(Publisher’s Note: LEDE News decided to include this archived story from April today to remind our readers how blessed they were on this Thanksgiving Day. Now that the leaves are down, these encampments again are visible and that is one of many reasons why some folks felt they needed to protect themselves and their personal belongings. Just because some camps have been removed should not label all of the homeless in this area, and please be mindful that the Youth Services System Winter Freeze Shelter is hoping for your support this winter season.)
As officers were investigating a homeless camp near Warren Street in Wheeling, they discovered the trail leading to the area had been booby trapped with boards with rusty nails.
The boards, according to Wheeling Police Chief Shawn Schwertfeger, were place where people would walk, and one was rigged to swing a rusty-nail board toward a person head or torso.
“It was the icing on the cake that really made us focus on what was going on inside some of these encampments,” the police chief said. “One of my detectives goes to an encampment while investigating a theft and discovers a booby trap. There were boards with a whole bunch of nails in them that were rigged to harm somebody.
“The occupants of that camp claimed that the trap was set up for another homeless individual they didn’t want around, and who knows if that is true or not? It could be,” Schwertfeger said. “But you have Swank Construction in that area, and you have an officer trying to do his job that could have been injured by this. That’s unacceptable.”
City Manager Bob Herron worked with members of the Wheeling’s Operations Department and the police chief to develop a protocol that involved the possible clearing of a homeless encampment. In other words, the only way one of the areas could be swept clean of the occupants was if Herron approved the recommendation.
“We started working with the people at Project Hope as soon as the city manager gave his approval, and we were told the people were noticed more than two weeks ago,” he said. “The occupants were completely understanding, too, and they told the officers they didn’t want to be here but that they had fallen on hard times. But there was no animosity or anything like that.”
Incriminating Evidence
During the past year, according to the police chief, both misdemeanors and felonies had been committed in close proximity to the shuttered makeshift shelters, and several individuals were wanted because state or federal warrants.
That is not to mention, Schwertfeger explained, some of the items found at the cleared encampments likely were stolen from businesses and residents in the area. That includes a brush hog, a large piece of motorized machinery utilized for landscaping.
“What the Wheeling Police Department and the city of Wheeling have done, and I hope will continue to do, is to correct a very bad situation when it comes to safety and crime. It was absolutely needed despite what the ACLU thinks or says,” Schwertfeger said. “Just to put this into perspective as far as what prompted the closing of some homeless encampments over a 12-month period of time concerning more that one camp.
“We have had two malicious assaults, four overdoses, five fugitive arrests, and that means someone was wanted in another area of the country but were found to be here,” he explained. “There were four other warrant services for people from West Virginia who had a warrant our for their arrest. Also, there have been multiple domestic battery incidents as well as other battery incidents, and in the areas where these encampments are located, there have been over 50 burglaries and break-ins during that period of time. At one location, there were many vehicles that were broken into, and there have been so many shoplifting reports in those areas that there are too many to count.”
The ACLU Threat
Last week, the representatives of West Virginia’s ACLU chapter issued a grievance and a threat that if the city of Wheeling did not finance housing for those displaced from the removed homeless encampments, a lawsuit would be filed on behalf of those homeless individuals.
In response, the city of Wheeling fully explained the proper protocol, and no such filing has taken place in Ohio County.
“I don’t mind saying this because I really don’t believe the ACLU has any idea at all what reality is. The fact of the matter is that the camps that were closed the other day were on city of Wheeling property, and what type of culpability is there on the city for turning a blind eye to the kind of crimes that have been committed by the people occupying those areas? With that said, I am a very compassionate person and that’s why I am happy that our city has more than enough services to help these folks,” the chief said. “But we’re not going to sit idly by and allow this type of behavior to go on.
“Not only did we find the keys to one of the vehicles owned by Swank that were broken into, but the most prevalent thing we find are needles all over the place just tossed on the ground,” Schwertfeger reported. “That makes it a very dangerous place for our officers and for the operations people who have to clean up these areas.”
Another Clearing Coming?
Schwertfeger currently is working with local and state officials for the W.Va. Division of Highways concerning a different encampment in the area of 20th Street. While the city owned the land where last week’s removed camped were situated, the Mountain State owns this area of concern.
“Their actions are purely based on if criminal activity that can be connected to one of those encampments, and unfortunately that has been the case more than once,” Schwertfeger said. “Right now, we are working with the Division of Highways because a lot of crimes have taken place in the area of the Boury Lofts where bikes have been stolen, cars have been broken into inside the Intermodal garage, and there have been other crimes, too.
“In these situations, we need to be aggressive so we can best protect the citizens of Wheeling, our property owners, and the people who come to the city to work during the week,” he continued. “We have to be proactive with removing those sorts of things. What took place last week was based on my recommendation, and I will continue to make them in these situations. My job is to keep the people of Wheeling safe and that’s what I plan to do.”
