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Kassey Ross: "It's a mess over here"

The breaking point for Mahalia Place resident Kassey Ross was the night she decided to fight back.

A resident of the mixed-income development for two years, Ross said she avoided trouble with her neighbors by keeping to herself. All that changed the evening of July 21, when she overheard people outside her window plotting an assault on her neighbor Tasha Collier.

Fed up with local gang activity, Ross said she left her apartment to warn Collier and to stand up to the gangs that have made the past two years so frustrating.

“I was so angry...It’s a mess over here,” Ross said, scowling. “The gangs took over.”

The incident started earlier that afternoon, when local gang members reportedly mugged Collier’s 14-year-old son on his way home from the grocery store.

Collier's family quickly assembled and directly confronted those they said were responsible. According to Collier, a crowd of more than 100 people quickly gathered, with women bringing out knives and baseball bats. The police were called but didn't arrest anyone, she said.

Residents didn't come out to fight over a bag of chips or a bottle of detergent, Ross said, but to express their outrage at the constant threat of gang violence in what was supposed to be a safe environment.

Some mornings, Ross said, she wakes up to find people sleeping in the hallway outside her front door.

“They tell us to call the police when the boys are back here. I can call the police a thousand times; by the time the police come they will have smoked about 20 blunts and they’re gone,” Ross said.  

Frustrated with the lack of response from the management and the police, she said she thinks she was better off back at Robert Taylor.

Despite the gang activity at the old buildings, Ross said she felt safer because she knew her neighbors and felt assured that her daughters, 9 and 6, would be cared for by the community.

"Honestly, I wish that they had never knocked them down. I wish that they had just fixed them up and kept us where we were," she said.

Since confronting the crowd that night in July, she said she has repeatedly asked to move. Thus far, her requests have been denied, she said.

She said she will keep trying, but in the meantime she will continue to keep her daughters in the house.

"I want my kids to be able to play when they want to," she said. "I think we should have a say-so in whether we want to stay here or not. If we just left this, we shouldn't have to deal with it again."