood took issue with the 14 year old being arrested. Chasing a suspect down the street and into a house, searching the duplex to find him in a closet, seems a bit excessive for just loitering, even in the middle of the street, was there more suspected such as related to drugs or some other crime? That we don’t know, all we do know is for some reason at least a dozen people took issue with the arrest enough to end up being arrested themselves.
Really, really odd. Maybe they felt the need to arrest him, because he ran off.
I’m usually left with more questions than answers after reading most news articles.
September 5th, 2007 at 12:31 pmWould the others arrested heave run that kind of risk if drugs were involved?
September 5th, 2007 at 5:13 pmGood question Sam, (the book you suggested arrived btw thank you for the information). I was trying to figure out why a 14 year old would be that important to chase down from the street, to a house then to search the house…
September 5th, 2007 at 5:36 pmWell, we have to wonder why people are loitering in the street at midnight and blocking cars from passing through.
That would seem to be a bit out of the norm or was it that the people were stopping and doing something else.
And if you did nothing wrong then why run?
How many 14 year olds have had guns and other naughty items on them, recently?
The rest of the story will come out.
September 5th, 2007 at 5:51 pmI’m sorry, what are these people doing at that hour? I find it repulsive and there is no excuse for that type of behavior, especially for that 46-year old Ms. Barnes who’s supposed to be an ADULT. Why is she condoning young teens to be out that late in the night along with other guardians. If they gonna act like thugs, then the police will treat ‘em like thugs. I certainly would, throw ‘em the books!
September 5th, 2007 at 7:28 pmWhat’s the curfew? If kids are our running the streets after curfew, they must expect some sort of attention, especially in a crime riddled neighborhood like this one. There’s always more to the story, but I have to agree, why run if you did no wrong?
The problem is that the courts and the lawyers have all but negated a parent’s ability to enforce corrective measures. When I was 14, I would have gotten the beating of a lifetime for being out past 10pm..period. If fact, as I recall, my cerfew was 9pm. I wasn’t allowed out after 9 w/o an adult present. Teenagers do no good out after dark. The trouble begins at sunset for most teens.
If the parents are not going to hold their kids to account, then the authorities have to. Inner city children and teens are notorious for lack of supervision and lack of paternal care/concern. If the parent’s are to be sued and held to account for their kid’s crimes, then the parent’s have the right to do what they have to do, short of killing their kids to gain an understanding of who’s in control.
It wasn’t all that long ago a woman and her children were in my play of employment, the 12 y/o was carring on at the mother and then told her to F off…she started to smack him and he threatened her with CSD. I woulda been smacked twice for that..once for the swearing and once for the treatening.
As much as my mother wasn’t a fit mother for me and my 6 siblings, I would never have dreampt of telling her to F off. I woulda had a backhand and justly so. Not to mention the switching I woulda recieved by my grandfather.
This is the problem today, Kids rule while parents drool. This is ass backwards and it’s time for parents to take charge of their unruly kids and do whatever it takes to produce a decent human being before we end up in nursing homes run by the sadistic rats that society is churning out.
September 5th, 2007 at 9:27 pmThe people were just arrested and so on and the process takes some time and it will be very interesting to see what they are charged with.
September 5th, 2007 at 10:05 pmThe area in question is a known “drive through” crack street where cars roll up and do business. Most everyone who are standing around at midnight on the curb or, driving down the streets in that area aren’t there for the tourism and they scatter at the sight of a cop car.
If you read the blade story, the 14 year old wasn’t chased until somebody jumped on the cop who was arresting the kid allowing the kid to escape. To read the story here you make it out as if the cops simply chased the kid for loitering.
If you’re interested in seeing what TPD has to deal with in that area, ask a cop about doing a ride along.
September 6th, 2007 at 12:02 pmSepp, I questioned the chasing of a 14 year old suspect who was being accused of loitering, I realize the chase didn’t happen until Ms. Barnes interfered. I also realize the details about that particular neighborhood which is what made me wonder if more was going on than just loitering.
There was another article not long ago in the Toledo Journal about a similar scenario when a minor was arrested for doing nothing illegal not far from that area, which made me wonder if the reason why those who acted did out of another situation like that one. Unfortunately the Toledo Journal does not keep their articles online so I can’t link back to it for details.
September 6th, 2007 at 12:11 pmI don’t doubt for one minute that more was going on since “more” usually is. In the grand scheme of things, my guess is that some neighbor who is tired of what goes on called the police. Since the kid was breaking curfew on top of loitering on crack street, the cops already had reason to pop him. A lot of times, young kids are used by street dealers to hold on to larger quantities of rocks since a kid won’t do adult time when caught and the dealer won’t lose his whole stash (or OD when he swallows it) when caught. If he indeed was doing nothing more than violating curfew, the cops would have more than likely taken him home to his parents who might not even have a clue where he is or, who he’s hanging with.
September 6th, 2007 at 4:54 pmAs you stated, there must be something more to this. I would start by asking why an adult would jump on a police officer and risk assault charges to help someone escape that was “doing nothing illegal”?
That’s another valid question and part of the reason for posting this and wondering if this was in some way related to the previous situation of what was perceived by those in a neighborhood to be an unfair arrest of a minor. I agree as I wondered, that’s not normal behavior either when dealing with what was stated to be a bunch of people loitering in the street.
September 6th, 2007 at 4:59 pmThe Journal story, as I recall, is [posted on Toledo Talk: “DeAndre Ware Jr.’s biggest problem might be that he wasn’t a young white man leaning against his car, talking on his cell phone, on a street in the suburbs. Instead, the 19-year-old African American was leaning against his car parked on the central city’s Foster Avenue, a street constantly patrolled by police and where seemingly every person seen by police is suspected of drug selling or buying.
Police pulled up alongside Mr. Ware at about 9 p.m. on July 30, arrested and cuffed him, then searched his car. With no drugs or other contraband to be found, officers Eric Board and Charles LeRoux decided to get something for their efforts and charged the young man with loitering.”
http://www.toledotalk.com/cgi-bin/tt.pl/article/3043/A_couple_different_views_about_Toledo_police
September 6th, 2007 at 5:51 pmThank you Brian! I didn’t realize part of the article was on Toledo Talk, I knew I read it on Toledo Journal but since they don’t save it, I wasn’t able to remember all of the details.
Which means my wondering if the two are related can’t be true -Foster is not by Greene Street.
September 6th, 2007 at 5:55 pmI get sick of the myth that young white men are never stopped and questioned by the cops. Try being one with long hair or, dressed in biker attire sometime taking a walk breaking no laws and minding your own business. I lived it for years. But, I did find out one very important thing, no matter what your doing or, not doing your attitude goes a long way in determining whether your going to be charged with something stupid or, sent on your way.
September 7th, 2007 at 9:35 amChris Rock hits a lot of good points with his dealing with the police video…
http://youtube.com/watch?v=9gCCjFbFXn8
Sepp, I don’t support that myth either, while it’s a given there are going to be more police patrols in certain areas it’s not based just on race, it’s based on the number of crimes in that area and quite a few other factors.
This just seemed an extreme reaction on both sides, which made me curious.
September 7th, 2007 at 9:49 amCertainly. I’m happy that the cops are at least checking people out who are a bit suspicious…thats what we pay them to do. If I lived on a street known for drug sales and was hanging near the curb at 2 am, I’d expect the cops to stop and quiz me. If I chose to run when they pull up, it makes my story of doing nothing wrong a bit hard to swallow.
September 7th, 2007 at 10:25 am