Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 12, 1990 TAG: 9006120511
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A/1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK and RON BROWN STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
"I think it's pretty clear" that the attacks are racially motivated, Police Chief M. David Hooper said Monday. "There have been no cars rocked or bottled where the driver was black."
More than a dozen passing cars have been pelted with rocks and bottles in the 500 block of 11th Street, where crowds of blacks often congregate late at night, police said.
Mayor Noel Taylor said today he will ask city officials for a briefing on steps that police have taken and plans to curb the violence.
Until he is briefed, Taylor said he doesn't know whether the city can do anything more to try to prevent further incidents.
Taylor said he's not aware of racial unrest in the neighborhood, but he added, "I'm not saying this is not the case because I am not sure."
He said he has driven through the area during the day several times recently and has seen whites and blacks talking and socializing. He said he drove the neighborhood this morning after reading the latest news reports about the incidents.
"I realize the incidents have occurred at night, but I have not seen any evidence of racial tension there during the day," Taylor said.
The mayor said he's aware there has been a drug problem in the area. About a year ago, some businessmen contacted him about the illegal drug activity and he said he relayed the concerns to city police.
City Manager Robert Herbert said today that city officials are concerned about the incidents, but he added, "I think this is a police matter. I think the police have responded in a timely and appropriate manner."
Herbert said the problems appeared to have been caused by large groups of people who are attracted to restaurants and nightclubs and turn to violence in a festive mood.
"The neighbors and businesses are concerned. We are concerned,too, and I think the people in the community believe we are being responsive," Herbert said.
"In this case, as in others where there is illegal activity, the police will respond in an appropriate manner," he said.
Herbert said he thinks it would be incorrect to portray the incidents of violence as mainly involving youth or a group of rowdy teen-agers. He said police report that the majority of the people involved in the incidents are adults.
Herbert wouldn't comment on additional steps that police might take to prevent further violence.
Authorities have said that one of the sources of trouble is a Caribbean restaurant called Tasty's near Moorman Road and 11th Street.
But Trevor Bradford, the owner of the business, disputed those allegations today - saying he has no control over what the crowds do.
"What happens on 11th Street, it does not have anything to do with what happens in the Caribbean restaurant," Bradford said.
While emphasizing that he does not sell alcohol to minors, Bradford concedesthat there have been problems with bottle-throwing crowds of rowdy teen-agers just around the corner from his business.
"Lots of the young kids don't have nowhere to hang out," so they obtain alcohol from other sources and congregate in the area, he said.
Bradford said that while race is not the only motivating factor in the bottle-throwing, it does play a role when police attempt to break up the crowds.
"It's part of it," he said.
The teens "see that the police department is mostly white, and when the police try to get them out of the street, they try to retaliate back against any whites they see," Bradford said.
"They don't have nothing to do, so they just throw the bottles."
James Cabbler, manager of Boron Food Mart at 1102 Orange Ave., said he believes race definitely may be a factor the incidents. He said some lighter-complexioned blacks have been pelted with bottles as they drove through the area.
He blames recent problems at Valley View Mall, in which blacks accused security officials of harassment.
"A couple of them got mixed up in that and they just carried it over," Cabbler said.
Cabbler said the recent trouble, though, can be attributed to "just a few bad apples in the bushel - young and dumb."
In the most serious incident so far on 11th Street, two white men who walked through the area Sunday night were beaten with a baseball bat and fists by men and women in a crowd of about 60 late-night revelers.
After police arrived and the crowd dispersed, Larry Wayne Ballard, 29, of Old Mountain Road Northeast, was found lying unconscious on a sidewalk at Melrose Avenue and 11th Street.
His companion, Darin Edward Gauldin, 29, of Goff Road Northeast, told police that the two were walking home from a Salem Avenue nightspot when they were confronted by a crowd on 11th Street.
Ballard was listed in very serious condition today at Roanoke Memorial Hospital; Gauldin's condition was stable.
Crowds of more than 100 - which apparently originate from Tasty's and often spill out onto the streets - seem to be waiting for whites to drive past before pelting them with bottles, police said.
Although race appears to be a factor, Hooper said he cannot fully explain the motives behind the bottle-throwing.
"It looks like it's just for entertainment," he said.
The crowds, made up largely of teen-agers who have been drinking and possibly smoking crack, are sometimes encouraged by spectators to throw bottles, authorities said.
All of the people who have reported that their cars were hit with bottles have told police that they did nothing to provoke the attacks.
"I was just going down the street like I've done a million times before," said George Gills, who works nearby at Roanoke Electric Steel. Gills was with a group in two cars that was pelted with rocks and bottles last weekend.
