The area of Flamboyant Street known as PIV was in an uproar again this morning as police executed another search. One man who's fed up with it is well known Lake Independence resident Dada who said he's had enough:…
Dada
"I come on the news, I call this newscast because i am tired of this harassment. Every other morning or evening I cannot sit down in my yard because the police always come to my house. This morning I was in my bed sleeping on Monday, they charge me on Monday and they let me go Monday afternoon. I slept at my mom's house on Tuesday, I sleep home last night and then they ran up here again this morning. On Tuesday evening when I came the police came and search the entire yard, for what? Did they find anything? No, they took anybody? No. This morning they came again, they search, they find anything? No, they took anything? No."
"I have two children; 4 and 2 years old. You think it's easy for breeze to blow on them soon in the morning. I am tired of this. I want the police to leave me alone. I am not a criminal. But if they continue to harass me then I will become a criminal. Cold! I am telling them to please leave me alone. I am a innocent young man trying to get out of this living. I live in the ghetto. Not because my name is Dada means that they are supposed to harass me like that. I don't do anything. Leave me alone. I have two children, I am a single parent. Ease yourself with me that's all I am asking. The police pass here and fake throwing a grenade at us and laughing. Those things are not right. I am not afraid to say it. I already know that after this statement they will come for me. I know they will come for me but I don't really care, I will take their lick and I will take whatsoever they have to do to me but at the end of the day I want the lady Ombudsman listen to me and understand me. Tell them to leave me alone."
Jules Vasquez
"I am asking you straight up. Do you know or have guns, weapons, ammunitions....?"
Dada
"No kind of guns or ammunitions. If police search me and find anything on me, they will always find marijuana on me because I smoke marijuana. I am not afraid to say that. That is something that I do. If you want to take it to a limit you can go at the police station and look in my files and see what my file is, there is one charge that I have in the system from i was 23 years old and that was for two "roach" that they find in a pint bottle in my house."
While in the area we were also told that police pepper sprayed a group of women and children who were merely onlookers as the police conducted their operation this morning. Here's what two of those women told us:…
Shirley Wallace, Claims she was pepper sprayed
"We were there watching how they were taking advantage of the guy and they then pass and spray pepper spray on us. They say that they want to do that to us from a long time. I got in in my chest and another girl and her baby got in in her face."
Jules Vasquez "Now, were you all shouting at the police? Throwing words at them?"
Shirley Wallace, Claims she was pepper sprayed
"We had our hands fold. All of us were just looking because they were harassing the guy over there. They were beating him and somebody says something but they were not talking to the police man. A girl was coming from buying bread for her kids to eat. The police man says that he had had it for this crowd for a long time and he just spray pepper spray at us and he laugh when he did it. Cas is his name. He just spray it and drove away laughing."
Voice of Mother, Claims daughter pepper sprayed
"When i look I saw them getting in the truck, they come here and start to pepper spray everybody from my daughter. My hands are still burning me."
Jules Vasquez
"Under what circumstance they pepper spray you? You were throwing words at them?"
Voice of Mother, Claims daughter pepper sprayed
"No."
Jules Vasquez
"You weren't saying anything?"
Voice of Mother, Claims daughter pepper sprayed
"No, I had just come out here 'bigman'. When they got in their car and reverse they start to spray pepper spray at everybody for nothing, no reason."
Jules Vasquez
"Who was in this group? Were any of the young men from the neighborhood?"
Voice of Mother, Claims daughter pepper sprayed
"No there were only women and children."
Jules Vasquez
"So you had your 6 months year old child in your hands?"
Voice of Mother, Claims daughter pepper sprayed
"Yes right here when they pepper spray us. My daughter just took her to her granny 'bigman' her eyes are red and her nose...her granny is tripping right now because that is craziness, they pepper spray my baby for nothing."
In related news, police say that yesterday they found a.32 Pistol when they searched an abandoned building on Flamboyant St.
