https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Residents-activitists-take-problems-of-drugs-13028852.php
Arbor Hill activist calls for community-police cooperation to save kids from violence, drugs
Published 9:01 pm, Tuesday, June 26, 2018
Sam Coleman received endorsements from local elected officials this morning Oct. 16, 2013 before he spoke in front of three derelict houses on Third St. in Albany, N.Y. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)
Sam Coleman received endorsements from local elected officials this morning Oct. 16, 2013 before he spoke in front of three derelict houses on Third St. in Albany, N.Y. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)
ALBANY — Sam Coleman said he's spent many hours in community rooms discussing how to improve the lives of families in the Arbor Hill and West Hill neighborhoods. But with the city's fourth homicide of the year on June 12, he decided it's time to turn his effort to the streets.
Standing in front of a small folding table on a vacant lot on the corner of First Street and Henry Johnson Boulevard, Coleman, who lives in Arbor Hill, asked friends and neighbors to join his effort to reduce crime. Amplifying his voice with a microphone, he called for residents to self-police the neighborhood and lobby elected officials for resources to save children from drugs and violence.
"We have to change our neighborhood," said Coleman ran unsuccessfully for the Common Council in 2013. "We have been traumatized. We have been ignored. But we need to start by talking to each other and then we can be heard. The biggest problem is there is not enough concern or respect for people living here."
About 30 people stopped to sign up, including Allison Banks whose son Elleek Williams was shot and killed in 2006 while celebrating his 24th birthday. She nearly lost a second son who was stabbed leaving a YMCA in Menands. At the gathering, she called for a citywide curfew and for parents to be more accountable for their children's actions. She said more mental health services are needed.
Allison Banks talks about the needs of Albany’s Arbor Hill and West Hill neighborhoods.
Media: Times Union"Every time this tragedy strikes, it brings me back to that same situation over and over again," Banks said. "It will take a whole city, more than us standing here to come up with a solution."
Fifth Ward leader Celeste Knight said the reality that so many children were born to crack-addicted parents is still affecting the neighborhood. Those children have been neglected and victimized since birth and are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, she said.
"Nobody showed them compassion or sympathy," Knight said. "And now we expect them to act civilized."
She's annoyed with city leaders are concerned with the opioid crisis but turned their back on people of color as crack swept her streets.
"People are still addicted, families were destroyed and nobody cared because they were across the proverbial tracks," Knight said.
Even Coleman got caught up in the crisis with felony charges of possessing crack cocaine in 2013 and pleaded guilty to a lesser charge. Coleman said he's off probation.
A former member of the Albany Community Police Advisory Board, Coleman said kids in the neighborhood need somewhere to go in the summer that is at no cost to parents. Right now, he said, the Lawson Lake camp is too costly.
He wants the community to help police by not ignoring crime, and the police need to reciprocate by following up with families when a loved one is a crime victim. He said that doesn't happen and families are left wondering if the police will make an arrest.
"We have to be able to trust," Coleman said. "Right now, we have no trust."
Geri Phillips who has lived in the neighborhood all her life said times have changed and not for the better. Parents, she said, are working and no one is watching the children.
"We were loved by everyone, raised by everyone," Phillips said. "It's nothing like that now. God help us. God save our children."
