Bad neighbors

Some of the people who live in the 300 and 400 blocks of South Hanover Street in Cape Girardeau are afraid to go out at night. They are wary of groups of young people who hang out on the sidewalk and in the yards. They complain about pit-bull fighting, drug sales and loud music. On May 15, a Saturday night, two men were shot while sitting in their car at Hanover and Jefferson streets. Such violence isn't common, but it does have residents on edge.

Faye Beal has lived on Hanover since buying a house on the street in 1993. When she moved in, most of her neighbors owned their homes. Some homeowners remain, but what isn't vacant is rented. She'd sell her house if she could, but she says she knows no one would buy it.

Beal is the only resident and participant in the Neighborhood Watch group who would speak on the record. Another woman talked to a reporter but would not give her name for fear of reprisal. Other residents say the troublemakers have made rude comments to them and have intentionally blocked the street, forcing them to drive home by a different route. Beal said no one has bothered her property, but because she speaks up to the unwelcome neighbors, they have cursed at her and taunted her.

Across the street from Beal's tidy home one recent evening, a dozen young men loitered on the front porch. She has seen as many as 50 young people in the front yard. None of the men live there, she said. A couple of young women rent the house. Beal says the neighborhood would improve if the house's owner would be more careful about tenants.

Beal prefers the quiet of her back yard. Several times a week she has to pick up trash thrown in her front yard.One of the young women who lives across the street told her all they wanted to do was party and have a good time. Beal said she told the girl she just wants them to party in their own yard and keep their trash out of hers.

"She told me if I did not like it, I could move," Beal said. "I just want to come home to a civil neighborhood occasionally."

Beal, who walks for exercise in the early hours of the morning, has seen strangers picking through the grass on her street. She says they are looking for remnants of previous drug sales. One day she noticed that some rocks she had placed along her yard by the alley had been moved. She looked closer and found a handgun wrapped in a paper bag. It was traced to Hayti, Mo., where it had been stolen.

"Now that was scary," she said. "I did not sleep for a couple of nights."

Beal said she has called the police twice to report dog fighting, but nothing came of it.

"I think somebody has a scanner," she said.

Some of the people who cause trouble on Hanover are from out of town, said police Sgt. Rick Schmidt. Schmidt and patrolman Jason Wiedner put in overtime patrolling Hanover on weekend nights. One weekend, Schmidt said, he cited nine people into court. Three of them were from Sikeston.

Beal said it has been somewhat quieter in the neighborhood since police issued more than 20 felony drug warrants. Not all of those arrested live in the neighborhood, but many did hang out there, she said.

Beal is not afraid of the young people across from her but is reluctant to confront them because she doesn't have any leverage. If she knew their mothers, she said, she would call them.

A community police officer, Aaron Brown, once patrolled the area regularly and got to know the neighbors. But due to police staff shortages, Brown has been reassigned to other duties temporarily. Residents say they miss him and hope he returns.

"I'm very grateful to the police," Beal said. "People can say what they want, but they have been nothing but wonderful to me."

By keeping a police presence and enforcing city nuisance codes, the city and the Neighborhood Watch group are doing what they can to make troublemakers feel less welcome. About a dozen residents attend Neighborhood Watch meetings once a month. They meet at the police station and not in their homes for fear of arousing suspicion among troublemakers. Schmidt said he tries not to be seen talking to Neighborhood Watch members on the street for their own protection.

One result from a Neighborhood Watch survey is that brighter street lights have been installed.

"They don't keep the criminals out," Schmidt said. "But it makes it easier for us to see them and easier for the Neighborhood Watch people to report things."

Schmidt said some of the men who hang around South Hanover Street were curious about why the police were around so much. He and Wiedner explained that they had been getting complaints from neighbors.

"We explained to them what we were looking for, what they can and can't do," Schmidt said. "Twenty minutes later they got into a fight with some kid down the street. Evidently it did not do any good."

At best, the police presence will move troublemakers to another street. It happened before, Schmidt said, on South Middle, then to Good Hope, then Bloomfield, Morgan Oak, Ellis. Now it's on Hanover.

"No one wants to hang out where the cops are," he said.

lredeffer@semissourian.com

335-6611 ext. 160