Out of Control in Tucson - A Firsthand Account of a University Area Party by a Neighbor

(Slightly reformatted and corrected report by Feldman's neighborhood resident Kathleen Williamson of the events of Saturday November 7 and Sunday November 8, 2009 near 4th Ave. and Adams St. in Tucson, Az. Reprinted with her permission.)

Tonight about 11 pm the epicenter at Feldman's started sounding like a surround sound stadium of drunks. I took the dog for a walk to see if I could observe what and where things were happening (need to get that video camera!). There were parties on 4th and elm and one starting on 4th and adams, the same house I videoed a few weeks ago and which should have been redtagged a dozen times this semester alone. Two guys on the corner of 4th and lee were cursing loudly and one got rid of his empty beer bottle by simply hurling it to the east about 30'. There was a girl, barely dressed, over whom they were fighting. A truck with a bed full of loud party kids came down 4th and called out to "Woody" the blonde tshirt guy swearing on lee to join the party. The truck pulled into the garage at the 4th/Adams party house and deposited its load of drunk revelers. The truck headed back up lee. Some people were in the alley toward 3rd avenue. I thought they might be heading toward this party but could not make that out.

These kids are all constantly texting between all the streets and houses, and all know where each other are. Woody tried to get rid of his friend and get the girl to walk north with him away from the street lights. The other guy, more drunk than woody, wouldn't leave them alone. Finally the girl got away from them and went to the party on elm, I think. Woody and other guy made their way to party central on 4th and adams. (One huge problem for law enforcement and reporting is that the address numbers are nowhere to be seen on these houses-- it is a huge impedance to the officers and anyone who wants to report.). They stood around in the front texting and yelling until the party truck came back, opened the garage door and they all went into the party house.

In the meantime the familiar sound of police sirens were headed toward Feldman's. A fire truck/emt truck came up 4th and turned left on lee. I walked along in my using my invisible dog on leash old lady way. I got to the area where goodman's offices are. The emergency vehicle was pulling out and repositioning itself into the alley west of 3rd betw lee and adams. I walked into the area. There was a small mob of drunk jocks and one woman dressed like a whorish barbie doll. She lived in the apt behind goodmans rental offices, I believe she said 462 e lee to officers later. I don't know who these girls are who dress like this while in the company of a dozen drunk young vile men. Anyway, there was a young man obviously seriously injured laying in the alley dirt. He seemed paralyzed.

The emts had to put him on a gurney and take most of his clothes off to align him. He was also very drunk and got agitated. The young men were standing all around, probably about 8, later joined by woody and his friend; they were drunk, boisterous, and also agitated. The kid was rushed to the hospital. One squad car showed up with two young cops. They started asking questions of this group. Everyone said that the kid fell out of a truck - one or two said he fell off a motorcycle. However not one of them admitted to seeing anything. When they challenged the officers about why they were being questioned, the officers said they needed to be sure he wasn't pushed out of a truck or some crime hadn't been committed. Several said that nobody pushed the kid (21 years old according to the drunks, and he lived on adams between 4th and lee). The cop questioned how they could know if no one saw it.

In the meantime, there were another half dozen men watching from a balcony above which didn't get the cops' attention. There was a long series of arguments between the cops and these kids. The kids were all claiming to not have seen it and didn't want the cops to pursue it. It turned out that barbie called it into 911. She said she heard "them" screaming outside and when she came out she saw the kid on the ground and "they" were all around and upset. The cop didn't follow up with who "they" were, whether "they" were any of the guys present, or whether they split. The guys were lined up by the wall while the cops said they were going to get I'd and pictures. One cop took barbie aside within earshot of all the guys and just under the balcony (this is a woman who lives here at ground level and is outnumbered 50-1 by violent male neighbors who know her. The cop expecting her to truthfully answer what she saw while in the presence of these guys was doing her a disservice as well as the investigation. She was in a bad spot. These guys are seething with reactive violence.

I finally walked over to one cop by the squad car and tried to tell him what I saw but he would not listen. He informed me that the guys are drunk as if I wasn't able to figure that out. He didn't ask for my name or info. I left from there back to lee. All the while in the alley, there was a white open bed pickup close by which could easily have been the suspect vehicle. I hope the officers got the tag info on it because by the time I got to 4th, less than 60 seconds, that truck was exiting the alley on 4th and turned southbound.

