Allied Drive is, without question, the most dangerous place in Madison these days.

It is a very sad situation. Just last week, police arrested a 13-year-old boy on two charges of sexual assault in the Allied Drive neighborhood. The boy allegedly held up a 19-year-old woman at gun point on the Allied Drive bike path, forced her to perform oral sex on him, took her money, and then raped her in some nearby bushes. He allegedly did essentially the same thing to a 43-year-old woman last Saturday in the same area.

Lots of people seem surprised by all of this. I'm not at all shocked. In fact, I've come to expect those types of things from the Allied Drive neighborhood. Rapes, murders, holdups, drug deals and other crimes have been circling in an almost never-ending cycle in Madison's most dangerous neighborhood for years. The recent rash of cab driver robberies at gunpoint have almost all occurred in the Allied Drive neighborhood.

In light of the perpetual crime cycle and problems that plague Allied Drive, a meeting was held last Tuesday at the Allied Head Start building to brainstorm solutions to the problems and voice concerns. About two dozen residents showed up.

One resident, Andrea Holmes, was quoted by the Wisconsin State Journal as essentially blaming the Madison Police Department for much of the crime in accusing the police of being an ineffective force.

"The drug dealers know when the police start and end their shifts, even when they take their breaks," Holmes said. "The larger problem is that the city has other priorities. The police don't want to deal with Allied, period. Instead they build a new courthouse when we already have a courthouse."

That's nice, huh? Blame the good guys that put their lives in jeopardy to protect the people of Allied Drive everyday.

The truth is that the police do have other priorities. Ms. Holmes is right about that. They are the Madison Police Department, not the Allied Drive Police Department. There are over 76,000 residents on the west side alone and tens of thousands more on the east side and downtown. Allied drive property owner Troy Hawk criticized the amount of police that patrol Allied at the meeting: "If you've doubled your police force, you've got to triple it," he said. Of course, it would be unfair, unsafe, ridiculous, and selfish to everyone else in Madison to allocate a disproportionate amount of police resources to the neighborhood.

Here's the cold, hard truth: The parents of Allied Drive have to start to take some responsibility for their neighborhood and quit blaming the cops for the problems. Start parenting your children properly, and don't expect anyone else to do that but you. You are responsible for your children, not anyone else!

Madisonians have allocated millions of dollars to Allied Drive alone in recent years, including the approval of a new Boys and Girls Club, increased police forces, and a rash of charitable programs to help needy residents. These have been sound investments, but the problem will never be solved without the cooperation between Allied Drive residents and the Madison Police Department.

No one can convince me that the guardian(s) of the 13-year-old boy who allegedly raped two women didn't know he was a little monster and needed more supervision. In fact, Madison Police lieutenant Tony Peterson told WKOW-TV, "There's reason to believe that this individual may have been involved in other crimes in the area."

The police have tried to work with the residents of Allied Drive for years in solving crimes. This has largely been unsuccessful because of a hostile attitude towards the police and an unwillingness to "rat out" criminals in the neighborhood. For example, the 1997 loitering ordinance, which was designed to keep drug dealers from congregating outside, was stopped because the police were accused of being racist by allegedly profiling minorities. The police can't use tasers without stirring up allegations of racism or 'excessive force.' To some people, the Madison police are the enemy. This ties their hands.

You can't have your cake and eat it too. If you want to solve the problems on Allied Drive, then you better wake up and stop making police officers the 'boogeymen'! Watch after your children; make sure they aren't hanging around with the wrong crowd. Work with the police, rather than viewing them as the enemy. Be vigilant and consistent in ratting out criminals in the area, rather than covering up for them.

The police are not perfect, and they can't single-handedly solve the problems on Allied Drive. Neither can any amount of government money. That is going to take a collective effort between the residents of that neighborhood and the Madison Police Department. Otherwise, that area will continue to descend into chaos.

Casey Hoff ([email protected]) is a University of Wisconsin student and host of "New Ground with Casey Hoff," live Monday through Friday, 9-11 a.m., on Madison 1670 The Pulse.