Today, Saturday May 12, I was at the car wash in Dickinson, North Dakota when one of my neighbors from down the street pulled in to the wash bay next to me.  I said to him, that I lived at the apartment building down the street from him, and he acknowledged that he knew where I lived.  I said to him, that we were having drug problems and crime at the apartment building where I live, and I had heard that there were problems down where he lived too, was that true, what was going on down there?

My neighbor said yes, they were having all kinds of problems.  He has lived in the same house for the past seven years, and there never were very many problems until the past two years.  He said that it was like everything changed recently.  Because of the crime, he began trying to find someplace else to live, and soon he will be moving.

For instance he said, his neighbor next door moved out of the house which was a rental.  He knows for sure that no one is supposed to be there in this vacant rental house, because he called and checked with the landlord after he spotted squatters and vagrants getting into this house at night and being inside this house at night.  He telephoned the Dickinson Police the next time he saw that there were people trespassing inside this vacant rental house at night, and the Police told him that there was nothing they could do about it.

At the apartment building where I live, the drug dealer son of an apartment lessor is back in the apartment, and dealing drugs again, though he was kicked out about six months ago.  Stark County Sheriff Deputies were here at the apartment building recently to serve residents court papers, and I hoped that they were here with eviction notices for the drug dealers.  They weren’t, they were here for other residents.  I heard from someone else other than the Sheriffs Deputies, that one of these residents had threatened to shoot several different people.

About ten days ago, I tried to buy and get financing for a $25,000 manufactured home in Belfield on its own 75 ft x 140 ft lot, because I don’t want to live around the crime and drug dealing in downtown Dickinson.  My apartment neighbors on a different floor, where the Sheriff Deputies were serving court papers, they told me that they want to get out because they are scared that they are going to get shot.

I tried to reassure my neighbors that they were probably not going to get shot, and they said no we are serious, we really mean it, if you had heard what we have been hearing, you would realize that all kinds of things might happen.  My neighbors said that they are trying to get approved for financing to buy a house.  They have lived in this apartment building for a long time, and things have really gone down hill in the past couple of years they said.

After I wrote this blog post on Saturday night, and went to sleep, I was awoken at 2:00 a.m. by some woman screaming bloody murder.  I looked out the window to see if some woman was getting attacked in the street, raped, robbed, or what was going on.  I continued to hear a little bit of a disturbance, then another scream or yell, and some confused muttering.  It turned out to be the woman in the drug dealing apartment in my building, who from her nonsense muttering, appeared to be out of her mind on drugs, and was not being hurt by anyone.  This woman works in a fast food restaurant.

What I have noticed, and I have been writing about this on my blog website, is that most of the people that are arriving in Dickinson now, are not skilled trades people like experienced equipment operators, experienced welders, certified mechanics, plumbers, electricians, and oil field workers.  Experienced trades people know how to check for job openings in an area, for the specific work that they do, before they pack up and relocate somewhere.  They get a job before they relocate, and once they arrive in a new town for a new job, they go to work and don’t mess around getting into trouble.

In downtown Dickinson, and other places in Dickinson, I see new people arriving in town who don’t have jobs, and they begin getting into trouble right away.  I will give several examples.  About one month ago, two 20-23 year old boys moved into a subdivided rental house a couple of city blocks away from where I live, probably into the basement apartment.  I saw both of them in my neighbor’s back yard where he keeps his motorcycles, four wheelers, tools, and equipment.  I got my neighbor to come outside and check everything, and there were footprints in the snow going up to the back corner of his house, that he did not make.

Another example, the second day that the drug dealer had moved back into the apartment building where I live, a drug dealer supplier came driving up to the apartment in an inner city ghetto modified SUV, playing ghetto music, acting all proud and belligerent, like this is Oakland or something.  People who work for a living, don’t act like drug dealers, or come and deliver drugs during the middle of the day.

In the neighborhood where I live, there have been several reckless driving accidents, and there are always near miss accidents from people failing to stop for stop signs, or failing to realize that cross streets do not have stop signs.  All of the trades people in my neighborhood, whether they drive a new truck or an old truck, they always yield to cars on the cross streets, even when there are no stop signs, in order to prevent an accident.

If you work in the oil field, or for any skilled trade profession, it is very, very important that you do not have any vehicle accidents on your record, so that you can drive company vehicles, it’s part of your job.  All of the skilled working people in the neighborhood where I live, are very careful driving.  However, as an example, there was recently a new arrival in Dickinson, who I am told works at McDonalds, who was driving so fast on the 25 mph street, that he lost control of his vehicle, jumped the curb, crossed the grass strip, and took out about 100 ft of chain link fence.

The reckless driving vehicle accidents, the drug dealing, the theft, and the crime in Dickinson that has been on the rise in the past two years, is caused by the low-skilled no-skilled people who are arriving in Dickinson now.  There are so many people like this moving to Dickinson now, that it sometimes seems like the Police are not able to keep up with all of the trouble that they cause.

Important Note For Police And Everyone:  If you have a young male, let’s say age 17 years to age 27 years old, he does not have a job, and he does not work, and people, black people, white people, men, and women, need to come and see him in the morning, the afternoon, the evening, and late at night, for maybe five minutes, fifteen minutes, sometimes sitting in their cars on the street or in the parking lot waiting for him, what do you think is going on?  Is he just popular, and sought after for advice, this unemployed young man?

Here’s another hint, what if there are people who come to see him, who are later walking, standing, sitting inside the building or in the parking lot in a stupor?  I don’t know why it is so hard to spot a drug dealer.

Unless the Dickinson Police drug dog can read prescription medication labels for oxycontin, hydrocodone, codeine, fentynal, xanax, or adderall, determine who is being prescribed this medication, count pills, and ask where this medication is going, this might be a reason why the Police drug dog never detects illegal drugs in and around this apartment.  It might not be methamphetamine, crack cocaine, or heroin.

Because the mom, sons, and grandkid, all act like they have something wrong with them and are on medication, they may all have medical prescriptions for xanax or adderall.  A xanax prescription would explain why the son and the son’s visitors are seen walking, standing, or sitting in a zombie like stupor.