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Letter to the editor

Video is Clearwater at its worst

A DVD of street scenes is realistic, residents of North Greenwood say.

By DEMORRIS A. LEE, Times Staff Writer
Published October 11, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT Cortez Hearns, one of the co-producers of the video. Allan Burney is the of the co-producers of the video. Related content See previews of Da Hood Gone Wild video Warning: Graphic content View a photo of 2-year-old Trinity Scott, whose father, Michael Scott, died Monday after a shooting.

CLEARWATER -- If a fight breaks out in the North Greenwood area, Allan Burney is usually there, video camera in hand.

Burney and childhood friend Cortez Hearns, both 19, chronicle street life in their neighborhood: fights in the middle of Martin Luther King Avenue, gyrating girls in G-strings and police trying to control the pandemonium. After two years, they had so much footage they decided to make a DVD.

"Everywhere we go, we walk with a camera and s--- just happens," Burney said. "We could have made the movie a lot rougher. It's way rougher than that over here."

Their video, Da Hood Gone Wild, is a nocturnal montage of street brawls, drug deals, naked girls and cars cruising in North Greenwood, where a 23-year-old man died Monday after someone shot into the car he was riding in, causing it to crash.

The violence is nothing new for the neighborhood, which has long struggled with high crime and poverty. Burney and Hearns said they just show the reality of North Greenwood, especially when the sun goes down.

"This is a documentary," said Hearns, who now attends Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Mo.

"We never paid anybody," he said. "We never asked anybody to do anything. It just happens. Fights just happen. Stuff just happens. This is what happens every day in the world that some of us live."

The DVD, a compilation of everything Burney and Hearns have filmed from 2005 to 2007, can be found in local stores and online for $17.99, plus shipping. More than 500 copies have been sold.

Commercials for the video can be seen late at night on Black Entertainment Television. Several aired Monday night during VH-1's Hip Hop Honors show.

Clearwater officials are not pleased with the image of their city presented on the DVD.

"It's very detrimental to a community that's really worked very hard to turn itself around," police Chief Sid Klein said. "The level of violence, sex and drugs and everything else ... it's very degrading."

While the images are extreme, they show only the most ragged parts of the community fabric in North Greenwood. On Wednesday night, family and friends of Michael Scott, the man who died Monday, came together for a peaceful vigil in his memory.

The DVD does not include sexual acts, but it shows plenty of violence.

Two pit bulls lock during a fight, separated only after a stick is used to pry their jaws apart. A woman tries to hit another woman with a baseball bat during a fight. A man is stomped repeatedly by a group of about five men.

It's easy to tell that most of the video was filmed in Clearwater. The city's officers are clearly recognizable as they try to break up the fights, often while taking verbal abuse from people on the sidelines.

In one scene, a man coming to the community to buy drugs is chased out by a chorus of laughter from several youths. Another would-be drug buyer is pursued and his bicycle stolen. All of it is caught on tape.

"I thought it was kind of funny," said Shenille Kirkland, 20, who appears on the video fighting with another girl. "It's entertaining. It's no different than the movie Jackass. What's the difference?"

Kirkland said the fight started when the other girl hit her car. She didn't know that the fight was being filmed but wasn't upset about it, either.

Kim Davis, 25, who was sitting on a porch on Metto Street with Kirkland on Tuesday night, said she didn't like the film. She said it looks like bootleg pornography because of all the dancing girls.

Benjamin Adams, pastor of St. John Primitive Baptist Church, said he was surprised and angry when he saw clips of the movie.

"We don't need any more negative publicity," Adams said. "And we are not to televise and glamorize violence. We are supposed to deal with it and work to minimize it."

But Davis said North Greenwood already has a bad image. The film merely reflects that reality.

"It's got a bad depiction because of all the violence," Davis said. "You can't hide it. You can hide from it."

Kyronnie Chase, 28, can be seen in the movie trying to keep a man from being stomped. She, too, said the movie "portrays it as what it is."

"There is violence in our community," said Chase, who lives in North Greenwood. "Drugs are in our community. There is a lack of parental guidance in our community. ... There's just a lack of respect in the community."

Clearwater Mayor Frank Hibbard called the DVD alarming.

"It's a terrible image, certainly not something I'm happy about," Hibbard said after viewing the video. "But even more disturbing than that is the behavior that's going on. It's not so much about our reputation being damaged. More importantly, people are being hurt and exploited."

Hibbard said he plans to talk with police and community leaders about improving the situation.

City officials believe that some of the footage was staged, especially that of the girls dancing. They also think the presence of the camera escalates the level of violence.

One portion of the video was staged and resulted in an internal police investigation. At the end of the movie, a Clearwater police officer, Sgt. Joseph TenBieg, pretends to arrest Burney and Hearns and puts them in the back of a city police car. The use of the city car was a violation of city policy, Klein said. The city Police Department is given a credit at the end of the movie.

TenBieg was counseled, and Klein said police asked the producer to remove TenBieg's scene, which remains in the video.

Burney and Hearns said they expect to produce two more volumes of Da Hood Gone Wild. The second is scheduled to be released by year's end.

"Everybody likes fights," Burney said. "You need four things for these to sell: fights, girls, police and cars. And it's not against the law to carry a video camera. They are public streets that we are filming."

Mildred Burney, Burney's mother, said the movie exposes how people really live in the neighborhood. She just wishes her son would show some of the good that's going on as well.

"I know negative sells, but we need something positive," she said. "And I know it's reality, but reality needs to calm down."

Demorris A. Lee can be reached at demoalee@sptimes.com or (727) 445-4174.

[Last modified October 11, 2007, 00:40:31]