By Karl Cameron
Contributing Writer
Driving in the 200 block of South Pettigrew St. gives you the impression that this is a typically quiet residential neighborhood. However, that has not been the case for Vietnam Veteran Leroy Mitchiner in the many years he has lived in the neighborhood. Drug activity, threats on his life, assaults on he and his son, are all a part of a kind of neighborhood terrorism that Mitchiner has experienced, all while just trying to be a good neighbor.
Mitchner was born in 1945 into a poor sharecropping family of 14-children. His parents were afforded limited higher education opportunities, but managed to keep the family together by working a huge farm sharecropping, and living in delapadated housing. There were times when his father had to work away from home, leaving his mother alone for weeks at a time to support the family.
Mitchiner said, “There is overwhelming evidence to show that while my father was away, that the KKK raped my mother, which turned my father into an alcoholic. I believe that all of this contributed to my mother committing suicide in July of 1977.”
In spite of the circumstances, Leroy Mitchiner graduated from high school in 1965, and took up carpentry, welding, and brick masonry, which allowed him a career path. He furthered his skills by attending Wake Technical College.
In 1966 Mitchiner was drafted into the Army, and fought in the Vietnam War. “During my tour in Vietnam I witnessed the devastating homelessness, and the heavy use of drugs, which killed many of our soldiers. After returning home I decided to use my construction and writing skills to write commentaries in our Black Newspaper, and to help to drive drug dealers from our Robert’s Park community. I also bought as much property that I could afford to move my parents out of poverty and pain, however that dream wasn’t realized, because of my mother’s death.”
95% of Leroy Mitchiner’s property was purchased within the predominantly Black Community of Robert’s Park. He purchased three single family houses and two duplexes. He related, “I failed to realize that Raleigh’s Planning Committee had year earlier determined to gentrify the area.”
In 1977 Mitchiner allowed RPD officers to station themselves within a condemned duplex he had purchased, allowing them to take down one of the biggest drug dealers within the Raleigh city limits. That action drew constant and countless intimidation, and death threats on his life.
In 1986 he wrote and editorial, which appeared in The Carolinian entitled, “The Fight To Preserve Black Land.” Mitchiner related in that editorial, “We have come this far with God’s help and blessings, and by fighting. Our ranks are getting thin and weak for lack of hindsight and foresight, and competent, unselfish leadership.” The Editorial concluded: “If we don’t start fighting as a unit, we’ll not only lose our land, but our minds as well.”
In 1992 Mitchiner was a single parent trying to raise his 4-year-old son. He was keenly aware of the need to take action to save his Southeast Raleigh Neighborhood, because of the escalating crime and break-ins. Two major community meetings were held to address the problem, one at Roberts Park Community Center and the other at Chavis Heights where the mayor, some city council members, the Police Chief, and the head of Raleigh’s Community Watch Program were present.
Mitchiner felt so strongly about the problem that he developed a flyer, and called a community meeting at Roberts Park, pointing out, “Now is the time to help your community and the Raleigh Police Department make a difference.” His efforts were met with RPD’s development of a flyer of its own, as well as community survey, which reportedly found that over 32 percent of the respondents had no complaints. However, residents, who attended the Robert’s Park meeting told a different story, saying that there were problems with drug dealing, break-ins, and loitering that could be associated with drugs.
Mitchiner made the point at that meeting, “If you see a drug deal going down, and call 911, what the police don’t tell you is that they are not going to arrest anybody unless you’re an informant, or a well-known citizen whose word they can trust. Otherwise they’ll just come out, get your statement, and keep a statistical track of 911 calls to the area to show off to somebody. We don’t need that, we need somebody to clean up the neighborhood.”
