IN THE EYES OF THE BEHOLDER: THE VIEW FROM TROUBLED INDIAN PARK DEPENDS ON WHO'S LOOKING

Activity in Indian Park has been sporadic since teen-ager Jesus Sides broke from a crowd, running onto Lorimier Street, vainly attempting to escape a hail of bullets. Families have shared sandwiches across the picnic table where Sides used to sit. Would-be basketball stars have kicked at the leaves on the freshly paved court.But some come tentatively, the memory of violence too fresh. And the park, at the intersection of Lorimier and William streets, goes empty for hours except for routine visits from police on patrol or investigating the Sides homicide.

"It's rough that the park ain't the same anymore," said Pam Thomas, hanging out with Jesus' 17-year-old brother, Solomon, and a group of card-players at Indian Park just four days after the shooting.

The Sides shooting has brought this historic Cape Girardeau neighborhood into the public eye. With three firearms discovered in the police investigation -- a .22-caliber pistol, a 9mm pistol, and a .38-caliber revolver -- Cape Girardeau residents, accustomed to a quiet existence, wonder if a section of their city, a short walk from the city's downtown tourism district and historic mansions, is safe anymore.

Police say they can succeed in the area, but they need citizens to have a realistic view of their capabilities.

"If you're basing success on the complete elimination of crime, that's guaranteed failure," said Lt. Carl Kinnison, the department's spokesman.

Jesus Sides was killed on Oct. 19, possibly the unintended recipient of shots aimed at his younger brother, Solomon. Police say the killing stems from a long-running feud fed by a September stabbing at the Taste Lounge on Good Hope Street.

But just how bad Indian Park and the surrounding neighborhood has become depends on who's talking.

Drugs and prostitution

Indian Park was the last plot of land Louis Lorimier donated to Cape Girardeau before he died. From the time of the original settlement of the city until Lorimier's death in 1812, this site was reportedly used as a gathering area by all the Indian tribes that came to consult with Lorimier.

Today, the park is a gathering place for locals and out-of-towners from Arkansas and Illinois. The surrounding low-income housing to the east and south can seem like a foreign country to the uninitiated -- a world of meaningful glances, of walking around seemingly without purpose, of loud verbal exchanges, of the never-ending adolescence of drinking openly from bottles in brown bags, knowing you are constantly under the nearly all-seeing eyes of the police and the all-seeing eyes of neighbors.

Alvis McArdle, an elderly woman who has resided on the perimeter of the park for the last four months, witnessed from her window some of the gunfire of the Sides shooting. But that incident was the exception, McArdle said.

"It gets kind of noisy once in a while, but this is the first bad thing that's happened since we've been here," the retired factory worker said.

But across the intersection, seven-year resident Jack Proffer reports a different park, one that is the scene of drug activity day and night. He's become a student of the illegal profession, watching deal after deal.

"The guys come over here -- I think the great majority of them are not even from this neighborhood," Proffer said. "They play basketball and dominos. But they're also dealing. You can see it happening.

"The general technique is the guy walks up, the guy gets into the car, and the car drives around the block so nobody can see the transaction take place. You're talking about many, many transactions. It generally starts around 8 or 9 p.m. at night and generally lasts until 1 or 2 a.m. It's like clockwork."

Noise disturbances are also a problem, said Proffer, who composes music and runs an art restoration business from his home.

"My God, these guys drive around with these huge speakers in their trunks," he said. "I've got a brick house, and it rattles my house."

Area resident Jennifer -- who declined to give her last name -- said Indian Park is a place where the world's oldest profession is plied.

"I've seen prostitutes walking up and down the street, getting into people's cars, and being dropped off all the time," she said. "It's pretty much the same with drugs -- non-stop.

"I don't let my kids go anywhere near it."

Another nearby resident, a senior citizen who wished not to be named, said he became so fed up once with the deafening music coming from a parked car in front of his house, he fired on the car with a small-caliber pistol. The noise from the stereo was so loud that the driver -- standing beside his vehicle -- did not perceive three shots going into the side paneling of his car, the resident said.

