More Trouble in Rosegate

More ill winds have fallen upon my old neighborhood in Delaware—Rosegate, located on the Wilmington-New Castle line. My mom said she stopped yesterday, just as she was headed out the door to go to the bank, when she saw police vans, officers on motorcycles and horses overtake the community.

For the second time in two months, police raided Rosegate, shut down access to the community to its residents and arrested at least 11 people yesterday, The News Journal reported. Authorities said this raid was part of a continuing effort to crack down on a “sophisticated around-the-clock drug trade,” according to the paper.

“The cavalry, consisting of about 28 marked and undercover vehicles, rolled north on Del. 9 from the Delaware Memorial Bridge about 12:05 p.m., blocking off Revis Avenue and Rose Lane, before targeting six residences linked to drug sales.”

I’m so chagrined to learn that the old neighborhood is sliding farther and farther down into the drug-infested psyche of this country. Remember, your neighborhood could be next.

I know Wikipedia has had problems with people disputing the accuracy of some of its entries, but this paragraph about crime in the Wilmington area I find to be true:

Given Wilmington's central location between Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New York City, the city saw a massive rise in drug sales in the early 1990s. Dealers found that Wilmington's poorly patrolled streets and underfunded police force (at one time only eight police cars monitored the city at night) made the city a relatively easy location in which to operate …

To counter this crime wave, Wilmington became the first city in the U.S. to have its entire downtown area under surveillance: some $800,000 worth of video cameras (some bought with public money, some by downtown businesses) have the exteriors of all buildings in view, and the technicians who monitor them dispatch the city's police to the scene of any crime or suspicious activity they see, while it is still happening. Recently, the City has expanded the surveillance program into some of the more crime-ridden neighborhoods.

I should say that I personally know many success stories that have come out of Rosegate. My best friend, who lived just four homes down from mine in Rosegate, earned her Ph.D. in Pharmacology from Meharry Medical College in Nashville. (Rest in peace, Crissy. You made us proud.)