Racial Beachhead by Carol Lynn McKibben

Author:Carol Lynn McKibben [McKibben, Carol Lynn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, United States, State & Local, West (AK; CA; CO; HI; ID; MT; NV; UT; WY)
ISBN: 9780804778442
Google: JvEnhneElRYC
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: 2011-11-23T01:08:17+00:00

TABLE 3

Population and number of crimes for Seaside and Monterey, 1974–1989.

Source: Crime in the United States, Washington, DC, FBI Annual Report, 1974–1975, 1982–1983, and 1989.

*Population of Monterey and Seaside as of 1970. The FBI Crime Reports did not include population figures for either Monterey or Seaside until the 1980s.

Under City Manager Charles McNeely and Police Chief Ben Cooper, a “Comprehensive Crime Reduction Program” was initiated in 1983 that added two new police officers and a crime prevention specialist to increase investigations in the area of narcotics and vice. And, importantly, the police department increased contacts with organizations and schools “to curtail delinquent behavior.”17 By the next year the department added a “Juvenile Program” and a “We-Tip Program” to its crime reduction efforts. By the end of 1984, burglaries had been reduced by 17 percent, and in 1985 grand theft reports decreased by 29 percent. There was also a 22 percent decrease in armed robbery by 1985. Correspondingly there was an increase in the rate of felony arrests by 35 percent in one year, 1984–1985.The police department initiated special patrols in both Dave Cutino Park and the Del Monte Manor, two areas of the city hard hit by drugs. Over eighty people were arrested on narcotics charges in 1985 alone due to special undercover “buy” programs initiated by police with the help of citizen volunteers.

By the late 1980s, Seaside’s rates of violent crime increased disproportionately—the most glaring example is in the rates of aggravated assaults between the two cities. Although there are no data for homicides in Monterey, the numbers of rapes were comparable in both cities but higher in Seaside. Higher rates of rape, domestic violence, and shaken baby syndrome are found more in military towns generally than in civilian communities, although military personnel are also less likely to engage in criminal activity than civilians.18

In terms of violent crime, 1986 was a particularly bad year for Seaside, but as crime rates increased, felony arrests also increased by 29 percent. The Crime Prevention Program was expanded to include more community awareness efforts on local television and radio, Neighborhood Watch programs, and a special “Hotline” by the late 1980s.19 By 1990, Neighborhood Watch programs had expanded from six in 1988 to fourteen, and according to annual city budget reports, the department organized “segments of the business community into groups for the purpose of fighting against drugs and criminal activity.”20

One of the most notorious areas of Seaside was the neighborhood known as “The Pit,” a section of the city located on the corner of Noche Buena Street and Broadway Avenue which contained bars (where drugs were known to be peddled), prostitution, and violent crime (see map below). Chief Ben Cooper addressed Seaside residents in 1982 after stepping up patrols in that area and in parks around the city. He responded to citizen complaints about drug use and criminal activity in Dave Cutino Park, but also to complaints of police harassment of black youth. He argued that his efforts were justified, challenging African American

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