The violence is draining on people who want to reclaim the neighborhood.

Pastor Johnny Thomas of New Bethel Baptist Church, who presided over Jesus Sides' funeral, wants a change.

"I just hope and pray this will be the end of all that nonsense," Thomas said. "Parents and clergy are going to have to come together and discuss this. Some young emotions got out of hand."

A different view

Others express wonder at the fact so many have become interested in their neighborhood -- one they perceive as a fine place to live and do business.

Five-year resident John Hoffmeister, a Lorimier Street resident whose back yard abuts the L-shaped park, said the reputation of the neighborhood is much worse than the reality.

"To me, no, it's not a high-crime area," said Hoffmeister, a carpenter. "We've got three girls, and we haven't had a problem raising them. I classify it as a part of Cape with a bad rap that comes with stereotypes such as, 'After dark, you can't walk down the street without fearing for your life.' To me, that's a load, because you can.

"You keep to yourself, you're okay. If you look for a bad situation, you can find it."

Downtown merchants say their businesses aren't affected by what's happening mere blocks away.

Kent Zickfield, a member of the board of directors of the Downtown Merchants Association, reported that Indian Park has never been perceived as a blight.

"Those kids have never bothered us and we've never bothered them," Zickfield said. "It's never come up at a meeting in any way, shape, or form."

Likewise, the Indian Park neighborhood is not perceived as a problem by the Downtown Neighborhood Association, reported president Bill Dunn.

Police presence

Those who are concerned about the neighborhood say they wonder why the police substation near the corner of South Sprigg and Good Hope streets -- established to allay fears in the neighborhood -- often goes unmanned. Proffer, the Indian Park neighbor, said he thinks the reason the substation lies vacant so much is to appease a sense locals have of being over-scrutinized.

"Police don't want to offend anybody," Proffer said. "If you're an offender, you should be offended."

But police Chief Rick Hetzel said it's an issue of the best distribution of resources.

"Would you rather have an officer sitting in the substation, or would you rather have him in a patrol car a block away from the problem?" Hetzel asked.

In the wake of the June 11,1999, melee outside the Taste Lounge -- which sent participants to the hospital -- Cape Girardeau police have not adopted a kid-glove approach to predominantly black Zone 4 for fear of racism allegations, said the chief. Maybe a police department with a pattern of such complaints would have to begin such considerations, but the Cape Girardeau force does not have such a pattern, he said.

"We arrest when the arrest is appropriate," said Hetzel.

But he admits Indian Park and the southern neighborhoods present a double-edged sword for Cape Girardeau police -- he has received mixed feedback regarding the neighborhood since he assumed his office in 1997.

"I've been in meetings where people have said, 'There are too many police in south Cape.' I've been in meetings where people have said, 'There are too few police in south Cape,'" Hetzel said.

The standard police presence in south Cape Girardeau, or Zone 4, is one patrol car, plus one or two roving patrol cars that cover the whole city, depending on the shift. The roving cars routinely converge on the Taste -- which sits a block south of the park -- to back up the zone car at closing time.

The chief said $50,000 from the federal urban renewal Weed and Seed program goes annually toward police overtime in Zone 4.

The situation in south Cape Girardeau is challenging, say local police, because of the nature of the crimes and the nature of the community. Drug-dealers, prostitutes, and noise-disturbance violators can be gone from the scene when police arrive, and then officers are dependent on the testimony of residents, which has at times proven difficult to solicit.

But the situation is improving, said Hetzel, who cited increased participation in the neighborhood watch program and an increasing effort by officers to build trust with the residents.

"I think the idea that the police are supposed to provide an absolute solution to crime is naive," he said, adding that the answer lies in citizens, businesses and police working together.

"We are now seeing more citizens willing to work with us," Hetzel said. "Typically, they have become fearful of police. We have to re-establish trust."