In Sanford, the face of authority is increasingly black
theGRIO REPORT - The Martin shooting tore open longstanding wounds between Sanford's black community and its police department, with residents alleging decades of police harassment of black residents..
And Hartsfield said that in her view, the stops have become so routine — a kid stopped for not having lights on his bike, or an old man hassled for carrying an unopened can of beer — most in the neighborhood don’t speak up anymore.
“People around here have been harassed so long, now [police officers] just say ‘loiter’ and they duck their heads,” Hartsfield said. “People are just beat down.”
Hartsfield said she and other business owners have complained to Scott, who runs the task force, and that they have begun to complain to Smith. She said in the days after she complains, the harassment eases, only to return. Hartsfield and her family are assertive. She said she’ll miss work to go to the police station just down the road, at the entrance to the historic district, and complain.
“But when I’m not here, that’s when they really get on people,” she said.
Chief Smith has a different take on how Golsboro is policed.
He said he has reached out to residents of the historic Goldsboro and Georgetown districts, areas that date back to the days when Zora Neale Huston’s father, a local pastor, owned a house in Sanford. It still stands in the Georgetown area, as battered by time as the surrounding enclaves and historic districts that contrast with the neatly walled gated communities in the newer parts of the city.
Crime is high in these largely impoverished neighborhoods, where residents have long accused police of oscillating between neglect and abuse. And Hartsfield admits there is a grown gang problem.
In response, Smith has begun “walking the community” — sometimes even showing up at the parties held on the street’s makeshift bars out of uniform — and meeting with business leaders. He said he believes the chief of police should be visible, and that the officers should, too.
“We’re encouraging officers to get out of their cars,” he said. “And we are working to resolve some of the issues of the past. Are we gonna weed everything out right away? Probably not.”
On Tuesday, the chief met with business owners, including Hartsfield and Richard Sims, who owns The Spot next door. Hartsfield said the meeting was followed by one of Smith’s surprise visits to 13th Street. But the small but growing group of people who moved in and out of her store Tuesday evening complained that just after Smith left, two members of the task force arrived.
The two officers, one male and one female, didn’t say much. They came with a tow truck. They told people to move off the sidewalk.
Raymond Hartsfield, a member of the store-owner’s large family, said the officers’ attitude is part of the problem.
“They belittle you and change the rules as they see fit,” he said.
Sims gives Smith credit for being the first chief he’s seen in his lifetime growing up in Sanford who walks through the community. He’s willing to give him time to change things.
Next: Defending the police presence
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