On July 2, four days into the manhunt, Dontae Morris, 25, gave himself up to Tampa police. He is charged in the deaths of Curtis and Kocab, and three more unrelated homicides.
"Obviously the police were acting stupidly!"
Posted on 12/19/2010 3:20:51 PM PST by Iron Munro
TAMPA - Three women heard gunshots.
What they did next made them heroes to many people but outcasts to others – including some of their neighbors.
Rose Dodson was awakened by gunfire and tires squealing that night, June 29.
Moments later, her roommate, Delores Keen, watched a man leap over a fence near her apartment. In the distance, at 50th Street and 23rd Avenue in east Tampa, she saw the emergency lights of a police cruiser twirling in the dark, but no officer was in sight.
Both knew something was wrong and stepped outside the safety of the apartment to investigate. A friend, Renee Roundtree, who had been walking to a nearby store, joined them.
Lying on the ground beside the police cruiser, the women found two officers, David Curtis and Jeffrey Kocab.
Keen called a 911 dispatcher. The women tried to give comfort to the mortally wounded officers and waited for the massive police response that followed.
Dozens of patrol cars rolled up, and a manhunt for the killer began that put the city on edge for days, until a suspect was in custody.
In those tense days, as people moved nervously about the city and mourned the officers' deaths, the three women were praised for their courage and compassion. They also were criticized, even scorned, by those who view anyone who helps the police as a traitor.
"It has turned our lives upside down," Dodson says, reflecting on the events of that night and afterward. But, she says, "If you could have seen them on the ground and walked by, you have no soul."
On July 2, four days into the manhunt, Dontae Morris, 25, gave himself up to Tampa police. He is charged in the deaths of Curtis and Kocab, and three more unrelated homicides.
A spotlight shined on Keen, Dodson and Roundtree. For weeks they were heaped with praise, commendations and plaques. They appeared before the Hillsborough County Commission and Tampa City Council, and attended a luncheon at the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg.
Tampa police, in partnership with University Mall representatives and stores, arranged a shoe shopping spree for the women and their children. They were offered grief counseling through the city's employee assistance program. And police resource officers at the R.I.C.H. (Resources in Community Hope) House in Sulphur Springs helped with referrals to social service agencies, including Metropolitan Ministries and Catholic Charities.
Dodson says all of the assistance is appreciated. But some people saw the attention the women received and concluded – incorrectly, Dodson says – they took action that night merely to make their own lives better.
Even as they ran to help the fallen officers, the women say, they knew there would be a backlash.
All of the women say they have received threats, and Dodson and Keen say they have changed their telephone numbers more than once. Dodson says someone slashed her tires.
Keen says a neighbor poured grease on a stairwell outside her 50th Street apartment. Her daughter and 8-month-old grandson slipped in the goo and fell, Keen says, and were treated for scrapes and bruises at a hospital.
Dodson and Keen moved to apartments near University Mall within weeks of the shootings. "I was just glad to get away from 50th Street," Dodson says.
But the move has not turned out as they had hoped. The women say the area is infested with crime and illegal drugs. And Keen and Dodson face eviction for not paying their apartments' rents. Keen lost her job at a fast-food restaurant; Dodson is attending school on financial aid and volunteers part time with an anti-crime program.
Keen, who is from Miami, and Dodson, from New York, for years have helped each other when money is tight. In the past, the women say, they have pooled their resources to pay for food and rent.
What they want, they say, is a "stable roof" over their heads.
Tampa police are aware of their problems, says Chief Jane Castor, and are looking at ways to help. "We feel a responsibility to help them in any way we can," Castor says.
The most recent assistance has been through R.I.C.H. House, which is providing Christmas toys. "We consider them a part of our family," says police spokeswoman Janelle McGregor.
Some financial aid has been provided through the Highland Pines Community Task Force. An account at Fifth Third Bank set up for donations has less than $100 remaining. Task force President Betty Bell says the women each were given $100 around Thanksgiving.
Roundtree, who is a hairstylist and cosmetologist, has no permanent address but says she sometimes stays with her mother in West Tampa. She spent a couple of days with Dodson and Keen at their apartments. Her father offered her a house he owns in Dade City. "All it needs is a little fixing," Roundtree says.
Roundtree says she is discouraged that the anti-snitch culture remains so strong. "It's going to always be the same," she says.
