Unnamed Oral History Interview – 2125

A: So, you are recording right?

JD: Yes

A: Ok, you know, the things that I have seen that was good was a response after the effect had taken place. You know, they was having a shootout on the side of my house off of Beckman(??) and my windows had been shot into and shot out…and there were children around…and the only thing…and I asked the people when I came home from work…and this might have been about five years ago you know what I’m saying… so I said how come you didn’t call the police or did you know the people? Did you call the police? I said, why you telling me? I called the police immediately and found out it was…a crime to shoot into an occupant, an inhabited house. I think some of the people knew who the people were. But they weren’t responding. But the police never did the investigation. They came and they took me out the house for about four or five hours because they deemed it a crime scene. And took pictures and everything. I still have bullet holes in a couple of doors, you know what I’m saying, that I keep. I even bricked up two of the windows that they had shot through. But I never got a response for it and they said it’s still an open case. Five years and they have gotten anything. But I’ve seen the good part of it too I guess. I thought that was the good and the bad. So that’s the only thing I’m going to say about the police, because I have a personal opinion about every aspect that’s going on as far as how they react to certain instances.

I’m on the advisory board here at Fairfax Recreation.

JD: Ok

U: I know for a fact that we use Cudell as a vehicle to sponsor some of our fundraisers. I’m wondering if this boy had been a… the boy who got shot over in Cudell…

JD: Tamir, yeah.. 

U: If he was a member of the community and the recreation center somebody should have knew him.

JD: Right

U: And calling the police, or calling his mother, or calling someone….I look at it from a different perspective than what I’ve seen in my own life.

JD: Right, yeah 

U: But I don’t want to give an opinion on it because…they say..you know I don’t have book sense but I have common sense… but I’ve been looking around and listening even to the news media…some of their reporters..and I’m wondering when has sense been common among people? Some nonsense has been common among people because some of the answers they give you are nonsensical..unable to interpret because I don’t think that a police officer that has a job for the state of Ohio..so he works…and he has a union representing him…should be more powerful than the President of the United States, the mayor of any city, or the governor of any time..so they can make policy that won’t be scrutinized by anything and anybody?

JD: Right…

U: So I’ll leave it like that..

JD: Well thats such a rich experience, and I appreciate you so much for stopping and talking with us..

U: Thank you.. 

JD: Thank you sir