Dallas officer killed serving warrant in South Oak Cliff

DALLAS - Area police remain on high alert following the shooting of a 17 year veteran Gang Unit officer on Tuesday. While trying to serve a felony warrant, the officer and husband was gunned down in an area in well known for violence and open drug activity. Senior Cpl Norman Smith would have celebrated his 18th year anniversary on the force Wednesday. Sadly, the residents of the low-income Oak Wood Place Apartments, located in the northeast corner of South Oak Cliff where the officer was shot, are far too familiar with drugs, gun play and gangs.

In these tough economic times everyone is having to make tough decisions on just about everything. The nation's jobless rates are at all time highs, food prices are out of control and many families are struggling just to survive. Jacobia Jackson a young resident of the property said, "We moved here to save money, But it isn't worth it." (DMN)

The troubled complex is one of many that is owned by politically connected entrepreneur Alex Stolarski. According to the article in the Dallas Morning News, the property owned by Stolarski doesn't have any code compliance violations currently but they have had a very lengthy history of them in the past. Stolarski serves on the city's Committee on Productivity and Innovation as the appointee of Mayor Pro Tem Elba Garcia. Garcia has received $5,000 in campaign donations from Stolarski since 2001. She initially defended him as "an owner who addresses problems on his properties" but to her credit she later said in the article that if she found out that he "hasn't run his properties properly" that she would "return his money and ask him to resign from the committee." Right on, Mayor Pro Tem Garcia!! Give him his money back and kick him off the committee that will show him. Yeah Right!

The problem for the residents of the Oak Wood Place Apartments is that what he has done for the complex has not been enough to curb the violence and crime in their neighborhood. Many are fed up and are considering moving out of the complex and hope to see it shutdown. "I hear shooting every other night, right outside my windows," said Bridgette Sneed, 49, who lives there with her elderly parents. "Enough is enough. Something needs to be done about it." (DMN)

The Dallas area and surrounding suburbs are seeing beefed up patrols in their neighborhoods after the tragic shooting of Senior Cpl. Smith. Marked and unmarked cars can be seen canvasing the areas in search for all types of violations from expired registration or inspection stickers to broken headlights and failing to use proper signals for lane changes. They are also placing a much greater emphasis on rounding up those individuals with outstanding warrants and no insurance. On January 1st, the Uninsured Motorist Ordinance went into effect in Dallas. The ordinance states that if a person is stopped in Dallas without proper liability insurance they will be ticketed and their vehicle towed at their expense no questions asked!!