"It was totally unprovoked," he said. "All of a sudden the sky just filled with bottles."
Gills said he could not tell if he was singled out for the attack solely because he is white. "I don't know if it was so much racial as it is they're just hitting anything that comes along," he said.
"I'd never seen anything like it," he said. "We were scared to death."
Police said many of the victims have been passing through Northwest Roanoke and unknowingly wound up on 11th Street because of a traffic pattern that prohibits left turns from Orange Avenue south onto 10th Street.
"I certainly wouldn't advise anyone to run down there in the late hours of the night," Hooper said.
In response to the reports of bottle-throwing, a group of police officers moved in early Saturday to break up the crowd.
Part of the problem was that the revelers were blocking traffic, a police spokesman said. Although most of the crowd quickly dispersed when police arrived, four people who refused to leave were charged with unlawful assembly.
Residents in the area of 11th Street say it has not always been this way in their neighborhood. They blame the problem on troublemakers who come from other parts of town.
"The cars have to run through here real fast at night," said a 17-year-old woman who asked that she not be named. "And you can't go out on your porch at night because of the shooting."
Citizens say a big part of the problem is crack, a highly potent form of cocaine that has been easily available for sale in area.
Jeff Rudd, an assistant commonwealth's attorney who prosecutes the city's drug cases, said large crowds are often attracted to drug dealers - and the dealers to the crowds. "If you've got that many people standing in the street, the dealers can blend in more easily," Rudd said.
Although drugs and alcohol have been involved in the bottle-throwing incidents, authorities said that peer pressure and a crowd mentality may also be motivating factors.
"If you've got a group of people together, they're going to do things as a group that they would never do as individuals," Rudd said.
Jack Powell, assistant special agent in charge of the regulatory division of the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, said the agency is concerned about possible violations at Tasty's.
Bradford, 39, faces an ABC hearing on whether his license should be suspended or revoked. Robert L. Garian, deputy board member for regulation, said Bradford faces administrative charges of allowing disorderly conduct and allowing intoxicated persons to loiter in the establishment. A hearing date has not been set.
But in an interview today, Bradford said he knew nothing of those charges.
Bradford says he has tried to report problems with the crowds on numerous occasions, but that police seem unwilling to respond unless a police officer is hit by a bottle.
Police, on the other hand, maintain that Bradford's business is a key drawing point for the crowds and that he has been charged with criminal offenses and violations of the license to sell alcohol.
Because he is Jamaican, Bradford says, he has been discriminated against by a drug eradication effort dubbed Operation Caribbean Sunset, aimed at Jamaican and Haitian drug dealers who authorities say have infiltrated Roanoke.
"They think that I'm not able to run a legitimate business," he said.
Bradford and his wife, Ericka, were convicted in April on charges of assaulting law enforcement officers.
Alice Ratliff, an ABC assistant special agent in charge, said she, a Roanoke patrol officer and a vice officer were assaulted by the Bradfords after authorities started checking customers' identifications at Tasty's.
The Bradfords were ordered to pay a $100 fine and given a 10-day suspended sentence, Ratliff said. Trevor Bradford has also been charged with malicious wounding in a shooting that stemmed from a dispute at his business.
At least two other people who do business in the area question whether race is involved in the crowd problems.
Vanessa Moyer, who has owned and operated Vanessa's Beauty Boutique at 719 11th Street since 1988, said it is difficult for her to believe the attacks are racially motivated.
"There are a few white people hanging out down there too," Moyer said.
Moyer, who said she has grown accustomed to finding broken glass in front of her shop in the mornings, said the recent surge in violence may be the result of drug dealers being chased out of other areas.
"When the big drug problem started coming in, they just move from one place to another," she said.
Dee Cee's Deli owner Cornell Jones said Tuesday morning that the teen-aged bottle-throwers have attacked blacks and whites.
The violence started about a month ago for no apparent reason, Jones said.
"It doesn't take but one person to start throwing a bottle to start something," he said. "They're throwing at black and white."
However, police say they have received no reports from blacks complaining of bottle throwing.
As part of an organized crackdown by police, dozens of patrol officers went into the area early Saturday to restore order.
Traffic was barred from a portion of 11th Street just around the corner from Tasty's, which has been the most frequent site of problems. Police cars were stationed at almost every corner in surrounding blocks as authorities attempted to disperse the crowd.
On Friday and Saturday nights, police had a platoon of 20 or 30 officers on standby, ready to respond to problems in the area.
Staff writers Deborah Evans and Joel Turner contributed information for this story.
by CNB