DECK PARK page 3
the incident did not rise to the
level of a crime.
"In my mind, I didn't think
they did anything criminal.
Standing in front of a jury, it
would have seemed trivial to say
he knocked my hat off. People are
now telling me it was criminal,
but no one has come to me to ask
if I want to press charges," Dr.
Zacks explained.
He added that after he identi-
fied the suspect in a photograph
a week ago, he didn't hear from
police again.
Not so, said Southfield Detec-
tive William Shadwell.
He said Dr. Zacks twice re-
fused to prosecute — at the be-
ginning of the investigation and
after he positively identified the
suspect. Detective Shadwell said
Dr. Zacks told him initially that
he only wanted police to talk to
the teen-agers and that he want-
ed to be able to walk in the park
undisturbed.
After the photo line-up, Dr. Za-
cks "was asked if he was willing
to prosecute and he said no," the
detective said.
Detective Shadwell added that
if Dr. Zacks wants to press
charges, police would present the
case to the Oakland County Pros-
ecutor's Office for a warrant.
Chief Thomas said the same
suspect may be connected to an
incident a week later outside the
yeshiva, which is located west of
Greenfield on Lincoln. Two wit-
nesses noticed a pair of teen-
agers banging on the door, asked
what they wanted, and when the
youths left the witnesses noticed
what they thought was a pool of
urine near the door.
Following the April 27 episode,
some 150 residents from the
area, including a sizeable con-
tingent of Orthodox Jews, crowd-
ed into a school gymnasium to
voice their concerns about van-
dalism in the park and delin-
quency in the neighborhood. It
was the third meeting at which
Chief Thomas exhorted residents
to help police their own neigh-
borhoods.
Today, he is as frustrated as
ever.
"The victims said, 'It wasn't
that bad; let's not press charges.'
They will not help us help them,"
he said. "This is not the first time
this has happened up there."
.
Chief Thomas believes resi-
dents know who is destroying
park property and harassing
pedestrians but do not come for-
ward.
'We have identified people,
and the victims haven't followed
through. Or, people know who's
committing these activities and
won't tell us who. This is one rea-
son why we're saying this neigh-
borhood must pull together. We
must together send a message to
bad people that we won't toler-
ate their unwanted behavior.
This is not the way to do it," he
said.
He reiterated that patrols have
been stepped up in the area of the
deck park and that police have
issued several curfew and park-
ing violations.
The police department is also
planning to implement commu-
nity policing programs with
schools and the general citizen-
ry.
Neighborhood activist Muriel
Zweigel, who attended the May
14 meeting carrying the same
message to the-crowd as Chief
Thomas, says she too is disap-
pointed at the alleged unwilling-
ness of the victims to prosecute.
"If you cry wolf once and you
cry wolf twice and you don't help
yourself, how can the police help
you? How can you help stop
crime if somebody doesn't say,
`I've been attacked'?" she said.
Ms. Zweigel is a past president
of the Southfield Homeowners
Association, which covers a
2,000-home area south of 10 Mile
Road between Greenfield and
Southfield. She continues to par-
ticipate in a citizens mobile watch
unit that cruises part of her
neighborhood and reports suspi-
cious incidents to police.
But Mr. Lichtenstein, the head
of the Southfield Village Estates
neighborhood association, said
the dispute between police and
Dr. Zacks has been compounded
into a political dispute. He un-
derstands Dr. Zacks would be
willing to prosecute if only he
were asked.
'e as a community want to
support the police department in
its efforts, and it shouldn't be
used as a way of saying this
group of people doesn't want to
help. We're not going to stand for
this," he said. El
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