Car Burglar Search; Trans Prostitute Gang, and other Midtown Crimes

Editor's note: The following information was posted recently by the Midtown Ponce Security Alliance. The MPSA has served the Midtown community since 2003 as a non-profit organization by coordinating neighborhood response to public safety and security issues in order to advance the Midtown way of life. The MPSA achieves this objective primarily by operating a neighborhood security patrol funded by its resident and business members, and community sponsors. See here for more information about becoming a member of the MPSA.

POLICE APPEAL Police are requesting help from the public in tracking down a car break-in suspect. Warrants have been put out for Michael Thomas Long, DOB 1/02/1981. Police investigators believe him to be responsible for many car break-ins in Midtown along with other theft offenses. For more information on this please contact Investigator Churchill at the Zone 5 Criminal Investigation Unit at 404.658.6636.   If you see this guy report him to 911.

• Mugshot posted at our website: http://www.midtownponce.org/p4636.html

UPDATE ON TRANS PROSTITUTE GANG

1. From time to time we get to identify an individual we strongly suspect to be a patron of the trans prostitiute gang coming into the neighborhood on a nightly basis, and we've got one for you now. On April 30th, at around 2:45am, trans prostitute Jermaine Jordan was seen escorting someone who had gotten out of his car to walk around the trans prostitution area. A police unit intercepted them as they reached his car parked in front of the condos at 5th & Piedmont. Larry Williams, the suspected john being escorted back to his car, was found to have a warrant in Dekalb County for Abandonment of Child/Abandonment/Nonsupport and a Probation Violation. The police report even noted that he was walking with a known prostitute back to his car. He was taken to the Atlanta City jail and held for Dekalb County. Once Dekalb authorities picked him up, they held him for ten days. Dekalb jail records show his home address as 5254 Salem Springs Place in Lithonia (30038-4862). We think Midtowners should send him letters stating how we feel about a john selecting our neighborhood to patronize unwanted trans prostitutes and thereby contributing to criminal activity in our neighborhood. In a nutshell we don't have any use for that, and he should get to hear it for himself.
2. We need more residents to report tag numbers and vehicle descriptions of cars cruising through areas where the trans prostitute gang likes to ply their trade. Upon the third pass-by, call 911 with a vehicle description so police ptatrols can investigate these individuals. Although getting rid of the trans gang is a very slow process (and currently seems to be undermined by street people feeding at a nearby church), it works and sometimes undesirables cruising the neighborhood are even found to have drugs or warrants.
3. Hosea Smith was said among his fellow trans prostitutes to have been a victim of a homicide. We quickly found this story to be a hoax, but did find this offender to be where he should be: in prison. Public records show that Hosea Smith was arrested and later convicted in Tallahassee for Counterfeit Payment Instruments, Uttering Forged Instruments, and Grand Theft. Florida Department of Corrections show him to be in Close Custody at Apalachee Correctional Institution, but the bad news is that he will be out soon - at the end of June. In October of 2011 this trans prostitute attacked a woman living at 3rd & Piedmont. While here, he also generated several cases involving drug offenses, assault, and terroristic threats, but Fulton County courts, in their leniency, never sent this chronic offender to prison.

• Related mugshots: http://www.midtownponce.org/p4646.html

BAD NEIGHBOR: ST PAUL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH That church at Ponce & Piedmont is rapidly becoming Peachtree-Pine II. We have been watching the place get worse day and night.  That property not only has become a deplorable magnet for urban camping, but many of the trans prostitute gang afflicting the neighborhood are chronically loitering there. To date the trans prostitute gang has been primarily an overnight problem, but now we are seeing them during the daytime too. When one Midtowner went to document conditions from a respectful distance across the street, a very hostile pack of trans prostitutes came across the street making threats. They even attempted to hold this person captive. Luckily the situation resolved without police intervention, but we urge caution for people walking along that block day and night at this time.   At any rate the most immediate effect of this operation is that it very seriously undermines our efforts to rid the neighborhood of the trans prostitute scourge. Combine that with other vagrants bringing drugs into the picture, and this will likely escalate into a very bad situation for that part of the neighborhood. In the coming days we will present a formal demand that they immediately halt all services to street people, and maintain their property in a neighborly condition at all times like everyone else does in the area. At that address there is both St. Paul Presbyterian Church and then an apparently separate operation called Church on the Street. While Church on the Street seems to be drawing the trans prostitute gang and other street people, we deem the church itself to be responsible for maintaining neighborhood-friendly condtions on their property.   When that church first opened several years ago, they wanted to conduct or allow a feeding program at that site. We immediately contacted them about their badly misguided intentions. They accepted our invitation to a meeting where we helped them understand the problems inherent to dealing with street people. They agreed not to feed and not to permit loitering on that property. We had no problems with them after that until recently. Now we are seeing that something is going on at that back door, and that conditions on that block have deteriorated badly. As a result, conditions are beginning to deteriorate in the surrounding area, and this must be stopped immediately.

• MPSA field photos of this mess: http://www.midtownponce.org/p4655.html

MPSA MAILBAG What the neighbors are telling us...

• My car which was parked in my driveway was broken into yesterday sometime between noon and 5pm normally I park it at far end of driveway but yesterday left it midway by big azalea bush. I was at home the entire period but in the back of house and didn't hear/see anything. The car was locked when parked and when I discovered the break-in, so I'm guessing this brazen person was using an electronic entry device--ie, not a pro but enterprising amateur. The contents of glove box and other closed storage areas were emptied on passenger's floor. I think he was looking for cash and as far as i can determine nothing was taken except my metallic red stainless water bottle. Ironically the reason I went out to the car around 5pm was to refill it. This was a special promo item (not in general production) with captain morgan in gold lettering and pictures of the pirate.  I guess the perp thought I kept rum in it for a wee nip while driving. Anyway, if you see a vagrant in the hood with red captain morgan bottle be alert. But really be alert and don't keep anything of value in your car!

• Want to make you aware that last night around midnight, someone tried to work the keypad entry system to get into [neighbor 1's house]. [Neighbor 1]  is out of town, but [neighbor 2], who lives downstairs where the master alarm system is located, heard the attempts. She turned on all the outside lights. As you may know, MPSA has been alerted to vagrant activity in the empty lot behind the church. Lock your doors and keep nothing in your cars. And be especially careful at night.