Princess Jennifer used to have two cars. Both of them had their interiors burned practically to the frame Wednesday morning.
“Nobody woke me up,” said Jennifer — yes, that’s her legal first and last name — as she kicked the shattered glass of what used to be her car window, parked outside her home in St. Paul’s North End.
Had she woken up, Jennifer wouldn’t have been surprised. Ever since she created a Facebook page called “The Faces of Meth in our neighborhood” — posting license plates and recordings of the comings and goings on her street — she’s had plenty of arguments with a neighbor or two.
“They’re mad because I won’t take it no more,” said Jennifer, who’s worked in security for five years, and for a full two decades before that as a repo woman. She’s had her share of tiffs, but Tuesday night was a whole different level.
“I ain’t no saint, and I’m telling you that, but do I deserve this?” Jennifer asks, motioning at the charred shell of a car. She notes that she’s been in her home 16 years, and now cares for five family members, including her 75-year-old father and four children.
One of the residents of the homes Jennifer points to, who asked that her name not be used, criticized the practice of posting Facebook pictures without solid evidence of any wrongdoing.
“I could see if she knows (of a crime). That’s different. You can’t just assume. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about. She’s causing all this drama,” said the woman, who’s been renting a room in a house on the 100 block of Cook Street West for just under a year.
Many other neighbors on the block say the page displays exactly what they see daily.
“We’re all proud of that page,” said Veda Dismuke, who’s been living on the street five years.
“I don’t park in back (the alley) no more, they took that over. Put nails in the driveway,” said Linda Ness, who’s lived in her home for five years. “That’s how it is.”
Jennifer herself put security cameras in her windows, and padlocks on her side yard gates.
“I have a playground, pool, trampoline, so the kids don’t have to go out of the yard, except to the suburbs,” she says.
Adds Ness with a rueful chuckle, “We have safe spaces in our neighborhood for our kids.” In other words, locked in their backyards, with adult supervision, away from the street.
Mai Xiong has owned and lived in her home for 20 years.
“It used to be really nice. The last three or four years, it got bad. The last two years, really bad.”
Police and fire officials are investigating the twin arsons.
Deputy fire Chief Roy Mokosso noted the fires occurred at 3:15 a.m. just after National Night Out.
“To have that happen immediately following a meeting that was supposed to be about community bonding, it’s unfortunate,” he said.
As for the fires, the fact that Jennifer’s cars were located so far apart from each other — one in front of her house, the other around the corner — “makes us believe this individual was targeted, and both fires were intentionally set.”
Some evidence — for both latent prints and proof of an accelerant — have been sent to the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension for analysis.
Additionally, police are investigating an Aug. 2 assault where a man allegedly punched Jennifer in the face after rear-ending her parked car. The incident was captured on a neighbor’s cell phone. The man — who Jennifer claims is a relative of one of the problem neighbors — fled before police arrived; no arrests have been made.
“I can’t prove it but I assume that these are the same method neighbors who stole my car punch (sic) me in the face pulled a gun on me and are upset over this Facebook page I’m hoping they don’t kill me in my sleep tonight but it really does feel that way,” Jennifer says in a recent Facebook post.
In an accompanying video, she adds: “I’m losing everything and no-one cares. I wish someone would.”
