Myrtle Beach’s recent shooting was ‘gang-related.’ So they built a fence.

A move to install a fence and security cameras around the edge of Futrell Park has divided some members of the Booker T. Washington community.

In a Nov. 8 city council workshop, City Manager John Pedersen was discussing a recent shooting in downtown Myrtle Beach that police said was driven by gang activity when he suggested constructing a fence near the park.

“I believe that the breeding grounds for gang activity is the area right outside of Futrell Park and Carver Apartments known as ‘Three Poles,’” he said.

However, the people who spend time in that area, named for three yellow columns in the middle of a concrete path, deny they are part of a gang. On Thursday morning, Jordan Pyatt was hanging around the fence with several friends, and said he and his friends are part of a music group, Beach Boy Entertainment.

“Don’t pay no attention to what they saying about us, because it’s not the truth,” Pyatt said.

“I understand they’re trying to stop something, but how can you stop something with—that looks like a prison?” he added, indicating the fence.

Pyatt and his friend, Lamar Vereen, who identified himself as “Kizmet Kapri” to The Sun News, both said the fence is a form of discrimination against the young, black crowd that socializes around Three Poles.

Vereen also said the fence, which has an opening to allow wheelchair accessibility into the park, was ineffective. “Why put money into that?” Vereen said.

Byron Pointer, who was in the Carver Apartments’ parking lot as Pyatt and Vereen spoke with other friends, said the fencing of the area was bittersweet.

“My little cousins, this is like a landmark for them, callin’ it ‘Three Poles,’ for the little younguns, man,” Pointer said.

Pedersen denied that the move to put up the fence and additional cameras was discrimination, saying on Thursday that residents in the neighborhood requested action.

“This whole response is driven by the neighborhood and driven by the residents,” he said.

City Councilman Mike Chestnut lives in Booker T. Washington. He is the chair of the Carver Apartments’ board as well as chair of the board for Sandy Grove Baptist Church, which owns the Carver Apartments.

Chestnut said the fence was just meant to make the park a safe place for children to play. He was skeptical of claims that the people around Three Poles are not in a gang.

“That’s their opinion, but I know better,” he said Friday. “You drive by, you live there, you know what’s going on.”

Chestnut and Pedersen both said the city consulted with Sandy Grove before constructing the fence.

Ludie McKnight, who is a deaconess at Sandy Grove and lives across from the new fence on Spivey Avenue, said she was glad it had been constructed.

“I don’t think it’s discrimination, I just think it’s protecting the neighborhood,” she said. “You don’t know whether to go up to them and say something or not, because you don’t know how they’re going to react to you, so you just leave them alone.”

However, McKnight said the activity would likely just move into the adjacent Carver Apartments lot. She was also skeptical of reports of gang activity.

“I haven’t seen any gangs, I just see the boys hanging out there,” she said. “They’re not all in no colors or anything, so that lets me know that’s not gang-related.”

Pedersen said the fence, which cost $3,900, came out of the city’s budget for park improvements. The city already owns the cameras, as it installed hundreds of new cameras last year and had bought extras. Pedersen said the new surveillance will, in part, be aimed at the Carver Apartments’ parking lot.

However, McKnight said that the cameras do not necessarily deter crime. In May, she said, a man on her property kicked her as he tried to enter her house through the back door. She called for her daughter, who was also at home, and the man ran away. But cameras in the area were not working and did not get the man and a possible accomplice on video, she said.

“Every time something happens the cameras are not up,” she said. “They’re not working.”

Pedersen said the city’s contract with the cameras’ operator stipulates that problems must be fixed within 48 hours. Chestnut also said the apartments have several cameras of their own.

The new fence in effect expands the boundaries of the park, Pedersen said, meaning the curfew that applies to the park now applies to the land covering Three Poles.

“The park’s there, we’re not trying to discourage you from going in the park. However, we can control the use of the park at night,” Pedersen said.

This story was originally published November 18, 2016 at 11:30 AM with the headline "Myrtle Beach’s recent shooting was ‘gang-related.’ So they built a fence.."