Fairmount Beat – October 2014

by Sergio L. Guadarrama, Neighborhood Patrol Officer
Well it looks like we survived the summer! It was an eventful one but not as eventful as others that I’ve experienced. The summers we experienced here 11 – 13 years ago were some of the most grueling, action packed, horrific, and glorious days of my career. Those nights that we endured were glaring reminders of why I decided to become a police officer to begin with. I’m glad those days are over with. Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy the chase and the apprehension of bad guys today just as I did when I was a “boot” with just a year under my belt. I still get that adrenaline dump when we jump on a hot call or have a car chase. I still get that tingle of excitement when we catch a bad guy or are able to return someone’s stolen property. That makes me feel like I did when I first started. I’ll never lose that. I feel that if there ever comes a day that I do lose that it will be time for me to hang it up. I just don’t see that happening though.

While I do miss the non-stop action that every shift seemed to bring, I’m also grateful that these neighborhoods have come light years from what it used to be. For those of you who have been here for 15-20 plus years you know exactly what I’m talking about. Those of you who weren’t here wouldn’t understand. West Magnolia was not the vibrant attraction of restaurants, offices, wine bars, etc. that it is now. West Rosedale was far from that as well. Hemphill was what we considered a target rich environment. All we had to decide was how busy we wanted to be for that shift. We couldn’t go two blocks without driving up on a felony arrest. There was always somebody being robbed, assaulted, or shot and drug use and sales along Hemphill were the norm. There was always someone wanting to fight us. When I say us I mean all of us. The team of officers that I worked with back then were the most hard working, brave, caring, and determined officers that I’ve ever had the pleasure of working alongside. It was a true honor. It was a diverse group of men and women but our goal was the same. Clean this place up. I was a 23 year old rookie back then and our area went all the way south to West Seminary. I remember thinking that these neighborhoods were just not going to get better. I remember thinking that it was always going to be like this no matter what we did or how hard we worked. I wondered why this was. Why was crime taking over these neighborhoods? The answer was obvious. The Victorian Inn. Built in 1921 it was a two story historical landmark that became neglected and turned into nothing short of a cesspool of crime. I don’t know when or how this place turned into the criminal dwelling it became but it was obvious it morphed into that long before my arrival to the area. Our goal as a team was to put as much pressure on that place as we could. We made dozens and dozens of arrests from and around there. Going into those rooms inside the Victorian was a biohazard situation every single time. The rooms were never maintained it seemed. The prostitutes, drug dealers, pimps, and criminals in hiding turned that place into their haven and were dug in like Texas sized ticks. It worked out perfectly. The criminals were dug in and the officers of Ida District located at 1000 West Magnolia loved catching criminals. It was a match made in heaven. They ran we chased. They fought we fought back. We put them in jail and they’d come right back and we’d do it all over again. Night after night and day after day we came in numbers. The problem was that the issues of this dungeon of misdeed affected the surrounding neighborhoods. Fairmount was in their crosshairs. Burglars and thieves preyed upon Fairmount much more back then than we see today. After enough arrests were made and vigorous attention was given to Victorian it finally got shut down and it was boarded up back in 2007. The City of Fort Worth finally came down on the owner and tried to get the owner to make repairs to keep it up to code. What a monumental task that turned out to be. Unsurmountable repairs and fines finally did the place in. Success was felt with each board put up on the windows and doors.

The hard work was done was not only by the FWPD, Code Enforcement, and other city officials. The neighborhood had had enough. They said, “No more!” They weren’t going to take it anymore as they shouldn’t. We did hear their voices that later turned into a roar. Our supervisors along with Code Enforcement were given a task and they rested it on our eager shoulders. We were ready for the challenge and we all took the fight to the miscreants that had invaded Fairmount. Let’s be honest. The people who we took to jail and put away for long periods of time were not Fairmount residents. They were invaders and struck fear into the neighborhoods and they had their way for far too long. Many were hardened and career criminals who wouldn’t think twice of cutting or shooting someone over a measly two dollars. They realized at some point that their days of reaping havoc were numbered. It got to the point that when we’d drive into the parking lot with our pretty lights whirling and piercing sirens people would scatter like roaches in every direction. They got sick of dealing with us. That was the whole idea. When the Victorian finally boarded up it wasn’t the end of the story. Criminals simply took off some of the boards and continued staying there in a futile attempt to continue their ways. We picked them off one by one during the following years. It wasn’t until their lair mysteriously burned down almost 5 years later that the curse of that place was finally lifted. Victorian Inn was gone. Lost among the ashes was a history that many don’t remember. What should have been a prosperous and historic monument of Fairmount instead turned into a house of horrors. It was abused and neglected. Sadly the only closure for such an eye sore was to watch as it fell to a fiery heap. The only thing that stands now is a Northern Realty For Sale sign. Among the grass and weeds covering the still visible parking lot at one point stood a place that I’ll never forget. I learned a lot from Victorian Inn. There was a lot of history there but it’s a history that many would rather forget.