TOWN MEETING: SOUTH CAPE RESIDENTS DISCUSS POLICE TACTICS

Tempers flared. Anger mounted. People shouted.

"Where do we go from here?" the president of the Cape Girardeau County National Association for the Advancement of Colored People asked a group of about 300 concerned citizens Tuesday night at St. James African Methodist Episcopal Church.

But before the crowd could figure out the future, they wanted the Cape Girardeau Police Department to know exactly where they had been.

The police would not discuss an altercation Friday morning involving 150 people on Good Hope Street. But South Cape Girardeau residents vented their frustrations on how the police operate in their neighborhoods during the meeting that came about as a result of the melee.

Friday's altercation followed the arrest of a man on Good Hope Street after he allegedly tried to hit an officer.

"I come into Cape Girardeau, and there are always five or six police cars on Morgan Oak and Good Hope streets," said Cape Girardeau resident Robin Robinson. "You go to Capaha Park and all you can smell is marijuana. But the Cape Girardeau police are not there."

Cape Girardeau Police Chief Richard Hetzel said there are some real problems with drugs, and the police department is only trying to make the streets safe.

"We go where the crime is," he said.

But residents objected to so-called "aggressive policing" that they believe targets minorities and treats them unfairly.

"It always ends up badly because it focuses on the poorest people and the black people," said Juanita Spicer, the chairwoman of the education committee of the county NAACP.

Hetzel said he wants to discuss the policing methods with citizens and listen to their concerns.

"I would be more than happy to sit down with a group of citizens to discuss what strategies would be more effective." Hetzel said. "I can't offer much more than that."

Residents such as Malcolm Burks said he has lived in Cape Girardeau for almost four years, and he has no confidence in the police department anymore.

"I don't even consider myself a resident because of the racism here," Burks said.

Councilman Tom Neumeyer said the problem is that the City Council gets complaints about neighborhoods and the need to clean them up, but then they say the police presence is too strong.

"We're here to defend the city, the neighborhoods, and most of all, the children," he said.

The county NAACP president, the Rev. David Allen, said the meeting was only the beginning of a solution to the problem.

"Personally, I think people have a handle on where we are now," Allen said.

But he said people are angry and frustrated, and they want the situation resolved.

"We need to go forward," Allen said.

One solution he suggested was a citizens board to monitor the police. He said each ward in the city could elect representatives to serve on the board to help restore confidence in the police department.

Mayor Al Spradling III said he and the council would go along with the proposal. "But that does not mean that we can have change over night," Spradling said.

Burks said one solution is to have an outside agency look into the problem. "We need police to police the police," he said.

Hetzel said anyone can file complaints and get the FBI to look into the department.

"This community needs policing," Hetzel said. "We don't have a problem with an outside agency coming to look at the way we do things."