Tampa police officials note steady declines in crime throughout the city, including East Tampa, in recent years. They say it couldn't happen without residents' cooperation. "It's kind of a community effort to change the culture," McGregor said.
Can anyone read this and still wonder why Harlem re-elected Charles Rangel. Why Maxine Waters and others in the CBC get re-elected?
Why Obama carried 95% of the black vote?
This guy killed 2 Police Officers and is involved in 3 other homicides. Probably black on black homicides.
They would rather have a killer amongst them than have another black in prison.
I don’t feel bad at all about deaths in the black community, It is what they vote for when they refuse to identify killers. I don’t feel bad about the drugs there. It is what they vote for when the Grandmothers accept the drug money from Grandkids.
When a black criminal is placed in prison he becomes a statistic to be used to show that Whitey just want to imprison blacks. The fact that they are committing the great majority of crimes does not get spoken of when that statistic is used. The fact that most of these crimes are croimes committed in black neighborhoods,agains black people seems not to matter to them.
Exactly!
These three women showed humanity and the right instincts. They show promise as the kind of people that can possibly help heal the great racial divide liberals have manufactured. But by the time their "community" gets done beating and ostracizing them they will be firmly back on the plantation.
Others have tried to honor them and assist them. But the irony is that the more compassion shown to them by whites, the greater their abuse at the hands of their fellow blacks.
On July 2, four days into the manhunt, Dontae Morris, 25, gave himself up to Tampa police. He is charged in the deaths of Curtis and Kocab, and three more unrelated homicides.
"Obviously the police were acting stupidly!"
You’d enjoy and benefit from the entire series - Free to Choose.
Black Americans have a unique history, not unlike that of American Indians. Whites come from a stock of people willing to leave home, travel far away and start fresh. If you imagine that there are intrinsic differences between people you’ll see that whites have a distinct genetic advantage if those traits are genetic or a nurtured skill if those traits are environmental or both if they are mixed.
Blacks started as low as you can go, as slaves, randomly picked to leave home by force. By both genes and environment they’re at a distinct disadvantage. They continue to be treated as “other” by both their irascible foes and their supposed friends.
Bush had it right when he decried the “soft bigotry of low standards”. 7/10 black children are born outside of wedlock. The black family torn apart until the close of the Civil War went on to be terrorized by state governments and victimized by their inherent poverty and lack of education. They recovered toward the end of the 19th century and enjoyed a Renaissance of sorts up until the Great Depression. There was a time when black architects, doctors and lawyers were employed by whites because of their skill and merit.
The black family never recovered after WW2 and government policies both state and federal and both bigoted and ameliorative have exacerbated the situation. If we have any mercy we’d fight for school vouchers, adoption and welfare reform.
To pretend that whites as a group or class have suffered in America like blacks did is to ignore the reality of history.
“What a sad commentary on the current state of urban black culture.”
I think that you also have to blame the “war on drugs” for some of this. It’s turned the cops into an occupation force and put a lot of black men in jail for a long time that really shouldn’t have. That plus the history of harassment (black while driving, etc) has turned the black community against the cops. Sure the breakdown of the black family (encouraged by welfare and other liberal social programs) has made things even worse as young men raised by women will have very little respect for authority.
Looks like the perfect storm is on the horizon, all we need is a spark to light it off and that won’t be fun for anyone.
You hit the nail on the head with your essay.
“A spotlight shined...”. Did the author mean ‘shone’?
Oh. Gee. I thought they were Amish.
I’m so shocked.
You’re just blame-shifting.
There wouldn’t be an increased presence of cops if there weren’t an increase in crime first.
Thanks. We need to maintain our bearings. As “conservatives” we’re better off remembering that we’re really Classical Liberals.
And just like today, we’d have been fighting against slavery, not for it.
“You’re just blame-shifting.
There wouldn’t be an increased presence of cops if there weren’t an increase in crime first.”
Could it be that there is an increase in crime because there is an increase in what the law defines as a crime? And a financial incentive for the cops to bust people? Such as the war on drugs? And no I’m not blame shifting, just pointing out the dynamics that have caused it. Also, I don’t believe that there is an increased police presence in these “hoods”, cops don’t like to hang out in areas where the local population takes pot shots at them (got to live to see that gold plated pension after all). This is about losing the “hearts and minds” battle for the populations that you police and it’s been an abject failure IMHO. But if you want to stick your head in the sand and hope it all goes away then good luck but more of the same isn’t going to work any better than it already has.
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