I was actually concerned for the officers. They could have easily been outnumbered by these stupid kids. They didn't seem to take precautions of separating them, rather, the officers split up a few times, leaving one with the mob even though some kids were really angry and cursing. It was all so surreal. And it is only going to get twice as bad as these houses keep getting built here and the apts fill up. I project, from what I have seen, this will get twice as bad within one year if left unchecked. Because of the reputation of what they can get away with here, each year the crowd gets worse.

I really don't know what to do.

Here comes another siren straight into Feldman's as I finish this note. Oh, and a helicopter overhead. It must be a different event as the other investigation was wrapping up when I left.

If goodman's dorms aren't a nuisance in the truest sense of the word, I don't know what is. And this isn't just one place, the helping tree or whatever, this is a huge neighborhood private development.

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Postscript (1:12 AM Sunday Nov. 8): The noise and traffic is still unabated. These kids think it is normal to be on the balconies and going from house to house yelling and swearing and hooting and whistling all night.

Law enforcement is not going to fix the behavioral problem. You cannot create a ghetto of undergraduate males with party architecture and ever expect law enforcement to correct anything more than one party for one night and one house at a time. And the crime is booming. At the point it is now at 4th ave from adams to elm; it is irreversible. As this expands or thickens, and as the reputation of the area grows and attracts more and more trouble, this whole area and surrounding neighborhoods will be permanently changed. Policing won't even amount to bandaids.

This is a huge development mistake. A lovely quiet diverse neighborhood is being replaced by an far reaching unsupervised undergrad male minidorm party ghetto development. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
Postscript (8:38, 9:13 AM Sunday Nov. 8): Good morning. (Ed. May I share your report?) Yes but I should fix the mistakes. I probably did not get to sleep until 4 am. That messes me up for days. And I am not an insomniac; I usually fall asleep by the time my head hits the pillow.

The sight of that young man on the ground and the disgusting attitude of his "friends" was very disturbing. Then, there are noises all night long that are intermittent, tho frequent, that one can't call the police about. In fact, the police have become some of the noise by the nature of this situation. There were sirens last night and helicopters within earshot probably at least every half hour. We are spending a fortune in this "lax" police time in the university area to no avail. And these "neighbors," these transient kids, intermittently are yelling, screaming at each other. They come outside of their garages or houses, and can't seem to talk at a normal level. And they yell to people a half block away or across houses. I am always calling about the worst two houses facing me when there is a steady stream of "party" noise but can't call each time - when you start to doze off they have another loud 30 or 60 second drama. I have yet to see a red tag displayed facing the public street from that cluster and I know police have gone there and shut down many 1 am parties because I called them in and heard the police arrive and shut it down. Anyway, I am going to the verde valley for the week to work up there and will be glad to get out of this zone.

I am an anthropologist and have also studied urban design as a lawyer and a student of the humanities. Law enforcement will not fix this problem. The design of this development, which hasn't been treated as a development because goodman is building piecemeal, is the insurmountable problem. You cannot have a ghetto of out of town undergrads without any supervision, densely clustered, with all kinds of devices that enable bad behavior such as indoor parking, gated community, huge upstairs party balconies, and no prominent street addresses. That coupled with goodman's practices of renting by the room, no superintendent enforcing any controls at all, is a recipe for ongoing and increasing disaster in the truest sense of that word. I am too tired to retype that last chronicle. If you could fix some of the obvious spelling errors from thumb typing, I would appreciate it. I wonder what happened to that young man. His parents should be notified that the lease they signed which represented that the premises are strictly monitored to not create the environment that causes what happened to him is a serious and intentional misrepresentation and that they actually rented a place for their son which is seriously dangerous for his well being.

I was thinking (at 3:30 am) that a P.I. lawyer should be made aware of this if that young man is permanently paralyzed. I am also worried about how increasingly dangerous it is getting to be in this neighborhood. I am on the front line of complainants. My elderly neighbors just do not pick up the phone and call. They just close their windows and bear it. One neighbor who lives further from 4th and adams than I do recently asked me it I heard the party from there the night before. She said she had to turn on her tv at 1 am to drown it out. I keep telling these folks to call the police, but I don't think they do ever do. The more densely goodman can build these buildings there will be less normal residents to call in complaints and more a more dangerous environment for these immature alcoholic boys who are attracted to this area.

The only bright spot for me this morning is that there are some compassionate people out there who care anything about these accounts. Thank you all for your ideas, actions and responses.

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Reformatted and lightly edited by D. S. Ijams, Neighborhood Support Network