Porch Patrol

Brownsville resident Lorenzo Jones is waging a one-man war against the drug dealing across the street

A A A Comments By Francisco Alvarado Thursday, May 6 2004

...continued from page 3

Yet the housing agency has evicted only two tenants, Charlesa Pitts and Shanay Hall, for alleged drug-related activity in their apartments in 2001 and 2002, respectively. (Pitts and Hall could not be located for comment.) In her e-mail, McLeod concedes that the housing agency defers criminal matters to the county police. The agency, she says, has not conducted its own investigations to determine which tenants might be involved in selling drugs and other crime. In fact the agency has not even determined whether any of the Brown Sub Boys who were arrested this past November are currently living at Annie Coleman.

Jonathan Postal

photos by Jonathan Postal

Abandoned apartments behind Annie Coleman serve as hideouts for crack dealers

More About

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Weekly Newsletter: Our weekly feature stories, movie reviews, calendar picks and more - minus the newsprint and sent directly to your inbox.

Back at the Jones place, there is a momentary distraction in the form of a visit by his ex-wife. "There goes my son's mom," Jones grumbles. "She gets on my last nerve." After exchanging mild pleasantries with Margaret Lester, the former Mrs. Jones, and sending her on her way, Jones turns his attention back to Annie Coleman.

"I guarantee you that I would go to jail and they would seize my house if I was selling drugs out of my house," Jones huffs. "But Miami-Dade Housing gets a free ride as far as enforcing the rules."

Next door, Jones's neighbor Gisela Dieudonne is loading belongings into a truck. Dieudonne, her husband, and their daughter are moving out of NW 23rd Court to a new home in south Miami-Dade. After living in Brownsville for eight years, the Dieudonnes decided to leave when their dog, Chico, was shot this past December. Chico survived, but the Dieudonnes have had enough. "The situation is very bad out here," says Gisela Dieudonne, a 39-year-old Colombian. "People have come in the middle of the night, knocking on our door, looking for drugs. You hear gunshots all the time. We can't take it anymore."

Jones, on the other hand, is staying put. "I'm not afraid, but I do have a sense of heightened concern," Jones says. "Nevertheless, I am not going to sit here like Mary Poppins and let some hooligans run game in front of my house."

Check out this week's featured ad for News