da hood gone wild
The Clearwater Police Department tells us of their North Greenwood Neighborhood Patrol initiative:
In 1985, the Clearwater Police Department identified the North Greenwood community as the next area for expansion of its community policing strategy. The North Greenwood community had suffered for decades from a spiraling state of urban decay and neighborhood neglect; an ever increasing crime rate; and a perceived secondhand status when it came to municipal improvements. Police management, realizing that the traditional methods of law enforcement had been ineffective in this neighborhood, decided to make North Greenwood a model for its community policing program.
With the help of an $89,000 Community Development Block Grant, the North Greenwood Neighborhood Patrol (NGNP) Police Substation was opened in 1985 in a surplus city building centrally located along the community’s business district. Initially, citizen reaction to the increased police presence was not favorable; in fact, some actually picketed City Hall in opposition to the substation. Yet, through the combined efforts of the police officers assigned to the substation – all on a volunteer basis – along with the local business community and various neighborhood associations, a change began to take place in the North Greenwood community. Children who were exposed to department-sponsored computer learning centers, Girls’ Clubs and Boy Scout Troops, summer jobs programs and holiday parties, came to realize that the men and women in uniform were not their enemies. Students’ grades improved with the help of volunteer after-school tutors. The doors to the substation were left open and residents began to peek in and initiate conversations with officers. As the officers began to patrol the North Greenwood community on foot and on bicycles, the residents came to recognize and appreciate what the officers were doing, and juvenile crime and its attendant social problems began to decrease.
Now, over twenty years after the beginning of this effort, a Clearwater police officer appears in a video that purportedly depicts the nightlife there in Greenwood. The St. Pete Times calls the video “a revolting piece of work, a nightmarish montage of beatings, cursing, gunplay, intimidation, sirens and noise interspersed with dogfighting and naked young women gyrating for the camera.”
The closing scene in “Da Hood Gone Wild” shows Clearwater police officer Sgt. Joseph TenBieg pretending to arrest the filmmakers, and putting them in the back of a city police car. The rest of the video includes all sorts of activities that producers say take place in and around the Greenwood neighborhood, including the aforementioned drugs, nudity, and violence. Unfortunately, what looks like a uniformed officer also appears in a commercial for the video, flexing his muscles a la Joey Galloway after a touchdown.
So did juvenile crime and social problems really decrease in the Greenwood neighborhood? Or are Clearwater cops just now part of all the action, content to look the other way?
Of course, after the news of the DVD’s contents appeared in the newspaper, that same police department arrested one of the co-producers in relation to a shooting.
Check the google map of the Greenwood area in Clearwater.
WARNING: Some of the video previews may be offensive to you. If you are concerned about seeing violence, nudity, drugs, or any type of questionable content, don’t click on the links: Da Hood Gone Wild website has video previews, as does YouTube.
Tags: city, clearwater, cops, law enforcement, neighborhood, video
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October 16th, 2007 at 10:10 am
I live in Clearwater… kind of. I consider this neighborhood part of “Clearwater Proper,” whereas I live in north Countryside, which is more economically- and geographically-aligned with Palm Harbor or Dunedin.
That having been said, my money goes to the City of Clearwater, and I don’t quite know how to handle this. I *never* go into Clearwater city, so I didn’t even know where this neighborhood was. I know that we seem to be having a lot of issues here, from shootings to that Hogan kid to what-else-have-you.
I propose we create a Scientologist Task Force and let them patrol the neighborhood. It would solve two problems at once; or at least one of them.
November 14th, 2007 at 10:13 am
I actually live in the in the mentioned neighborhood and I must say that not only police, but the people of my neighborhood are willing to look the other way. People are holding on to the no snitching policy and until that changes things in the neighborhood will only get worse.
November 14th, 2007 at 10:15 am
Also “Da hood gone wild” was an embarassment to the whole community and is not a overly true depiction of the north greenwood neighborhood.
November 23rd, 2007 at 7:41 pm
What you see in this DVD is real, it is what these boys see when they go out of thier front door. Clearwater police can not be on every street corner 24 hours a day. If people want to help clean up the drugs and violence that goes on they need to start with themselves. Don’t look the other way, and always do th right thing. It starts with the man in the mirror…
January 15th, 2008 at 12:20 am
I heard that they are coming out with a second volume.. And now they say it is shot in high definition, oh boy, technology is in Da Hood….. I can’t wait to see it..
January 28th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
These gangsta’s ain’t even it. I grew up in Richmond CA, and I’ve seen a lot worse than anything in these videos.
February 19th, 2008 at 11:35 pm
Personally the video Da Hood Gone Wild shows how the Doctors, Lawyers, City Council members and other unhappy wealthy people spend their money, IN DA HOOD! Let’s face it the column that was written tries to portray the goodness and innocence of the government and the ruthlessness of the population around the North Martin Luther King/North Greenwood area when the truth is the big money comes straight from those in power positions looking to get a fix. Also the images that are seen in the video are America’s creation. Stop trying to make a mokery of the people and start trying to do something about the situation besides it is evident that the government is trying to move the residents of that area to another part of pinellas county in order to make room for the wealthy beachgoers without solving the problems presented DIRECTLYin front of your faces. Scientology need not apply, as there are already enough problems. Besides what is the true aim, to try and convert people and rob the community of more land to build for Scientology members. Stop Bullshitting my community!Do not excuse my French.
May 11th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
Maybe one day they will figure out that when they show a video of them saving animals or something, they’ll get respect.